Tsumkwe.
December 2011.
We drive towards the East where the rainy season has already begun: what a contrast ! It is as green as Normandy !
We reach the region of the San, these little men from the Kalahari immortalized by the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy."
The bush is beautiful with its huge baobabs.
We visit a San village.
The tour begins as always by greetings the chief.
As he is stuggling to cut a stick with a bad knife, Matthieu offers him his opinel: He is happy.
What the boys want to see, is how the San manage to light a fire with two sticks.
In less than a minute a spark comes out, and this man manage to light his cigarette.
Incredible !
We go for a walk in the bush together with a few villagers.
Women show the different plants on which they feed their families.
We walk for an hour and we are glad not to be alone because the wild beasts abound.
Here beautiful traces of elephants and the imprint of a hyena.
We taste the fruit of the baobab tree: it is sweet like a candy.
This strange plant taste like salad.
The San unfortunately lost the right to hunt, but the kids are excited to test this famous arches.
Then javelin lesson: not as easy as it looks!
Meanwhile, women have unearthed a huge root and peel it with a piece of wood.
It has the consistency of a watermelon and taste of radish !
Upon leaving, the chief asks us for a medical consultation.
Stereotypes die hard.
Matthieu tries to look serious and prescribes some eye drops that we have on stock.
We camp under a huge baobab.
To join the Botswana from the Caprivi Strip, we must go through Khaudum park .
Because of its isolation, it is written in the guide that the park can be visited only in convoys of at least two vehicles:
we'll see at the entrance.
But when we reach the main gate, the place is deserted..
The park is 200 km long, it is full of lions, the tracks are deemed bad and no one is aware of our attempt.
On the other hand, we do not want to do 500 km detour.
We decide to go, and Matthieu gets a kind of spear from one of the barracks.
The trail first follows the bed of a river.
Fortunately the weather is nice and the river is dry.
The scenery is beautiful.
Tugdual climbs up on the roof to locate the animals.
He implements an ingenious system to communicate with his brother.
There are all kind of obstacles on the track, but the Land passes without any problems.
The sand becomes very deep and the engine warms up a bit.
We have to stop in a rather sinister area to deflate the tires.
Matthieu stands guard with his spear while Tugdual does the job.
Finally the road !