Day 106- ????? 17/1/13

A really interesting day, as we visited the nearby village of the San people. (The San were the first people to colonise southern Africa, before they were forced into an ever smaller area by first the Bantu and then the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Germans etc). We tend to know them as "bushmen" - they look completely different to the Bantu peoples, in stature, skin colour and facial features.

They showed us first how to make fire using "firesticks" and soon had a good blaze going within 2-3 minutes - fortunately, no one suggested that we should try our hand at this. Then it was off to walk through the bush, being shown all the various uses for different shrubs and trees - perhaps the most amazing was the far down root of an inconspicuous plant that provides lots of water (although I suspect not to be consumed unless you were really dying of thirst). I was so impressed that I bought an imitation San bow and arrow (not full size!). Whether it arrives back home in one piece is debatable, and it will no doubt look like "tourist tat" on my wall, but I wanted a physical memory of the day.

The journey back was a race between our truck and a massive cloud of increasing size and blackness, as to who would get back to camp first. We had two minutes to get the tent flaps down and lunch into the truck before the heavens truly opened - we are certainly seeing what is meant by a tropical downpour (or should I say deluge), they are becoming more frequent!