Beautiful Botswana

After my adrenaline packed few days in Livingstone, I next headed over the Zambezi river to Zimbabwe where I was joining an overland truck of other travellers heading for Cape Town. Overland trucks are converted lorries which tour companies run on various routes across Africa for a range of periods from a few days to several weeks on end - in this case from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Cape Town in South Africa over a three week period. The trucks can seat up to 29 people and carry all the tents, cooking equipment and other gear that you could possibly need when driving across Africa.

I was soon introduced to the others who would be on my truck (six Kiwis, two Aussies, two Brits and a German) and our Zimbabwean crew (a guide, a driver and a cook) for the next three weeks and given a briefing on what we could expect over the next three weeks. We were warned to expect lots of long days on the truck travelling long distances, some early starts and unexpected delays, but also a fantastic three weeks travelling through southern Africa. Some of our group had been on another truck heading south from Nairobi to Victoria Falls and so were well versed in the routine and lifestyle of travelling like this. Many of them were therefore astonished that I had managed to travel independently from Nairobi relying on public transport and my own initiative to get there!

Our truck aka 'Big Mama'

My home for the next three weeks

We quickly left Zimbabwe behind, and headed in to Botswana, a country I must admit to knowing very little about before I arrived but one which I found to be very interesting. Our first stop was the 11,000 sq km Chobe National Park where we spent two days on safari. This included sleeping out in the national park, where we simply pitched our tents in the bush and hoped we wouldn't get visited by too many wild animals!

Unfortunately a heavy downpour had us rushing to our tents shortly after dinner so we missed out on a chance to sit around the campfire and take in the sounds of a night in the bush, but it was a good experience all the same. We also went on a couple of short game drives and a river cruise during which we saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, fish eagles, mongooses, and dung beetles! A particular highlight was seeing a herd of zebras crossing the Chobe river early in the morning as we drove back out of the park - the photos below give a flavour...

Elephant in Chobe National Park

Zebras crossing the Chobe river

Warthog with particularly impressive tusks

close encounter of the hippo kind

After a couple more days of driving, we then reached Maun, a town which acts at the jumping off point for the incredible Okavango Delta. The delta is a 16,000 sq km maze of lagoons, channels and islands formed by the Okavango River disappearing in to the sands of the Kalahari desert to form a huge inland delta which attracts a huge array of wildlife. In order to get some perspective of the delta, some of us booked to do a scenic flight over the delta in a very small plane which flew us from Maun for 45 minutes over the delta. From the plane we got a great sense of scale of the delta and were also able to spot elephants, hippos and buffalo from the air.

Ready for take-off in our tiny plane

Okavango Delta from the air

Two mekoro polers head through the delta

Okavango Delta again

The next three days were then spent getting a closer view as we headed off in the delta itself for two nights camping on an island in the middle of the delta. The only mode of transport within the delta is on a mekoro - a type of canoe traditionally made from hollowed out tree trunks (although nowadays more likely to be made from fibre glass) - so we had to leave our big truck behind and get used to a very different way of travelling. Each mekoro seats two passengers and is then guided through the delta by a poler from the local village who stands up much like a gondola driver would in Venice (not that I've been to Venice).

A mekoro

Heading in to the delta

Our time in the delta was spent being taken on nature walks (from where we spotted lots of zebras) and relaxing around the campsite playing cards with the polers. The weather was rather wet during our time in the delta, but I really enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the towns and main roads of Africa and getting to spend time in a real wilderness.

relaxing in camp

On our second and final night, the polers performed a fantastic routine of local singing and dancing for us round the campfire, including a particularly catchy song about how beautiful Botswana is, that had us clapping and singing along. Our guide then turned to us and asked if we had prepared a song or performance to do in response for the polers...cue an awkward silence as we shuffled in our chairs and looked at each other.

With no-one looking like volunteering, I thought what the hell and stretched back in to the recesses of my mind to recall 'Campfire's Burning' and 'Ging Gang Gooly' - two songs we always used to sing round the campfire in Scouts, neither of which I'd sung for at least 15 years! Fortunately I still remembered all the words (ever the boy scout), so did my best to lead us through a completely unrehearsed and therefore slightly shabby rendition of both songs. I'm not sure what the Botswanans made of it all, but I did at least succeed in getting the tune to Ging Gang Gooly stuck in everyone's heads for the rest of the trip!

The campfire

The next morning we took our mekoros back out of the delta (with a slightly too close for comfort encounter with a hippo on the way) and thanked our guides for a fantastic couple of days. After the bustling streets of Tanzania and the adrenaline packed trip to Victoria Falls, it had been great to have a few days getting back to nature in Botswana, although we were all ready for a shower after two nights bush camping in the delta!

Soon it was time to leave Botswana behind and head for our next country - Namibia - watch this space for the next blog about my adventures there....

Getting slightly too close to a hippo

Me and fellow traveller David with our mekoro poler