Botswana part 2
Current Location: Windhoek, Namibia
20 April 2009 – 14 May 09
The land of no fences and cold showers! (Plus lots of cold beer...)
After spending nearly 5 months in South Africa, arriving in Botswana was a nice change. It is a bit closer to Monkey Africa and has a wilder more disorganised feel to it, where the locals clearly don’t know how to drive and nothing quite works the way it could. As we drove into Gaborone we decided to punch in the location of the national parks booking office in the GPS, as we already know Botswana’s booking system for camping in the parks is about the daftest thing we have faced. Now they made it worse by not even letting you pay at the park gates (due to staff theft we presume), so you can’t even get in without a booking from their offices. Surprisingly we managed to book everything we wanted to in less than an hour and without too much fuss. We booked 7 nights in the Pans and 7 nights in Central Kalahari. While in Gaborone we hunted round for a tripod head for the video camera, one day we may even produce a video from the Gigs of video footage we have, be warned though our video skills are shocking, well mine are, Louise is getting pretty good.
Well as expected we didn’t find the tripod head but we got a little surprise when we got back to the car in one of shopping areas, there was a light hiss from one of the rear wheels, a small hole in the side of a tyre. As we needed 2 new tyres anyway we headed straight for Tiger Wheel & Tyre and instead of being good overlanders we watched as a local changed 2 news tyres and rotated all the wheels from the roof etc..., so while we had our first flat it required very little effort on our part apart from flashing a credit card for the new tyres J. The tyre place happens to be owned by the same guy that owns the Land Rover and BMW dealership right next door, something which would come in useful a few hours later on...
Later on while we were still hunting out the tripod head, some local boys attempted to break into the car in the middle of the day in a crowded car park, it seems while we in the shops someone notified the boys in blue, and a couple of undercovers showed up. When we got back to the car I tried to put the key in the lock and noticed it was busted, the door was unlocked but they didn’t manage to get in as you need to shove a long pointy thing into a hole where the button to open the doors used to be. Hehe some Land Rover faults have practicalities... The same happened on the passenger side, so in my usual disgruntled manner I starting to swear and generally raise my voice and asked a local street vendor if they had seen anything, of course not. During all my noise making the two undercover cops came over and asked what was going on. I proceeded to tell them that someone had attempted to break into the car but was clearly too stupid to open the doors. They then asked what I wanted to do now, after having dealt with the capetownian police I thought better of it and simply said we were going to go straight to the Land Rover dealership and get 2 new locks then leave town cause we don’t like it anymore, which is exactly what we did. Luckily thieves seem to know how pathetic Land Rover locks are and had broken a local guys locks so Land Rover Gaborone had one set of locks on stock. We spent that night in City camp in Gaborone, bit of a dive, we left early the next morning for Francistown.
Once we stocked up on supplies in Francistown we headed to the Nata Bird Sanctuary, finally we were back in the wild, it was a tremendous feeling. I guess South Africa is too civilised for us these days. Nata is famous for flamingos when there is enough water in the Pan, luckily for us there was, there were plenty of flamingos , though they never let us get close even when I sprinted across the dry area of the pan to get closer, their graceful movement that makes them appear to walk on water was still too fast for me to get close enough for good photos, I have now made a mental note that we need the big long lenses. Flamingos are not the only creatures in Nata, there was a large number of Pelicans and many other birds big and small, a few springbok and a jackal or two.
After leaving Nata we headed to Gweta to find out whether or not we could get to Kubu Island. We first heard about Kubu from Floris and Marieke in Nigeria, as he was the guy that introduced me to panoramic photography I was really looking forward to getting there, though with the water at Nata being present I was worried that we wouldn’t make it. In Gweta we stayed at Planet Baobab which is another one of these great camps with a brilliant atmosphere. (Also looking for a managing couple, no experience required....) As we found no info on the road to Kubu we looked at the map and there is a road that runs along the edge of the pan and not straight across it. So we took it, and what a magnificent drive it was with great scenery all the way, a view that we were getting used to, the golden grass with white salt pans, acacias, baobabs, the lovely smell of wild sage and the occasional springbok or ostrich dotting the landscape with a clear blue sky to top it all off. Arriving at Kubu Island we found out that the road across the pans was dry too. We spent the evening watching the sun set behind the odd looking baobabs with the usual suspects being present; the German tourists, the drunk south Africans being a little bit too loud and disrespectful, and then the few others like us wanting to experience Africa for its stunning beauty.
