Victoria Falls | Flat Tires and Slow Boats

Arriving in Botswana is not like arriving in other African countries; it’s quiet. Usually, border crossings are a hive of activity with vendors selling everything from fruit, gum, water, wooden statues, clothing, all the way through the list of life’s necessities to include accommodation. Before arrival you prepare yourself to be followed and excitedly chatted to in broken English as the sales pitch of the “simultaneous many” flows into your head and overwhelms your senses. This is not the case in Botswana…think crickets.

Hitch-hiking in Africa is as normal a mode of transport as walking and this is especially true in Botswana. Specific road-side areas, miles apart, are delegated as bus stops and come with a small red-roofed shelter for the comfort of intended passengers.

The actual bus infrequency however, paints a whole other picture of public transportation. Just because the bus schedule, if one is available, says the bus will be there at 9:00 am that does not mean the bus will be there at 9:00 am, no. What this nugget of information means is that the bus will be there, at this stop, where you are standing, somewhere between 9:00 am today and 8:59 am of the following morning. Continue reading Everyone Loves Falling Water →

Seventy five kilometers of red pot-holed dirt roads meandering through the African bush deliver us from the Mana Pools National Park and on to equally un-trafficked tar-seal; several hours later we make our return to the city limits of Kariba.

My plan from here is to continue my travels west to the Okavango Delta in the center of Botswana. In between this destination and where I am now stands one of the great natural wonders of the world, the adrenaline based community that sprang up in its mist, and the “Big Tree” upon which the famous explorer and first man to set eyes on the largest waterfall in world, inscribed his name in November of 1855.

My journey to Victoria Falls from Kariba I captured in my notes; written under both the sun’s glaring light and moon’s soft luminescence. Continue reading Kariba Crossing →