Beautiful, Beautiful Botswana :)

[ by Stian ]

The next country we would be traveling through was Botswana, which shares many similarities with it's neighboring country Zambia. It is a landlocked country as well which also gained independence from the British in the 60s, in 1966 to be more specific. Botswana as well adopted the name of their country when they became independent. It is smaller in size than Zambia and has way lesser population as the total amount of people living within Botswana is only just about 2 million, which is not common for an African country. Botswana is actually one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Also, Botswana has held uninterrupted democratic elections since independence. Interestingly, the border we crossed from Zambia, near Kazungula, is very undefined, but is only a few hundred meters long at the most. The country is not considered poor either, as the people live a modest standard of living. Most of the country is flat, and 70% of the land is covered by the Kalahari Desert.

To be honest. I knew NOTHING about Botswana before our arrival. The only thing I knew was that the currency is pula, which is pretty funny as pula translates as f***ed in the Norwegian language. I also new that we would be doing bush camping while in the area – which did not seem very tempting on me. We were all though in for a big surprise.

KASANE / CHOBE RIVER

Our first destination would be Kasane, which is located by the Chobe River, just across the border from Zambia. Before getting to our campsite we did some shopping in Kasane, which is a very small city, with less than ten thousand inhabitants. According to Wikipedia Kasane briefly obtained international fame as the location of the remarriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton, in 1975, haha;) The game of the day during the ride was actually thumbwar – double thumbwar as we called it as we used both our hands at the same time. It was pretty fun... and pretty stupid as well at the same time, haha;)

Chobe River Cruise

Our campsite, Thebe River Safaris, was located right next to the Chobe River. It was a nice campsite – as there was a pool at the site, which was already occupied by another group of travelers though. There was also a bar, which we would be dropping by later in the evening. The main activity of the day was the a boat cruise on the Chobe River, where we also would be watching the sunset. The river cruise was an optional activity, but it was highly recommended so I think all of us did take part. Usually I am not a big fan of river cruises... I often find them overrated (like the one we did in Singapore for example).

The Chobe River Cruise was though AMAZING!!!! I was so positively surprised and this cruise became another highlight of our Africa-journey. I would rather call it a game cruise than a river cruise, cause we spotted so many animals, and there were many of them in the same spot: Herds of elephants, groups of African buffaloes, lots of monkeys, some giraffes, and loads of hippos and crocodiles and other animals as well. The crocodiles was especially difficult to spot – I took a photo of a hippo from a distance and when I looked closer on the photo I could spot almost 10 crocodiles in the photo – and I did not see any of them before I took the photo. You could take a photo in any direction and you could be sure that there was at least one animal in it:) I was IMPRESSED! Despite the animals Chobe River is still a very beautiful river. The sunset we witnessed was really really nice as well. I will definitely recommend the boat cruise on Chobe River.  

Though just as the sun set the temperature dropped significantly as well. I was not prepared for that, so I started freezing right away. We were though on our way back to the campsite so it was not that bad really. While we were getting off the boat Natasha (as the «blond» she really is) thought I was pushing my way in front of an elderly woman who also took part in the cruise, so she told me «Stian, don't push your way in front of the old woman». The elderly woman of course heard this and turned around, looked at Natasha and told her «I am not old», before turning back, and then turning back at Natasha again «You can call me mature rather». Natasha became so embarrassed and she tried to apologize to the mature woman, but the cat was out of the bag already – so we all just had to laugh of the situation. Natasha was to hear about this incident for the days to come from me at least;)

Chilling In the Evening, Chilling In the Morning

In the evening we had pasta with meatsauce for dinner, which tasted really nice. I got to have a very nice chat with Natasha as well before we headed over to the bar, where it became a late evening for most of us. It wasn't so cold either so we were pleased. The new guys still seemed to be a pretty cool group. Especially Jen had turned out to be a crazy woman, and I really liked her for that:) There was another G-adventure group on the table right next to us, but they did not seem to enjoy the loud atmosphere at our table though, haha. Ah well.

The next morning we had the option of doing a game drive or to sleep in. Most of us from the «old» group decided to to the latter. Only the Danes from the «oldies» joined all the newbies for the game drive. I have to say I was very happy that we could sleep in and do absolutely nothing this morning. It also turned out that they really did not see anything, and it was as well a freezing experience, which was too bad for them, but made me even more happy that I chose to stay at the campsite.  

