Adventures in Kgope

On January 4th I accompanied some people from the village to check out potential tourist sites in Kgope. It was me, the VDC (Village Development Council) chairman and his wife, some VDC members, the kgosi, and some village elders. There were about ten of us in total and we piled into the kgosi’s truck and took off into the bush. I always feel a little weird calling the landscape ‘the bush’, like I’m not being politically correct or something, but truly that’s what it is. There are lots of trees but they are all relatively small and have low limbs making them look almost like bushes.

We took the dirt roads into the bush: and I am using the word ‘roads’ generously. At times there was a dirt bath wide enough for the car. Other times there were two faint trails of dirt spaced apart like the wheels of a car. The trees were frequently so close to the car that they raked against it, and I literally mean raked because many of these trees had thorns the size and sharpness of nails. You could hear them dragging against the outside of the truck. Three times we had to stop because one of the men in back of the open truck had their hats knocked off of their heads.

The "road" through the bush.

 

After twisting and turning down the paths (and I had no idea how they knew which path to take when it split) the car finally stopped in what looked to me as an unremarkable stop. I was told we were going to see a potential tourist spot, but nothing else. At this point we all had to go to our knees and pray. I was told that failing to pray at this spot might mean that we wouldn’t reach our destination. After praying, we took off on a small trail through the trees. It was easy to follow the rest of the group although the trail constantly kept me on my toes. On the ground were a lot of small rocks that needed to be minded so I wouldn’t trip or stub my toe. Up higher were branches that constantly had to be ducked because they had, like I mentioned earlier, ridiculously large thorns. I’m sure I was doing an uncoordinated bob and weave the entire time.

When we finally reached our destination it was beautiful. The ground was interesting. It was open rock that looked like it had been formed by mud and smaller rocks being cemented together over time. Running down the middle of a dip in the rock was a small stream. Occasionally the stream would flatten and run through a patch of grass in the rocks, only to emerge and tumble lower. Three of the men had brought water bottles to take the water with them. I asked them why they wanted the water and the response varied from just wanting to drink it, to something that definitely had to do with traditional healing/witchcraft.

 

It was nice hiking over the rock. It was nice just seeing running water in Botswana. While we walked around a few people were collecting a small shrub that was growing in the shade of the rocks. They said they could brew a tea using the leaves that would lower blood pressure. It was a nice afternoon. On the way back we stopped at one more place, and then headed back to the home. We were driving on the road when suddenly the kgosi stopped and pointed to the road. Less than thirty feet in front of us there was a huge snake crossing the road; at least six-feet long. I tried to get a picture but only caught the tail of it. They told me it was a python. They then proceeded to tell me that ‘yes pythons can kill you but they’re one of the nicer snakes’, also that this was a ‘small one’. I’m sorry, what? A small one?? ‘Oh yes, the blue mambas are a lot meaner and more deadly’. Oh good.

If you look closely, on the left you can see the last half of the snake crossing the road.

 

If that wasn’t eventful enough, about a mile or so later we heard a hissing noise that was, not a snake, but the sound of the air quickly leaving the back right tire. We had driven over one of those nail-thorns and it had punctured the tire of the big truck. Nature here does not play games. The irony was that as we were driving to the site I kept thinking encouraging thoughts like: ‘you could get stranded out here and no one would find you’, and ‘how would you give them directions? Oh yes, take the dirt path until the thorn tree, turn left on the other dirt path, now there’s going to be a fern blocking your view but if you look carefully there are tire marks right past the brown cow and it’s calf, if they’re still sitting in the same spot….’ etc. Of course I’m being ignorant here because people know their way from experience. I am clearly just blind to the signs, but still…

 The joke’s on me though because the situation was under control. The kgosi and another man walked off into the bush almost immediately. The rest of us hung by the car while the VDC chairman called people at his farm (maybe a tractor could come get us), and the police officer (his car was out of fuel) but we had no luck. I settled in for a long stay. About an hour or so later the kgosi and the man came back with a tire and a pump. A farmer nearby was letting them use his spare and was on his way with the jack. I thought that was great community spirit. We were shortly after on our way, and made our way home with no more problems (except the hats getting knocked off). It was a nice trip and I’m glad I was able to tag along. Almost as glad as I was to be inside the car when I saw the snake. Yikes. More adventures to come!