Crossed the border into Botswana yesterday afternoon after a spending the previous day having the exhaust welded back onto the car after it cracked off. Maybe I hit a rock somewhere along the way or just the extreme corrugations on some of the back roads may have fractured it. Spent the night wild camping near Tsodilo Hills in north western Botswana. The hills are sacred to the San and rock paintings of animals and people have been preserved here for thousands of years. After an abortive attempt with the helicam in Namibia a week or so ago - when it's GPS decided to guide it back towards Devon - it seemed a good chance for another go. So here's the video I shot just after dawn.
These hills are part of the San creation myths. They believe the world started here. It's also the place where the spirits of the ancestors rest and they mustn't be disturbed by any killing or hunting nearby. There are said to be over 4,000 rock paintings on the hills - mainly of animals such as rhino, giraffe, lion and antelope, but also of more unusual creatures including a whale and, rather bizarrely, a penguin. Well penguins might not be totally out of the question since the San could have seen them on the coasts of Namibia or South Africa. However, judging by the rather less detailed drawing compared with other animals the artist was clearly sketching from memory. My guide Xonte had never seen a penguin, or even a photograph of one, and found it hard to believe they were black and white, flightless and carried their eggs around on their feet. That wasn't represented on the rock.
