. First we have to pass customs. The following days we will collect stamps
in our passports. The first stamp is for leaving Botswana 
.
After 5 minutes sailing we enter Namibean territory. There is a small borderpost
where we fill in a form and receive another stamp. We don't see much from
Namibea, only some reed on the river bank 
!
After 45 minutes we are at Sikomo island. The island is in the middle of the Zambezi river and is Zambian territory. We have to handover our passports. A few hours later we have it back with new stamps in it..
The island is a few kilometers long. The camp is near the water and there are good sanitary facilities and a "bar" (coolboxes with locals sitting on it)
.
A good scrubbing under the shower is a very needed after four days in the
bush. The number of unshaven faces is reduced very fast. The island is
a good resting place. Some go for a short guided tour on the island. A
second groups arives consisting of 5 'ladies' and their guide Chris (to
separate him from our Chris we call this guide 'nice Chris'). They just
had a safari in Namibea..
Allmost everybody joins the "sunset-cruise"
.
The guide of the cruise, CK, tells us what we are about to see. One of
the things are 'young zambians'. We think he is joking, but it is for real.
We pass a village where youngsters make mokoro's 
.
It feels somewhat like a zoo (from bothsides). Later we learn that part
of the revenues from the sunset cruise are given to this village.
Except the young Zambians we also see birds, fisherman, hippo's and sunsets
.
This night we start at the campfire as usual
.
The difference is that nice Chris reads a campfire story. His group is
used to it. His group is also well organized we notice when the dishes
are done. Our group is more a bunch of barbarians (ourselves included).
I suspected there was a real american akela in Chris's group. That appeared
to be the case!
Next morning we can sleep late! We leave no earlier dan 08:30! Just before leaving Ger walks into a low hanging branch and gets a thorn in her head. At first we think it is just a tiny thing because we cannot see much of it. But after good bush-EHBO Vanessa and nice Chris pull out a large thing
! Ger appears to be allright, but she stays somewhat dizzy the rest of
the day. Maybe it was just a trick not to carry the luggage around....
When we are back at Kasane we fill in another form and get a new stamp.
Our passports are becoming even more colourful. The stupid thing is that
dutch passports are only valid for 5 years, whereas for the other nationalities
in our group it is 10 years. We try not to think of the hunderds of millions
the dutch government has thrown away the last decade for a 'fraud-resistent-passport'
!
