What else

Ok other than the magnificent 'Uniturtle' there were a couple of other details that were quite exciting. I do realize that it is now Thursday and I am still posting about Sunday but, hang with me. On the way back we saw a little line of monkeys crossing the road, I wish that it had been a crosswalk because it had potential to have looked something like the primate version of The Beatles classic shot. In retrospect, it is a dang shame that I did not get to my camera in time. Hey, hey, they were the Monkeys? Ok, maybe not.

The second little bit was the half dozen of so legitimate ox-drawn carts. I figure if they had wooden wheels instead of tires you could have believed that you had warped back to the late 1800's. Many of the smaller towns that we passed through had at least one of these ancient gems. Pretty neat to see actually. Not neat enough to embrace the Amish way of life or anything but, neat nonetheless.

Now, maybe for a few bigger picture things. Livingstone is terrific and there are lots of nifty and really inexpensive little lodges to stay in when you are there. The place we stayed, other than being a might toasty as there is no air conditioning, was very friendly with lots of atmosphere. They had a pool that made getting away from the soaring temperatures possible. We took advantage of that the first night. Internet was fairly cheap though, as expected, quite sluggish. I met a few fun folks that passed the evenings jovially over a couple drinks. There is something very unique about the backpacking crowd. It was fun to get to learn a little about it. I feel more prepared to backpack Europe now. Have wanted to do that for a while now. I know that the time will come but, not yet. One adventure at a time, right.

Got up early after that first night around 5:45 (kill me, there is more to this story than I can tell just now). I got up and took a shower and headed down for some breakfast. I ordered French toast and waited... and waited. Just as the bus was loading at 7:00 they produced my means of breaking the overnight fast. They kindly wrapped it up and I munched on it on the hour long drive that we had before we got to the Zambian boarder. Our driver has done this countless times and knows his way around this hot mess of a boarder extraordinarily well.

Got my exit stamp and moved toward the ferry that would shuttle us to Botswana. Here is a bit of madness for you. There is a ridiculous number of trucks lining the roads waiting to cross on one of two ferries. There is an extremely organized system that works here at these crossings. They avoid taxes at the boarder office by bringing little wooden canoes along side the floating bit of road and receive goods from the truckers before the boat gets to the Zam side. If one has more than five tv's then they are taxed but, if the two guys on the canoe each bring five tv's through and the trucker hangs on to five, well you see the chink in the process. The thing that I found so fascinating as well as saddening is that this procedure is well known and no one does anything to stop it. I suppose anyone that would have the authority to stop would likely be Zambian and would want a cheaper television too.

Boarded the ferry and listened to the whir of the prop muffled through the water propelling the barge into another country. Unloaded and hopped into a safari land cruiser. this thing was awesome! and we had it all to ourselves. It had room for at least ten but, we were just the four and none joined. The whole thing was executed very well. The truck took us by the immigration office and we received our welcome to Botswana stamps and cruised toward the Calahari Tours main office. Botswana is a very clean place and seeing as they have a port and diamonds there are resources to enforce laws. I paid my dues and then came to this absolutely fabulous Chobe lodge. The structure was thatch but, it was massive! Very nice with lots of couches and a beautiful pool overlooking the Chobe River where I would get in a boat that takes me real close to the variety of beasties. They had these terrific benches where they used old wooden canoes, cut one side out of, built a legs and tossed some cushions on.

Even though that is not quite to end of the story it is where I will have to leave you for tonight. I hope to finish tomorrow and I can catch you up on this nutty week that I have had here at work. I do pray that all is well with you and I will post again very soon. As Paul Harvey so eloquently put it. But I will save that for next time. All is well.

That is the bridge that I want to bungee jump from!