With limited time we booked ourselves onto a trip to experience a couple of Botswana’s highlights. The beauty of this tour was it picked us up in Livingstone, Zambia and would drop us in Pretoria, South Africa at the end. Our friend Neil was heading as far as Kasane, the town which is the base for Chobe National Park, so used our tour bus as a taxi service. It was great to be able to spend more time with him as it’s very likely it’ll be at least a year before we all meet up again. Once again immigration procedures were efficiently dealt with but this border had the added fun of having to cross the Zambezi River on a pontoon. Neil cryptically informed us that this is where Africa ends or starts depending on your direction of travel. Our puzzlement soon disappeared as we realised we reached countries with much more wealth on display. Smooth, wide, tarmacked roads with street lamps, modern traffic lights and substantially more choice in the shops.
Chobe National Park
Thebe Safari Camp is typical of the area; a huge sight catering for over-landers, private campers, small group tours etc in pleasant grounds with a relaxed open-plan bar/restaurant area. As we were putting up the tents and checking out the facilities a family of banded mongoose pottered along and the ever present vervet monkeys were monkeying around too. There was no time to sit around twiddling our thumbs as it was time for our game drive in Chobe National Park. Things were looking good as we encountered a group of elephants as we were driving down the road towards the park gates. Once inside the park the elephants didn’t disappoint and we saw small groups at very regular intervals.
The only thing that did disappoint was the game drive itself; it was very short, only took in a tiny area of the park and the driver/guide was useless. He didn’t even see a trio of giraffes on a hillock! Luckily we seemed to be with a group who were interested and keen to try to spot animals for themselves so by the end of our brief drive around we saw a whole host of beasties. You know what’s coming – the list! Elephant, impala, giraffe, waterbuck, hippo, sable antelope, warthog, crocodile, kudu, tree squirrel, water monitor, buffalo and I spotted a pair of honey badgers. I was very pleased with myself, not just that I saw them, but that I could readily identify them too. The rest of the group were happy too as it’s very rare to see these creatures during daylight hours.
So yes, we saw lots of animals and of course you can never tire of watching elephants and giraffes but over-all we felt it had been a token gesture of a safari. It was very sad watching one adult elephant struggling to keep up due to a badly injured foot. What made it worse was the fact that the injury had obviously occurred due to poaching activity. We could see a band of wire embedded in its flesh and there was no way the animal would be able to remove it. If it’s lucky and it escapes infection it should be able to survive, but ………. On a happy note we all thoroughly enjoyed watching 2 one year olds play fighting. One decided it was cross with our presence so trumpeted and mock charged. He seemed perplexed at our ‘aahs’ and giggles!
On leaving the park we went to board a boat for our cruise up the river that forms the border between Botswana and Zambia. Where had all these tourists sprung from? There were more people on our boat than we’d seen in the previous five weeks and there were loads of boats. Again we felt like it was a token gesture; looked good on the itinerary but in truth someone’s cutting corners and raking it in. Luckily we bagged a spot at the front of the boat so tried to forget the scores of people sitting behind us. That proved difficult because as soon as there was something to photograph there was a wall of people blocking everyone else’s view. It seems these days if you have a super large camera you’re the only one that wants to be able to see the animal/object. I’ll move on before I get on another rant about people’s lack of manners and awareness of others in today’s world.
That aside we saw loads of hippos and crocs up close and how can you ever forget seeing at least 100 elephants in a matter of a couple of hours? I promise you there is no exaggeration on the number; there were elephants munching, drinking, bathing, swimming, playing and it was all fascinating to watch. A highlight for me was watching a large water monitor prowling along the banks – I do miss these magnificent dinosaur-esque lizards. Steve and I seemed to be the only people on board that actually knew what this animal was – a classic example of people having more money than sense. Plus we finally got to see birds in greater numbers and spotted over 20 species alone on this boat ride.
Back at the camp Neil was keen to hear what we had to say. Our statement of; ‘game drive too short and guide useless plus too big a boat but lots of elephants’ didn’t surprise him at all. It seems companies in this area are all out to make as fast and as big a buck as possible. It should have been a much better experience than it was so let’s hope in the future visitor numbers are controlled and / or spread out across a wider area of this huge national park. Mind you, 100+ elephants ………. This was our second and final evening with Neil and only those who live a life abroad can boast meeting up in 2 countries in 2 days! As we were sat chatting a movement in the tree caught my eye; we were all thrilled to watch a bush baby leaping about.
