We woke up this morning just as Karen and Tiennie were leaving for work. They mentioned just before they left that they only had a half day of work and suggested that we take their boat out on the river in the afternoon. Jenny and I were both keen on this idea so we spent the morning getting everything in order for our boat trip and our planned braai with the people we met yesterday. Jenny skyped her parents in the morning while I watched some tv and we compiled a list of things we needed for lunch, the boat trip, the braai and our week at Lokathula. Once we had our list together we each had a shower (outside again!) and I decided that I should cut my hair using the electric clippers that Karen had lent us. The last time I cut my hair was in early September and it was getting a bit out of control. We sat out the back of the house and Jenny clippers my hair down to a 3 all over, it's not the most sophisticated of haircuts but at least it's a good deal shorter than it was. Jenny - He also looked like uncle fester at one point because I clipped the back and top of his hair but left the ridiculously long sides for a few minutes, and pissed myself laughing the entire time :D
Because my hair was dry when we cut it we didn't do a very good job containing the mess and as such I had to take another shower to get rid of all the clippings. Shortly afterward we drove into town to pick up all the supplies we needed from the shops. We realised a few hundred metres down the road that we had left the iPhone that contained our shopping list back at the house, figuring we could do without it we carried on to the shops. There we bought lots of cool drinks for the days activities and food for lunch with Karen and Tiennie. To simplify things we chose to leave the shopping for Lokathula until tomorrow morning. The last item on our list was to pick up a bottle of gin in the nearby Spar Tops so Jenny could have more of her newly discovered drink!
Upon returning to the house we had plenty of time to kill until Karen and Tiennie came home for lunch. I used the time to watch a few episodes of Top Gear and Jenny took a nap while I watched TV. They arrived back at the house a little after two and we all had some lunch soon afterwards. Karen's mom and her moms cousin showed up to join us on the river. It took us a little longer than we thought to prepare all the supplies for the boat (mostly food and drink) and so we ended up pulling out of their drive and headed to the river at about 15:15.
Thankfully the river is very close, a few minutes drive away with a short dash across the tarred road and back onto a dirt road by the giant KFC sign. Tiennie is extremely adept at reversing the boat into the river, a task probably much easier than he made it seem. We all clambered into the boat, while keeping a keen eye out for crocodiles, and Dan pushed us away from shore before jumping in too. We motored down the beautiful river, until we got to a spot by some rocks. The river is so stunning, a perfect blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds and thunderous rain clouds, countless trees lining the banks, gorgeous little islands covered with reeds and the occasional crocodile, and so many amazing birds all around us.
Tiennie set Dan and I up with a fishing rod and showed us how to cast the line and where we should aim for. We were both having loads of fun, taking turns with the rod and telling each other to stand further away from the water for fear of crocs and then not heading our own advice! Dan brought me a gin and appetiser and I rewarded him by giving him the rod to unhook, because I had successfully caught my very first... Rock. I ended up catching another two rocks, with the new sinker dan attached, in the time we were there before Tiennie called us back to the boat to go try another location.
Dan and I continued taking turns with the rod and kept seeking in more and more casts when the other wasn't looking as we were enjoying it so much :D I managed to catch another six rocks and an entire tree during our time on the river, Dan didn't catch anything but Tiennie, who was fly fishing, managed to catch an amazing five tiger fish!! One of the last ones he caught he let Dan reel in, which he thoroughly enjoyed. During the time on the boat we also managed spill a ridiculous amount of wine all over it! Karen's mum was passing me a glass of wine when she didn't hold on to it and dropped it on the deck, I managed to drop kick the next glass I was given over while casting a line and Karen spilt some on the other side of the boat too!
The sunset over the river was magnificent, and we took plenty photos of it before heading back to shore and loading the boat back onto its trailer and driving home. When we got back I quickly made a salad and Dan loaded up the drinks and steaks for our braai with the people we had met on the cruise yesterday. Karen and Tiennie declined to come as they wanted a quiet night at home, so Dan and I headed off in search of the group with our goodies. we thought we may be a little late as we had been enjoying ourselves on the river for so long, but we were there with perfect timing, as Ralph and Ivette's chops had just gone on the fire.
They kindly lent us a blanket to sit on as we hadn't brought any chairs and we sat round the fire chatting till it was time to cook our steaks. I was extremely jealous of Ivette and Ralph, who had gotten up early enough to enter the Chobe national park and had seen a lion eat a buffalo. Dinner was divine and we thoroughly enjoyed talking with two couples who had been doing similar things to us on their trip. Unfortunately Anna became extremely drunk and at one stage was shouting about how the work that we had done in our lives so far wouldn't count towards any new job. We kept getting told by Rob and Anna that we had to put our time in doing menial jobs before we could even think about getting decent paying ones (this coming from a 39yo collecting a British army pension for life). None the less we had a great time at the braai and we all exchanged contact information just before bidding them all farewell and returning to the house for a good nights sleep.
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