How to hitchhike the Kalahari

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Botswana

Botswana was the next country on the agenda and we made the arduous trip across the border from Livingstone to Kasane.

The hostel gave us a ride to the border where we jumped on the ferry across the river into Botswana (rather more of a floating log that carried about 2 trucks, and it was all so slow that the we were told that those trucks at the back of the queue could take as long as 2 days to get across!). There was no public transport really the other side so we’d been told to hitch the 10km into Kasane (persuaded that it was safe)….anyway we were a bit lame doing this and after no luck in an hour or so a “taxi” guy eventually came past and we jumped in and were delivered right to our campsite - perfect. This was particularly useful as it was raining hard as it had been for a couple of days, not what we had expected from this part of the world.

The campsite was nestled by the Chobe River (more idyllic if you could ignore the electric fence between us and the water). Anyway it pissed down all day so we took the chance to have a lazy admin day which was actually very welcome, and got chatting with a friendly Barbadian couple who were on an amazing long African odyssey. The following day we booked onto back to back afternoon game drive and river cruise; luckily the skies cleared and we had a gorgeous day.

The drive was largely unsuccessful in terms of big game; just the one elephant (they have 185,000 here apparently and we saw just one!). There were plenty of the usual antelope (Impala, the “rare” Puku!, Kudu, Waterbuck etc), wart hogs, hippos out of the water grazing, large variety of birdlife and huge herds of buffalo in the distance. Although the wildlife spotting wasn’t unusual the scenery by the river was stunning and the bush dusty and dry red earth. The cruise was more of the same animals and a gorgeous setting in the late afternoon sun. The trips were good but not great, think we’d been spoilt a bit in Kafue with the personal touches, and we had landed here firmly in overland truck territory and for that day felt like we were on a school trip.

We were in need of some adventure, couldn’t commence that adventure for a little while as we discovered a problem with some photos, possibly losing several hundred which warranted another admin day in Kasane to see if it could be rectified, and with luck the photo shop managed to restore all the images. Delighted is an understatement so we celebrated with beer and another evening game drive with a posh lodge hoping for some more luck than the previous day.

It was an excellent trip and among the usual suspects we did manage to see a pride of 11 lions lazing in the sun having spent all day eating, also saw our first giraffe since Kruger, and were accompanied by a loud family from Norwich who were definitely ‘doing Africa’ in a different manner (or should I say manor) to us.

Comfortable that we had seen Chobe in a good light we decided to test the public transportation system in Botswana, and headed towards the Okavango delta and a place called Maun. Local minibus got us into town and the first bus in a two bus route was there waiting. Unfortunately the little minibus appeared to be completely full, ahh but not “African full” there was easily room for two travelers with several bags!!! Lots of pushing and squashing and we were aboard and off on one of the most uncomfortable 3 ½ hours of our trip. It was hot and dusty and we were delighted to arrive in the hotter and dustier Nata (half way), a complete hole. Luck was on our side and the bus system was working like a dream and the large bus to Maun arrived 20 minutes later and we were on our way again, still hot an dusty but comparatively luxurious.

Maun was donkey central, more donkeys than cars and I think donkey cart is probably far more reliable than other forms of transport there. We camped in a lodge by a small river, a gorgeous setting and great place to put our feet up after the bus rides. After the very wet and cold arrival in Botswana someone had been turning up the thermostat daily, and adding some dust for good measure. Unknown to most travellers is that Maun is the haircut capital of Africa, so Matt visited a salon... ok, shed by the bus station, but it was called "Best Cuts in Town" so who could resist. The best white man's cut the chap had ever performed, well it was the first one (at least it looked like it was)....bowltastic!!!!

The next best thing to do in this area is a mokoro trip (a traditional dug out canoe, rather like old-school punting) we decided to do an overnight trip which involved a boat trip out to get the mokoro, being paddled out to a campsite, evening and morning game walks and then being paddled back the same route.

