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Published: January 2nd 2009
From Namibia to Botswana
We hitched a ride in an eighteen-wheeler!Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a lovely holiday season and have a wonderful 2009!!!
Back to the blog - we said goodbye to lovely Namibia and headed to our next destination - Botswana!
After an overnight bus trip, we arrived about 30 kilometers from the Botswana border. We weren't quite sure how to get to the border from there (or how to go further for that matter!), but again we were blessed with good travel karma. We hitched a ride with a nice guy to the border, and from there we caught a ride with a really sweet trucker from South Africa. He brought us to our next destination - the Okavango Delta!
Botswana is probably most famous for its wealth of diamonds and this magnificent stretch of water. The Okavango Delta is made up of a river that disappears into a 15,000+ square kilometer maze of lagoons, channels and islands. The lush waterways and beautiful wildlife in the Okavango provide an incredible contrast to the desert that we traversed in Namibia.
We spent the night in Maun and set off for the Delta early the next day. Our means of transport was
Okavango Delta
Beautiful waterways by mokoro, which is a dugout canoe. This type of boat has been used by the indigenous tribes in this region for transport and fishing for centuries. There is something incredibly relaxing riding along gondola-style and taking in the beauty of the water and wildlife.
While most of our day was on the Delta, we also trekked on one of the islands where we saw birds and zebras and enormous termite mounds. Check it out!
On the way back I had a mini heart attack when we came upon a family of hippos. Turns out that of all animals in Africa, the hippo is responsible for the most deaths -- even more than lions, cheetahs and elephants! In any case, we were about 15 meters from this family, which is considered "dangerously close". I was having a mini heart attack until we got beyond the 30 meters considered "safe". At that point, the driver started to high-tail out of there and I felt much better. It was a beautiful day - hippos and all!
Our time in Botswana was limited due to the cost. The country itself is very wealthy through diamonds, but the daily costs are
Okavango Delta
More waterways... high. In addition, the average citizen doesn't directly benefit from the country's wealth, which apparent when you see the very basic dwellings that pepper the countryside.
So, we hitched again to get to the border with Zimbabwe. Along the way were treated with more views of beautiful wildlife. Before heading over the border we did a major stock-up at the supermarket to prepare for our short time in Cholera-afflicted Zimbabwe. We had quite an exciting time there - stay tuned!
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Rebecca Hornstein
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I can't believe you're headed to Zimbabwe - please be careful!!! I love these updates btw - Desiree and I were just talking about how great it is to live vicariously through them. :)