Travelling Tim

« Map of Africa Overland Route | Main | How to Geo-Tag Photos »

August 06, 2007

Back in England

I can't believe that I've been back in England for more than 3 weeks, but so it is! Where has the time gone, I ask? Where is my Blog update, you ask? The trouble with having so many interests is that there are always so many things to catch up on when I get back to base. All those ideas for projects that I have had whilst sitting in the truck watching the scenery pass and the miles go by now need to be put into action if they are not to get forgotten about. This happens all too frequently, despite best efforts. There's just not enough hours in the day!

'Base', once again, is the Pestalozzi International Village, in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, near to Hastings, on the south coast of England. You can see the location in Google Maps. (Tip: Maximise the window then Refresh). I am very fortunate to be invited to come back here - there's a lot that I can help with. The plan is to stay at Pestalozzi for the next 7 or so months, until my next adventure, which for those of you who like to know everything in advance, will be another Overland journey, travelling from London via Istanbul, Central Asia, Beijing, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and back across Siberia to the Venice of the north: St Petersburg. It will be a long trip - about 6 months in all. You can see more details here, and my map of the route on the 'Where is Travelling Tim' page here.

That's all in the future, though. Right now I am concentrating on the work needed here. I expect to be very busy at Pestalozzi once again, involved in various projects as before. I was warmly welcomed back by everyone - there's such a great group of people that make up this community. The I.B. students are away on their summer break at the moment, but are expected back, starting at the end of August. No doubt I will be making a few runs to Heathrow airport to help collect them. The Pestalozzi village is still quite busy, though. The office and support staff carry on with work as usual. We also have a number of groups staying, who make use of the facilities. The kitchen staff and the maintenance people have their work cut out trying to keep up. At the moment we have a lot of French students here, and last weekend there were a judo-training group from London.

Africa already seems so far away, and the many friends I made on my travels are now just memories, photographs, and messages over the internet. I miss them all already. Did all those things really happen to me? I had better note down the events of the last trip before I forget them! Luckily, I have my diary as an 'aide-memoire' to some of the things I did and some of the places that I went to. Surprisingly, on the Kumuka trip I was practically the only person who was keeping a diary. This is very different from other Overland trips in the past, when most of the seats in the truck would be occupied after dinner with industrious diary-writers.

With the ever-lowering of prices for digital memory cards, everybody now takes LOTS of photos. That's all very well as long as you can remember what the photos are of, though! I noticed that many people couldn't remember even whilst they were still on the truck. Perhaps cameras need to revert to the days of the 'Autographic back'. This appeared on Kodak cameras from 1914 onwards, and allowed the photographer to write a note on to the back of the film with a special stylus. Today's digital cameras are not that clever (!) as they only allow editing of the 'IPTC' data when you download the photos to your computer, so whilst travelling I keep a notebook - good old pen and paper - with details of each photo taken.

Since my last posting from Swakopmund, a lot has been happening, We did indeed head up the Skeleton Coast to the Cape Cross seal colony, where there were any number of fur seals to see. They were not particularly bothered by their visitors, though I suppose that with teeth like they have, they can look after themselves pretty much! I remember getting chased by fur seals in the Antarctic - its not something I want to repeat! You can see an aerial view of Cape Cross on Google Maps here (Tip: Maximise the page and then Refresh). I see there's a truck in the carpark - I wonder if its an Overland truck? Spot the company, anyone?

In 1486 Portuguese Diego Cáo, the first European to get this far south, landed here and erected a stone cross in honour of King John of Portugal. 400 years or so later, in 1893, German sailors from the ship 'Falke' removed the cross and took it back to the oceanographical Museum in Berlin. In 1894, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered that a replica be made with the original inscriptions in Latin and Portuguese, but decided to add a commemorative inscription in German! Sixty or so years after that, it was decided to put another replica cross at the exact position of the original, the German replica having been sited incorrectly. The second replica also showed the cross as is originally was, without the added German inscription. The first replica had become a historical artifact in it's own right though, so it was left where it was originally erected. Consequently, there are now 2 crosses to be seen at Cape Cross, and a third in Berlin. Quite funny, really, and almost as interesting as the seals.

From Cape Cross I waved goodbye (privately) to the Atlantic Ocean as I wouldn't be seeing it, or any other ocean, until I got back to dear old Blighty. We headed inland to Otjitotongwe - not a place to ask directions to if you are drunk! Not a place to visit if you are drunk, either, as this is the home of the Cheetah Park - an area of land set aside for injured and rescued cheetahs. They are an animal that can be quite hard to spot in the wild, so it was great to get amongst them (in the truck!) as they were being fed in the evening. Most of these here are still classed as 'semi-wild' though 2 had been brought up on the farm from kittens, and it was even possible to stroke them. I was surprised to find out that they have very coarse, wiry hair - not what they look like from a distance at all.

