"Finally I have the chance to write an email myself. We've had a few terrible days. The horses got lost. I was desperate I saw them as biltong (dried meat that they eat in Africa).  In the morning they didn't come back as they usually would do to drink. We were in the middle of the bush between Mahalapye and Serowe and had found the only well within 25km in both directions, at least that was what we thought, so we were sure they would come back. 

But they didn't, so as soon as there was the faintest daylight I started looking for them by following their footprints while Horst stayed with our luggage. Obviously they had gone on the main trail about 3kms in the direction of Serowe, but than turned to the west into the bush. There I lost their tracks. There were so many footprints of cattle, donkeys and goats that I couldn't figure out in which direction they had continued. I walked back to our camp and asked Horst to go to Serowe to rent a car and come back. I hoped he could find a lift but the only car which passed didn't stop, and a donkey-cart was already packed with people and didn't have enough room for him. 

So he walked 25 km. In the afternoon he phoned me to tell me that he had arrived at the home of a German missionary, a contact that I had already made from Austria. Unfortunately the missionary was on a cattle post with the 4x4 and his wife didn't have a car suitable for the bush and there was no possibility to rent a car in Serowe. It's only a small African village. Finally she drove him back with her car very carefully and took our luggage. 

Horst and I stayed in the bush without anything. Horst had even forgotten to bring drinking water. The well at our camp had a broken pump and the night before we had fetched the water from a depth of 30 meters with a bucket. This had now gone with the luggage to Serowe. We walked thirstily about 5kms through the bush yelling for the horses. Then it got dark. Sigrid, the missionary's wife called and told us we could have her husband's 4x4 the next morning. We lit a fire and hoped some car would pass and take us to the village. We were lucky, the first and probably only car at this night stopped and the driver spoke English and gave us a lift. I didn't sleep very well that night as you can imagine. 

The next morning we drove back to the bush and saw fresh footprints at the well where we had camped the night before. We had missed them! We should have stayed in the bush. But at least they seemed to be alive. The footprints where fresh. We followed them with the car and I stopped at every hut to spread the news that I would pay 1000 pula for the person who would find my horses. And finally this action was successful. A guy in his bucky that we had stopped before to ask whether he had seen three horses came back and said he had found them. 

We followed him about 3km deeper in the bush to a cral [corral] and there they were. They were sweating but apart from that they were all right. When I saw them I jumped out of the car before it stopped and ran into the cral without greeting anyone straight to the horses, then I hugged Roland and cried for about half an hour. These people had probably never seen anyone crying about a horse. We shared the 1000 Pula. 500 for the guy who had showed the way and 500 for the thief, I can't really prove that he had kept the horses to keep them or to save them. 

And then off we went. The horses had gone about 12 kms in the wrong direction. To make sure we would reach Serowe before it got dark, we had to hurry up. I rode Roland and Horst chased the other two horses through the bush with the car. That day we made a distance 35 km, 25 of that I galloped with just one short break after 10 kms. The last 10 kms were the most exhausting. I had to go on the tarred road pulling two exhausted horses with the rope and making my riding horse walk as well. Horst was still driving the car. But finally we arrived and got a fenced camp for the horses. 

That night I slept much better. 

Now everything is fine. Tomorrow we will travel on. Apart from this story, so far Botswana has been wonderful. The people are amazing and the way black and white people get along with each other is completely different from South Africa."

20th June 2003

The Long Riders' Guild has received another hair-raising email from Esther in Botswana.

"Botswana is dry dry dry. We have been having a hard time. The horses had to survive two days without water. But they made it. A few days later we ended up at a vet gate in the middle of nowhere knowing we had a stretch of 50kms (30+ miles) without water ahead of us. People there only had water for themselves. No radio for the next 50kms. Armand stared to act funny, so we took his temperature - he had a fever 40,1C (103 degrees Fahrenheit).   It was clear he couldn't make the distance, but then we couldn't wait without water. Gave him penicillin and painkillers. At night he started coughing ,sweating and shivering, which was extremely frightening. The guys allowed us to put him in an empty hut, it was windy and cold. 

All the best for you

When we arrived here it turned out he is recovering but very, very slowly - it would take him at least another 4 month before we could go on with him. So we decided to leave him with one of the people we made friends with and bought another horse in Zimbabwe. The owner is going to bring it to Livingston when we'll arrive there, which will be around the third of August.

