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We
had three weeks off in Feb/March 2006 and decided to use this time taking
a tour through Botswana off road. Most people visit Botswana during the dry season
(July-October), but we decided to see what the rainy season was like.
Well, we certainly found out. In 2006 Botswana enjoyed exceptionally high
rainfall (with flooding in many places), which lead to magnificent scenery
and challenging conditions. One of the beauties of travelling through
Africa is that you can’t control your environment, you have to change
with it.
We
set off from Johannesburg on Sunday 25 February 2006. My wife (Nicola) and
I in a 2000 Landrover Defender TD5 90 with roof-top tent and my parents (Hylton
and Maureen) in a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee towing a Conqueror off-road
trailer. Our first port-of-call was Serowe, where we intended to spend our
first night camping at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. We arrived at Serowe
just after 3 pm and were greeted by the “mother of all storms”. The
rain was so hard that we had just about zero visibility as we arrived in
the town. Instead of trying to set up camp, we decided to spend the night
at the Lentswe Lodge. The lodge was quite difficult to find and we were
disappointed when we arrived. Perhaps they are not used to the rain, but
the rooms that we were shown to were flooded. We decided to proceed with
our original plan and spend the night at the Rhino Sanctuary (it
couldn’t be wetter than the lodge). By the time we arrived at the Rhino
Sanctuary, the storm had passed and we were greeted by a lovely evening. A
chalet was available and we hired it for the night. The chalet was clean,
well kept and comfortable. This was a great place to spend our first
evening.
 We
woke up early the next morning and headed for Rakops, the town on the way
to the first game park that we were to visit – the Central Kalahari.
Although it is possible to fill up with water at Rakops (and we did), we
only found out once we got there that the water in Rakops is brakish.
Serowe has sweet water and it is a good idea to fill up with water at
Serowe. The road from Serowe to Rakops is quite bad, with a lot of
pot-holes. The further we got from Serowe, the worse the condition of the
road became. The road however was quite easy to travel on and we just had
to slow down on the bad patches. There were also a number of road-works
along the way (and plenty of warnings about the bad condition of the
road).
On
arriving in Rakops, we filled up with water and fuel (it is quite an
experience pumping your fuel by hand), and headed off into the Central
Kalahari.
Central
Kalahari Game Reserve
As
we drove off the main the road onto the dirt track to the Central Kalahari
Game Reserve, it became evident why this is such a good time of year to
visit this area. The grass-lands were magnificent. We had to cross a pan
to get to the reserve and although there was water on some of the tracks,
the tracks were hard and we drove through without any difficulty.
We
had decided to camp at Sunday Pan, and as we got closer to our destination
we were rewarded with another rain storm. We pressed on because it was
starting to become evening and we wanted to reach the campsite before
dark. As the rain stopped we drove around a bend in the track into a pride
of lions. This was a most unexpected and wonderful welcome into the
Central Kalahari. The lionesses moved off the track, but the male lion lay
in the track for some time keeping us at bay and rolling onto his back to
show us who was the boss. I was quite surprised that these lions were more
aggressive/wary than the lions in South Africa, with a lot of switching of
their tails.
After
being waylaid by the lions, we arrived at Sunday Pan just as the sun was
setting. We set up camp as soon as possible. As the sun went down and the
tents went up, the lions started roaring. We knew they were close-by, but
we did not realize just how close they were (we would find that out
later). Rather than braai that night, we had sandwiches and, after being
accosted by little black “stink-bugs” (they really stank), headed for
the safety of our tents.
We
woke up to a beautiful morning to take stock of our surroundings. We were
at Campsite 1 at Sunday Pan. As we knew, the camp-site did not have any
water. We were very happy to see that although rudimentary, the toilet
facilities were well-kept and clean. The facilities consisted of two
wooden enclosures - the one housing a ‘”long-drop” and the other a
bucket-shower.
We
spent four nights at the Sunday Pan campsite. A lot of time was spent
relaxing under the trees reading, making food and snoozing. We also took a
number of game drives. The pans at this time of year are lush grasslands
dotted with Gemsbok, Springbok, the ubiquitous black-bellied Korhaan, and
the odd Ostrich.
 
There
are two other campsites on Sunday Pan, Campsites 2 and 3. Campsites 2 and
3 are on top of a relatively high hill and have spectacular views over the
pan. Campsite 1 is on a lower hill and although it does not have as
splendid a view as the other campsites, being lower you have the feeling
of being in the pan. On our third evening, we heard the lions roaring as
they did on the evening that we arrived. We thought they must be on the
pan somewhere so we decided to take a drive to see if we would be lucky
enough to see them. Imagine our surprise when we bumped into the pride as
we drove out of our campsite, at the sign-post to the camp. We watched
them for a while and noticed that they kept looking in the direction of
the cluster of trees at our camp. We drove off a short way and saw
movement at the base of the hill of our campsite - two lionesses were
making their way from trees near our campsite to join the rest of the
pride. They must have been there all day and it was quite scary to think
that these lions must have decided that the hill-top on which we were
camping was a good place for them to spend the day.
After
spending four interesting and exciting days in the Central Kalahari, we
drove back to Rakops and up to the Makgadigadi Pans Game Reserve. We
entered at Kumaga and drove down to Njuka hills. The entrance sign was
quite intriguing, with the statement “It is cool to be”. Perhaps this
is the answer to Hamlet’s famous question?
We
hardly saw any animals in this park, but the open grass-lands were
spectacular. Njuca hills is a very rudimentary campsite (with only a
long-drop in a reed enclosure), but the feeling of remoteness and the
spectacular sunsets make this camp site at which we spent two nights well
worth it.
 