Travel Day
With fantastic roads to traverse covering over 400kms in a day in Botswana is very do-able; the equivalent trip in Malawi we reckon would have taken 3 or 4 days! This area of Botswana is very sparsely populated and in fact we zipped along kilometre after kilometre without seeing a soul. The landscape was pretty much just bush and shrub with the odd plantation/ranch interspersed among the natural vegetation. The land was parched and over-grazing has made the land very dusty. However, even beyond the national park boundaries there were a number of animals going about their business, namely; jackal, giraffe, elephant, kudu, ostrich and zebra.
Maun turned out to be quite a large, spread out town of a population of 350 000 apparently – I’ve no idea where they were all hiding! With us stopping in a town lunch wasn’t provided in the tour which we felt was another way of cutting costs. The perceived bonus of being provided with a butty, piece of fruit and carton of juice would have far outweighed the actual cost. Instead we were left with the option of a fast food chain or cobble something together from the supermarket and try to find somewhere to sit. We know this is classed as budget travel but for the money we’ve forked out per head we continually feel like its cost cutting. The advantage of stopping in town before reaching the campsite means you can pop a couple of shop-priced beer in the cool box and save a few quid!
Delta Rain camp was quite a long way from town but again it was very pleasant and spread over a vast area with all the usual facilities. The natural shade provided by the trees was lovely and of course they attracted a whole host of birds. Even before we’d had chance to get the gear out of the trailer the site’s boss came over to say hello and tell us about the campsite. He then proceeded to inform us about the optional extra activities that would be available after our foray into the delta. He quickly changed from information provider into pushing us all into an instant decision.
As a group we hadn’t had time to get to know each other let alone talk about which options we’d like to choose. We all fancied an aerial tour of the delta but with the plane ride being $35 a head cheaper some of us thought that was a better option. The problem was the helicopters need 3 people and the planes 5 or 7 no other combination of numbers is permissible. If you want 6 in the plane then you have to share out the cost of the 7th invisible man. As a group of 9 the obvious answer, despite the extra cost, was 3 helicopter groups. The catch? Couples didn’t want to split – obviously. Luckily we had one single lad and the mother and daughter pairing decided to go separately. So the decision was made with the bulk of the group making some sort of compromise. On talking to the others later it seemed that we all felt we’d been railroaded into the decision - not a pleasant feeling.
As per usual Steve and I were on the periphery of the group, observing and trying to work out who was worth talking to. We really don’t relish the ‘let’s pretend we’re one big happy family’ routine and very quickly worked out which one was the show-off! The good news; our driver/cook (Sidney) was a lovely bloke, great fun to be around, a good driver and an excellent cook. Without him this trip could have potentially been an expensive fiasco.
Okavango Delta
Some trips, despite what initially feels like a ludicrous expenditure, far surpass all hopes and expectations -The Galapagos Islands. And they end up feeling like excellent value for money and will long be considered the best thing you’ve ever done. Then there are those trips that are very reasonably priced but you worry that the event won’t live up to your preconceived ideas and images. Phew! It’s absolutely astounding i.e. Machu Picchu. Next we have those trips that sound too good to be true for the price but they turn out to be incredibly enjoyable and rewarding i.e. South Luangwa NP, Santa Cruz trek, Rajasthan camel camp etc.
Unfortunately there’s one final category of trip; the one where you decide to play more than you would usually because it sounds so good and it’s to an area of the world you’ve long wished to visit. Only to be disappointed and feel like the whole thing’s been cobbled together to line some fat cat’s pocket. Acacia Africa’s 7D/6N small group camping trip to the Okavango Delta perfectly fits that bill.
I’ve already told you how poor the game drive in Chobe NP was; in fact it goes down as the second worst we’ve ever done. Wasgamuwa NP in Sri Lanka wins that particular prize as we saw no animals at all and on returning to the hotel found all our rooms had been broken in to. Plus the boat ride with scores of others was a classic example of cost-cutting with having to buy lunch most days being tight. Finally, should we really have to buy and lug around our own drinking water – we’re in a natural area surely reducing plastic consumption should be a priority. We’ve also been told that we won’t be stopping in town on the way back so had no choice other than to sign up for the Pula 50 lunch in Delta Rain. By this stage we felt like we’d paid for a long taxi ride with tent and breakfast accommodation along the way with a few token gesture activities chucked in. Thank goodness we had the amiable Sidney rustling up cracking dinners every evening and providing decent conversation.
