SHORT INTRODUCTION

You do not book a “way back to the Stone Age” with this Study Tour, although there are several similarities between the traditional way of life of the San, the indigenous people of Southern Africa, and our own European ancestors. Rather, you will be confronted with the history of an ethnic group that has struggled for its cultural and physical survival since the dissemination of our so-called civilization.
The tour takes you via Gaborone to D'kar, Ghanzi, Maun and the Tsodilo Hills back to Gaborone. You'll spend several days in the San village of D'kar and take part in traditional activities such as hunting, making fires, or dancing and healing ceremonies. In Gaborone, a well-founded preparation takes place and during your stay in D’kar a San expert is at your side. Through up-close experiences, the tour leaves deep impressions and opens a new view of the world for you.

ITINERARY

Welcome to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana and the political, cultural, and economic center. The city offers numerous interesting destinations that are worth visiting such as the Government District, National Museum, art centers, marketplaces, and shopping malls. Gaborone is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
Optional activities, depending on arrival time. Welcome Dinner (D)

Transfer
Shuttle Service from Sir Seretse Khama International Airport to our Hotel in Gaborone

Information about your accommodation for Day 1-2, you find HERE:

For optimal preparation of the excursions to Ghanzi, D’kar and the Tsodilo Hills, you visit the San Research Center of the University of Botswana. After a short introduction about the history and culture(s) of the different San groups in Southern Africa, you get the opportunity to discuss, find out specific challenges of their current living conditions, by looking for open questions. (B, D)

Transfer
Shuttle

We take an inland flight from Gaborone to Maun, International airport, in the morning. After check-in our guesthouse, you have the fascinating opportunity to be part of a boot cruise on the Thamalakane River, which is located at the Southern end of the Okavango Delta. From there, we will pass with you through water corridors lined with reeds, rushes and grasses opening out onto waters carpeted with beautiful water lilies and other flora. You can watch many wonderful water birds, with many other species enjoying these favorable habitats, like hippos, crocodiles or herds of elephants. (B, D)

Transfer
Domesitc Flight (1 hour, 30 minutes)

Information about your accommodation, you find HERE

Very early in the morning, we start with our exploration trip to the Tsodilo Hills (1489 m) visiting the spiritual and religious center of the San today. The Tsodilo Hills with a cluster of about 4,500 rock paintings (San Rock Art) are the biggest rock art collection in Southern Africa and UNESCO World Heritage. During your stay, you walk with a local guide around the four Hills and during the evening, in our campsite, we are becoming witnesses of a grandiose sunset that takes place for us in light of the Tsodilo Hills.
(B, L, D)

Transfer
Road trip from Maun to the Tsodilo Hills (384 km)

Information about your accommodation, you find HERE.

We use the early morning to explore more of this range of hills with of the highest concentrations of rock paintings worldwide, also called the “Louvre of the desert”. The Tsodilo Hills are made up of 4 mountains or rather hills: The highest hill with 410 m carries the name “The Male”. The second largest hill with 300 m is called “The Female”. The third hill, which is 2 kilometers away and only 40 m high is called “The Child”. Only the fourth hill does not have a name. According to the San legend the fourth hill symbolizes the first wife of the Male, whom he left for a younger one. Latest at 12.00 pm we are leaving this mythological place, back to Maun, where we will finish the day with a fabulous dinner at the Thamalakane Safari Lodge. (B, L, D)

Transfer
Road trip from the Tsodilo Hills to Maun (384 km)

Information about your accommodation for Day 5 - 6, you find HERE:

We leave Maun early in the morning to Ghanzi and check in D’ Kar Bushmen Camp. The afternoon starts with a fascinating event of storytelling with the San: a cultural method to transmit the groups worldview and history from one generation to the other: concerned with serious quasi-religious reflection, or through profane speeches, touching on matters such as birth, sex, excrement, and food. In the evening, a joint dinner will happen, together with some members of the Kuru Development Trust: an initiative, founded 1986, by following the main goal to empower the San groups of the region with training programs, dealing with the difficulties facing hunter-gatherer societies entering a capitalist environment. (B, L, D)

Transfer
Road transfer from Maun to D’Kar (287 km)

Information about your accommodation for Day 6 -10, you find HERE.

Today, we will get a practical and impressive introduction to the traditional (nomadic) way of life of the San. This means, you will join some hunting and collecting activities, compared with insights into their mythology, such as religious rituals of dealing with animate and inanimate nature. The day ends with dance ceremonies and healing rituals around the campfire. (B, L, D)

In Ghanzi, we visit the San Art of D’kar Center. Their members are skilled traditional dancers, storytellers, musicians, and craft producers. Preserving their culture, these San artists work in different media and techniques, including oil on canvas, lino cuts, dry point engravings and lithography. Afterwards, we are invited to have a look on one of the best region’s San craft shops in town. There, ostrich eggs, jewelry, animal skins and traditional hunting weapons can be purchased. All the profits go to the San for the development of their communities and their integration. (B, D)

Today you are going to visit New Xade, a Government San relocation settlement, located in the central part of the Ghanzi District of Botswana. Together with some of the residents and local authorities, we discuss the impacts of the resettlement for traditional hunters and gatherers with a nomadic lifestyle to a modern sedentary livelihood. How have the residents coped with the new situation and environment? (B, L, D)

Transfer
Road transfer there and back (200 km)

Morning departure to Gaborone. During our dinner in our hotel, there will be the opportunity for the first evaluation of this study trip to the San. (B, L, D)

Transfer
Road transfer (693 km)

Information about your accommodation for Day 10 -12, you find HERE

We will visit the San Research Center again for a follow-up to the excursions to Ghanzi / D’kar and the Tsodilo Hills. It is the idea to share our travel experiences with them by listening to their local scientific knowledge and expertise on this so-called Bushmen groups. Farewell dinner in a typical Botswana restaurant. (B, D)

Transfer
Shuttle Service to Sir Seretse Khama International Airport - scheduled flights to Lusaka, Johannesburg, or Windhoek. (B)

>> Cultural and historical background of the bushmen (PDF)

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