But now about the last two weeks. It was absolutely fantastic. We had to hire a back up vehicle for this stretch because we had one horse less and there was no water at all in this area. The car only met us at night to bring our tent and water - the rest of the day we were alone with the bush and plenty of wild animals. It was just a pleasant ride. Without worrying about the luggage we could do nice gallops, approach giraffes and elephants and see them being more afraid of the horses than the other way around. The horses were absolutely wonderful. They trusted us so much that we easily could calm them just by talking to them when game was around. We had been warned that there would be plenty of lions around and even the locals didn't expect us to survive these two weeks. In fact we saw lion footprints every day and we heard them at night. But we had the horses in the middle of three big fires at night and slept in turns and the lions didn't attack us. Once in the early morning an elephant came out of the bush and headed towards our camp - it had probably smelled the water. It was a single bull and he was huge. Sambuk had already been released and ran away immediately!   Roland pulled on his rope but stayed. 50 meters before the tent the bull changed his mind and turned back into the bush. It was quite thrilling.

So much for now. We'll stay in Kasane until the first of August to wait for the import permits for the horses into Zambia.

All the best for you

Esther and Horst"

7 August 2003

Esther and Horst nearly forgot a really important message!

"Just a short note: We are in Zambia, in Livingston waiting for the papers for the third horse. Good news! we found out we can ride along the Zambesi and Lake Kariba. That means we won't have telephone signal for at least a month, but that also means we'll reach regions with people who might have never seen a white man in their lives. We are really looking forward to it.

But what's also important, I forgot in the last email, you can call us full Members of The Long Riders' Guild, we have done 1672 kilometers so far - that's a thousand miles isn't it?

All the best for you

Esther and Horst

Yes, Esther and Horst, a thousand miles is 1600 kilometers, so we have moved you from Associate Members of The Guild to Full Members! 

17 September 2003

After more than a month of silence, we were very relieved to receive an email from Esther this morning.

"We've been through a real adventure. Zambia is definitely not very civilized. It has been hell and it's not over yet by the sound of it.  People in the bush have never seen horses and only a few of them have ever seen a white man. Some of them ran away from us, which was actually a reaction we really appreciated in the end. Most of them where so curious the we didn't have any privacy at all until the sun went down every night. Hundreds of children were following us screaming and shouting from village to village and as soon as we stopped to water the horses or pitch our tent, we had all the adults standing around us as well, just staring. No one spoke English, not even yes or no. And it was hot hot hot. They call September and October suicide months, now I know why.   We can only ride half a day. We get up when it's still dark and start riding in the dawn. From 12.00 on it is just too hot to move, for the horses and for us. We just try to find some shade and water and lie down for the rest of the day, unable to take more than a few steps.
Now we've reached Chirundu. Here is a nice camp site, with shade and privacy. The horses need new shoes and we got a lift to Lusaka where we bought some. But the shoes they sell here aren't very good so we wonder how long they'll last. Our two Bureperde horses are wonderful but the new one has saddle sores because of her terrible high withers, both front legs are damaged because she's kicking herself with every step, and she's had an eye infection and is now blind on one eye. But we got some foam rubber to pad the saddles even more and brush boots to protect her feet. So we'll see how she will do.  
I'm pretty exhausted and have been a million times in the mood to give up, but I guess that's part of the experience. So we won't give up although it sounds that nothing is going to change for at least another two months except for the fact that it is going to get another 10 degrees hotter.
But we are not in danger at all. It seems that Zambia has enough water, no game left - it's all been poached - and at least in the bush they don't know what aggression is. It's completely safe. The landscape is absolutely fantastic, if the country would be a little less populated it could be paradise.
So far for now, I don't know when I will next be able to write, but as soon as I get the chance you'll hear from us again.

Esther, we get exhausted and hot just reading your emails!

We wrote back to Esther, asking if the "new horse" who kept kicking herself was the one they had bought to replace their much-loved Armand.

27 September 2003

"Yes, the new horse ("Regal Color" but we call her "Trine," a German name for someone a little bit slow, not too bright, but friendly) is the horse which has replaced Armand. After we provided her with brushing boots her feet look much better, but her saddle sore is worse. In fact it doesn't look like it's going to heal underneath the saddle.