Day 7. Fri 23rd April
"The Bushmen of the Kalahari".
We are spending a day at the Bushman Farm, so we get a lie in until 7.
After breakfast Ken heads into town for some last minute bits and pieces
while we go on a nature walk with a bushman, a bushwoman and a bunch of
bushkids. They chatter away in their clicking language, dig up roots and
tubers to show us what is edible, what can be used as medicine, what
used to make rope or thatch huts. They peel a huge thing like a big deformed
spud and all chomp away happily. We all try a bit, it is eatable, but pretty
tasteless.
The bushmen have a quite different ancestry from the other people of sub-saharan
Africa, being descended primarily from the San, as well as from the Khoikhoi
or Hottentot, both tribes which originated in Southern Africa. The San
were smaller than the West African "Bantu", with lighter skin and different
characteristic eye and facial shape. The San were nomadic hunter-gatherers,
able to survive in the desert without food or water for long periods by
utilising water and fat stored particularly in the buttocks, a physical
characteristic still very noticeable, especially in the women. Sadly this
ancient culture is now all but lost. In 1998 the San people still living
a traditional lifestyle in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, granted to
them in 1961, were forced by the government to relocate outside the
Reserve. The official reason was the need to support wildlife preservation,
and to "rescue" the San from their "primitive" lifestyle and integrate
them into "civilised" society. The possibility of diamonds beneath the
reserve may also have played a role. Dqãe Qare is one of a number
of enterprises set up in an attempt to preserve the San culture.
After the walk we chill until lunchtime. Pete digs out his GPS and
whiles away the time telling us how far from home we are - Macclesfield
is exactly 5352.1 miles away, at a bearing of 357º.
After lunch we have a nap, and then Pete and Kathy go for a walk while
Ken, Julie and I repack the Land Rover ready for the camp. Then Ken exhorts
the San staff to set up the barbeque (they are not ones to do anything
now if it can be done in ten minutes!) while I go and play frisbee with
the kids round the back. They are lovely kids, and although they don't
speak a word of English they obviously recognise a frisbee, as they all
jump up to play as soon as they see it. Inevitably they get it stuck up
a tree, but soon retrieve it. When it becomes to dark to play they sing
and dance for me, and are more than happy to pose for the camera.
Meanwhile the barbeque has to be rapidly replanned when it is discovered
that the gas in the farm has run out. Instead of just barbequeing the meat
the whole meal now has to be cooked on the fire.
I am in my room getting ready for supper when there is a great commotion
outside, and Blondie bursts in shouting that they have found a Black Mamba.
Sunshine and Pirate, wandering back to their room in the dark, had seen
the snake right next to the path where they were walking. Luckily they
had not panicked, but called Ken, who raised the alarm. Everybody came
rushing out of the house and beat the poor thing to death with a stick,
and then stood around chattering excitedly and measuring it's length. As
it turns out it isn't a Mamba, but an Egyptian Cobra, but still poisonous.
Ken says they must burn it, as it will have a mate that will follow its
scent to find it, but I'm not sure whether this is scientific fact or folklore.
After the barbeque Dina, the woman who came on the walk with us and seems
to be in charge, tells us traditional stories in the San language while
one of the guys translates into English.
We are off early in the morning, before the farm staff arrive, so we
prepare breakfast and lunch now, get everything packed up and toddle
off to bed. The farm has apparently changed hands since Ken made the booking,
and they have somehow managed to double book us with a bunch of Americans,
so Blondie must come and share with Ken and me. She puts in her earplugs
and takes a sleeping pill!