Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 14

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

Jason and I safely made it to our lodge just outside Chobe National Park in Botswana on Tuesday. The internet at the lodge is too expensive so we've waited until today to go into town to an internet cafe to make a post. The internet is slow so I will keep this brief to post as many photos as I can. We've seen every animal we wanted to see while we were here, including lions. The lodge is beautiful and the food is phenomenal. We went to Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls yesterday and were unable to go swimming in the Devil's Pool but we did go rafting on the Zambezi River and it was awesome. I'm going to get to posting photos and I'll write more on Monday from the airport. The computer here wouldn't load ... read more

Next stop another game park, Chobe. Chobe is the third largest national park in Botswana and has the highest concentration of elephants in Africa. We arrive late afternoon so only have time to set up camp and cook dinner. There is a bar at this camp and many of us are low on booze so we try it out. There is a South African freak in there, he seems to be some kind of personal trainer and has too much energy. He spends the whole evening running around and then performing dances/workouts for everyone, involving side blocks, duck and swerves and marching out, hilarious! Another early start for our game drive, this time in an open sided truck. We leave at 5:45, before sunrise and take extra clothes for the cold. The girls are completely in ... read more

Maun is on the outskirts of the Okavango Delta and is our base for our Mokoro trip. We spend one night in the camp, round our famous camp fire before waving farewell to the truck and Tony for a night away in the wilderness. Luckily Sammy comes with us, as we are now like 5yr old children and are incapable of anything on our own. We pack a 4WD truck with our tents, cooking equipment, food and day packs and drive an hour to the delta. We have one Mokoro, dug out canoe, between 2 people, and then there are extras to take the tents, food and equipment. The polers arrange a sleeping mat per person in the mokoro so it's almost like a lounger. We are then steered through the rushes, along the delta, almost ... read more

Another day, another border crossing. Goodbye Namibia, Hello Botswana. We all spent our last Namibian Dollars and now have Botswanan Pula. Once again same exchange rate as the rand so nice easy calculations. Tonight we are staying in a farm converted to a camp site, the toilets and showers are bamboo huts and have varying quantities and temperatures of water. They also have no doors so you tie a chain across the entrance to indicate it's busy. We have our largest fire yet in this camp, which is good as it's one of our coldest. We all know to wrap up warm when Tony tells us he's sleeping in the truck! Some people have opted to upgrade for $5 to a bushman hut, this is small thatched rondavel with no door, but camp beds. It turns ... read more