Kalahari Bushmen

We were shown to our tents - they are very lovely and we have a verandah with a view of the river.

We met again at 4pm and we went for a bush walk with the Kalahari bushmen. Kalahari bushmen no longer live in this area but these were brought from near the Namibian border for 3 months as a group to demonstrate to the tourists their way of living.

The first thing we did was have introductions. The 2 men leading the group shook our hands and told us their names. They speak in clicks and it is a very gutteral language. They also had an interpreter. They were dressed traditionally but the 2 babies wore hoodies. There was then a casting of ? bones to predict what might happen on our walk...all appeared to be ok...so we set off. The zebra herd had come to drink at the river and we stopped to look at them. Zebras as a herd are very noisy and bark like dogs rather than sound like horses. They were also very spooky and would stampede away from the water if there was a perceived danger, then slowly return as a group. All the animals here are totally in the wild. There are no fences and this is part of their natural winter migration.

We then walked further and they showed us a tree they use different parts of for medicine and eating. This was followed by a demonstration of how they make fire. Geoff was very impressed and picked up a few tips on the finer points of fire creation that he had missed out in Boy Scouts! Though I'm not sure where he is going to source dried up Zebra poo which appears to be an essential part of it.

After the walk we had dinner and sat around the campfire which was very nice.Læs mere