Blogs from Botswana, Africa - page 9

A mokoro is a traditional dugout canoe used by the Bayei people residing in the Okavango River Delta. I’ve wanted to come here since watching Planet Earth’s documentation of the area. So cool how the hand shaped delta can flood to provide everything needed by thousands of buffalo, elephants, etc., probably millions of birds and fish species, and definitely plenty of peoples. Nowadays the mokoros are made out of fiberglass as the government no longer allows the chopping of whatever tree it was. A good thing I guess, but when I got in and the shoddy patch work started leaking in two places I was longing for some solid oak. I booked a two day one night self-catered camping trip which promptly started by an hour long drive through some of the roughest bush I had ... read more

20 October 2015 Our day watching the animals in the nearby Botswanan Chobe National Park began at 04.45 when we got up to catch an 05.30 early morning 4x4 drive along the Chobe riverfront. In the late afternoon we went on a cruise amongst the islands of the River Chobe when we were able to get close up and friendly with some of the water living animals and birds. Although we generally saw similar animals to those in the Kruger National Park in South Africa it was good to view them in a different environment around or close to one of Africa’s major rivers.... read more

18 October 2015 A brilliant day. Before they left England Roy and Kath Tipping, one of the couples on the party, had researched details of local churches they could attend each Sunday. Today we joined them at St Patrick’s, the Anglican Church in Francistown, for the 8am communion service. We were made incredibly welcome by the congregation who really impressed us with their tuneful unaccompanied singing of the hymns and chants. We were asked to go to the front and introduce ourselves as visitors. The priest then blessed us for a safe conclusion to our journey. We had a relatively short drive of 160k to just south of the town of Nata. Nata is on the edge of Makgadikgadi, the largest network of salt pans in the world. In the evening we took a wonderful 4x4 ... read more

16 October 2015 We drove 300k, the last 75k of which was along very heavily potholed roads resulting in sow progress and a long day. Finally after much passport stamping, form filling and payment of a road levy, we left South Africa and entered Botswana. Our site for the night was on the border by the banks of the Limpopo river.... read more

Southern Africa Part II: Botswana July 5 - 31, 2015 YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE BLOG OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (73 TOTAL - CLICK ON THE NUMBERS AT THE BOTTOM OR ARROWS IN TOP CORNERS) IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT. I PUT LOTS OF INFORMATION IN THE PHOTO CAPTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE NARRATIVE, JUST LOOK AT THE ENLARGED PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS AND YOU'LL STILL GET MORE INFORMATION THAT YOU EVER WANTED. TO RETURN TO THE BLOG ENTRY, JUST CLICK YOUR BACK BUTTON OR ON THE NAME OF THE BLOG, BELOW THE NUMBERS ON THE LEFT. As you have probably figured out, these travel blogs are a way for Bernard and me to keep track of our adventures. I can't tell you how many times we've ... read more