The Etosha National Park came next - a real highlight for this leg of my journey. It promised, and delivered, a lot of game viewing, and was just as exciting as such parks as the Serengeti or Ngorogoro Crater. I was lucky enough to spot a pride of 17 lions. We saw plenty of other game: elephants, springbok, steenbok, impala, orxy, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, jackals, hyena, honey badgers, and many others.

From Etosha we covered, for me, familiar teritory as we headed along the Caprivi Strip then into Botswana and the Okavango Delta. Slightly different, though, was the entry point - this time it was via the town of Maun, giving me a chance to see a new bit of the Delta. Was it better than the Umvuvu Camp, in the north west? Well certainly we didn't have to go via the Sepupo Truck Stop, who's rip-off proprietor had charged the Dragoman group 500 US dollars for a boat ride that should have cost 90. The Delta around Maun was much drier, though. Less time in the canoes. More time on the land. Less water-covered Delta. Much more wildlife, though. Easier access - this time we drove in by 4WD truck rahter than speedboat, before picking up the Makoro canoes. They were the traditional wooden ones too, rather than the fibreglass copies I had seen before. A more 'traditional' experience, but a wetter one. You had to sit very still in the wooden Makoros, as the water would slop over the gunnel with the slightest movement. All in all, I find it hard to judge between the two, so I'm sorry if you are looking for a lead whilst making up your mind. I enjoyed them both, a lot. If you get the chance, go to both too.

Moving on north towards the top of Botswana, we stopped at Kasane, next to the Chobe River and adjacent to the Chobe National Park. This park excelled itself with the large variety of game that we saw. All the 'usual suspects' were there - elephant, buffalo, zebra, and various types of antelope. Hogwarts, too - whoops I meant 'warthogs' - bloody Harry Potter. The most exciting moment was when we saw 2 leopards; one of which climbed a tree to watch the other, and sat there for quite some time, oblivious to, or rather should I say uncaring of, its observers. With only a basic camera available, and no zoom facilities, I used the trick of photographing through the eyepiece of my binoculars again, with brilliant results. That's one of my photos, above. If you try this for yourself, I've found that its best if you extend the eyepiece-masks, to keep the camera lens slightly away from the glass of the binocular eyepiece, then let the camera work out the focussing through the pre-focussed binoculars. It takes a bit of practice, but well worth it for the memories you will take home with you. My binoculars are a cheap pair of 10x50s - that's the equivalent of a 500mm lens on a film camera!

From Kasane it was just a short drive back into Zimbabwe, where the trip ended at the Victoria Falls. We were all under strict instructions not to comment at all on the political troubles currently besetting that sorry country, but now I'm back in England, its safe to talk a bit about it. Wow what a mess things have got to these days! 4500% inflation. Practically nothing in the shops. No diesel. No soap. No rice, even. Prices changin by the hour. The average people of Zimbabwe are REALLY struggling. I'm amazed the country hasn't collapsed into anarchy and civil strife yet - the ex American ambassador was predicting that it really won't be long before this happens. We can only hope and pray that when it comes, it will be as quick and as painless as possible, so that the ordinary people can pick up the threads of their lives. It won't be pretty, that's for sure. All the time I was there, I was continually aware how lucky I was that I could afford food, clothing and shelter, and that with my British passport I could leave whenever I wished. Lucky also that I had American dollars - the only currency that actually bought anything. The official exchange rate was, and has been for quite some time, 250 Zimbabwe dollars to 1 American dollar. On the black market in April, people were getting 17,000 to the US dollar. When I returned in July, the rate had reached 100,000 to the dollar.

I stayed at Victoria Falls for a few days before flying out, and enjoyed seeing the Victoria Falls themselves again. One day I went over to Zambia, to see them again from that point of view. There was certainly a lot less spray obscuring the falls than there had been in April, but there was still a LOT, so a visit definitely requires a full set of waterproof jacket and trousers!

By the time the day I was to leave Victoria Falls arrived, nearly everyone else from the Kumuka truck had already moved on. Martina and Sam had left to take the truck south again - it was to be Martina's last trip with Kumuka. Others had changed trucks, heading north to Kenya, or south to Mozambique. Some had flown on to their next adventure, whilst others had flown home. That last choice was mine too, with British Airways back to London via Jo'burg. The flight went well, despite my bags getting broken into by the Jo'burg baggage handlers. They didn't actually take anything, though - hey: I'm an Overlander - we don't have much to take, and what there is needed washing before anyone else would touch it!

Thanks to all for the emails and snail-mail letters of support over the last 8 months - you know who you are. Now I've a chance to draw breath, whilst helping everyone here at Pestalozzi. Watch this space - insha'Allah (if God wills it) Travelling Tim will be back on the road through Central Asia next March (2008).

pestalozzi

overland

kumuka

namibia

botswana

victoria falls

Posted by travellingtim at August 6, 2007 02:57 AM