Now that I’ve got that out of my system I’ll get around to telling you today’s itinerary consisted of! We had to get up at 5.30am to pack up the camp, have breakfast and load the jeep with all we would need to 2 night’s camping in the delta. Morning were might nippy so 1 ½ hours in an open-sided jeep wasn’t helpful. We then loaded everything into mokoros and were poled out into the delta. A mokora is a traditional style canoe that in the past was a hollowed out sausage tree branch but these days they tend to be made out of more environmentally aware fibreglass.
About an hour later we pulled up onto an island and pitched camp. This had all taken place by 9.30am and we were then informed that the day’s nature walk would commence at 4.30pm. So we’d paid a lot of money to spend 7hrs sitting under a tree! Granted it was a lovely, peaceful spot but so are thousands of other places. It didn’t feel special and we certainly didn’t feel that we were in THE Okavango Delta. To be honest we could have been on the edge of any old lake or river. The piece-de-resistance; we would be there for 2 nights and boredom was rapidly creeping in.
Back to the penny pinching; we’ve been told that we have to make a tip collection for the polers. Now that in itself is fair enough, to be expected and an amount has been suggested. However, what we objected to was the fact that we were told the polers depend on their tips to supplement their wages. No! No! No! Why isn’t the tour operator using our trip fees to ensure they pay the people they depend upon a proper wage? A tip should constitute a welcome addition to earnings not be a vital component.
Hindsight’s a wonderful thing but with it we wouldn’t have visited this part of Botswana using this type of tour. We wished we’d used public transport, or even hired a car, and reduced the number of activities (not that we’ve really done any!) We’d have taken a cruise down the River Chobe in a smaller boat, a brief morning mokoro ride to experience the delta’s narrow channels and shallow waters and finally a flight over the delta to get a sense of scale and geography of the area. Anyway back to what we did do.
Excitement levels in the camp palpably rose as 4.30pm and activity time approached. The nature walk bizarrely started with us all perched in a couple of mokoros. We were then poled back towards where we’d been introduced to these floating planks just that very morning. Mind you the day had felt so long I was sure we arrived the previous day! It transpired we weren’t the only ones to feel bemused by the day’s lack of activity and we all enjoyed some sarcastic banter. Anyway following a thankfully short pole through the reeds we commenced our nature walk.
Luckily we hadn’t expected to see any animals so at least we weren’t too disappointed. We were allegedly following zebra, kudu and hippo tracks but considering how desiccated their dung was it had been some time since they’d passed through. Just to highlight how little we’d penetrated the wilds of the delta we spotted a herd of cattle. The guide (a local tribesman apparently) tried to tell us there were a couple of zebra in amongst them but he wasn’t going to be able to hoodwink us that easily. All-in-all a pointless shuffle through some grassland but at least it killed a couple of hours. Steve volunteered to hijack a mokoro and pole us back to town in reverse Survivor Island style i.e. I’m a tourist and I vote to leave here first! Mind you judging from his poling attempts earlier in the day we’d still be going round in circles as the rest of the group gracefully glided back to Maun town. The day ended up with us being poled through the reeds as the sun was setting and very beautiful it was too.
The next morning we were up at 6.30am to commence a longer walk round the island upon which we were camped. At first it looked like it was going to be a longer and therefore more tedious version of yesterday’s events. However, the porcupine, antelope and zebra poo did look fresh leading to a glimmer of hope. In actual fact it didn’t take long to find some stripy horses and this time there was no mistaking them for cows! We would have enjoyed quietly watching them but the guide insisted on wittering on about the tree behind us. He’d told us all about it yesterday so please; shhh! As we continued it was good to see patches of water and we began to gather a clearer picture of how the delta would look in the wet season.
