Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 3

. Going down to breakfast we watched the red wing starlings and spur winged geese. In the dining room there was humour in watching the staff continually chasing out the velvet monkeys. We ate a hearty breakfast and then we loaded up into the vans ready for our day trip to Botswana. . The road was long but not winding and the warthogs were out in force. We almost had a collision with a yellow billed hornbill. At last we saw the lime-vested border police. . We had learned that Botswana gained independence in 1966 but the old colonial bureaucracy was still extant. We lined up to walk through the hut which passed as the immigration office. The staff were incredibly friendly. Once we had cleared immigration we noticed that on the road leading from Botswana ... read more

Botswana trip Saturday morning starts the Acacia trip; we cross the Chobe and Zambezi confluence on a ferry and head to Thebe safari lodge, very comfortable with air con which I'm very glad about as I feel pretty poorly (was sick in the night, and now have the runs). A late afternoon sunset water safari can't be missed and as the boat has a loo, I'm OK. We see elephants, hippos both in and out of the water,crocodiles ditto, warthogs, water buffalo, water buck, monitor lizards, baboons and a fabulous sunset. I pass on the Sunday morning safari as we have a long drive and the chance of an afternoon safari to see meerkats, and I'm still a bit nervous about not being near a loo. The other three go and see lions sitting around really ... read more

I met a fella who had a simple moniker to remember his name. He pointed to his toe and then to his knee. Tony. And his surname was the most famous person from his home country of South Africa. Not Mandela, but his first name-Nelson. Now that I could easily remember Tony Nelson, quick went the beers and fast were the stories. A real fun guy to hang around he was the operations director for a safari company called Karibu Safaris which had recently seen the seasonal shift in tourists coming to the delta and more specifically Moremi which is a national park or something. Out of nowhere and what I thought was maybe a non-sober overpromise he offered to take me to his bush camp to see how it all worked. Fo free! I jumped ... read more

A mokoro is a traditional dugout canoe used by the Bayei people residing in the Okavango River Delta. I’ve wanted to come here since watching Planet Earth’s documentation of the area. So cool how the hand shaped delta can flood to provide everything needed by thousands of buffalo, elephants, etc., probably millions of birds and fish species, and definitely plenty of peoples. Nowadays the mokoros are made out of fiberglass as the government no longer allows the chopping of whatever tree it was. A good thing I guess, but when I got in and the shoddy patch work started leaking in two places I was longing for some solid oak. I booked a two day one night self-catered camping trip which promptly started by an hour long drive through some of the roughest bush I had ... read more

Die Chobe Marina Lodge ist traumhaft am Ufer des Chobe River gelegen. Mit einer Bar auf einer Terrasse über dem Fluss, einem Pool, zwei Restaurants und luxuriösen kleinen Bungalows im traditionell afrikanischen Stil ist der Aufenthalt hier eine echte Wohltat nach den Zuständen im Rainbow Hotel. Wir haben ein Angebot gebucht, dass neben Vollpension auch zwei "Game Activities" am Tag beinhaltet. Man kann jeden Morgen und jeden Nachmittag zwischen einem Boat Cruise auf dem Chobe River, der auch zum Nationalpark gehört, und einer Jeep Safari durch den Park wählen. Am Ankunftstag können wir natürlich nur noch die Nachmittagstour mitmachen und entscheiden uns für eine Bootstour. Mit einem kleinen Boot fahren wir raus auf den breiten Fluss und schippern 3 Stunden am Ufer entlang und durch die zahlreichen Nebenarme des Chobe. Hier gibt es eine riesige Nilpferd-Population ... read more