The Botswana border was pretty deserted. It was 4pm on Christmas day. The officials were friendly and efficient greeting us with “Happy Xmas”. No visa was necessary but we had to pay a 170 Rand Road tax. They also gave us a glossy brochure on Botswana. When I asked about the garage, they told us that it had run out of petrol. Eh? When will the fuel tanker arrive? “No one knows. There have been problems with fuel getting through in Botswana recently. Where are you going?” “Palapye” I replied. It was about 120km away “Is there another garage on the way?” No. We were nearly down to the reserve fuel and there was no way we would get there. We would have to wait it out, “Is there anywhere to stay here?” There was a lodge a kilometre behind the garage.

As we passed the garage, there were drivers sitting with the unemployed fuel pump attendants. We asked them for an ETA on the tanker. “Maybe tomorrow” they said. We headed for the Kwa Nokeng Lodge and checked in. The cheapest option was a ‘safari tent’. This was a permanently erected tent big enough to contain two single beds and nothing else. We opted for the all you can eat buffet in the evening as well. It could have been worse – sleeping in the car all night.

The lodge was next to the Limpopo River which was very wide. Hippos were sometimes seen, though all we saw were Vervet monkeys clambering around the trees and tent tops. THese are Africa’s most common monkey though they spend much of their time foraging on the ground. The dominant male signals his status by showing his powder blue scrotum and vivid scarlet penis. Oo-er. There were also some huge termite nests made from the grey clay. A couple of hours after we arrived, someone came over and said “Were you looking for fuel?” Yes. “The tanker has just arrived”. Outstanding, I drove back to the garage and filled up and bought some ice cold beer to celebrate. Our accommodation that night in Palapye had been reserved but not paid for. I had already called them to explain the fuel problem. So all we had lost today was 120km from the planned schedule.

Sunday December 26th

Botswana Background: The CIA website says “Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name upon independence in 1966. Four decades of uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social policies, and significant capital investment have created one of the most dynamic economies in Africa. Mineral extraction, principally diamond mining, dominates economic activity, though tourism is a growing sector due to the country's conservation practices and extensive nature preserves. Botswana has one of the world's highest known rates of HIV/AIDS infection, but also one of Africa's most progressive and comprehensive programs for dealing with the disease.”

A large country, slightly smaller than Texas is landlocked with its 2m population concentrated in eastern part of the country. It is a predominantly a shallow sand-filled flat basin 800-1300m above sea level with some gently rolling tableland and the Kalahari Desert in southwest. Unemployment is offically 7% (but unofficially 40%) and life expectancy is around 60. 72% of the population are Christian in this Parliamentary Republic.Agriculture includes: livestock, sorghum, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers, groundnuts. Industry includes: diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash; livestock processing; textiles Botswana has maintained one of the world's highest economic growth rates since independence in 1966, though growth fell below 5% in 2007-08, and turned sharply negative in 2009, with industry falling nearly 30%. Through fiscal discipline and sound management, Botswana transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of US$14,100 in 2008. Diamond mining has fuelled much of the expansion. Tourism, financial services, subsistence farming, and cattle breeding are other key sectors.

We were up and packed away before dawn. Our next accommodation was at Nata Lodge at Nata and we wanted to make the most of it. Setting off for Palapye, we passed some Ground Hornblls by the side of the empty road. These are the largest hornbills in Africa and the only southern African bird that walks on the tips of its toes. Like large turkeys, small groups patrol grasslands and open woodland looking for prey. There was a lovely colourful sunrise behind us. Palapye was a drab transport centre between Gaborone the capital, and Francistown on the main road and the South Africa border. We hadn’t missed much by not reaching it yesterday.

Francistown was 160km north of Palapye. It is one of the oldest towns in Botswana and the site of southern Africa’s first gold rush. It was a sizeable place of 130,000, the second biggest city in the country and ‘Capital of the North’ with shopping malls, banks, offices, garages and ATMs (complete with security guards sitting next to them) but pretty quiet this early. We grabbed a coffee at a Wimpey, as an excuse to use the toilet, which was outside. But someone had taken the key and not returned it so no one could use it.

There were no road signs and just north of the town, there was a roundabout. We had been driving along the A1 since Palapye in the same direction and I assumed it was straight over the roundabout. We drove along the road which was being expanded on one side with miles of sand and rocks ready to build a road. About 30km later, at a hamlet, I was thinking that we hadn’t seen a sign saying Nata or Kasane which was strange for the main road. When I looked at the map, I discovered we were driving towards Zimbabwe. The border was just down the road. So we back tracked to the roundabout and turned right, filled up at a garage and double checked we were on the correct road. It was 187km to Nata.