Unfortunately we continually skipped past swampy pool areas even though there were birds to look at. Well, that was until Steve struck his pet lip out and had a small strop! We didn’t want to sound like twitchers but with so few animals in the area why not spend a few minutes looking at the birds? There were some magnificent ones there, including a saddle-billed stork; a huge bird that you don’t commonly see. As we continued across the grassy plain a reedbuck leapt away into the distance. A little further on we came to a particularly large body of water and on the distant bank we could see a small herd of red lechwe. This was a new antelope sighting for us and one of the animals we’d hoped to spot on this leg of the trip. We stopped here for a while to enjoy the area and see if anything else popped up. It didn’t so it was time to go back to camp.
As with the previous day we then had an interminable wait until the next activity. We slunk off to our tent for a couple of hours to get away from the inane twittering. We were soon bored so we headed off to the ‘hippo pool’ so Steve could have a swim and we could reflect upon this tour. Conclusion? There’s no way we should be in a place we’d long wished to visit, and paid a tidy sum for the privilege, to feel utterly bored. Steve’s quiet dip was short-lived as most of the rest of the group arrived. However, we got chatting to find out that many of the others shared our thoughts; a lot of money to fulfil a dream only to find we’re not really in the delta. Plus we’d been provided with insufficient activities and felt like we were constantly forking out more cash.
Finally the hands of the clock crawled around to 5pm and we could board the mokoros. We’d expected an afternoon safari/sunset cruise but in actual fact all we did was pole around the corner to look at some hippos. We briefly took in the sunset and returned to camp. Now granted you can’t complain about getting up close to hippos in a boat smaller than they are but once again we felt cheated. To add to our woes the evening ended with the old sing-song round the campfire. It was lovely to hear our local crew of guides and cooks sing some of their traditional songs. But, and there’s always a but, it went on way too long with the ultimate horror of horrors – audience participation. Obviously Steve and I steadfastly refused – let those who like it join in but for goodness sake leave us be! The minute sharing jokes was muted we beat a hasty retreat!
The following morning saw us briefly retracing our steps from the previous morning and I’ve absolutely nothing to tell you. We then packed up camp – quickly! I was an even more unhappy bunny by the time we returned to the jeeps as our mokoro sprung a leak and I ended up soaked from the waist down. Just what I needed before a $115 a head helicopter ride.
The Helicopter Ride
This has a section to itself as the experience redeemed the whole delta fiasco. Riding in a helicopter that can only take 3 passengers and the pilot is exciting enough but this had an added bonus – no doors. To be honest that was a huge selling point for me whereas Steve pointed out that helicopters have doors for a reason. Before you think 2 nights camping in the delta had turned us into Bear Gryllses I should tell you that we had seat belts.
From the moment we left the ground it was a magical experience – our pilot was superb and he provided us with loads of information about the delta. Being up there finally gave us a sense of scale, geography and water distribution – the horizon appeared infinite. Looking down on the ancient aqua tracks that hippos and elephants have forged over the years was amazing. To top it all we got to gaze upon elephants, hippo, zebra, lechwe, raptors and storks from on high. The ultimate highlight was zipping across the delta at a height of just 5m to give us a giraffe’s eye view of the world.
An unforgettable and astounding experience that in the general scheme of things was a snip at $115 each. We left the area thoroughly invigorated.
Travel Day – with a stop-off
We departed Delta Rain campsite at 7.30am to embark on the 500+km journey to Serowe. I’ve already told you that we’d seen more wildlife whilst driving along than we saw in the delta and today had a special treat in store. To everyone’s astonishment and utter delight we were lucky enough to see a pack of wild dogs on the road side. It looked like they were after a young calf, and in fact were nipping the heels of its mother, but soon scampered into the scrub when a bus thundered by. Lucky for the calf but we wished the road had been empty at the time. Still it was wonderful to see them no matter how fleetingly and once again we were way beyond park boundaries.
Initially the flora consisted of scrub interspersed by wooded area and open savannah with few shades of green to be spied at this dry time of year. As we drove through a vast desert plateau (part of the Kalahari?) there wasn’t a hint of green to be seen. The prevalence of domesticated stock; cattle, goats and donkeys is causing quite severe over-grazing. As they travel in search of food their hooves kick up clouds of dust. With scant grass cover the landscape is covered in a thin layer of grey, dusty fine sand.
