Day 271 –3rd July 2010 (Divundu, Namibia – Kasane, Botswana)
Today we entered the last new country of the trip, a painless border crossing where the main topic of conversation, once again, surrounded the Football World Cup. It is strange to think that we only have a month left of our trip. Whilst Ness is pushing this to the back of her mind, James is already organising his social calendar for his return!
Miles travelled: 307 miles
(total 26,912 miles) Highlight of the day: the campsite being chocker block of South
African caravans that we just had to check into a room … it’s a hard life
Comment of the day: Saffer comment on hearing of our trip “that’s a one” …. One what?? What does
that mean?? Random fact of the day: Botswana gained independence from Britain in September
1966. In 1967, diamonds were discovered and it has since become the largest
producer of gem diamonds in the world … doh!
Day 272 – 4th July 2010 (Kasane – Chobe NP)
Elephants, elephants everywhere!
Miles travelled: 37 miles
(total 26,949 miles) Highlight of the day: Having lunch 200m from a large bull elephant –
he was obviously having his lunch too and was quite happily munching away
Comment of the day: Art, from SA camping next to us at Ihaha
campsite; “watch out, there is a buffalo
just behind that bush” … said buffalo suddenly comes out from behind bush,
through our campsite and saunters down to the river quite happily ignoring us
as we are busily considering how quickly we can get on top of William Random fact of the day: Elephants have a gestation period of 22 months
Day 273 — 5th July 2010 (Chobe – Maun)
Sand, sand everywhere! Now you would of thought with Botswana’s “high cost – low volume tourism” policy, they would have injected some of that cash mountain back into the infrastructure of their parks … apparently not. We spent most of the day trying not to get stuck in the deep, soft sand – it was like being back in the Sahara. Oh, and to top the day off, how about a couple of hours night driving with, as we subsequently discovered, only one headlight … trying to avoid the elephants and buffalo.
Miles travelled: 214 miles
(total 27,163 miles) Highlight of the day: reaching Maun intact!
Comment of the day: From SA caravaner (part of a convoy of about 15
vehicles plus trailers) “make sure you
stick to the left path, we’ve spent the last few hours trying to recover
vehicles getting stuck in the marsh” … lucky we spoke to him as this was
the exact opposite of the advice of the National Park ranger. Random fact of the day: Maun recently won the prize for having the most
alcohol consumed per capita in the world!
Days 274-280 – 6th-12th July 2010 (Maun and the Okavango Delta)
We decided to splurge on a luxury safari into the Okavango Delta … well it is our honeymoon after all!?! After a couple of hours at the very helpful tourism office (and, frankly, an outrageous sum of money later but we don’t like to think about that!), we had booked 2 nights at Little Kwara - an intimate luxury 5 tent camp in a private concession in the Delta bordering Moremi NP with all activities, food, drinks and pretty much everything you can think of wanting on safari included, yay! We were flown over the Delta in a 7 seater plane into camp the next morning and greeted by Hobs, our guide for the next couple of days, and our own personal spotter, Mikey. It turned out Little Kwara was even more intimate than we thought – we were not only the only guests in Little Kwara but also the only guests in the entire concession. Now, whilst this was lovely and felt very exclusive, it unfortunately didn’t help our game viewing chances with only 1 vehicle out in a 60km2 concession – in almost 12 hours of game drives in prime predator country, we only had one lion sighting*. Hey ho … it seems the Wilson’s can’t even buy safari luck. But what we lacked in our game viewing luck was made up for by the amazingly attentive staff and our beautiful tent with our balcony overlooking the Delta complete with possibly the biggest bed I’ve ever seen, bath and outdoor shower … oh and free booze and laundry J We drifted off to sleep the first night to the sounds of a hippo underneath our tent grunting (the tent is on stilts rather than it being a very flat hippo) and an elephant next to it …er… well … farting a lot (which is rather loud when it’s right next to you). Being driven around, at one point through water that covered the engine, catered for hand and foot and finally being propelled around the waters in a private mokoro (like an African gondola), carefully avoiding the angry hippos … priceless. It was with heavy hearts that we left this little piece of safari heaven and returned, on our little private plane, back to Maun.
