Blogs from Botswana, Africa - page 3

We did get a shadowy glimpse at dusk yesterday of a lioness and then she was gone. No photo and no video. We just have to do the morning drive this morning and then this afternoon if we are unlucky this morning. So here it is again,5.15am and we get ourselves dressed for the wind chill factor that you can’t avoid in the open sided Toyota land cruiser whistling along at 40kph towards the park entrance. This morning our guide is Odey and in the front passenger seat is a young woman from the capital Gaborone who is studying tourism hospitality. Our fellow passengers are a couple of Aussies from Wollongong who we met yesterday and found them to be enjoyable company. Sometimes one of the things you miss when there is just the two of ... read more

Today we started off viewing the Zimbabwean side of Victoria Falls. They err even more impressive from that side as we could walk almost the whole distance. After that, we hopped in the car with ours river, Mortimer, who drove us across the border to Botswana. Border control was confusing but since Mortimer knew his way around, it was very smooth. Botswana is very concerned about foot and mouth disease so both our tired and shoes needed to be disinfected in the way In. We got to our next stop on the Chobe river just in time for lunch. Unfortunately, they misunderstood my pepper allergy and lunch was a bit of a gong show - but eventually it was all sorted out. We relaxed after lunch until our afternoon game boating expedition. We had s relaxing ... read more

Got up really early (5 am) to go into Chobe NP. Saw lots of birds, hippos in the water but the highlights was a pride of lions near the water where there was a dead elephant. Not sure what killed the elephant. Anyway it was fascinating to watch them. One lioness protected the kill from vultures and other birds. Even through we were in 9 passenger open air safari trucks they did not seem to be bothered by us. However we were told to not stand or reach out. The lions just see a large thing but if you were to get out that would change how they would act. Saw a few elephants here but not as many as I thought.... read more

The weather is getting hotter as we go north. Is was around 38C. Today we are still heading towards Chobe NP. Staying at a camp in Nata and we when got there saw some very old cars that are part of a rally. Then we saw some very nice new cars but I will leave that for Mark to tell you about. Today went on a tour of the local village and found out a little Botswana. Botswana is a pretty stable country and economically doing well. We were told that when you turn 18 you can apply for a piece of land for free. Also health care and education are free. At the village we saw how they made the bricks for building a house from cow manure mixed with the sandy soil. Interesting tour! ... read more

Nous sommes en Afrique! Je n’ai pas vraiment le temps d’y aller avec de longs exposés, mais je vais faire un bref résumé de ce que nous faisons avec quelques photos pour ceux que ça intéresse. Nous avons quitté mercredi en fin de journée. Trente-cinq heures de voyagement, donc 25 heures d’avion et deux escales (Doha et Johannesburg). À Doha, nous avions neuf heures d’escale donc nous avons quitté l’aéroport pour aller dormir quelques heures. Doha était un four avec une température de 43 degrés Celsius, sans l’humidité. Le projet d’aller se promener à pied dans la ville a donc rapidement été abandonné. J’ai dû dormir 15 minutes sur 25 heures. D’une part pour ne pas rater la distribution d’un sac de croustilles et d’un verre de jus d’orange (on prend ce qui passe en classe ... read more