Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 28

We flew from Windhoek to Maun, which is pronounced "Mow-oon", on Sunday in a little eighteen seater plane. The pilots gave us our lunch before we got on board, and we could see into the cockpit for the whole flight over the empty desert of Namibia and Botswana. I spent much of the journey singing "Fly me to Maun, let me reach for Botswana". By the time we arrived I believe Gemma was ready to kill me. On arrival we had a two hour drive through the Botswana countryside, passing through the occasional settlement of rondavel mud huts with thatched roofs, and slowing every now and again to escape the attentions of a passing group of donkeys, goats or cows. We were heading to a place called "Leroo La Tau", which means "The Lion's Footprint" in ... read more

Today Morgan, I am now calling him Captain, woke us up to take us into the bush. We had a 7 hour journey to Savuti in Chobe National Park. He told us the first part of the journey we would be riding along the River Khwai…about 10 minutes in I asked where the river was…Captain says to the right and I look. All I see is green vegetation…well then that would be the river. Not much water, if any at all. Along the way, Sam and John pass us in their vehicle to make it to Savuti Campsite to set up before our arrival. We also saw another group we have seen a few times in Moremi, a group of 12! And then another car coming the other direction…this, my friends, is morning rush hour in ... read more

On Wednesday morning I woke up famished and began to charge all of my batteries…two batteries for each camera, my laptop, my berry, etc… Bruno drove me to the airport around noon only for me to arrive and realize I left my entire envelope of vouchers etc in the room!! A speedy drive back, which was only 5 or 10 minutes…Maun is a pretty small town. I met the rest of the group on the safari with me, and by group I mean one couple…older and from Sweden and really nice….Lena and Gert. I guess somewhere along their travels they had a bag stolen from them which included their visas and malaria pills…OOOOOPS! I think its all sorted out but that’s a big hiccup. We boarded the plane that would take us into the Okavango Delta. ... read more

Much of our time during the past several days in Botswana has been spent on buses. In sharp contrast to roads in South Africa, roads here are mercifully paved and devoid of all but the rarest pothole. Also in contrast to East Africa, the animals do not seem to stay within the game parks. This means that regular bus rides from A to B can turn into game drives. So far we've spotted several herds of elephants, water buffaloes, giraffes, and warthogsall from the public bus. Another fun thing to spot from the bus window are the huge termite mounds. These things are white, pointed, and quite simply massive. Our main activity in Botswana was visiting the Okavango Delta. Here, the water of the Okavango River spreads out across the Kalahari desert to form an intricate ... read more

Botswana is big. And flat. I'm not quite sure how Raz or Uzi stayed awake to be honest, driving for hour after hour in the stifling Botswanan heat with nothing more interesting than bushes to look at on either side of the road, which stretched for mile after mirage covered mile in a straight line off into the heat haze. In fact they could have fallen asleep for all we know... Sitting in the back of the Nissan with all of the windows down was like sitting infront of the biggest hairdrier man has ever known. Only you didn't end up with neatly styled hair. Needless to say it didn't make the drive any more comfortable. We didn't really have enough time to see Botswana properly. We were headed South down along the Eastern side of ... read more