Back to Maun, the tent and a few days of admin …. groan.
Miles travelled: 20 miles
(total 27,183 miles) Highlight of the days: returning from our night drive to a surprise
private candlelight dinner for two on our tent balcony and a honeymoon present
from the Little Kwara team
Comment of the days: Chocks, the manager at Little Kwara “well, you are our only guests for the next 2
nights so you have 16 people looking after your every need” … awesome
* we did see a small black
& white garter snake on a walk through the bush as well - we later found
out this tiny little thing pretty
poisonous, as indicted by the red skull and cross bones next to it pictures in
the Snakes of Southern Africa Guide
Day 281 –13th July 2010 (Maun-Rakops)
Having failed on the internet mission this morning (apparently due to the adverse weather conditions in Germany???), we finally left Maun heading for the Makgadikgadi Pans NP (try saying that after a few beers). Little did we know it wasn’t going to be the last failure of the day ….
1. we overshot the entrance gate for the Makgadikgadi Pans by about 30
miles; 2. the gate we eventually did find obviously had been shut for years and
there was no-one there*;
3. entering at completely the wrong end of the NP meant we never actually
saw the Makgadikgadi Pan, the whole purpose of being there; 4. our exit gate was also closed because the Boteti River, having been
dry for 20 years, has now decided to flow again making the road impassable and
necessitating a 140km detour;
5. the nearest “camp” showing on our GPS turned out to be a luxury
tented camp which was lovely (it had twinkly lights – always a sure sign of an
African upmarket lodge) and, at this point, we probably would have given our
right arm to stay there but was also full; 6. the next campsite was a further 80 miles away, at night, on a road
full of suicidal cows and donkeys;
7. when we eventually reached the next campsite, the gates were
padlocked and, despite calling the after hours number probably over 20 times,
they would not answer us; 8. trying to find somewhere suitably covered from the road to bush camp
at 10pm at night, in the pitch black, on the edge of a desert is never a good
idea;
9. after about an hour of going back and forth, we ended up camping
behind a small bush, back at the gates of the non-responsive campsite; and 10. by this point, it was f***ing freezing.
dinner consisted of a cranberry energy bar and we went to bed … very
quietly.
Miles travelled: 355 miles
(total 27,538 miles) Highlight of the day: oooh, so many to choose from!!??!! Comment of the day: Internet service provider in Maun “we
are trying to fix the internet but there is a problem with the weather in
Germany, we will let you know as soon as it is fixed. Oh, and we’ll e-mail your
invoice to you just now”; Alan, internet owner “but our e-mail won’t work because the internet is down”; ISP “oh yes, of course, can we have your fax
number and we’ll fax it to you?”
*this turned out to be a bit
of result actually because we could still get into the N.P and no-one checked
our pass (which we had had to slightly alter because it had the wrong date on
it … through no fault of our own obviously!?!)
Days 282 & 283 –14th & 15th July 2010 (Rakops – Central Kalahari G.R.)
The day didn’t start much better. There is a handy petrol station in Rakops, the nearest town to the entrance gate for the Central Kalahari Game Reserve*. Unfortunately, the tit that owns it refuses to install a cover over his pumps/forecourt so Shell have refused to supply him with fuel until he does … necessitating another 80 mile round trip to the next petrol station.
Finally inside the CKGR expecting to be surrounded by desert for miles,
we were surprised to be once again surrounded by the classic African savannah
of scrub & bush. Still, we were here to see the famous Black Mane Lions of
the Kalahari … we heard them roar, we saw lots of lion tracks, we even found
their pooh but did we see any of our feline friends?? Did we hell! We did see
four honey badgers though on three separate occasions – since I’ve only ever
seen a fleeting tail of one in the wild, I was quite happy with that!
