The safari started 12th of July 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and ended at the same place 14 days later, the 26th of July. It was called "Brush in the wild. Botswana, Namibia & Zimbabwe" by the safari company African Getaway Tours & Safaris, which arranged the tour:
"This photographic camping safari introduces you to an astonishing diversity of wildlife. An action packed adventure with several activities exploring these comparatively unknown wilderness area".
And an adventure it surely was, with both positive and negative aspects. After about 5000 km on mainly good roads, spectacular areas like the Kalahari bushweld and Makgadikgadi Pans, the Okavango Delta, Namibia's Caprivi Strip, Chobe National Park and Victoria Falls between Zimbabwe and Zambia were experienced. But we also had some bad experiences like getting stuck in the sand time and again, due to a bad off-road vehicle, the Toyota Condor 3000D.
On this page a number of pictures taken during the trip are shown, and some thoughts and impressions of selected destinations highlighted.
Makgadikgadi Pans in the Kalahari, Botswana
Oddballs on tour
Acacia trees
Stuck in the sand in Moremi...
Moremi tree
Khwai River in the Moremi Game Reserve
The Okavango Delta, known as the Jewel of the Kalahari, how was it like?
We spent six days in the delta, or more precisely, two days in Moremi Game Reserve, two days at Guma Lagoon Camp and two days at Drotsky's Cabin. Moremi was a typical game reserve, where we saw a lot of wildlife. And where the spotted hyenas were sniffing on our tents just after we had gone to bed. And the hyena was screaming through the night. Very exciting, in other words. But it was also where we first got stuck, and had to dig the car out of the sand. It turned out the safari company didn't bring a spade. Strange, if you ask me? Overall, Moremi was a great experience. The next two days we spent in a place called Guma Lagoon Camp, next to one of the permanent lagoons in the delta. We had to get towed into the camp, as we got stuck in the sand on our way to the campsite some 11 km from the highway. The trailer simply was too heavy for the car, and the whole of Botswana is made up of sand, a recipe for trouble... The next day we spent on a very nice mokoro trip out in the delta. The mokoro is a shallow dugout canoe traditionally hewn from an ebony or sausage tree, that is propelled by a poler who stands at the back of the canoe with a ngashi - a pole made from the mogonono tree. Each mokoro takes two passengers, and one manages to get very close to the wildlife on this kind of trip. A nice experience indeed. Drotsky's Cabin next to the Okavango River was a very pleasant campsite, with a fine bar, but also with excellent possibilities for boat cruises on the river. One of the days at Drotsky's we traveled to the Tsodilo Hills, some 100 km away, to see the ancient bushmen paintings, dating back more than 1000 years. We hired a charming San woman as a guide, who when asked suggested that the paintings were millions of years. She obviously didn't have any conception of time.
Locals carrying firewood's next to the Guma Lagoon Camp
Sunset at the Guma Lagoon
Mokoro boat trip in the Okavango Delta
The poler
Okavango Delta, papyrus and palms
Okavango
The giant kingfisher
Baobab and palm trees
Old San paintings in the Tsodilo Hills, Eastern Botswana
Local guide, a San woman
A drink in the bar at Drotsky's Cabin, Okavango Delta
Campsite at Drotsky's Cabin
More Okavango impressions
Water lily
Shopping in Namibia's Caprivi Strip
Poached crocodile in Mudumu National Park, Namibia
It was about 4.5 meters long; a nice beast
Yeah! Say no more
Tsetse fly trap
The guide digging in the sand, again...
This car was not meant for the sandy roads in Botswana and Namibia, that's for sure
African sunset at the Nambwa campsite
Vervet monkey
Namibia's Caprivi Strip
During the trip we spent two days in Namibia north of Botswana, in an area called the Caprivi Strip. This is a narrow finger of Namibian territory that juts deeply eastward into central Africa. The corridor divides Angola and Zambia from Botswana and runs all the way to the Zambezi River just upstream of Victoria Falls. One night was spent at Nambwa campsite next to the the Kwando River in Mudumu National Park and the other night at Kalizo Lodge situated next to the one of the largest rivers in Africa, the Zambezi River. The first place we got stuck in the sand (big surprise!), and lost the game drive to my growing irritation. At Kalizo Lodge we spent an afternoon on a sundowner cruise on the Zambezi River, observing birds like African skimmers and annoyed hippos. We also managed to get ashore in Zambia on the opposite riverside, without any visa, to be able to brag about having been also to that country.
Sundowner cruise on the Zambezi River
On shore in Zambia, illegal...
On the border between Namibia and Botswana
Chobe riverfront with large herds of elephants
Elephant in the Chobe River
Nile monitor in the Chobe River
Chobe
Hippos
Chobe National Park
Crossing the border from Namibia to Botswana, we immediately arrived in the Chobe National Park. This 11,700 square kilometers park in the northeastern corner of Botswana is famous for its rich wildlife. With tens of thousands of elephants, this is the best place in Africa to view huge herds of the largest land-living creature on earth. We were driving the 15 km stretch of Chobe River from Kasane town to the Serondela campsite several times. The Chobe River area contains an interesting variety of habitats and is rich in plant life, with mopane woodland, mixed combretum, sandveld, floodplain, grasslands and riverine woodland. Many trees have suffered considerable damage from the high numbers of elephants, who push them over and rip off the bark - and some woods have been totally denuded. We also made a sundowner trip on the river and saw lots of hippopotamuses, crocodiles and buffalos. Both hippos and elephants epitomize this park more than any other animals and are often featured on the cover of brochures to the area. The only subject more photographed in Chobe is the exquisite sanguine sunsets sinking slowly over the water. All in all, Chobe was a great experience.
Victoria Falls seen from the Zimbabwean side
Dr. Livingstone and Dr. Olsvik...
Victoria Falls
The border crossing on our way to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls from Kasane in Botswana went surprisingly smooth, and it took less than one hour for all of us to fill in all the forms and to pay for our visas. A one-day visa (valid for 90 days) to Zimbabwe costs $30. From the border it was about one hour drive to the falls. There we had to pay an additional $20 to get into the Victoria Falls National Park surrounding the famous waterfall. Vic Falls is today considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. A network of tracks in the park leads through lush vegetation. We went to the Danger Point, and saw straight into the gorge. And got wet, of course, as cascades of spray is thrown into the air where the water hits the bottom of the gorge. Victoria Falls, or Vic falls as it is called, is 1.7 km wide and 108 meters high. And having seen both falls, I must say that Vic Falls beats Niagara Falls on the USA - Canada border by a good margin. Both places are dazzling, but it is more the huge amounts of water than the height in itself that is impressive. The famous Dr. Livingstone was very impressed by the falls, and he has now got his own statue there.
Zimbabwe is becoming more and more dangerous the more missteps president Mugabe does. Expelling white farmers is one thing, but tearing up and destroying farms that is responsible for most of the country's income creates more poor people and increases crime. The planned stop at Motobo National Park in Zimbabwe therefore had to be cancelled. We had to drive through Botswana to get back to South Africa instead.
Vic Falls seen from the helicopter
Vic Falls
Trip summary
All in all, a somewhat tiresome, but very interesting trip. Next time I will fly into Maun or Kasene in Botswana, instead of taking the long detour of Joburg in South Africa. Then you might avoid getting mugged in one of the most criminal and dangerous cities in the world...