After getting up early for sunrise, we headed out across the salt pans back towards Gweta, this drive was even more stunning than the one to Kubu; crossing salt flats, golden grasslands and finishing with a rally style drive through Mopane woodland. We headed back to Planet Baobab, where we met Johann and Nancy who were going to spend about 7 months touring southern and eastern Africa, Johann nicknamed me the Kingsley Holgate of New Zealand, guess the beard is getting a bit long, Louise occasionally threatens me with the scissors but that won’t happen for a while.
Next up was Magkadikadi Pans NP, on arrival we were greeted by the friendly staff who proceeded to tell us exactly where the zebra were, as you probably don’t know Botswana experiences a zebra migration similar to the Masai/Serengeti migration, though the 10000 strong number in Botswana doesn’t really compete with the 2 million in the Masai migration. It is still a stunning sight to see animals in every direction , in particular zebras as they make for great photographs. Spending 2 nights in the east of the park with the zebras was very nice. We then headed to the western side where we drove up and down the western border fence line looking for lion, or anything other than zebra, 2 days of that was enough. Off to Nxai pan it was.
(We did meet a Swiss guy exporting rarer South African wines to Switzerland so if anyone is interested, contact us).
The rain, thunder and lightning came on strong our first night in Nxai pan, which was spent close to Baines Baobab, made famous by the painter of the same name (just the first name, naturally). We really don’t know how anyone finds the campsites that don’t have a GPS without the Tracks4africa maps installed as there are absolutely no signs except for a big “no camping” at Baines baobabs themselves. It was remote as! Next up was the main game viewing area of Nxai Pan National Park, made famous by the IMAX documentary film ROAR about the Kalahari lion. As we arrived at the gate and started the standard Spanish inquisition on animal activity, we were given a short quick answer “the animals are all gone”. It seems that when the rains come, the animals leg it into the bush to drink from puddles. So it was a hard two days looking for animals that just weren’t there, a little bit of a disappointment, will probably have to go back to see it again when it hasn’t rained.
Maun, back in familiar surroundings, we decided not to contact Tony and Denise as we were only staying one night, and needed to sort through over 1000 photos and about an hour of video footage we thought we would make bad guests, as we also know we are going back in June or July, bookings in the Kgalagadi are scheduled for then. Maun was an essential detour for a resupply on food for a seven day stint in the Northern area of the Central Kalahari. We had coffee with Denise and Tony in the morning as Ian decided to not only worry himself but them as well asking if they knew of our whereabouts as they hadn’t heard from us since we left SA.
The Central Kalahari is the second largest conservation area in Africa, and is one of the remotest places on the continent. The roads are either sandy tracks or hard clayey surfaces, unless it rains where the clayey surfaces turn into wet slippery stuff, and you could have guessed it; it rained on our way into the park and most of the first night. The next morning we were driving around Deception Pan and got stuck. Spending over an hour digging and trying to use the sand ladders to get us moving, the stuff is so slippery that you just don’t go anywhere. Knowing that the cable on the winch was stuck and there weren’t any trees in front of us. We started to worry a bit as the guide book mentions outside of the main roads it can be months before someone comes along, plus we were in lion territory; the overly relaxed Oryx hanging around were a bit reassuring however. Out came the winch controller and we managed to get the cable unjammed, we attached it to a tree to the left of the car, Edmund was out in a few minutes. Winches are now back on my list of useful recovery gear.
Surprising to us the Central Kalahari is not a desert like landscape but is more typical of the savannah type scenery you see in the movies; with the all too familiar landscape of golden grasses, acacia trees, bushveld areas as well as the flat salt pans that we had gotten used to. It was a fantastic 7 days. The wildlife was just as spectacular; lions, cheetahs at a springbok kill, bat eared foxes and a leopard topped the list of the best sightings, the park was also full of springbok, oryx, wildebeest, jackals, various birds of prey. 7 days was up and we could spend a lot longer getting up before the sun, driving around in the wee hours of the morning and the late afternoon, baking bread on an open fire, keeping snakes at bay in the campsites which exist solely for one group of people, hearing the jackals chit chat and lions roar every night, staring at the magical stars in the dark night sky, watching the orange, red, and pinks of the sunrise, sunset and moonrise, not forgetting the animals for a second and that this is truly their domain.
The camps in the Central Kalahari have no water, only long drop toilets, and showers where you have to provide your own water, so showering was not a regular activity. I did promise Louise that there was a restaurant at our last camp in Pipers Pan, and to our surprise there was; a Swiss couple from Wetzikon, who are driving back to Switzerland from SA, had decided to take refuge in our campsite hoping the occupants would let them stay. The campsites are big enough for 10 people so we were more than happy to oblige. They cooked us a nice meal in thanks and we discussed African travels before turning in for our last night.
We left the Central Kalahari and headed to Ghanzi for an overnight stop before leaving Botswana for Namibia. We will be back to this wild and mesmerizing land!
