Blogs from Kasane, North-West, Botswana, Africa
Sunset Cruise on the Chobe Waterfront
Published: October 16th 2011Africa » Botswana » North-West » Kasane
August 30th 2011
M – Next stop Chobe National Park! Chobe is known for its elephants. Indeed there are estimated to be 120,000 elephants in Chobe. If you have read Kate’s blog on Etosha then you know that this isn’t exactly a selling point in Chobe’s favour for her! Hence we decided to take our friends advice and, rather than undertake a land safari, base ourselves on the river at Kasane enjoy the park from the water. The river in question is the Zambezi which after it passes through Kasane continues a 100km or so to form Victoria Falls (my next blog). Kasane is a lively African town with pretty good facilities (bars, restaurants and supermarkets) and is well worth a stopover. As such we used it as our base for Chobe and a day trip to Vic Falls. ... read more
July 14th 2011
While the promise of a connecting bus to Kasane kept going through my mind, I sat in the dirt at the side of the road wondering where it all went wrong. Being stranded in a desert town 350Km from the boarder was not how I had planned on spending the day. But neither was rescuing a 600 litre fuel tank while hitchhiking across the Kalahari in a 28 tonne truck bound for the Congo! After getting up a 4.30am and packing my tent in the dark, I left the Ovakango Delta heading towards Nata while expecting to get a connecting bus to Kasane. Having done this route in reverse a week before, I felt relaxed, expecting an easy day travelling. I should have known better, after all, this is Africa. On arriving in Nata, the bus ... read more
I can see Zambia from here...........
Published: May 26th 2011Africa » Botswana » North-West » Kasane
May 26th 2011
Visited Victoria Falls yesterday, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It should be on everyone's bucket list. The Zambesi River is in full flood and the first thing that gets you is the roar of the water. The scene is really spectacular with water vapor rising high in the air. We were wearing our $5 ponchos for the first time feeling like two Clint Eastwoods. We still got wet but it was worth it. The far side of the falls is Zambia but we saw it from the Zimbabwe side. I will never forget it. We then went to the Victoria Falls Hotel which is another must. It is one of those African movie type of colonial hotels with ceiling fans, antelope heads on the walls and paintings of British monarchs on the ... read more
October 18th 2010
Victoria Falls to Kasane We lounged around camp the next day, getting ready for departure. We were amazed at the banking system in Zimbabwe. Fully expecting to do all transactions in cash (US$), because Zim's economy has crashed and there is no currency, we brought enough cash with us. However, this trip is costing more than we expected, and Richard likes to have a lot of cash in hand. We were told that the ATM's were dispensing US$ and if you had the right card, you could get cash. So off we went, and much to our amazement, out came US$ by just using our bankcard! Gotta love Zimbabwe. They have figured out how to keep the tourist industry going. Nowhere else in Africa can you do this - the ATM's in other countries all dispense ... read more
February 20th 2010
We are still adjusting to the time change. After not sleeping the night we got up for a 6 am start to do the border crossing from Botswana to Namibia via ferry. Chris, a local and the great guide, assisted us in getting to our border crossing and picked up. Along the way we enjoyed the country side with many neighboring villages. At one point we saw a family of 15 baboons on the road (the animals lay on the road here as the asphalt keeps them warm here). Just two minutes later we spotted a cyclist...Chris told us either the baboons would flee or attack. The border crossing was interesting. I think there were 5 other white people there. They have been working in Livingstone building another orphanage with a local church. There people that ... read more
If you ain't got no money, take your broke "ass" home
Published: January 11th 2010Africa » Botswana » North-West » Kasane
October 26th 2009
Information regarding how best to get into Botswana has been tediously restricted by self-interest on the part of the people I've asked, but the most economical option would appear to be a shared taxi to the border. Unfortunately I need a taxi to get to the shared taxi departure point, but I then have a piece of luck - a bus belonging to one of Vic Falls' whitewater rafting companies is about to head to the border to pick up a group of customers, and my taxi guy tells me that the bus driver will take me for a "very low price". Unfortunately the price negotiations are conducted not with the driver but with a rep for the rafting company. The greedy bastard wants $30, i.e. even more than the cost for a private taxi. I ... read more
September 25th 2009
Hello again I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Kasane in Botswana which is very close to the Chobe National Park. Kasane is a small town....very dusty and hot! We're staying in a camp tonight just out of town, there are 3 other trucks in the camp so I'm thinking it may be a big night. So since I last wrote a lot has happened......we went out on our sunset wine canoe cruise and had a fantastic time, the first hippo sighting was a little scary! In the morning of that day we went out on a walking tour with some of the local guys and saw a couple elephants wandering around we then went to the Victoria Falls.....wow that was amazing, I've never seen anything like it. After a long walk back to the ... read more
May 21st 2009
What an experience this has been! No info about prices unfortunately, since we did things in a slightly different way here. So here we go... Took the bus from Maun to Nata where we were supposed to take the next bus to Kasane. The bus never came, so instead we hitch hiked with a pipeline worker in his pick up. Yes, it is safe to do so in Botswana! =) Arrived late afternoon only to discover that the accomodation was very costly, almost P600 per night! Went to an internet cafe to get some directions about a backpackers place. Instead we met Jo, a woman from New Zealand, and she arranged for us to stay with her brother in law! Well sure! What an experience! And it turned out to be these two lovely, polite, friendly ... read more
Bouncy, bouncy, ooh what a good time!
Published: June 27th 2009Africa » Botswana » North-West » Kasane
May 13th 2009
Day 23 (Wednesday, 13-May-09, NJJ & JRJ) (JRJ) Brekkie and packed up by 8am. Went to the Delta Air office to see if we could get a refund. There were about 6 of us that paid by credit card and were charged about $20 more than the people that paid by cash. Natalie went storming into the office and laid down the law to the manager and accused him of stealing and that she would write to every overland company in Africa and warn them of their poor standard of service because it turned out that they wouldn't refund us any money! Never mind - at least we tried. (NJJ) We were on the truck for most of the day. Stopped for lunch and toilet breaks on the roadside (literally had to pee behind a bush ... read more
How a Wooden Kitchen Spoon Might Have Saved Our Lives in the Kalahari
Published: April 20th 2009Africa » Botswana » North-West » Kasane
March 15th 2009
March 15, Kasane, Botswana The African bush was more than 10 feet high on both sides of the Land Rover. It was so thick and so close to the truck, we wouldn’t have been able to open the doors if we’d tried. All that was fine considering we were in the middle of the best wildlife viewing of our African adventure. And, frankly, why would we want to open the doors, given that a large male lion was about 10 feet from us, peering at us through a small window in the bush. We were in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, more than 100 kilometers and a full day’s drive from the closest town. We sat with the truck turned off in complete silence and watched the lion for a good 30 minutes. He lay ... read more