Unfortunately speed-boating up the narrow river to and from the canoe was the highlight; flying past birds and animals, cattle and donkeys in the water, naked guys bathing (for Lynda) and a topless woman fishing (for Matt)! The mokoro trip itself was an example the local culinary specialty called “boiling white people in a hollow log”, and because the water levels were so low at this time of the year the reeds extended so high above us that a giraffe would have had to strain its neck to see anything. We both had a go at poling the canoe and far harder than punting in Oxford! The game walks were pleasant and we saw glimpses of zebra, impala and wart hogs, but owing to a really sullen guide they didn’t really come alive for us. It was extremely hot (and did I mention dusty) so we decided to return a little earlier. We were met by guy from the lodge with the best tasting Coke ever! It was amazing. Despite the fact that the trip hadn’t quite lived up to expectation the bush camping and seeing life on the river had been an experience.

The manager of the lodge had done a fantastic job of arranging a private jeep safari in the delta and we headed off for a two night bush camping trip in the Moremi game reserve, with a Dutch girl and an Israeli couple. This trip turned out to be great fun, the whole group got on well and the bush camping experience was certainly memorable as we were completely in the bush with no fences; a few frightened people on the first night (well, actually a butch Israeli guy who was wimpering through his tent about being scared of the nasty noises which put the frighteners up the other girls) as we were visited by a couple of hyenas, and the local baboons and hippos were making a real racket. The scenery in this part of the delta was very attractive, some of the best bush scenery that we had seen, and the thermometer continued to be pushed up. In terms of game it was not too successful in terms of cats (only one lion pride sighted from a distance), but jam packed with other interesting beasts…and much of it was a baby-watching trip (elephant, zebra and giraffe). In particular we were blown away by the enormous numbers of elephants that we saw, also several new species of antelope.

A great experience and an almost as good experience was the cold beer in the lodge by the river when we got back. This had been the best location we had camped at and a great base in Maun; helpful staff, plenty of dogs for Lynda to play with and ice cold beer…had I mentioned how hot and dusty Botswana had been!

Unfortunately the convenient shuttle to Windhoek (Namibia) had been cancelled a few weeks previously so we were given the best possible advice to get there by public transport that was to involve three different buses and a taxi in the middle. This was going to be an adventure!

The morning bus left Maun promptly, it was a bit of a rust-bucket but was relatively comfortable for the 4 hour jaunt across the northern part of the Kalahari to the dust-bowl of Ghansi. We even managed to glimpse three Ostrich from the window, which Matt was perhaps a little too excited about. Part one of the plan completed without a hitch, all it now needed was a bus to Charles Hill (near the Namibian border), taxi to the border and a minibus from the border either direct to Windhoek or changing in Gobabis…easy!!!

As luck would have it we were told the bus to Charles Hill was due, although the local lady waiting said “probably” due. Her skepticism was well-founded and one by one the locals gave up, and as we were last left we did too. It had been a ridiculously hot wait under a partly shaded tree, but fun watching local ladies in extravagantly hot looking garb, goats trying to steal potatoes and the nose of a puppy sticking out of a shoe box! We had been given a tip of somewhere to stay, just in case this happened. After failing to get a cab, we were offered a lift by a nice local chap to a very nice Kalahari campsite, we would try again in the morning as there was supposed to be another one at 8.30am.

Arriving at the bus station we found out the bus was actually scheduled for 1.00pm. Who knew whether it would go, so we decided to get to a nearby petrol station and try and hitch. We waited all of 45 minutes before a small bus came in, it was headed for Windhoek, they had space!!!!! Wow what a slice of luck. We were in for a good price and on the road finally with a group of Zimbabweans, most of whom were heading to Namibia in search of a new life, and it was interesting but sad chatting to them about their experiences.

We had had a great time traveling through Botswana but found that the people were a miserable unhelpful bunch, there were obviously notable exceptions to this, but as a sweeping generalization compared to the happy smiling faces and welcoming service we had found in Zambia, Mozambique and Swaziland they were most unwelcoming. Will be interesting to see how Namibia compares.

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Comments

[Joools]

Guys guys guys, the F train was cancelled the other day so I had to gtet a cab to the office - took me 20 mins longer than usual! So put that in your Botswanian beer and drinks it! Also .. "Poled from behind" - pur-lease! There could be children reading this! Keep up the blogs - highlight of my week!