Milan (& Louise: chief editor)
20 April 2009 – 14 May 09
The land of no fences and cold showers! (Plus lots of cold beer...)
After spending nearly 5 months in South Africa, arriving in Botswana was a nice change. It is a bit closer to Monkey Africa and has a wilder more disorganised feel to it, where the locals clearly don’t know how to drive and nothing quite works the way it could. As we drove into Gaborone we decided to punch in the location of the national parks booking office in the GPS, as we already know Botswana’s booking system for camping in the parks is about the daftest thing we have faced. Now they made it worse by not even letting you pay at the park gates (due to staff theft we presume), so you can’t even get in without a booking from their offices. Surprisingly we managed to book everything we wanted to in less than an hour and without too much fuss. We booked 7 nights in the Pans and 7 nights in Central Kalahari. While in Gaborone we hunted round for a tripod head for the video camera, one day we may even produce a video from the Gigs of video footage we have, be warned though our video skills are shocking, well mine are, Louise is getting pretty good.
Well as expected we didn’t find the tripod head but we got a little surprise when we got back to the car in one of shopping areas, there was a light hiss from one of the rear wheels, a small hole in the side of a tyre. As we needed 2 new tyres anyway we headed straight for Tiger Wheel & Tyre and instead of being good overlanders we watched as a local changed 2 news tyres and rotated all the wheels from the roof etc..., so while we had our first flat it required very little effort on our part apart from flashing a credit card for the new tyres J. The tyre place happens to be owned by the same guy that owns the Land Rover and BMW dealership right next door, something which would come in useful a few hours later on...
Later on while we were still hunting out the tripod head, some local boys attempted to break into the car in the middle of the day in a crowded car park, it seems while we in the shops someone notified the boys in blue, and a couple of undercovers showed up. When we got back to the car I tried to put the key in the lock and noticed it was busted, the door was unlocked but they didn’t manage to get in as you need to shove a long pointy thing into a hole where the button to open the doors used to be. Hehe some Land Rover faults have practicalities... The same happened on the passenger side, so in my usual disgruntled manner I starting to swear and generally raise my voice and asked a local street vendor if they had seen anything, of course not. During all my noise making the two undercover cops came over and asked what was going on. I proceeded to tell them that someone had attempted to break into the car but was clearly too stupid to open the doors. They then asked what I wanted to do now, after having dealt with the capetownian police I thought better of it and simply said we were going to go straight to the Land Rover dealership and get 2 new locks then leave town cause we don’t like it anymore, which is exactly what we did. Luckily thieves seem to know how pathetic Land Rover locks are and had broken a local guys locks so Land Rover Gaborone had one set of locks on stock. We spent that night in City camp in Gaborone, bit of a dive, we left early the next morning for Francistown.
Once we stocked up on supplies in Francistown we headed to the Nata Bird Sanctuary, finally we were back in the wild, it was a tremendous feeling. I guess South Africa is too civilised for us these days. Nata is famous for flamingos when there is enough water in the Pan, luckily for us there was, there were plenty of flamingos , though they never let us get close even when I sprinted across the dry area of the pan to get closer, their graceful movement that makes them appear to walk on water was still too fast for me to get close enough for good photos, I have now made a mental note that we need the big long lenses. Flamingos are not the only creatures in Nata, there was a large number of Pelicans and many other birds big and small, a few springbok and a jackal or two.
After leaving Nata we headed to Gweta to find out whether or not we could get to Kubu Island. We first heard about Kubu from Floris and Marieke in Nigeria, as he was the guy that introduced me to panoramic photography I was really looking forward to getting there, though with the water at Nata being present I was worried that we wouldn’t make it. In Gweta we stayed at Planet Baobab which is another one of these great camps with a brilliant atmosphere. (Also looking for a managing couple, no experience required....) As we found no info on the road to Kubu we looked at the map and there is a road that runs along the edge of the pan and not straight across it. So we took it, and what a magnificent drive it was with great scenery all the way, a view that we were getting used to, the golden grass with white salt pans, acacias, baobabs, the lovely smell of wild sage and the occasional springbok or ostrich dotting the landscape with a clear blue sky to top it all off. Arriving at Kubu Island we found out that the road across the pans was dry too. We spent the evening watching the sun set behind the odd looking baobabs with the usual suspects being present; the German tourists, the drunk south Africans being a little bit too loud and disrespectful, and then the few others like us wanting to experience Africa for its stunning beauty.
After getting up early for sunrise, we headed out across the salt pans back towards Gweta, this drive was even more stunning than the one to Kubu; crossing salt flats, golden grasslands and finishing with a rally style drive through Mopane woodland. We headed back to Planet Baobab, where we met Johann and Nancy who were going to spend about 7 months touring southern and eastern Africa, Johann nicknamed me the Kingsley Holgate of New Zealand, guess the beard is getting a bit long, Louise occasionally threatens me with the scissors but that won’t happen for a while.