From
Njuca Hills we headed North to Nxai Pan. The campsite was very
disappointing. Apparently elephants had dug up the water pipes, so the
ablution facilities were not working and they had reverted to a
dilapidated long-drop. Notwithstanding the problems with elephants, it is
not cheap to enter and camp in this park and something should be done to
improve the facilities. Despite the initial disappointment, we were very
impressed with the park itself. It does not take long to drive around Nxai
Pan, but the Baobab trees, and large herds of Zebra, Springbok and Giraffe
were superb. It was also interesting to see Impala in this area.
Apparently this is one of the only places where Springbok and Impala can
be seen in the same area.
 
Baine’s
Baobabs
 We
spent two nights at Nxai Pan and headed out early the next morning with
the intention of doing a detour past Baine’s Baobabs on the way out. On
our way to Baine’s Baobabs we came across two young male lions at the
side of the road. There are two routes to get to Baine’s Baobabs.
Because of the season we decided to head in on the top drier route and
back on the lower route that can be difficult in the rainy season. As we
arrived at Baine’s Baobabs we were faced with a flooded pan. A walk
across the pan showed the road to be hard and the water shallow (10 cm).
We crossed the pan with ease and it was interesting to note that while
other vehicles had tried to go around water on the track (and evidently
got stuck in the process), the best way to get across water in this area
is to keep on the track. When we arrived at the Baobab trees I was
astounded by what I saw. I had been there ten years ago in the dry season
and the pans around the baobabs were dry rocky beds. They looked like a
lunar surface. Now the pans were full of water and the islands extending
out of the pans were lush with vegetation. The metamorphosis from desert
to Eden was incredible! It was also quite evident that we would not be
able to drive back along the lower route because it was completely
submerged. Although it is quite possible that the submerged tracks could
be driven on, we had no idea where they were and headed back on the upper
dry track.
 
 
From
Baine’s Baobabs we drove back to the main road where we said good-bye to
my parents. They were going back home and we were heading up North to the
top of Botswana. What a wonderful time we had together! I will forever
cherish being able to spend this time with my parents in the wilderness,
where there is time and nothing else to do but experience nature and
one-another’s company.
Okavango
Delta
Nicola
and I drove to Maun with the intention of spending a few days in the
Moremi, and then driving up to the Savute and then into the Chobe.
Unfortunately, when we arrived in Maun we found that the rain had
continued to fall in this area and the Moremi was flooded and the Reserve
closed. The road up to Savuti was also under water. As we were only one
vehicle, and discretion being the better part of valour, we decided to
head on back to Nata and then up to Kasane. Although a far distance, the
roads are good and we did the trip in seven hours. After coming from Maun
which is a small town without much appeal, we were very surprised to see
what a beautiful place Kasane is, on the banks of the Chobe river. We
decided to spoil ourselves and booked into the Chobe Safari Lodge for one
night. The night cost 500 Pula (about 700 Rand) for the two of us and must
be the best value for money we have ever had at a lodge or hotel. The
lodge and rooms are superb and we can thoroughly recommend the Chobe
Safari Lodge.
From
Kasane we traveled 30km, following the Chobe River, to Ihaha camp site in
the Chobe Forest Reserve. The drive is lovely, with great views of the
Chobe River, and a lot of animals, including herds of Elephant, Buffalo,
Impala, Lechwe and we even saw a Sable Antelope.
 
Ihaha
Campsite is situated on the banks of the Chobe River and has a lovely view
across the river to the Caprivi Strip. The river in front of our campsite
had a resident hippo. Elephants also like this area and one evening a herd
came down to the river, splashed and drank from the river in front of us
and then slowly moved through the campsite, grazing along the way. One
elephant grazed from the tree under which we were camped and we could hear
his tummy rumbling as he moved by. Although the campsite is nice, we were
again disappointed with the ablution facilities. The facilities were built
with the help of the EU and must have been good when they were built. The
facilities were cleaned by staff who stay at the camp, but are in a
terrible state of disrepair and need to be fixed up.
 
Savute
From
Ihaha, we traveled South down to the Savute. The road from the Chobe
Forest reserve, to Kachikau is partly tarred and partly dirt. The dirt
part is very corrugated, but apart from being uncomfortable to drive on is
no problem. From Kachikau to Savute one must pass through an area of sandy
tracks in the Goha hills. Even though there had been a lot of rain in the
area, the sandy tracks (apart from being very sandy) were no problem. I
think that the rain may have made the tracks a little harder and thus
easier to drive on than had they been dry. On entering the Savute, we were
faced with several areas where the track was under quite deep water (about
1m). It turns out that the tracks were quite hard and the best way forward
was to keep to the track (rather than trying to drive around where you
would be more likely to hit soft mud and get stuck). On arriving at the
Savute Campsite, we found that we were the only people in the camp. Lions
had also killed a giraffe a few days before about 500m from the camp.
Although we did not see the lions, we could smell the kill and certainly
heard the lions that night. Savute camp is well looked after and the
ablution facilities are fine, but we did not find a comfortable campsite
to stay at. The next day we took a drive down to Savute marsh and were a
bit disappointed at how few animals were about. There were lots of birds,
but apart from a lone bull elephant and a lone wildebeest and a pair of
jackals, we saw nothing. We were hoping to catch the annual migration of
Zebra through this area, but it was not to be.
 
After
our game drive we went to chat to the ranger about the animals and he
confirmed that game was very sparse at that time. He asked if we had seen
the lions, as people from the local lodges had found the pride in the
campsite? We hadn’t, and considering the fact that we were the only
people in the camp, this may have been a good thing. By this time we were
a bit more uncomfortable and, with the poor game viewing, we decided to
cut our losses and leave the Savute and drive back to Kasane.
It
is unfortunate that our plans to visit the Moremi and Savute did not work
out, but we will be back to explore these areas in the dry season.
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