the trek to botswana

i have realized that everything in africa is even slower than the motherland. they are in no rush for ANYTHING and it is driving me crazy. i started on my journey on that overland truck (which is a SAAB truck by the way)...we were supposed to leave wednesday at the crack of dawn but actually, the truck driver was waiting for the tents to transport up to victoria falls, zimbabwe. well, the tents didnt show up for HOURS because well, africa no one is in any rush in africa.

i boarded this big yellow truck with an australian girl who quit her job as a structural engineer to travel around africa and work for different touring companies and a zimbabwe guy who was just in johannesburg trying to ship some statues to europe (what kind of statues, i have no idea)...we ended up playing cards during the entire 18 hr journey. and mad props go to the truck driver who drove all night long to get me to kasane in time to view the elephants. all in all, the africans are super slow but really really nice and friendly.

i also got to taste some authentic african food called pap---it is a maize meal mush and well, really just tastes as bad as it sounds--it is just plain corn and starch which just acts as a stomach filler. and the africans eat it with curried vegs (which are actually flavorful and tasty) and meats.

well, off to view those elephants....

Safe in Jo'burg

Hi friends!

After 17 hr plane ride, got into Johannesburg with no issues. The flight wasn't as exciting as the one from the motherland, no shady serbians. Though I did chat with 4 rednecks from tennessee who are on a South African hunting trip and are planning on hunting Kudu! apparently they checked their shotguns so they were under the airplane. how comforting.

Found the hostel pretty easily and managed to make friends with 2 girls from the shuttle bus. the hostel is called the "backpackers ritz" ---it is clean and all but not exactly the ritz carlton...One of the girls i met is australian and the other is from new zealand. The girl from australia is a body piercer! Apparently it generates quite a sum of money because she owns 2 homes and a motorbike back in adelaide--and here i am living in an apartment that doesn't even have a bathroom sink. joburg is interesting, it is a cross between my motherland and london with the english influence (lots of cadburys) and the mix of the extreme rich and the extreme poor. you can tell the place can be shady at night because all the homes have very high fences and barbed wire.

i head off to botswana later this afternoon to meet my friend jonah and go on the elephant tracking excursion. i am doing a rideshare with a tourbus company so that i can be sure i will be in kasane before the 30th as opposed to taking the bus which apparently can take days and days...the van is big and yellow and says AFRICA on it, quite a site to see.


Oh and as a side note, first of my many shout-outs--this time to Stephanie D who's birthday is today.

i will try posting some pics soon, i really havent seen any animals yet or anything cool really to post. peace out!

Let the trip begin

I leave on my 17 hr direct flight to Johannesburg in a matter of hours. Hopefully, there will be some good inflight movies! I am going to try to post an image of some of the places I am going so everyone can have a better idea of the geographical location of these african cities. My first stop out of Jo'burg will be Kasane, Botswana. This is where I will be going on a field science expedition with my friend Jonah -- we will be immobilizing elephants and putting radio collars on them for tracking. Send me a comment if you can't view the picture, I am still trying to figure out how to insert pics from the web onto my blog.