Today we are packing up and leaving Livingstone but before we do, we have the opportunity to help greenpop.org plant some orange trees at the local hospital.
Greenpop are from Cape Town and have been active in Zambia for 6 months planting trees in schools and hospitals trying to combat the deforestation problems. The work they are doing is like a drop in the ocean of what is needed but a great start with education around the need for and value of trees essential.
We met up with Juliana who is Geenpop's representative in the area and Uncle Ben who is a retired Zambian national that has volunteered to help them. They showed us how to plant the trees and we had to each dig a hole, add manure, water and then decorate the ground around the tree and then name it. It seems like such a small effort but these orange trees will grow and provide fruit for the patients as well as provide a green area for patient recuperation.
It was well organized, there was a representative from the hospital and two reporters from the Zambian Times. I was interviewed by the reporters as the leader of the group as we didn't have anyone official from Put Foot there. I hope we get a positive write up for Greenpop. It was a shame that Put Foot had not got back to Juliana when original approached months ago as we could have planted trees at the school during shoe drop while we had the whole team.
During the drive back to camp, Juliana asked if we had seen the Rhino in their game park. They have 4 Rhino their which is half the Rhino population in Zambia. These 4 are said to be the most protected Rhino in the world with 24 hour guards. Is this a glimpse into the future and is this the only hope for the species worldwide?
Following the tree planting we again ate at the beautiful Indian restuarant in the stunning colonial house. We took Team Maverick there as well and the staff were delighted to see us again. Our second meal didn't disappoint either so with full bellies we made our way to the border.
Greenpop are from Cape Town and have been active in Zambia for 6 months planting trees in schools and hospitals trying to combat the deforestation problems. The work they are doing is like a drop in the ocean of what is needed but a great start with education around the need for and value of trees essential.
We met up with Juliana who is Geenpop's representative in the area and Uncle Ben who is a retired Zambian national that has volunteered to help them. They showed us how to plant the trees and we had to each dig a hole, add manure, water and then decorate the ground around the tree and then name it. It seems like such a small effort but these orange trees will grow and provide fruit for the patients as well as provide a green area for patient recuperation.
It was well organized, there was a representative from the hospital and two reporters from the Zambian Times. I was interviewed by the reporters as the leader of the group as we didn't have anyone official from Put Foot there. I hope we get a positive write up for Greenpop. It was a shame that Put Foot had not got back to Juliana when original approached months ago as we could have planted trees at the school during shoe drop while we had the whole team.
During the drive back to camp, Juliana asked if we had seen the Rhino in their game park. They have 4 Rhino their which is half the Rhino population in Zambia. These 4 are said to be the most protected Rhino in the world with 24 hour guards. Is this a glimpse into the future and is this the only hope for the species worldwide?
Following the tree planting we again ate at the beautiful Indian restuarant in the stunning colonial house. We took Team Maverick there as well and the staff were delighted to see us again. Our second meal didn't disappoint either so with full bellies we made our way to the border.
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The border was hectic to say the least. When we arrived there was a grader working on the dirt roads so parking was the first issue. As with everywhere in Africa there seemed to be many people just waiting. i have no idea what they were waiting for and wonder if they do? There were street vendors and hawkers trying to relieve us of our last Zambian Kwacha. Understanding that we would need Botswana Pula to enter Bots, we changed some US dollars. Border crossings 101, know the exchange rate before arriving at the border. We received an appalling 5 to the USD when it should have been 8. That was just lesson number one. Lesson two is to not accept help from quasi officials. We were "helped" to the front of the queue by one guy when I am sure there wasn't a queue for cars and he relieved us of another US50. One other guy with a semi official looking ID helped us with our paperwork but disappeared after I found out that he had made me fill out the wrong form. My exclamation of "Oh F@&k" silenced the whole place for probably the first time since it had opened at 6am. Once again you seem to need to pay everyone behind a window. We had no idea what most of these charges are for.
The method of crossing the border at this point is by barge and there are hundreds of trucks lined up each side going one at a time onto the barge. The cars fit in around the trucks so we managed to get on very quickly in spite of the hundreds of trucks lined up. The crossing itself is very quick, probably 5 minutes. You then drive off the other side into Botswana. LuLu had a problem getting off as her tow bar hit the steep barge ramp. She was left stranded with both back wheels spinning in mid air. A couple of rocks under the wheels did the trick and LuLu was also into Bots.
We found a nice campground about 10 minutes from the border and settled down for the night feasting on an excellent stew courtesy of Hayley. We are now about 5 minutes from the entrance to Chobe and we can't wait. So glad we only drove 1 hour west from Livingstone and not 12hours east toward Lusaka like the rest of the rally.
The method of crossing the border at this point is by barge and there are hundreds of trucks lined up each side going one at a time onto the barge. The cars fit in around the trucks so we managed to get on very quickly in spite of the hundreds of trucks lined up. The crossing itself is very quick, probably 5 minutes. You then drive off the other side into Botswana. LuLu had a problem getting off as her tow bar hit the steep barge ramp. She was left stranded with both back wheels spinning in mid air. A couple of rocks under the wheels did the trick and LuLu was also into Bots.
We found a nice campground about 10 minutes from the border and settled down for the night feasting on an excellent stew courtesy of Hayley. We are now about 5 minutes from the entrance to Chobe and we can't wait. So glad we only drove 1 hour west from Livingstone and not 12hours east toward Lusaka like the rest of the rally.
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