We passed very tidy villages of straw roofed huts with walls made of orange mud standing inside a wooden frame. Herds of goats wandered around and women did their washing. By the side of the road, we passed two wooden buggies full of men and boys being pulled by a handful of donkeys.

We arrived at Nata Lodge around midday. As we entered the compound, 10km south of Nata, the sandy roads were flooded with recent downpours. The main buildings were covered in thick thatched roofs. The reception area was open with large plants bringing a tropical feel to the place. The patio/outside dining area was shaded by huge morula and monkey thorn trees. We couldn’t check in until 2pm, so made use of the lovely swimming pool and sunshine. It made a change to stop in the middle of the day.

When we did check in, we were amazed at what we had reserved online. I had opted for a luxury safari tent. There were four of them behind the lodge in their own area. The large tent was built on a wooden platform with a wooden roof over it and steps leading up to the wooden door. A huge ancient termite nest as tall as me, stood near the steps. Inside there were two beds with rolled up mosquito nets, classy wooden furniture on a lovely polished wooden floor, a fan, toilet, sink and outside shower which was enclosed by canvas but had no cover. It was spotless. Nata Lodge had burnt down in a forest fire back in 2008. but it had been rebuilt and our accommodation was obviously recent. It was up in the top 3 of any accommodation that we had on the trip. Recommended.

The Lodge ran tours of the local Sowa Pan which was part of the massive Makgadikgadi Game Reserve. We booked onto the 4pm tour and set off with two other couples and our driver/guide, Richard. The vehicle was a customised pick up truck with a viewing platform on the back where we sat overlooking the driver’s cab. We drove down to the Nata Bird Sanctuary and entered the pan on flooded sandy lanes. There is no way we could have gotten the car into these pans with this mud and water.

‘Sowa’ is the bushman word for salt, an apt description of this vast white expanse. To reach it we drove through low lying grasslands, with the occasional herd of springbok grazing on it. The salt pan was vast and flat, so flat that you could see the curvature of the earth on the horizon. There were no trees in sight and the few rock islands were so far away as to be invisible, It was just the scale that was amazing. The salt pan was actually a mix of gravel, minerals and sand. Just beneath the surface are vast quantities of soda ash, used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soap, paper and cleaning agents. The tour lasted 3 hours and as we left the Sowa Pan, the sun was setting and being reflected in the puddles of water. At certain times of the year, the pan floods with a shallow level of water which attracts massive amounts of flamingos, but not today. Still, Botswana’s pans are the main geological feature and scenic reason for visiting, so we were glad that we had had the opportunity to visit one. In the evening around 8pm, we drove up to the small town of Nata which appeared to be closed except for a garage and a fast food outlet.

Monday December 27th

The cleaners/maids walked around the grounds with piles of towels balanced on their heads. We didn’t want to leave our wonderful room but Kasane beckoned and we had a reservation there. When we reached Nata up the road, there was a police check where we were ‘invited’ to attend a safety session on driving in Botswana. We sat at a desk in a marquee, while a young man with good English warned us about animals on the road and drinking and driving. It was a nice touch, even if we had already driven through half of Botswana .

North of Nara, it was 312km to Kasane along flat open roads, little traffic and no police speed traps. There were no towns en route, just the occasional village. Herds of cows and goats grazed by the side of or crossed the road. Handfuls of donkeys also stood around in their own areas. It came as a shock to see a large female elephant by the side of the road. She munched away quite happily, oblivious to us sitting nearby for 10 minutes taking photos and just staring. Now that we knew elephants were around, we kept our eyes open while driving and spotted three having a mud bath in a pit, a few others in the bush and then a large male bull with big tusks by the road side. When we stopped this time, he was not happy and started to walk towards the car and flailing his truck around. It looked as if he was going to charge us (which we had been warned about) and we took off in the car very quickly. “You were worried back there, weren’t you” asked Wendy. No shit. That was a huge elephant and he was aggressive. The African elephant is the largest mammal on earth, weighing seven tons and reaching 4m high in the largest bulls. An elephant’s requirements are prodigious. They eat up to 170kg of vegetation each day and drink upwards of 60 litre of water. The open flat grasslands with low level trees and bushes gave way to just cultivated fields as we approached Kasane.

