Day Five

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Geo: -20.21, 26.19

Today, I entered my second African country, Botswana.
It was the most painful day of the tour for the most part, travelling about 1000kilometres for the day.
Nearly the whole day was consumed by driving along dirt roads.
We also added 4 young Aussie guys onto the tour, which made things alot louder. They were nice enough guys, but not really my type of company.
Our destination for the day eclipsed the unpleasantness of the journey.
Our accomodation was to be a place called Elephant Sands, in the Nata region, slightly north of central Botswana.
The name of this location was self explanitory; it was sandy plains, loaded with elephants. Our campsite itself was in the absolute wilderness.
The exhilerating part, was as the sun set, elephants came from all directions to drink from the pool by the bar..
The accomodation, whilst awesome looking, was impractical and caused me to have a long night..
They were little chalets, but the connecting shower was open, with no roof, no mosquito nets, and no privacy... I put on a grand show for an elderly couple in the adjacent cabin im sure, as you could see right into where i showered.
The evening was awesome. A great dinner, and wherever you walked, you could find elephants just meters away, within touching distance, drinking, breaking branches, or just hanging out!
I lay down to sleep in awe of my surroundings. Outside my cabin, through the twig walls you could see the silhoutees of Elephants, not 5 metres away.
From here things went downhill.. mosquitos invaded my hut... and with no mosquito net, or anywhere to hide, i was forced to vacate. Mosquitos flying into my ears, and likely brimming with Malaria, didnt sit well with me.
I weaseled my way in through the back window of our bus, and slept there for the remaining 4 hours of the night... or at least tried to.

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Photos

Snapshots of Botswana
The majority of these photos are snapshots taken from the bus on our drive through botswana. Nearly the entire day was spent on the bus with a huge amount of driving. These are all taken at speed, and hence not proper planned photos.

Cabin @ Elephant Sands
This is my primitive little cabin at elephant sands. Whilst it looks cute, it was impractical, with huge openings everywhere for bugs, and mosquitos to get in

Cabin bathroom
attached to bedroom by an open doorway

Shower in bathroom
Open rooved shower, actually coming out of a branch.. a huge spot for anything or anyone to climb into the cabin

Swimming pool becomes drinking hole
The pool elephants would come up to all night and drink from. Couldnt take photos with flash, as it startles them

Campfire
There were dozens of elephants viewable here at night

Hot water Source
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Comments

[sbongile mvukelwa]

no the hotel or whatever it si looks bad horrible ::::::::

[Mary Christodoulou]

Kris, just looking at the photos of your cabin at Elephant Sands. Our double cabin was made of bricks and very well sealed. No wonder the mossies got to you. We also had mossie nets. This place was a wonderful experience and I feel bles
sed to have been part of it.