Our 6th African country, and 14th country since departing London’s sunny shores almost 4 months earlier, was Botswana. Having bribed our way out of Zimbabwe (see the last blog) we rocked into Kasane on the border of Chobe National Park and set up shop for the night. Our entrance to Chobe national park was by boat and prior to entry, we pooled our expert weather knowledge to conclude that it was probably close to 40 degrees outside and that there was no chance of rain. Given what unfolded, Andy Sturman, the Professor of climatology at Canterbury University, will probably now be reviewing the ‘A’ Mat was awarded for the third year climatology paper.
Within moments of boarding the boat and heading out onto Chobe River, a distant clap of thunder disturbed the silence of the National Park. The dark clouds rolled in and after some initial light rain, the heavens opened and a torrential downpour ensued. While this was happening, our guide continued to manoeuvre the boat for expert viewing of the yawning hippos, crocodile and other wildlife grazing at the river’s edge. We endured this for 30 minutes before someone mentioned the unthinkable – should we just head in and right off the US$45 we’d all paid to enter the park. Consensus was reached on pulling the pin within 4 seconds and we asked the driver of the boat to hot foot it back to shore. Suggestions by the boat driver that going full tilt might flood the boat were acknowledged, but haste was requested and haste was delivered. Back onshore, 18 of us huddled under a covered walkway as we awaited our pickup.
Within moments of boarding the boat and heading out onto Chobe River, a distant clap of thunder disturbed the silence of the National Park. The dark clouds rolled in and after some initial light rain, the heavens opened and a torrential downpour ensued. While this was happening, our guide continued to manoeuvre the boat for expert viewing of the yawning hippos, crocodile and other wildlife grazing at the river’s edge. We endured this for 30 minutes before someone mentioned the unthinkable – should we just head in and right off the US$45 we’d all paid to enter the park. Consensus was reached on pulling the pin within 4 seconds and we asked the driver of the boat to hot foot it back to shore. Suggestions by the boat driver that going full tilt might flood the boat were acknowledged, but haste was requested and haste was delivered. Back onshore, 18 of us huddled under a covered walkway as we awaited our pickup.
Back at camp we were excited and relieved that the few people who had stayed behind had managed to erect the water-proof flies over our tents – the initial reason for the weather forecasting was in order to decide if the flies would be required as without them, we hoped the tents would be a little cooler in the very hot conditions. So with the Chobe Game Park essentially sacked off, we all dug in to watch the All Blacks sweep past Ireland at the new Landsdowne Road. But before hand we did enjoy watching the responses of a dozen or so holidaying South Africans who watched their team get dispatched by Scotland.
Throughout out Botswanian travels, we played a game of ‘hide the meat from the customs officials’. Botswanian authorities have a number of traffic controls in place designed to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. This means every couple of hundred kilometres, we passed through check-points, where our shoes and the truck tyres were washed and the truck was inspected to ensure we were not moving fresh meat from one zone to another.
As the bulk of our truck movements in Botswana coincided with the weekend, and with supermarkets being closed on the weekend, we were left with two options before starting our journey across Botswana – stock up on meat in Kasane and do what we called the ‘meat sneak’ at the check-points; or go vegetarian for three days. Scientific consensus was that moving fresh-meat between the control zones would not increase the risk of foot and mouth, whilst dietary consensus was that we could not forgo meat. Thus as we approached each checkpoint, we all swung into action to move the illicit meat from the fridge into a concealed space in the rubbish bin. Four check-points later, the ‘meat sneak’ was complete and the meat tasted better for the efforts to get it to our campsites.
The second major attraction of our time in Botswana was to head into the Okavango Delta, the World’s second largest river delta. Our time here was spent bush-camping (i.e. not in a managed campsite) on one of the islands amongst the numerous channels of the delta. Accessing the island was a very relaxing affair, as we all piled into 2-person mokoro’s – dug-out canoes that are managed through the waterways by pole.
Throughout out Botswanian travels, we played a game of ‘hide the meat from the customs officials’. Botswanian authorities have a number of traffic controls in place designed to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. This means every couple of hundred kilometres, we passed through check-points, where our shoes and the truck tyres were washed and the truck was inspected to ensure we were not moving fresh meat from one zone to another.
