Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa

Prior to beginning this blog I have a couple of corrections from previous blogs and status updates: My apologies, it is the buffalo which is found in Africa, the water buffalo is in Asia. Sorry Worthingtons!As previously updated we camped by the banks of the Ovkavango river. I feel I should confess that we didn’t actually camp that night. In Etosha I was beginning to get sick and grumpy so we made the tough decision to upgrade to a lodge room for $25 for a good shower and good nights sleep required to maintain our sanity -- this may not have been the last time we took the comfy option either, more on that later! I would also ... read more

In Botswana erstreckt sich die Landschaft schier endlos zu allen Seiten. Hügel oder gar Berge sieht man so gut wie nicht. Buschland so weit das Auge reicht, Straßen die kilometerlang geradeaus führen und alle paar Stunden mal eine kleine Stadt. Manch einer würde sagen, wie langweilig das sein muss. Aber ich kann das nicht behaupten. An den Straßenrändern steht Vieh, wie Ziegen, Esel, Kühe und Pferde. Ab und zu laufen Menschen über die Straße oder ein Buschtaxi, bestehend aus einer Karre die von Eseln gezogen wird, karrt kreuz und quer vor einem her. Es gibt viel zu sehen. Man muss nur aufmerksam schauen. Die Reise führt direkt in das Okavango-Delta. Auf dem Weg dorthin werden die Straßen immer schlechter: Aus einer Dreckstraße wird eine Dreckstraße mit großen Löchern und daraus wird dann eine Dreckstraße mit großen ... read more

We arranged our Delta tour through a group called Tribes Travel in the UK. We happened upon them online and they have been tremendously helpful at setting up our trip albeit a little expensive. Our trip (and budget) allowed for a total of 8 nights and abour 9 days and two countries. We flew into Livingstone, Zambia which along with Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe are the towns that border the mighty Victoria Falls. In the wet season at the peak of high water the falls become a 1.3km continuous sheet of water, the longest in the world. November is the dry season which means the animals are clustered around water and easier to see however it also means that the falls are not very impressive. We have pictures from our microlight flight on a CD but ... read more

“We will have to watch those two hippos,” explained the guide, closing the throttle of the small boat we were sitting in. “They are waiting to chase us.” We all looked forward to see the pair of large specimens eying us with what I presumed to be hippo malice. Only their eyes, snouts and comically-shaped ears were protruding above the water and then they went under, invisible. Instead of turning back, our driver told us to hang on tight and pushed the medal to the metal. Before we could yell at him to cease the madness, we were speeding through. Three seconds later, instead of being mashed to death by hippos, or dragged to the depths by huge crocodiles, we were safe and sound, straining our necks to look behind. Sure enough, the hippos had reappeared ... read more

M – Most people who visit the Okavango Delta go to Maun at the Southern tip of the delta. But we took the road a little less travelled and ventured into the Okavango Panhandle at the North West corner of the delta. Look at the pictures, it’s not very good, and is mobbed with people so don’t go there … Botswana apparently has a tourism policy of higher prices, lower numbers and with the idea of some degree of ‘exclusivity’ and a smaller impact on its environment. We did our research, whilst Maun has the highly priced tours and accommodation we weren’t totally sold on the exclusivity piece. By now we have gotten used to being on our own. Any other tourist represents a bit of a crowd and we start getting twitchy so Kate came ... read more