Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 32

I have returned to Maun after my sojourn into the Okavango Delta. After learning and seeing pictures of the Okavango Delta it became one of those places I just had to visit. The Delta is created where the Okavango River decides to battle the Kalahari Desert. The desert wins. The river dies a sandy grave. But in the process, it creates this magnificent wetland area in the middle of a desert. Inside the delta there are areas of permant swamp and annual swamp. Right now is the rainy season so the delta is slowly filling up with water. In April/June time frame the waters will reach their peak. Most of the water in the delta comes from the rains in Angola. It takes several months for the water to fill the delta. Usually sometime after the ... read more

After our initial tour had ended, new people had joined in Livingston and our driver had crushed one of the tents trying to bump start the truck (the battery was dead) we crossed the border into Botswana on the ferry. Settling at a camp site near Chobe national park we headed into the park on the following day and caught glimpse of yet another Leopard. Classically this one was lazily dangling his paws from a tree. Also there were multiple sightings of Elephants (which are being culled at the moment in Chobe due to their very high numbers) and the torrential rain made the game drive a little uncomfortable but very ammusing. In the afternoon we had a cruise down the Chobe river and got close looks at many Hippos (Africas most dangerous animal!) and Crocodiles. ... read more

A hollowed out tree trunk boat took us to the beautiful conservation area that is the Okavango Delta; a river delta that is almost dried up (100years) but is still full of reeds and shallow water ways and of course , a variety of animal and plant life. This is a really special place. The government only let a certain number of tourists there and there are strict rules on no litter, no soaps and deoderants!! We weren't even allowed to leave fruit peel cos it wasn't native to the land. Each morning we were up at 5am for a three hour bush walk while it was still 'cool'! By 9am it was 40 degrees in the sun- no kidding! The bush walks were brill. We saw alsorts of animals right up close and got to ... read more

Version Francaise un peu plus bas. Hi everyone, Here are some final pictures of the safari in Zambia and Botswana. The safari ended in Lusaka last Wednesday and while everyone flew back to Europe I flew back to Johannesburg for a few days of rest before heading out to Zanzibar - which is where I am updating my blog. Yes Zanzibar is as amazing as I had fantasized, but you'll have to wait until the next blog to hear more and see pictures. As you can see on the pictures I took a micro light flight above Victoria Falls on our last day in Livingstone, it was very exhilarating and I felt incredibly light and vulnerable - but in a good way. It was at 7 in the morning, the light was beautiful, no wind and ... read more

So we made it through the most expensive country in Southern African without destroying the bank balance! We must thank our tent though. Without it, we'd be broke! Botswana is renound for it's expensive lodges and tourist facilities, but we managed to survive it all, and did a couple of guided tours aswell. We spent a few days in Kasane at the Chobe Safari Lodge's campsite. Nice place, but there's too many ants and monkeys that took a liking to our food! They had an awesome dinner buffet, but unfortunately, it cost more than our total daily budget, so we ate at the local Shoprite instead. We did a boat cruise here along the Chobe River into the National Park. this was totally different from anything we'd seen as it focuses on the animals around the ... read more