A gruelling trail and a Facebook update at the summit

| Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

Sunday June 30: It is 4:46pm. I stand on Botswana's highest point, the summit of the sacred Tsodilo Male Hill, Botswana's only UNESCO World Heritage Site that has one of the world's oldest concentrations of rock paintings. This is after walking over a total of an arduous 100 kilometres in three days of the 2010 Komatsu/Y-Care Tsodilo Charity Walk.

Thursday: The journey to the top starts by shuttle bus carrying the walkers from Gaborone to the north-western end of Botswana, spanning more than 1, 200km to Shakawe near Mohembo border gate. After 14 hours on the road, we arrive safely and set up camp at Shakawe Campsite along the Okavango River. I pitch my tent just five metres from the river to hear nature's lullabies at night from hippos and other aquatic creatures until I am caressed to sleep under the full moon.

Friday: I wake up to an almost fictional, mildly cold morning to the song of birds as crimson sunrays piece through the thin haze of clouds and the quiet flow of the water. After breakfast, we go on a two-hour boat ride in the river from Samochima to Skandoko, followed by a brief walk to Bana Ba Metsi School whose pupils are the beneficiaries of funds raised from these walks. They take us on a guided tour of Bana Ba Metsi during which we learn how its director, Steve Harpt, is changing the lives of these young boys. The dexterous Bana Ba Metsi Marimba Band play us a few tunes before we hit the road for Nkarange. We are led by a local guide by the Okavango River as we enjoy legends inspired by the mighty water course.

We hear about how one old man once fended off a crocodile attack by biting off one of its tarsals.  The guide shows us the famous moporota tree (sausage tree) and relates its phallic powers, especially for elongation.  It is not until four hours later that we reach Nkarange Village where we stop for refreshments. A Coke has never tasted so good! From here we head further west to Mohembo where we go on a ferry to cross the Okavango River back to the Shakawe side and the campsite. Later in the night, we enjoy entertainment from the Marimba Band around a fire.

Saturday: After a briefing by Y-Care Coordinator, Stellan Bengtsson, 19 walkers out of 24 from the previous day's walk brave the sand over 51 kilometres from Shakawe to Tsodilo Hills. It turns out to be the toughest walk I have ever been on. Five hours later, it is noon, and I cannot carry my camera bag any more. My camera is like a soldier's rifle to me, and I cannot leave it behind. But it is wearing me out as I struggle with the thoughts of quitting that assail my mind. After the lunch break, I surrender my camera bag to the support vehicle and soldier on with just a water bottle. I have had only two bites from my lunch box because I simply have no desire for food.  After 10 hours and 26 minutes, I am among the first five walkers to reach Tsodilo without help from the support vehicle.

Nomsa Mbere, the Chairperson of the Y-Care Trust Board, is the only woman with us. Fifteen minutes after settling down at our new campsite next to the Tsodilo Foundation Museum, I nurse terrible blisters on my toes, feeling weak, dizzy and cold. A few quick tests later, the BDF paramedic Oarabile Lesetedi diagnoses me for low sugar levels and prescribes food and bed rest. Fruit juice and sweets bring me around and I am soon enrapt by the campfire listening to narrations of more fables of the Okavango.

Sunday: I get up to a wintry and windy morning. There are three activities scheduled for today - The Cliff Trail, The Rhino Trail and Male Hill Trail, in that order. Accordingly, we take to the hills and their cavernous caves.

Outside this particularly sacred cave, we are asked to kneel down while our guide, Ollie, petitions the gods to let us drink and fetch of its holy water. Our thirst quenched, we view the famous rock paintings of wild and domestic animals, of humans and what looks like geometric patterns. Next is the Python Cave inside which only 20 years ago, Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo 'discovered' the world's oldest ritual - python worship that that dates back 70, 000 years.

We then go to the spot on earth where the San believe the first act of coitus took place - two small engravings on rock depicting bare human buttocks. It is another guide, Darkie, who brings us to this sacred spot.

It is he who intones that the gods do not permit just anyone to tread here and behold the divine paintings and that for that, we should consider ourselves blessed. He says this after going astray awhile and being bitten by an insect which he ascribes to the gods communicating with him. After lunch, I join a 'heroic' group of 10 walkers to embark on the Male Hill Trail, the pinnacle of which is Botswana's highest point above sea level at 1 395 metres.

The 10 are bruised and battered from the past three days. Forty minutes later, only the guide and eight walkers reach the summit.  At the hilltop, the cellular phone network is available. Here I have a chance to update my Facebook status from Botswana's highest and only World Heritage Site. Whereupon the latest news is that Gomolemo Motswaledi is the new Ex Co Chairperson of the BMD. This is an interesting coincidence because in July last year, while on the Makgadikgadi Walk at the pan's venerable heritage site, Kubu Island, I received news that Gomolemo Motswaledi was the new Secretary General of the BDP