Newsletter of Doug & Missy's Journey Into Africa
Doug did a job for Voice of America in Botswana in 1991, while he worked for SG Communications. He spent 7 months there building six radio towers, and I spent 3 months there with him in Selebi Phikwe. We always longed to go back, and decided to go for 15 days in 2000. We rented a truck totally equipped for camping, and set out on a 3,000 mile journey through South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. After that trip we wanted even more to return and planned our trip from September 23 - October 15, 2002. We drove 3,000 miles again, camped, and stayed in a few lodges when we needed a break from camping.
The people of Southern Africa are very poor, and most people live in Mud Huts with no electricity or running water.
Almost every day I wrote in a journal about our days.
Here goes...
27 September 2002
Howard, a representative from Camper's Corner picked us up at the airport in a tiny car. Out luggage almost didn't fit in the car. We went to Camper's Corner and picked up our Toyota Desert Raider.
We called our friend Mike Wilson, and he and his wife Kathy met us at the Flea Market close to their house. We stayed the night at Mike and kathy's house, and they cooked us venison of Impala. It was very good: I was surprised how much I enjoyed it!
Johannesburg and the surrounding areas are very dangerous! There are a lot of hijacking of vehicles, robberies, etc. A friend of Mike & Kathy's and her husband were visiting the day we were there, and she said someone stole her tires off of her car and left it on blocks, all while she was sleeping. A friend of Mike & Kathy's son Christopher was hijacked by 4 men with guns. He never got his car back. They also have chop shops there where they take pieces of cars and make new cars.
In the middle of the night, dogs all in the neighborhood started barking. Mike and Kathy have four Rottweillers, one small mixed breed dog, and a Beagle. All I could think was someone was going to kill the dogs, then come in and rob us! I guess I was having a bit of panic for a moment. In their house they don't have air conditioning, they just open the windows, which don't have screens, and so it is practically wide open.
They have one dog "Gambit", who is very mean. He is okay if you are with one of the family, you can actually pet him. If you try to come in or out of the house without them, he will growl and would most likely bite you. In the morning Doug got up very early, he was up before everyone else. He said the dogs let him out and let him back in, but then wouldn't let him back out again. The night before, Gambit actually bit him when he tried to come inside while everyone was in the house. They said Doug was standing at the door saying "somebody help me", he was just standing there very still! He had a pretty nice size bruise on his leg for a few weeks, but he didn't break the skin
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