29^th June, The House Boat - Botswana and Namibia.

This morning we elected to go for a bush walk across Impalila Island, Namibia. And suprise, surprise we were prepared for a walk! Anton, took us through his village, to the local clinic and the school and to Impalila Stadium - the soccer ground attached to the school. They are hoping to be a contender for the next World Cup. Probably not, as it was 100 x 40 meter area of flat rocky sand! As well as a few more villages. :P

We got to see how the houses were made – using crushed termite mounds and the fields they plough and grow maize in during the wet season. Most of the men work in the tourist industry and the women stay in the villages with the kids.

The climax of the walk was a 2000 year old Baobab tree. It was amazing. So massive. Sarah climbed half way up – which was extremely difficult. They had put climbing spikes into the wood but were set for a very tall man – to stop kids climbing it. And the surface of the tree was like a polished table tap – so smooth and shiny. Nothing to grip onto or get your toes into.  If you climb to the top you can see four countries. Namibai, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Maybe you would get to see them as the helicopter comes to take you to hospital. This tree was huge.

It was then back to the lodge to move to the river boat – Ichobezi Moli. Moli means ‘the wife of the chief’. Anton loaded us into the speedboat and took us up to Moli. We then said farewell to Anton, a brilliant guide.

Moli is a four bedroom houseboat. 18 meters by 8 meters. She holds a maximum of eight passengers and has six staff. She also has four speedboats - one for each room. Again all is luxury.

Down stairs were the bedrooms with ensuites. Up stairs is a huge room with lounges, the bar and a big dinning table – all enclosed in retractable glass doors. Then the deck with the spa tub and sun lounges.

We had lunch then headed off up river – in our house boat.   We  motored for a few hours seeing magnificent sights.

After lunch we opted for another game drive.

Again we saw so much. We went back to the lion’s buffalo. 48 hours after the kill was a faceless skull, a clean rib cage and a hide and the bones of one back leg. The other back leg was gone as were the lions. 

We sat in our boat, drinks in hand, watching two giraffes parade around in front of the enormous red sun as it slipped into the horizon. We both burst our singing the opening number for the lion king.

Our houseboat had run up onto a sand bar and moored for the night at a spot called ‘Elephant Bend’, a regular watering spot for many animals. As we were watching Elephants have their evening drink a troupe of Baboons came down. Not just any troupe.  A troupe of between 400 and 500. They were like ants swarming down out of the brush onto the beach. Big males got into huge fights, teenagers wrestled, babies rode on their mother backs, sitting up beautifully. We even saw the victor of one fight, grab a female by the tail, drag her over, mate her then sit and flea pick with her. At times we were only a few meters from them. We stayed until it was almost totally dark then when back to Moli.

More great food then bed. We slept with window open and all night could hear Hippos blowing, baboons screeching and at one time hear something being eaten. Raina’s bed was up against the window and she was very careful not to fall out of bed to that side.