Fried chicken country

---

Happiness is sitting on a bus, not so old to be uncomfortable, but old enough to have character, African music playing on the loudspeaker, fried chicken (sold seemingly at every bus stop at every time of day) in your tummy, crossing the Kalahari, having spotted the rare Black Rhino earlier that day, and having made three consecutive smooth bus transfers. Botswana certainly started out well. The border crossing was quick and painless. The hotel we had booked was full, but the lovely lady organised a room at another place for us at a reduced rate and threw in a complimentary taxi. So far, noone had tried to rip us off, overcharge us or hassled us to buy anything. Our first stop after Gabarone, Botswana's quiet capital, was the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, where we camped in the middle of the Kalahari savannah and got off to an early-morning start, tracking rhinos on foot with moderate success. The buggers always ran away, just as we got close enough to fully appreciate the second-largest mammals in the world. To make up for it though, we saw a mommy and baby rhino in the distance, plenty of wildebeests, antelopes, mating ostriches, flying bananas and tomatoes and, my personal favourite, a warthog family. Our excitement (okay, so my amusement) was only exceeded by Kam splitting her second pair of pants in as many days. She assured me it had nothing to do with her auntie's cooking and her cousin's baking, but in fact these were "old trousers and already well worn prior to the start of the trip".
Heading north we dropped in at Nata to check out some of the world's biggest salt pans, only to be told by the local guide that recent rains had filled them with water, so they really just looked like a big lake. Only later did we find out that other parts of the salt pans were still dry and amazing to see, but by that stage we had left them well behind. On the upside we hitched our first successful lift in Africa on the back of a ute!
Once in Maun we headed off on a 3-day mokoro (local type of canoe) trip into the Okavango Delta. Along with Kelly, our new American friend, we spent some nice hours, relaxing in mokoros, while local guides propelled us along using long wooden poles (not unlike those guys in Venice), walking around the islands spotting hippos and elephants, and hiding out from the sun in our shadeless campsite. The trip ended with a visit to the village where our guides lived and sharing some sorghum beer, locally known as Chibuku, with them. Tasting like a sour milk version of beer, it took rather some getting used to. But that didn't stop us from imbibing a couple of litres and feeling quite merry on the way back to Maun.

---

Photos

Kalahari dweller
A squirrel I think.

Now that's a termite mound!
Kamini, Kelly, Edward and Max

Comments

[Axel]

So a rhino is bigger than an elephant or a whale to make it the 2nd biggest mammal?..... Do you miss me? :>) Axel

[Dinesh]

Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday Flo! They've advertised for applicants for the Australian version of the Amazing Race. You two would've been perfect for it! Take care.

[Kaeseschmiere]

Rhinos
Everyone knows a whale is a fish, right? Actually, I meant to say land mammal in the blog.