GWETA

After lunch this second day in Botswana we headed on towards the small town of Gweta. On our way we had to cross into the very strict farmland area of Botswana, and we had at several points stop and go through controls of mouth- and claw- disease, which was pretty much a waste of time – as the only thing we had to do was to bring our shoes and step on a wet «towel» to cleanse them. We were also forbidden to bring any meat and dairy products into the area, but we managed to find a way – as meat and dairy products within the area is way way more expensive compared to outside. Otherwise it was a very nice ride this day, as I had Natasha by my side:)

Planet Baobab

The next campsite, the Planet Baobab Restcamp, was AMAZING. I really really really looked this site. As it name states the campsite was located among several massive baobab trees, the «rafiki-trees» you know. These trees are impressive in every way and they are very picturesque as well, which I love of course. There are different types of baobab trees around the world, 6 different types on the island of Madagascar only. On mainland Africa there is only the African Baobab tree though. English common names for the Baobab include dead-rat tree (from the appearance of the fruits), monkey-bread tree (the soft, dry fruit is edible), upside-down tree (the sparse branches resemble roots) and cream of tartar tree.

The cabins/houses on the campsite was extremely beautiful and even though maintaining a very high standard they were all built in local traditional style. There was also a very nice pool available, though the water was freezing cold – but I do think two of the newbies (Matt and Chris I think it was) did go for a swim in the evening anyways. Even the shower area for the campers was really nice. I chose to go together with Lucas and upgrade as we got to see one of the huts from inside and I really wished for a really good nights sleep and a really nice shower – also the upgrade included breakfast. It was an expensive upgrade, about 50 US dollar per person, but it was soooooo worth it! It was so nice that both I and Lucas decided to go to bed early this one evening as to actually be able to enjoy the extremely nice, soft and warm duvet, and also the really nice interior of the hut. The only problem was that the electricity was out for almost 3 hours, but it did return in time for me to get a really nice hot shower (which was amazing as well). This night I did sleep extremely well, despite hearing the newbies from a far distance making a massive amount of noise as they were partying till 1 or 2 am in the night... it might have been even later as well.

Though, before we headed for bed we did enjoy a really nice dinner (once again) and hang out around the fire before moving to the bar to hang out there for a short while as well. This was probably the first evening it was starting to get obvious that some of the newbies was about to get involved with each other as well. Ah those young ones;)

The next morning I was super satisfied as I had been able to have an amazing nights rest and also to have a proper nice breakfast again. The drive this day was not to be a long one either, so we were happy for that as well. Just outside the campsite was a statue/structure of a huge aardfark (ant-eater), so of course we had to stop by it to take some photos as well. I really really would come to miss this place – and I do think that the Planet Baobab Restcamp became my favorite site, as of how it was designed. Very beautiful!

MAUN

Our next destination was the Island Safari Lodge close to the small town of Maun, which is the 5^th biggest town of Botswana, with a population of around 56 000 only. Maun is considered the "tourism capital" of Botswana as it is the headquarters of numerous safari and air-charter operations who run trips into the famous Okavango Delta. The campsite was very nice, located just by the river, and as most of the other campsites there was a pool here as well. Just across the river we had the view of lots of monkeys, much to Silje's great joy, as she loves donkey's (and smurfs). It also turned out that IF no one else was on-line then the WiFi at the site was really good as well – but if more than two was on-line at the same time, then it was almost impossible to load anything unfortunately.

Okavango Delta Flight

We had one optional activity of the day, and I think almost everyone decided to join in on this one which was to do a flight over the Okavango Delta, which included a game-search. We got a ride to the Maun International Airport (which is a pretty small one) and had to purchase the flight at the airport (not a cheap experience). Our pilot was Keith, a very handsome guy who seemed pretty nice as well. The flight over the Delta lasted only about 45-50 minutes, and was a very beautiful and scenic one. I tried to get some nice photos, but my camera didn't take the best photos unfortunately as the plane was shaking a bit. I also turned out to be very plane-sick during this short hour. At times I had to hide my head almost as not to throw up – it really did feel like my stomach was to twist around several times... I am still glad I got to do the flight and to see the Delta from above as the scenery is one of a kind and nothing like I have ever seen before. Also, now I have done both a game-drive, a game-walk, a game-cruise and a game-flight. What more can I really desire coming to safari? Not much really:)

Recognition of The Good Son:)

This evening we once again just hang around the campfire enjoying ourselves. Natasha had even been able to send my mom a postcard this day, as she wanted to inform my mom of how great of a son she had, haha. My mom did receive the card a few weeks later telling me: «Stian, I got this card from one Natasha...» She really did not understand why though...even though Natasha had written specifically why she had sent it, haha. That's my loving mom.

