Feb 17, Tuesday, Village walk, Impalila Island, Namibia

  Behind the lodge is a dirt road to the nearby villages.  The homes are made out of a frame of sturdy tree branches filled in by termite dirt with thatched roofs.  there are also homes built from rocks used as bricks and homemade cement using sand from the island.  The one we saw inside the reed fenced courtyard was 4 rooms with the washing area and cooking area outside.  The fencing is for keeping the chickens inside at night and the hippos who graze inland, out.  We saw hippo tracks and poop which is scattered around the side of a tree.  They wiggle their behinds like shit hitting the fan to mark their territory.

We saw the island school which serves 300 students up to grade 10.  Nearby was a newly built clinic, the nicest buildings on the island made from concrete blocks which are molded and made on island.

We also saw baobab trees, lead wood trees, an African mangosteen also called a Bob Marley tree because of the way the ends of the branches look like dread locks, and an African star chestnut.  Luckily clouds are rolling in and it wasn't that hot.  I saw a woman carrying her baby on her back using one of the colorful sarongs to tie it safe, balancing on her hip.

The welcome words from the lodge are:

Loosen the tight strings of city life, kiss the sun, listen to the songs of the birds as they carry the sky on their backs as you rest in our silent sculpted island.  Enjoy the warmth of the African dream, our life.  Close your eyes and unwind to the wilderness song and you will feel the heartbeat of Africa, pulsing.

Tonight we fished for tiger fish.  Steve was the only one who caught one in our boat.  He used essential fishing gear, beer.  Even David and I tried the local beer as we fished, but no luck.

Feb 16, Monday, Impalila Island, Namibia

We left the hotel and traveled by bus to the dock in Kasane, Botswana where we took a boat to Impalila Island.  This small island between the Chobe and Zambezi rivers, is in Namibia but Thompson said it should be either Zimbabwe or Botswana, the two countries where the boundaries are the longest.  It was given to Namibia in an agreement made in 1890 between the Germans and the British.

 

The ride along the Kasi channel was beautiful - little puffs of clouds in a blue sky over lowgrasses, waterlilies and papyrus.  The river is high so we may not have or see hippos making noise below our room.  We did not see any crocodiles, but there are three more days here.

This Impalila Island Lodge is a little gem with individual cabins and a deck that surrounds a 1,000 year old Baobab tree.  It is built on wooden walkways and stilts because the water is right there.  OAT reserves it exclusively.

We will have free time here and go on river boat rides and hikes and fish for tiger fish on the  Zambezi River.  If we talk to real fishing enthusiasts, telling them we fished the Zambezi, it is supposed to knock their socks off.      

After lunch we had time to swim in the delightful pool overlooking the river.  Thompson gave us a talk about the history and poliitics of Zimbabwe, his own country.  Mugabe is still in power, but he is 91 years old next week.  The celebration will be in Vic Falls.  His controversial land reform measures have clumsily sorted themselves out, perhaps by having many former white farmers leave the country.  Zimbabwean refugees are a problem for other countries.  There are only 4% of the country who are white.  I read a very interesting book about the land reform times from a farmer's perspective, called The Last Resort.

This evening we went on another boat cruise, this time leisurely to view some birds, try to find hippos, and such.  Besides some beautiful colorful birds such as a wire tailed swallow, a jakana or jesus bird because it appears to walk on water among the water lilies, and an open billed stork, we spotted a monitor lizard lurking  in a tree.  He was about 3 feet long.  

Papyrus

We were escorted to bed by the night guards who willl patrol all night.  We call them the men in black because they wear all black clothes.  We are under mosquito nets but these little flies are everywhere attracted to the light.  Goodnight!