As the bulk of our truck movements in Botswana coincided with the weekend, and with supermarkets being closed on the weekend, we were left with two options before starting our journey across Botswana – stock up on meat in Kasane and do what we called the ‘meat sneak’ at the check-points; or go vegetarian for three days. Scientific consensus was that moving fresh-meat between the control zones would not increase the risk of foot and mouth, whilst dietary consensus was that we could not forgo meat. Thus as we approached each checkpoint, we all swung into action to move the illicit meat from the fridge into a concealed space in the rubbish bin. Four check-points later, the ‘meat sneak’ was complete and the meat tasted better for the efforts to get it to our campsites.
The second major attraction of our time in Botswana was to head into the Okavango Delta, the World’s second largest river delta. Our time here was spent bush-camping (i.e. not in a managed campsite) on one of the islands amongst the numerous channels of the delta. Accessing the island was a very relaxing affair, as we all piled into 2-person mokoro’s – dug-out canoes that are managed through the waterways by pole.
Once in the delta, we managed quite a few game walks where we spread out amongst the rest of the island, looking for wildlife. While the pickings weren’t as plentiful as other game parks we’d visited, it was a very different perspective to approach wild elephants on foot and at ground level. Aside from the few elephants we spied, we also spent some time with a decent sized group of zebra and all became relatively expert at distinguishing different types of animal shit (elephants is big, dry and easy to throw at people; hippos spray theirs everywhere like a Jackson Pollock painting; whilst hyena’s is white because it full of ground up bones).
The late evening thunderstorms we’d experienced in Chobe accompanied us into the Okavango, so one afternoon we held the first group outing of the ‘Amateur Lightning Photographers Association‘ (ALPA). We all spent an hour on the edge of the island and set the cameras to multi-shot. After firing off 250 photos and not capturing a single lightning bolt, Mat handed the reigns over the Caros who promptly got a superb shot on her second attempt. Job done, the camera was handed back and Mat tried his best to emulate, capturing a few more bolts before dinner.
After exiting the Okavango Delta, Mat headed out to the airport with Geoff & Julie to take a scenic flight over the vast area in a 4 seater Cessna. The safety briefing consisted of ‘hello, got your seatbelts on?’ and with the formalities aside, we took off on an hour long loop that took us to the edge of the Kalahari. The flight was the perfect way to see the area and provided a very different game watching experience as giraffes, elephants and hippos were spotted on a regular basis.
With two of Botswana’s major attractions ticked off, we venture across the border and into Namibia and another country closer to the end of our trip. At our first camping site we had our first trucking mishap since setting out from Nairobi six weeks earlier. As we drove into the camp-site over what appeared to be good, hard land, the truck quickly sunk into the turf which was sodden from a heavy rainstorm a few hours before our arrival. Initial efforts to get un-stuck suffered from a lack of forward thinking, and eventually we were forced to rescue the chilli-bin and rehydrate in between grabbing a spade and digging out the truck or filling the wheel barrow with rocks from a near-by shingle road. 3 hours later, the truck thundered out of the campsite to the safety of the shingled road.
In the north of Namibia, we spent two and a bit days camping in Etosha National Park, one of Africa’s biggest national parks where the highlights are usually found around the numerous watering holes that dot the sparse landscape. Unfortunately though, our time in Etosha coincided with the season of short rains, meaning the game wouldn’t have to go to the watering holes for their daily fluid intake. So whilst we didn’t get the quintessential Etosha photo of giraffe, zebra, lion and rhino drinking from the same watering hole, we did still manage to catch a glimpse of all in some other setting. On our last night though, a few of us who stayed up late after taking in the sunset were very lucky to see two rhinos come down to a watering hole for a swim whilst a large female lion crossed behind in the distance, roaring all the way as she searched for her pride.
In the north of Namibia, we spent two and a bit days camping in Etosha National Park, one of Africa’s biggest national parks where the highlights are usually found around the numerous watering holes that dot the sparse landscape. Unfortunately though, our time in Etosha coincided with the season of short rains, meaning the game wouldn’t have to go to the watering holes for their daily fluid intake. So whilst we didn’t get the quintessential Etosha photo of giraffe, zebra, lion and rhino drinking from the same watering hole, we did still manage to catch a glimpse of all in some other setting. On our last night though, a few of us who stayed up late after taking in the sunset were very lucky to see two rhinos come down to a watering hole for a swim whilst a large female lion crossed behind in the distance, roaring all the way as she searched for her pride.
With Etosha, our last game park behind us, we began the drive south with two weeks ahead of us till our arrival in Capetown.
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