and on the third day, the sky opened itself to the sun. botswana finally showed us her true beauty: landscapes so flat the horizon seems miles away and grass plains dotted with the occasional tree and the more than occasional group of donkey, goat, horse or cattle. further into the wild, ostrich run free, beautiful birds perch wherever you look, and the baobabs stand, stunted but tall, over their neighbors (but more on the baobabs later).
botswana is a mainly desert country to the north and west side of south africa. most of it is covered by the kalahari desert, which spreads it's sands from south africa to the equator. in botswana, the kalahari is the famous home for the legendary san/bushmen of the region. for generations, the bushmen lived in the seemingly inhospitable desert, thriving only on what they could gather and hunt as well as the various hidden water sources spread over the vast tracks of open land.
another highlight of botswana is the pans: dried lake beds that outside of the wet season are cracked, white salt flats for as far as the eye can see. since april is suppose to be part of the dry season, i was hoping for some other-worldly panoramas of me and our group surrounded by nothing but white earth and blue sky, but alas, with all the recent rains the pans were absolutely flooded and impossible to forge. this flooding also greatly impacted our drive to the edge of the pans, when we went out in search of baobabs.
i had seen baobabs a day or two before we headed out, but these were either at a place called planet baobab, a lodge surrounded by them, or alongside the endless highway through the grasslands. i had read up a little bit about the trees, how about 60 percent of them is water, that they are old as dirt but because of the a lack of tree-rings we can only date them by carbon-dating, that the trees have been used for navigating landmarks in the pans, pubs, post offices and jails (i think the jail was in australia), and that the largest one is on average 52 feet wide. it's sometimes called the upside-down tree because god supposedly flipped them over so that the roots were above ground.
these trees created a gravitational pull of their own to me, motivating me to learn more and more about them, sit in awe of their size and awkward beauty, and touch their cool, smooth bark. the family and i were eager to venture out to the edges of the pan for some famous baobabs, green's baobab and chapman's baobabs, so the first day that looked like good weather we headed out. the tree above is green's baobab, a tree tattooed by generations of travelers, from recent visitors to some of the first brave souls to navigate through the pans. after our picnic, i headed up the tree, using the scars of names carved into the tree as hand-holds in the beginning and later depending on little knobs-like baby's fists- that grew from the trunks. the tree had huge white-backed vulture nests in the upper branches, and we were lucky to see the huge birds later when i wasn't in the tree.
once up the tree, i was the tallest thing around for much of the landscape. like elementry teachers dwarfing their students, occassional palm trees and baobabs would break above the bushes and low-lying trees. i could see thunder clouds, menacing with their anvil heads shooting impossibly high on the horizon, across the pans and back towards south africa. but most of my view was sky, grass, and birds. up here, the slight breeze cooled me from the sun and i was able to have some mental space from the little children below: sarita doing her best to try to get as high as me.
after dropping down, we jumped back in the car to head out to chapman's baobab. things started to get a lot more interesting as we got closer and closer to both the trees and the edge of the (flooded) pans. navigating by gps coordinates and lucky choices on the winding tracks, we slowly bumped over the grassy areas and tried to quickly fly over the larger puddles of standing water and slick mud. i could read on the gps we were slowly getting lower and lower in the pans, meaning we were getting closer to the water table under the sand.
around three o'clock, we got stuck. it was in a low, grassy area in the middle of a vast open area. our toyota fortuna (aka tuna) is not a 4x4, but because it has 'div-lock' is suppose to be able to do better in the mud/sand. div lock is where the back two tires can be locked to force the tires to turn together and is said to help in situations like this. but as it might be better than nothing, i find it pathetically short of what a 4x4 is capable of. after a short attempt of just pushing ourselves out, the sand-tracks had to come out for the first time of the trip. a little more pushing and we were free... for about three feet. dig, jam tracks under, push, repeat. and repeat. then we gunned it to high ground, ten feet away. it was after four o'clock before we were all back in the car. as roddy, rachel, and i worked on freeing 'tuna' from the mud, the girls got jealous that we were 'playing' in the mud and decided to make mud balls and throw them on the car.
we made it out for a little bit longer, but became very cautious and decided it would be better to turn around before it got too dark. it was a wise decision. after getting stuck two more times on the way back, we drove back to came through the last light of the sun. it is nearly downright dangerous to drive at night in botswana. not only does it become impossible to see the condition of the 'road' ahead of you and attempt to navigate, but the with all the animals roaming along the tracks and roads, you are bound to find one walking into your headlights.
the next morning, after our tea and breakfast, i found out that another group had also attempted to get to chapman's baobabs the day previous. they never made it: the pair of 4x4 trucks were stuck in the mud a couple hundred of meters from the trees for the entire day. they didn't get back until late in the night, exhausted and out of water and food. doing that as adults is not all that bad, but with the two girls, we never would have heard the end of it.
. . . .
since then, we have moved onto maun, botswana. a 'large' city in the northern end of the country, near the okavango delta. the okavango delta is known for 'the great migration' and is full of animals most of the year. we just missed the prime season for all the migration and everything, but should be still able to see some fantastic game as we travel through it.
our next major point on the map will be victoria falls, and we should be reaching it in early may. camping under the stars has been fantastic the past couple weeks, but i am getting sick of sleeping in my cot (which is falling apart anyway). the other night, when there was a new moon, not a cloud in the sky, and very little light pollution, the family and i sat out with mugs of tea and listened to one of our great guide recordings, "your story written in the stars". i loved it, and think you should give it a listen one night, staring out into the stars (or single star if you live in baltimore, dc, london... and just forget i mentioned it new york).
before i sign out, i want to dedicate this post to the european birch tree (aka big suzie) that stood outside of the prettyman dormitory on towson university's campus, which was cut down for no reason last summer. i spent a lot of time in her branches, waiting for friends to go climbing or have dinner.
i hope all is well, and cheers to some photoshop 'adjustments'.
tbk