Miles travelled: 311 miles
(total 27,849 miles) Highlight of the day: Falling asleep to the roar of lions … even
though we never actually saw the blighters! Comment of the day: Ranger on the gate “so, did you have a good safari?”; Ness “yes thanks, no lions though”; Ranger “Oh really?!? The guys that just left saw them every morning and every
night, three separate prides, just where you were” …. Grrrrr, really didn’t
need to know that
* given the CKGR is 52,000km2
(about the size of Denmark) of pretty much desert, you need to plan your fuel
with some care
Day 284 – 16th July 2010 (Central Kalahari G.R. – Khama Rhino Sanctuary)
Our luck changed … Black Rhino in our campsite, standing 5 meters away whilst we happily stood taking photos. Now this would usually make me very nervous and on top of William quicker than you can say “look at his big spiky horn” but this big fella seemed quite content to munch his way around William and plod off again. Awesome! And whilst Ness happily relaxed in a (much needed) bathtub, James may or may not have seen a lion/leopard/cheetah or possibly, he thinks, a big furry pet Alsatian …
Miles travelled: 280 miles
(total 28,129 miles) Highlight of the day: Rhino’s, hot baths, cold beers and someone
else doing the washing up Comment of the day: Rupert, James’ mate from Gabs “Oh, Khama’s great but I’ve never seen a
Rhino there” … few minutes after putting the phone down, one was walking
through our camp!
Days 285-289 – 17th-21st July 2010 (Khama Rhino Sanctuary - Gaborone)
Another Rhino this morning, a White Rhino this time, a spot of brekkie and we headed to Gabs to stay with James’ mate, Rupert. We met Rupert in The Bull & Bush (a bit of a Gabs public house institution) - this was the first but certainly not the last drinking establishment we were to visit during the next few days in Gaborone …
It turned out to be a 4-day public holiday (we think for Presidents Day
but no one seems to be 100% sure) so what else is there to do in Gabs on a long
public holiday but drink … lots. We did climb a small mountain one day, which
made a nice break from the drinking, obviously followed by a few beers afterwards
to celebrate the summit! We also managed to cleverly combine beer drinking with
a spot of off road driving through some awesome dry river beds … William did
himself proud (unfortunately the same can not be said for his brand new Toyota
Surf friend (see pics)). On this kind of trip, you can’t beat staying with
friends who know the best places to go in town … priceless – big thanks to
Swoop!
Miles travelled: 445 miles (total 28,574 miles) Highlight of the days: hair of the dog … and the cats, Crawford and
Fatso Comment of the days: “Ahhhh, I get t’it min …. t’it means that we,
right t’ere, are 6,756 miles from Cairo min” other chaps at the summit
of Khali Hill finally figuring out what the signpost at the top really means* …
not the sharpest tool in the box Random fact of the day: The white rhino is no lighter in colour really
than the black rhino – the reason for the name comes from a misunderstanding of
the Afrikaans word for wide, as in wide lipped because they are grazers not
browsers … how much more do you want to learn in a day?
*their first thought was the
distance of a bike race from Beijing …that would be my first thought as well obviously?!?!
Day 290 – 22nd July 2010 (Gaborone-Francistown)
The morning eggs benedict were genius (it’s all in the sauce according to my husband) but otherwise it was a bit of a boring driving day today, 300+ miles to Francistown, Botswana’s second largest city and home to lots of Zimbabweans … some legal and some perhaps not so legal
Miles travelled: 301 miles
(total 28,875 miles) Highlight of the day: a small black & white kitten trying to
follow us into the roof tent – unfortunately even his whole body couldn’t stretch
to reach the next rung L Comment of the day: Ness “Hi
there, is your internet working today?”; Internet Lady “Urgh” [translated as “Yes, it is, please do take a seat”] 5
minutes later …. Ness “errr, it doesn’t
seem to be working”; Internet Lady “Urgh,
you must be doin it wrong” Top tip of the day: Old cargo containers by the side of the road
converted into internet café’s … don’t expect a speedy connection, this is
Africa not quite the information super highway
Day 291 –23rd July 2010 (Francistown – Kasane)
Expecting another dull driving day today, we were pleasantly surprised by elephants crossing the “motorway” (obviously I use the term “motorway” in the loosest, African, sense of the word), giraffe, pumba’s and ground hornbills* by the side of the road … all for free, gotta love Botswana J
Miles travelled: 326 miles
(total 29,201 miles) Comment of the day: Oli, now safely back in the UK probably sipping
caffe latte’s in Starbucks, “how’s Botswana – elephanty?”
* endangered – quite exciting if you’re a wildlife geek like me