Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 7

Geo: -18.5421, 24.5105Safaris are perhaps the most overrated tourist activity you'll find in Africa, over-romanticized through film and television. Scores of tourists packed onto open-top jeeps, oohing and aahing at every little bird and insect, giddy like schoolgirls, as they frantically attempt to cross off each of the Big Five off their lists - lions, elephants, Cape buffaloes, leopards, and rhinos. Snapping hundreds and hundreds of pictures of the most insignificant little things, and returning home to torture their friends with slide show after slide show. Not even being a fan of the zoo, I couldn't imagine how anyone could do a safari for weeks at a time, let alone for a few days. But of course, a safari is an obligatory activity while in this part of Africa, almost a rite of passage, one of ... read more

We arrived in Botswana and I smugly watched everyone else join the long line at the ATM or bureau to purchase Pula’s, I had already purchased local currency in Brussels a few months prior. I am so clever, so prepared. As I sauntered past I collected a few items from the store and handed over my cash, ‘No’. Ahhhh… excuse me? I was rather taken back by this rude cashier. She waved my money in my face ‘no, dez ez old Botswana Pula, you need’a new Botswana Pula, see?’ she showed me the new note, slightly smaller in size with a different face smiling back at me. Foolishly arguing with the cashier I told her that she must be mistaken, of course the tourist knew the correct money, this local woman must be was wrong….. It ... read more

Gweta 22 and 23 August, Okovango Delta & Maun 24 - 26 August We arrived in Gweta in the afternoon after driving over good roads. Even the roads are improving!! Gweta is a small village in Botswana. It lies about 205 kilometres away from Maun and about 100 kilometres from Nata. Generally considered the gateway to the Makgadikgadi Pans Gweta derived its name from the sound of croaking bullfrogs which bury themselves in the sand until the rainy season arrives and they emerge to mate. The huge expanse of the Makgadikgadi Pans is bigger than Switzerland. Once a large river-fed lake, the Makgadikgadi Pans now lie saline and empty. The pans are littered with stone tools and artefacts dated from between 2,000 to 500,000 years old! During the wet season 35-75,000 zebra and wildebeest migrate into ... read more

We've been on some wonderful safari game drives during this trip. We've had great weather and have been lucky enough to see leopards, lions, giraffes, heaps of antelope etc etc in the wild ... and of course, hundreds of elephants! But a highlight was going on game WALKS in Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. That's right ... we set off into the African bush on foot. It felt a little strange knowing there were carnivores about, as well as pretty big wild animals like elephants nearby. I began to think we were crazy when I found out that our guide didn't have a rifle ... all he was 'armed' with was a pocket detonator that would make a sound like a rifle shot!?! Our instructions at the beginning of the first walk were to walk in ... read more

We had decided to stay another nite at Drotsky's so we booked the boat for the second day, to continue on our fishing "success". Our guide was exceptionally good. Adrian lost one on the first cast. But Alex lost 4 that morning. I got my second tiger fish , but many more were lost that morning. We went back to camp at about lunch time to have food. We swam some more and then relaxed at the bar before the fishing started. The afternoon we lost a few more fish, but that didn't really matter the sunset was something very different. At about 5pm the sun disappeared behind some clouds. And until 6:30pm it was just an orange ball, the humidity was there but the heat wasn't which made it a pleasant afternoon for the fishing. ... read more