Blogs from Botswana, Africa - page 64

Dumelang! Well it's two weeks in and we are starting to get our bearings and get comfortable with the city. I can pretty much find my way around by driving though I find myself constantly distracted by the little things I notice all around me that represent the life that is this place. People make their livelihoods by the side of the road. Mango sellers park their flatbed trucks full of the fruit under shady trees, often next to manure sellers doing the same. Yesterday I passed by an area where a man was selling wooden bowls; today a woman has laid out intricately woven table cloths to sell. In the western part of the city, efficiently called Gabs West, it seems as though a welding district has sprung up. Basically, everywhere along the roadside ... read more

We loved Botswana! After crossing the Namibia/Botswana border we drove most of our first day in the country, arriving into the town of Maun late afternoon for supplies. We then drove about 10mins to our campsite Situtunga, and spent a lazy day in the pool and at the bar. We headed off at 7am the next morning for our 2 nights/3 days trip to the Okavanga Delta. A company called Delta Rain organised all this, we got taken for an hour or so drive by 4wd through the 18,000km Boro fence line (attempts to separate domestic life/animals from the wild life) and down to a water way where the Makoros were waiting. Makoros are traditional dugout canoes made from the aptly named "sausage tree", and the locals pole these down the waterways of the delta (making ... read more

BOTSWANA! Fuer mich schon immer ein Land, das auf mich eine grosse Faszination ausgeuebt hat. Obwohl noch nie da gewesen, wollte ich schon seit Jahren mal dorthin. Diverse Dokumentationen, v.a. ueber das Okavango Delta, hatten mir den Mund waesserig gemacht. Nun endlich! Mit "kleinem Schaedel" von der letzten heissen namibischen Nacht machten wir uns morgens an die letzten wenigen Kilometer bis zur Grenze. Nachdem Schuhe und Auto unter den wachsamen Augen einer ca. 300 Pfund schweren offizioesen Dame durch eine Desinfektionsloesung gegen die Maul-und-Klauen-Seuche getrieben wurden, fuhren wir - gewissermassen steril - in das Land hinein. Trauriger Bestandteil des border crossings war die bedauerliche und boesartige Konfiszierung meiner zwei Landjaegerwuerste durch die Lady. Darf man leider nicht einfuehren :-( Die hat sie bestimmt sofort vertilgt.... Kurz darauf waren wir auch sch... read more

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After over a month of either getting lifts or having our own hire car it was back to using African public transport. An especially difficult task it would seem, if your journey is Windhoek to Maun in Botswana. We were told it couldn't be done without hitching, but a few enquiry's got us a phone number of some random dude that drives to Zimbabwe once a week and could drop us off on his way. A few calls led us to a down town bus station with the promise of a 3.30 departure. As the taxi driver dropped us off there he gave us the parting gift of telling us we "should not really be there, everything will be stolen". Thanks. In fact it was quite the opposite - everyone was dead friendly and helped us ... read more