Next up was Magkadikadi Pans NP, on arrival we were greeted by the friendly staff who proceeded to tell us exactly where the zebra were, as you probably don’t know Botswana experiences a zebra migration similar to the Masai/Serengeti migration, though the 10000 strong number in Botswana doesn’t really compete with the 2 million in the Masai migration. It is still a stunning sight to see animals in every direction , in particular zebras as they make for great photographs. Spending 2 nights in the east of the park with the zebras was very nice. We then headed to the western side where we drove up and down the western border fence line looking for lion, or anything other than zebra, 2 days of that was enough. Off to Nxai pan it was.
(We did meet a Swiss guy exporting rarer South African wines to Switzerland so if anyone is interested, contact us).
The rain, thunder and lightning came on strong our first night in Nxai pan, which was spent close to Baines Baobab, made famous by the painter of the same name (just the first name, naturally). We really don’t know how anyone finds the campsites that don’t have a GPS without the Tracks4africa maps installed as there are absolutely no signs except for a big “no camping” at Baines baobabs themselves. It was remote as! Next up was the main game viewing area of Nxai Pan National Park, made famous by the IMAX documentary film ROAR about the Kalahari lion. As we arrived at the gate and started the standard Spanish inquisition on animal activity, we were given a short quick answer “the animals are all gone”. It seems that when the rains come, the animals leg it into the bush to drink from puddles. So it was a hard two days looking for animals that just weren’t there, a little bit of a disappointment, will probably have to go back to see it again when it hasn’t rained.
Maun, back in familiar surroundings, we decided not to contact Tony and Denise as we were only staying one night, and needed to sort through over 1000 photos and about an hour of video footage we thought we would make bad guests, as we also know we are going back in June or July, bookings in the Kgalagadi are scheduled for then. Maun was an essential detour for a resupply on food for a seven day stint in the Northern area of the Central Kalahari. We had coffee with Denise and Tony in the morning as Ian decided to not only worry himself but them as well asking if they knew of our whereabouts as they hadn’t heard from us since we left SA.
The Central Kalahari is the second largest conservation area in Africa, and is one of the remotest places on the continent. The roads are either sandy tracks or hard clayey surfaces, unless it rains where the clayey surfaces turn into wet slippery stuff, and you could have guessed it; it rained on our way into the park and most of the first night. The next morning we were driving around Deception Pan and got stuck. Spending over an hour digging and trying to use the sand ladders to get us moving, the stuff is so slippery that you just don’t go anywhere. Knowing that the cable on the winch was stuck and there weren’t any trees in front of us. We started to worry a bit as the guide book mentions outside of the main roads it can be months before someone comes along, plus we were in lion territory; the overly relaxed Oryx hanging around were a bit reassuring however. Out came the winch controller and we managed to get the cable unjammed, we attached it to a tree to the left of the car, Edmund was out in a few minutes. Winches are now back on my list of useful recovery gear.
Surprising to us the Central Kalahari is not a desert like landscape but is more typical of the savannah type scenery you see in the movies; with the all too familiar landscape of golden grasses, acacia trees, bushveld areas as well as the flat salt pans that we had gotten used to. It was a fantastic 7 days. The wildlife was just as spectacular; lions, cheetahs at a springbok kill, bat eared foxes and a leopard topped the list of the best sightings, the park was also full of springbok, oryx, wildebeest, jackals, various birds of prey. 7 days was up and we could spend a lot longer getting up before the sun, driving around in the wee hours of the morning and the late afternoon, baking bread on an open fire, keeping snakes at bay in the campsites which exist solely for one group of people, hearing the jackals chit chat and lions roar every night, staring at the magical stars in the dark night sky, watching the orange, red, and pinks of the sunrise, sunset and moonrise, not forgetting the animals for a second and that this is truly their domain.
The camps in the Central Kalahari have no water, only long drop toilets, and showers where you have to provide your own water, so showering was not a regular activity. I did promise Louise that there was a restaurant at our last camp in Pipers Pan, and to our surprise there was; a Swiss couple from Wetzikon, who are driving back to Switzerland from SA, had decided to take refuge in our campsite hoping the occupants would let them stay. The campsites are big enough for 10 people so we were more than happy to oblige. They cooked us a nice meal in thanks and we discussed African travels before turning in for our last night.
We left the Central Kalahari and headed to Ghanzi for an overnight stop before leaving Botswana for Namibia. We will be back to this wild and mesmerizing land!
Milan (& Louise: chief editor)
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