Blogs from Maun, North-West, Botswana, Africa
May 22nd 2011
Well we managed to get to Cambridge from Moscow uneventfully although the last leg from Dusseldorf to Stansted was in an Air Berlin propellar plane which the pilot threw on the runway at Stanstead. Cambridge was fantastic. We visited James' 97 yr old mum who was just like him - independent obsessive kind and tuned in to everything happening. James organized for us to visit Newmarket Equine Hospital - a £10m facility with Arab sponsorship with every kind of machine money can buy including Catscans and MRI. We could not take pictures. I will try and load current pictures when I get to Ireland in 2 weeks.The flight to Joburg was uneventful. We got two seats each so slept a little on the 10hr flight. It was flying Air Botswana to Maun on the Okavango Delta ... read more
April 14th 2011
Touch down in the land of the Delta. N.B. Some photographs (the good ones) courtesy of Markus Sevcik. Markus: Austrian, photographer, banker, dirty joke meistro. We had a meeting around 6pm in the Westford, when all of the group showed up. We went through the itinerary, collected the kitty, and selected an accountant for the group - me. The guys had their figures wrong, asking us for more money than had been shown online, so I was a little concerned about their professionalism - turned out they were awesome guys. We went for dinner at a nice (and quite pricey) place down the street, and began to introduce ourselves properly. The group consisted of: Carolyn, a holistic health care and homeopath nut (and I DO mean nut); Tahira, a British journalist working in Dubai; Jim and ... read more
December 30th 2010
Dag allemaal ! Ik heb besloten deze travelblog stop te zetten ;-( Het is onmogelijk om hier in zuidelijk Afrika dagelijks op internet te gaan om te updaten + als er al een internetverbinding is , gaat het enorm traag! Internet hier is echt niet te vergelijken met dat bij ons in Europa. Een foto uploaden duurt zo ontzettend lang en dat brengt alleen maar veel tijdverlies met zich mee. Nu , ik heb wel een andere oplossing ; de blog van Tim Skelton , mijn reisleider op zijn webpagina .... www.saadventure.co.za Dus , sorry voor het falen van deze pagina , khad jullie thans graag op de hoogte gehouden , maar het gaat uiteindelijk de beste oplossing zijn voor jullie en mezelf ; jullie kunnen terecht op een professionele webpagina waarop alle info omtrent onze ... read more
September 8th 2010
After Etosha, we all part ways, but an abrupt change of plans means that I catch up with C in Rundu. My arrival prompts him to change his plans too and we both hitch into the once volatile Caprivi Strip before crossing the border into Botswana at Mohembo. From there it's a hot and hefty bus journey south to Maun, the tourist gateway into the world famous Okavango Delta, with a brief and abortive stop at Sepupa (which the LP erroneously claims to be a much cheaper - though actually much pricier! - alternative to access the Delta) along the way. I instantly feel a fondness towards the people of Botswana, and not just because we get a couple of free lifts on the way to Maun. Everyone is just so damn friendly. And friendly without ... read more
September 6th 2010
I'm not quite sure where to start this blog, so I'll start in Botswana where I made the choice to go back to Victoria Falls 'the other way'... I'd visited the Zimbabwean side of the falls and wanted to go to the Zambian side on my way to Malawi, back east. From where I was in Maun, central/western Botswana, it's about 900kms and a days bus travel east and north. Easy. The other way, is via the Caprivi strip in Namibia, (west, north and east again) and although the distance is fairly similar, the lack of public transport means that travel times aren't guaranteed and hitch hiking is pretty much the only option. There were a number of times where I just missed something by a few minutes, or a few hours, that would've changed ... read more
August 7th 2010
Maun and the Okavango Delta Due in part to things going all wrong early on in the week we have spent in the Maun area, part of this time has been an amazing experience. We had planned to spend a few days relaxing at a community based camp north of Maun in an area called the Pan Handle of the Okavango Delta. The delta area is renowed for its beauty but is also quite exclusive and expensive so this was going to be an affordable way for us to see the delta. We drove the 400km north to the ferry crossing near the Namibian border, all relaxed and excited about the next few days. The ferry pulled up, we drove down and the steep angle of the ramp plus the steep angle of the boat's ramp ... read more
July 30th 2010
“The journey not the arrival matters” T.S.Eliot(seems he might have been bitten by the travel as well as writing bug?).Now there is always something exhilarating about setting off on a new leg of a journey.There is the element of the unknown,new countryside to cast an eye over and who knows what awaits at the destination.But before getting anywhere in this World there is the little challenge of negotiating border posts.At the Mahembo border post we were effectively leaving Namibia behind and entering Botswana.This is probably the least busy border post anywhere on the planet and probably explains the friendly reception and hassle free stamping of passports and processing of bits of paper we experienced.An observation….the Botswana border posts are an absolute delight.They are clean,efficient and manned by friendly people who are genuinely excited to see people ... read more
June 3rd 2010
Due to camera memory card issues I'm unable to load any photos. In the knowledge that people don't really want to be reading pages of solid prose I shall keep this blog posting short and succinct. Needless to say, however, lots has happened: I now have a bleached afro and no bike. I set out from Lilongwe with three of the lads and we had some really good days of cycling including my longest of the trip which was 130km in one day. Once in Zambia we did a good bit of camping and I really began to enjoy the routine of getting up early, cycling, eating and sleeping. In fact, one of the things I really noticed about the cycling was the appetite I developed. I was always hungry and always felt the need to ... read more
November 18th 2009
THE CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG ARE MINE PERSONALLY AND DO NOT REFLECT ANY POSITION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT OR PEACE CORPS. I returned from IST (Peace Corps In-service training), head crammed full of all the wonderful activities that dedicated Peace Corps Volunteers accomplish, and, well okay, feeling a bit old and out of touch compared to these fast thinking, fast talking, world-saving youth that join the Peace Corps, apply to PhD programs and strategically plan additions to their resumes for the next decade. When I arrived back at site, I found a packet about GLOW Camp (GLOW is for Girls and Guys Leading Our World) just sitting in the school office looking innocuous and patiently awaiting my arrival. In my newbie Peace Corps Volunteer enthusiasm, I tore it open and begin reading the letter and rifling ... read more
October 30th 2009
There's a crow-flies route from Kasane to Maun through Chobe National Park but the road is poor, so I find myself having to use Botswanan public transport to traverse the other two sides of this 300km equilateral triangle. We leave before 6AM, the fiery newly-risen sun a Stop sign for the passage of night. The leg to Nata has been described as "appalling" but this is by Western standards, not African ones, and the average speed of 80km/h that we achieve is essentially warp factor 3. For free, we see buffalo and the largest herd of elephant I've ever set eyes on. The child sitting opposite me regularly coughs with vigour in my direction, the spray of particles no doubt a cocktail of the swine flu and TB germs that posters in my Kasane hotel had ... read more