We stopped briefly to look at some salt flats near Mopipi; another facet of Botswana’s ever changing façade. Mopipi is a long since abandoned fishing village that didn’t seem very different from all the other towns and villages we’d passed. They all have an air of dishevelment and disuse about them to be honest. Next we drove through an area of tall scrubby bush displaying russet red, orange and yellow leaves with the horizon broken by a scattering of taller acacia trees. Unfortunately other than the wild dogs we only saw domesticated animals that day. There weren’t even very many birds fluttering around this central area of Botswana.
Khame Rhino Sanctuary
We managed to reach the day’s stop-off point just in time for the scheduled activity. We had arrived at Khame Rhino Sanctuary where we jumped into a jeep for a 2-hr safari. We hadn’t expected a great deal and were pleasantly surprised. Not surprisingly the focus was on finding our horned friend but we did stop when other animals presented themselves. The sanctuary is home to 46 white rhino and just 4 black rhino and was set up to help protect and preserve these magnificent beasts. Apparently it was the local people who asked for the sanctuary to be established and requested this plot of land as it’s adjacent to an army base, who provide first class protection.
We ended up with a great haul of sightings for a private game reserve; black-backed jackal, greater kudu, springbok, steenbok, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, red hartebeest, impala, kori bustard, ostrich and yes, we did find a rhino. Apparently we found Jack – these people obviously know their charges well to be able to name individuals. A formidable animal he was too and with more of these private reserves being established let’s hope we can get the white rhino at least off the critically endangered list. Unfortunately it’s a different story for the black rhino at present but efforts are being made to help them.
According to our increasingly mythical Acacia Africa itinerary we were supposed to be camping at the rhino place but apparently there was some confusion. We’d heard the restaurant had burnt down but maybe it was more than that or maybe they simply weren’t expecting us. Anyway we had to drive on to Kwa Nokeng campsite (not a very African name!) and it was already dark by the time we arrived. Fortunately there was lighting so we could see to put up the tents but I felt sorry for Sidney as a long day’s drive had been even longer. It was chilly but the flurry of activity setting up camp warmed us up while Sidney got the fire going.
The Last Day
With having driven an extra couple of hours the previous evening Sidney said we didn’t need to depart until 8am. However, we didn’t get a good night’s sleep and woke up feeling cold so got up to sit around Sidney’s cooking fire. More to the point we got the kettle on! Striking camp in the daylight was a bit of a treat. As we were packing the van a troop of vervet monkeys arrived at our campsite to raid it of scraps – they really should put monkey proof bins in these places.
With the extra miles under our belts it meant we were only minutes from the border and it’s always satisfying to get paperwork done and dusted. It was another smooth, efficient border crossing that saw us entering South Africa for the first time by 9am. This section of the Botswana/South Africa border is formed by the mighty Limpopo River. However, at this dry time of year the Limp – popo would be more accurate! We immediately entered a land of gigantic fenced off ranch after gigantic fenced off ranch. Not surprisingly we didn’t see much wildlife (a couple of warthogs) but it was lovely to see mountains again following the vast pancake flats plains and delta.
As soon as we were though the first major town we joined a motorway – all very modern with innumerable expensive private cars driving along it. A world away from the pot-holed dirt tracks and ancient matatus of Malawi. Like Neil said – it’s not Africa anymore or as a Pretorian described it; the Europe of Africa. We eventually hit the outskirts of Johannesburg to then drive right across the city to drop off three members of our group. All-in-all we were in Jo’burg for 2hrs before reaching our pre-booked accommodation; Moafrica. At least we’d had a free city tour and were glad that we’d be staying in Pretoria for the last few days of our holiday. Acacia Africa / Moafrica’s customer service now went into over-drive. They didn’t have a room for us despite us having 2 booking confirmation vouchers and we’d paid a deposit.
In the end it worked in our favour as they not only moved us to the far superior Mannah Executive Lodge but we got an upgrade too. We had a spanking room with heater, hot water shower, all the toiletries, tea / coffee making facilties you’d desire, DSTV and after 6 nights in a tent an enormous luxurious BED! Spent ages in the shower getting clean, enjoyed the room to its maximum and popped to the bar to take advantage of the free wi-fi and reasonably priced tipples. A quick internet search revealed we had a $90 room for $50 – result!