Situated near the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi rivers and close to Botswana's borders with Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Kasane was a ramshackle town of around 8000 people. But its location meant that the tourist lodges could charge much higher prices than in other parts of Botswana. I had hunted for something cheap and had come up with the Toro Safari Lodge outside Kasane and only 3 miles from the border. I had reserved two separate nights here. The lodge had a security guard who waved us in. As we walked to the reception area, we could see the Chobe River as an impressive backdrop. The lodge’s location was lovely but cheaper because it was not within the Chobe National Park.

There were lines of huts standing back from the river. We were given a spacious en suite hut with a large thatched roof. But the air conditioning didn’t work, so we were given another hut next door, once a cleaner had gone in to give it the once over. Someone also warned us that the nearby pond often attracted a local alligator, though I didn’t believe them. There was a ‘Beware of Hippo’ sign nailed to a tree by the river.

The hotel organised ‘Sunset River Safaris’ in the Chobe National Park. I had never done a safari by boat, so I was eager to try this. We were driven a few miles in a full minibus into the National Park and walked along a wooden gangway to a double- decker viewing boat. This had plastic garden chairs lining both sides of the boat on both decks. There was plenty of room but it was quite windy and some of the chairs none of which were tied down, would blow over. We were the only white people on board.

Chobe National Park, which is the second largest national park in Botswana and covers some 11 700 square kilometres, has some of the greatest concentrations of game found on the African continent, not least of which are the 120 000 head of elephant. The official website says “The Park is surprisingly diverse, as it has the perennial Chobe River as its Northern border, and it touches the Linyanti marshes to the west, is home to the well-known Savute Channel, and connects with the Moremi Wildlife Reserve to the South West.” It was started in 1932 as a reserve and finally became a national park in 1967.

Our captain took us along the wide river with a cliff and lodges tn our left (Botswana) and islands of flat green wetlands to our right (Namibia). It didn’t take long to spot a solitary hippo surface near the boat before it disappeared again. A trio of elephants grazed on the wetlands. I spotted a couple of large sea eagles in the trees. Then small 'pods' of hippos began to be seen on the surface with just their heads above water. The Hippopotamus known locally as a ‘river pigs’ is the only large amphibious mammal in the region. They have few predators on land. Sociable in the water by day, they emerge at sunset to graze alone on nearby grasslands but always return to the water by dawn.

At a bend in the river, a pair of alligators lay on the sandy bank. Then a third swam out into the river. A small herd of elephants walked down in a single line to the river’s edge to take in water. They stood in a line with a baby elephant poking out beneath the legs of the mother, imitating the others by dipping his trunk.. We then saw a hippo and a large water buffalo grazing on the wetlands while a flock of vultures stood motionless in the background. The African buffalo is Africa’s only wild cows and one of the ‘Big Five’. Older males like this one usually live away from the herd.

Somehow, our boat got stuck in the vegetation and it took 30 minutes to free it, but it allowed time to use the binoculars and spot more birds and wildlife. A localised rain storm produced a huge rainbow on the horizon. Eventually free, we passed more hippos as the sun began to set behind a wonderful swirl of clouds that darkened in front of a yellow, then orange, horizon. Back on shore, I rated this three hour trip as a superb excursion – relaxing but so great to get close to a range of animals. Recommended. On the way back to the lodge, we passed a huge herd of elephants. There must have been a hundred here alone. Back at the Lodge, we splashed out on a set meal. I should mention that the tourists we met who did the ‘land drives’ were rather disappointed by the lack of wildlife, especially the promised large cats, but you wouldn’t be disappointed with the River Safari.

Tuesday December 28th – Botswana/Zimbabwe

The Lodge organised one day return trips to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, but we had reserved two nights at the cheap Victoria Falls Backpackers Hostel because we wanted to have more time. We were able to leave our rented car at the lodge and just take small backpacks. The hotel called a taxi to take us three miles to the Botswana /Zimbabwe border. En route, we passed lined of stationary trucks waiting to cross over the Zambian border nearly. Dropped by the taxi (30 Pula + tip), we walked past a shorter line of trucks waiting to enter Zimbabwe. It was a simple process of just getting stamped out of Botswana and walking a few hundred metres to the Zimbabwe immigration building

(Our last day in Botswana, after returning from Zimbabwe is covered at the end of the Zimbabwe section)

Botswana Roadkill - 1 cow, 2 birds, 1 UFO

Travel - £25.66
Accommodation - £108.73 (4 nights)
Food - £36.30
Other - £12.40.18 (includes two excursions)
Total - £210.87