Happy Honeymooners

Weddings are good fun, but there can be no doubt that it’s a whole lot of work. You spend months planning, stressing and working the family politics and it’s all over in a single afternoon of fun, photos and cake. Part of me’s always thought that it must be a bit of a come-down afterwards. I guess that I’d always thought that what the honeymoon was all about: getting away from the stress, the cameras and, well, everybody you know immediately after the circus of the big day itself.

It would seem that Gwen and Garth think otherwise. In total, 15 of us went on their honeymoon, spending two weeks camping and driving through Botswana and Zambia…. After all, why relax and spend some quality alone time when you can keep on organising a big group of people, face yet more cameras and bring the family and friends with you around the game reserves of southern Africa? A lot of folks I’ve talked to think they’re nuts, but having joined them for the trip I won’t hear a word of it!

It was a great trip: a great group of people, wonderful locations and a fantastic journey. For me, it was a perfect end to five months touring the southern hemisphere.

We travelled in a convoy of bakkies (pick-up trucks) kitted out with roof tents and an off-road trailer from the farm where the wedding was held, driving north into Botswana and the Kalahari national park on the first day. The weather at times was torrential but thankfully there was a respite from the rain to allow James to break his vehicle just 10km into the park. An hour later and the linkage rods for the tortion bar had been removed from both front wheels, we’d transferred the trailer to my car (the “Flying Haggis”) and we were back on the road. I say “road”, but we drove in mud and sand exclusively for the next four or five days.

In retrospect, we didn’t see that much game in the first couple of days as we drove into the heart of the Kalahari, but us un-initiated Scots were happy enough to see the likes of Impala or Oryx for a good while and soon enough we were getting to see a whole lot of pretty incredible wildlife (when we didn’t walk right past it on the way into the bushes to pee anyway – mind the lions!). As we continued, James’ bakkie continued to deteriorate to the point that the whole tortion bar was removed and the bearings left exposed: a bit of a problem when you’re two days off-road to the nearest place to buy some grease. Thankfully we had a farmer with us (the groom) who came up with the cunning plan of packing them with peanut butter, held in place with the plastic from a six pack of beer. It was good enough to get us through the next three or fours days driving in the desert. And so the “Peanut” was born.

From the Kalahari we moved north to Chobe where we actually went out with a guide for the day, allowing us to all travel in the same vehicle for a while. The game was incredible, including a couple of Impala that even the Saffers thought we should stop for….

After spending a little over a week constantly making and breaking camp and touring in the vehicles, either watching game or trying to get from A to B we were all glad of some chill-out time to round off the trip. Jungle Junction is a small island in the Zambezi river, a truley idyllic setting and the perfect place for Garth in particular to recover from the horrific level of inefficiency and corruption involved in getting the group across the border from Botswana to Zambia.

Honeymoon support team A

There are so many stories from the two weeks, there was so much banter and so many good times that it’s hard to write about it in a concise manner. Getting lost in the bush in Zambia, Silly Hats and slacklines, grumpy Germans and visiting Vic Falls are just a few that pop to mind…. If you really want to hear the stories, find me at the bar sometime. In the mean time, I’ll be hiding behind my computer working on the exhibition for next month.

Big thanks to Gwen and garth for sharing their honeymoon with us all. I’ll never forget it, and I hope that you two enjoyed it as much as we all did.

Too much of fun!

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