Happy Botswana Day!

(this last weekend.....)

Several of Botswana's public holidays fall on a weekend, so sometimes they give you both the Monday AND the Tuesday off. This makes for blissful 4-day weekends where you can actually get out and do something and not have to take time off.

We decided to go hiking with Jéan and Alan. There is a nice mountain range exactly halfway between Joburg (them) and Gaborone (us) called the Magaliesburg, with endless possibilities for camping and hiking. We decided upon the Eagle Cove trails and it was great. Only lost the trail once, didn't get eaten by anything, and stumbled upon the coolest canyon ever... from the top AND the bottom.

Some photos:

At the top of the canyon edge:

Looking down into the massive rivine below:

We sat and watched these baboons for a half an hour. They are really entertaining... there were about 20 of them or so.

It was tough climbing and took us a whole day, but we got back to camp at the bottom sometime around sunset and enjoyed some nice sundowners and a feast of meat on the fire.

The next morning we got up, boiled some eggs in some tin cans left over from the night before, and headed off for another day of hiking - this time DOWN into the canyon to the river below.

The boys (A & J) headed back to Joburg on sunday and we (J&J) came back to Gabs exhausted and feeling fit.