Today was another beautiful, warm day. We decided to sleep in today as we were all a bit tired. After breakfast, our group met to go on a tour of a village in the country of Namibia. We boarded a boat from our lodge and then spent quite a bit of time in immigration. I think we hit the record books by getting our passports stamped 4 times in 4 hours! We had to go to the Botswana immigration office to leave the country, the Namibia one to enter and then do it all in reverse!
I loved a sign that I saw at the Namibia immigration office. The gist of it was that if no one was in the office to help you, please don't go knocking on our doors as we will help you eventually. Please wait. That is so Africa. No rush for anything, one immigration officer to help everyone, and no sense of immediacy.
After taking the boat to Namibia and walking a short walk to a small immigration office, we continued our trek to the village which was about a 15 minute walk. This village had about 500 people living in it. Many of its inhabitants worked a the lodge located a little bit away or at the school or a little bit away in a larger village.
All the houses were thatched roof with a combination of mud and dung to comprise the walls. They were very simple: a bed with just a layer of straw, a cooking pot of two, and a few utensils. All married couples huts were distinguished by a thatched fence around their house; singe people just had a hut. The chiefs house was close to where we entered and the animals were kept in a pen made with wood branches near the center of the village.
Where we entered the village there was a Balbao Tree that was 3000 years old!
Many of the older children were at school, but the younger children all came out and wave and came to say hello. Our guide gave them all candy and they wandered around with us as we looked around the village.
At the end, several women were selling their crafts (woven baskets and wood carvings) so many of us purchased some items to take home. We heard that one of the women had walked 10K to show us here items so we are all glad that we bought a few things.
We then came home for a late lunch and then boarded the safari jeeps for our last game drive. We saw lots of hippos with one male hippo being particularly vocal from the water. He even opened his mouth and showed up his many sharp teeth. We know now where the term a thunder of hippos (also know as a pod) since their voices sound like thunder when they talk!
We also saw a journey of about 15 giraffes going to the water. I love to watch them drink while their legs are splayed out wide in order for them to reach the water with their long necks. Of course, we also saw lots of elephants, a fish eagle eating a fish he had just caught, starlings, storks, guinea fowl, mongoose, baboons, impala, and a gorgeous sunset. A lovely last drive!
Our guides and the staff we have met in both South Africa and here in Botswana have had the most interesting names: Obedience, Goodness, Lucky, Honest, and a few others. They have other names in their native language but these are the names listed on their name tags and that they use with us. It is quite funny.
We check out tomorrow and head to our last destination which is Victoria Falls on the Zambia side. On to another adventure!
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