Blogs from North-West, Botswana, Africa - page 9

Day 2, We headed out in the orning for our first game walk, to say we were nervous is an understatement!!!! We pulled the boat up to on Chiefs island, and got the talk on how to behave when you are walking out where wild animals are. The main thing to do is not RUN, or you are seen as food. Not a great time to find out whether you have the flight or fight instinct. I cant begin to explain the feelig you have as you start walking, everything looks like an animal waiting to eat you lol. We saw vultures so knew there was a kill around somwhere, which normally means lions. Oh yeah forgot to say they dont carry guns, but instead use flares to scare the animals off!!!! We saw hyena and ... read more

We left our backpackers place at 7:00 to drive to the Botswana border. It was about a 45 minute drive. After the Zambian exit visa, a short boat trip to cross the Chobe River and a Botswana entry visa, we had a 10 minute drive to the park entrance and breakfast. Botswana has over 120,000 Elephants and over half of them are in the Chobe NP. The morning was a launch trip on the Chobe River which is the border between Botswana and Namibia ... Namibia's Caprivi Strip to be precise. In fact, 4 countries meet pretty well at the same place - Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana. The Chobe River becomes the Zambezi River at Victoria Falls. The wildlife come right to the water and many are resident on the islands in the river, during ... read more

Getting from Livingstone to Maun, Botswana was quite an epic trip. It began with me going to the local shared taxi stand with, Reto a guy from Switzerland I had met. We found a taxi going to Kazangula, the border town with Botswana, but had to wait about an hour for it to fill. To pass the time I played some draughts with some bottletops with a few locals. At the border, getting stamped out of Zambia was straightforward. But to get over to the Botswana side we had to take a short ferry ride, then walk up 500m to the immigrationo office. After getting stamped into Botswana, my next challenge was to try get a lift to Maun. Public transport in Botswana is scarce at best. This meant hitchhiking was my best/only option. I had ... read more

What a lovely warm sunny day! Willem has invited us to visit the Crocodile Farm this morning, and to stop in to say hello to his wife Sally. They used to own the croc farm, and their home is on the other side of it on the Thamalakane River. So we go out to the road hoping to flag down a taxi. Alas, the ones going by are all full, so we asked the hotel to call one for us. Luckily, Omphile, who works at the hotel, says he is available for the day to take us to the Croc Farm which is 10 km out of town. It’s a chance for him to earn some extra cash. So we pile into his vehicle and set out. The morning is warm, and after some negotiating with ... read more

Up at 4:30 am for a 5 am start. It is a 2-hour drive to the South Entrance from Maun. It was very cold in the open safari vehicle on the highway out of Maun, even with lots of clothes on and a blanket provided by our driver. As we approached Moremi, the sun rose, lighting up the few clouds on the horizon with a gold colour. After a quick stop for a breakfast snack, we start a much slower game drive. The sun quickly warms up and we shed layers. Right away we notice how dry everything is, and although we see animals and birds, they are much fewer than when we were there 3 years ago. Lots of impala and elephants. Some hippos crowded into a very small pool. A small herd of red ... read more