Blogs from Botswana, Africa - page 16

What an adventure! From January 6-18, Tom and I were down in the southern hemisphere of Africa, "overlanding" with Africa Travel Company (ATC) from Vic Falls to Jo'burg--meaning we travelled in a 23-passenger truck, pitched and slept in tents (often in the rain because it was the rainy season down there), and ate outdoors, helping the cook and cleaning up afterwards. The other members of the group were mostly young Aussies and New Zealanders who'd actually started in Nairobi and gone through Tanzania and Malawi. Our guide was a Belgian; the driver and cook were South African. ATC provided the transport, the food, and the tents; we brought along our own sleeping bags and air mattresses. We began our journey in Paris on January 4th, flying to Heathrow to catch our overnight British Airways flight to ... read more

Geo: -18.5421, 24.5105Safaris are perhaps the most overrated tourist activity you'll find in Africa, over-romanticized through film and television. Scores of tourists packed onto open-top jeeps, oohing and aahing at every little bird and insect, giddy like schoolgirls, as they frantically attempt to cross off each of the Big Five off their lists - lions, elephants, Cape buffaloes, leopards, and rhinos. Snapping hundreds and hundreds of pictures of the most insignificant little things, and returning home to torture their friends with slide show after slide show. Not even being a fan of the zoo, I couldn't imagine how anyone could do a safari for weeks at a time, let alone for a few days. But of course, a safari is an obligatory activity while in this part of Africa, almost a rite of passage, one of ... read more

We arrived in Botswana and I smugly watched everyone else join the long line at the ATM or bureau to purchase Pula’s, I had already purchased local currency in Brussels a few months prior. I am so clever, so prepared. As I sauntered past I collected a few items from the store and handed over my cash, ‘No’. Ahhhh… excuse me? I was rather taken back by this rude cashier. She waved my money in my face ‘no, dez ez old Botswana Pula, you need’a new Botswana Pula, see?’ she showed me the new note, slightly smaller in size with a different face smiling back at me. Foolishly arguing with the cashier I told her that she must be mistaken, of course the tourist knew the correct money, this local woman must be was wrong….. It ... read more

It's our last full day of our trip... we are both incredibly sad about that and do not want to go home at all :( We went to Botswana for an all day safari (both boating and driving) in Chobe... we crossed over to Namibia so have now visited 5 countries this trip. Lucky was our guide, and on the boat ride we came to the only place in the world where you can see 4 countries (4 corners): Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia. Botswana's main industries are beef, tourism, and mining. Because of the beef, we had to "clean" our shoes as we walked over the border. In the morning, we did a boat safari down the Chobe river. Botswana was on one side, Namibia on the other - they had a fight over the island ... read more

Ghanzi and the Kalahari Desert – 27 & 28 August We arrived in Ghanzi at 1.00pm ish to a nice, local village-like camp, near the San Bushmen village, 10 kms outside the town. To see another special features of our trip – and fulfilling another one of my childhood dream – seeing the Kalahari Bushmen who had a ‘clicking’ language (their tongue clicks as they talk), which I learned about in grade 7 and in history in 2nd year high school. We set up our tents on the sand. The upgrade opportunity was a round thatched roof hut with no windows but 1 door. However, on walking around the camp, I came across some very new single room with on suite buildings – but we kept with our tent option. There was a camp kitchen which ... read more