BOTSWANA

*Take note this is a short summary of this trip. For those who want more information, the full diary is available in the website under ........... In addition, for advice feel free to call or e-mail me.

Botswana is an adventure and with that an unpredictable adventure. Not only in its very rich wildlife but also as regards its environmental and traveling conditions. In winters it is dry and roads very sandy. In summer (rainy season, the “roads” can change overnight. The beauty of it all is that, for the adventurous Botswana’s safari areas it are not spoilt with modern roads and in their game park camps, you are part of the wild in contrast to being fenced out of the wild.

On this visit we traveled via Ganzi to Ngepi which is situated on the Kavango River in the western entrance to the Kaprivi strip. After two days of camping here, the Botswana adventure began.

Traveling conditions in the game areas of Botswana were trying with almost as much road submerged as not. Often these pools appear so innocent on the surface, but never trust the surface. It is therefore always a surprize for the leading vehicle. Either a pleasant one but often a shock. Even so is exciting. As with Africa in general, just about everything is possible with common sense, simple tools (a spade) and patience.

With conditions as they are in Zimbabwe at the moment, we prefer to use Kasane as a base from which to visit the Victoria falls and to stock up. From there we went to the Ilaha camp site in Chobe (three days). Several “advisors” warned us of going the wrong time. Heat, water and poor game viewing. O.K. I will give them a few points for heat (particularly when your Landrover’s Air Conditioner hands upped in the heat of Ganzi). As for the rest, we saw (“experienced”?) hundreds of elephants, including a herd which came grazing peacefully right through our camp. Buffalo, zebra, Giraffe and more.

The road to Savuti is an experience on its own being very sandy, but not a serious risk. In my various visits to Savuti, I must have been unlucky, since several people (including the very good travel book “Travel and Field guide of Botswana” by Veronica Roodt) describes it as having a high game population. Again, we did not see that much.

From Savuti to Moremi we knew that we were in for a real adventure since we have had news of people being air lifted out of the area and other people being stuck in mud pools for days. However, when we started meeting mud covered 4x4’s coming from the Moremi area, we were more courageous, even though their “stories” ranged from scary to comforting. BUT, remember common sense and patience. Did we need those? Yes! Common sence = Do not trust the innocent surface. Walk through pools before you drive through it. Did we get stuck? Yes! Patience = Spade work, more than one vehicle and a snatch strap! Was it the wrong time? No, not as far as we were concerned. It was real adventure.

Having spun and slided our way to North Gate, we were informed that the direct road via Xakanaxa was under water so that we had to drive a long detour via South Gate. Did is say drive. No. More slipping and sliding.

From South Gate to Third bridge we were entertained by wild dogs, cheetah, lechwe, buffalo, hippopotamus and the largest herd of elephant that I have ever seen. Admiring the latter was however cut short when a bull elephant in must charged us. We just won the race.

At third bridge we were definitely intruders a camp site which was the territory of a troop of baboons. I was the second time in Botswana that baboons made such a nuisance of themselves that we left the camp a day early. While there, we had the priveledge of being warned by the resident baboons of a leopard with baboon on his menue stopping his mission five meters from our camp.

On our way to South Gate we saw the most beautiful tiger right next to the road with its kill hung in the tree just above him. Fantastic. Then again, hundreds of elephants and to round it off, a visit to our camp site of a number of hyenas drooling for our supper.

From Moremi, we traveled to Maun to stock up and then via Baines Baobabas on to Nxai pan. A very good camp and as with Chobe, Savuti and Moremi, new ablusion facilities. The pan is virtually covered in springbok, zebra, many birds and sevral scavegers. Being flat game spotting is easy.

Next stop, Kgama Rhino Sanctuary just north of Serowe is real little gem well stocked with rhino and a wide variety of plains game. A good place to visit or stay over.

Then the long run home via Kimberley.