OKAVANGO DELTA

The time had come for us to go bush-camping, something I had not been looking very much forward to, but it would turn out that this would be one of the definite highlights of the tour as it was a great experience. We would be leaving the town of Maun and then enter the Okavango Delta, which is a very large inland delta area. A river delta is, for the ones who doesn't know, a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river, where the river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, or reservoir. The definition of an inland delta is though when a river divides into multiple branches in an inland area, only to rejoin and then continue to the sea. Okavango Delta is even more unique as it's river, the Okavango River, is flowing into a flat arid area and splits into channels which then evaporate as it progresses into the desert. In other words – it doesn't end up flowing into any body of water at all. It is still defined as an inland delta though. The Okavango Delta is believed to be the largest inland delta in the world, but it's not as there are at least two larger geographical similar areas within Africa only. Though, because of it's unique location and significance to the area, as it is located close to the Kalahari desert and next to a national park – it was from 2013 declared one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.

The Most Amazing Journey Ever

We were picked up by our guides at the campsite, who then would take us into the delta area. The first part of the ride we traveled by speed boats. This was a nice ride as we spotted a whole bunch of beautiful birds along the way – including the Lilac-breasted Roller, the national bird of Botswana, different types of Kingfishers (birds) and we even spotted a small crocodile resting by the river shore.  

We then was transferred over in pairs to a traditional Mekoro long boat, which is used to enter the delta area itself. It was me and Natasha together in our boat, along with our personal poler, who was the one «riding» the boat. With «riding» I of course mean, standing up and pushing the boat with the help of a pole, through the high grass, all the way to our campsite. The ride to our campsite took about an hour and a half and was an amazing ride of pure tranquility. The boat was just amazing. A mekoro is literally a hollow trunk of a straight long tree, and it was filled up with straws and they had also made seats out of our mattresses, which we normally used for sleep, so it was a very very comfortable ride. Our poler did not speak much English though so communication with him was very limited, but thumbs up is practically understood all over the world so we managed to get by:)

Our Bushcamp and Optional Activites

We arrived our campsite, which was a small area close to the water. We were allocated each our spot for putting up our tents, and then we were explained the toilet routines, as our toilet for the coming day and night was just a whole in the ground (that's why they call it bushcamping). If we had to do number 2 it was very important that we remembered to cover our amazing result with sand, so that we would not attract wild animals to our campsite (as they sense the smell of ... well shit).

We had several optional activities we could take part in. Someone went swimming in the freezing cold water, even LUCAS did, and he is, what I we say where I originate, a total «kjelinpinnji», or a chillstick as it would be translated to as in English. We also got to try to maneuver a mekoro ourselves. Muneira had turned out to be the toughest girl in the group and she did it without problem. When it was my time, I did manage to do it somehow, though I got stuck easily in the hight grass surrounding us. My partner for this tryout was Jen, and I suggested we should switch so she could maneuver instead – but as she was about to raise up she lost balance and suddenly bounced into the water. It was hilarious really. I tried to get her back in, but it was to difficult really. It all ended up with Sandipan came and «rescued» me as they thought I had been maneuvering for to long and obviously did not seem to be able to get back, haha. They did not witness the hilarious incident with Jen though unfortunately. I and Jen had a nice laugh of it afterwards:)

We then went on a game walk. The area does house a lot of different animal species as well, but we were not able to get very close to any though. We saw a couple of elephants, and some zebras in far distance, and we also got to see a flock of red lechwe antelopes. We also got to a small elephant bone «graveyard». Suddenly it felt like we were placed right in the Lion King movie and I started humming myself melodies inspired by these surroundings, haha. As we had arrived the game walk area with the mekoros, we had the pleasure of admiring the amazing sunset from our mekoro – with the sound of a group of hippos grunting not to far away from us. An experience that will never be forgot for sure.

Local Nightly Entertainment

This evening it was the local people who had joined us for the tour, that is the polers, carriers, cooks and so on, who made our dinner (and who did the cleaning). We were served some sort of beef stew which was nice – and afterwards we enjoyed ourselves around the campfire with some beers or ciders. I had purchased what was called Baron's Gin & Tonic, which was actually pretty good. The locals put on entertainment for us in the form of traditional songs and dances, and humor as well. Especially this one song was easy to remember as the lyrics went «Beautiful beautiful [put in whatever you feel like]» and repeated itself like forever. So after the trip we went on singing «beautiful beautiful Botswana» all of us. One of the dances was also very funny as two of the local guys were kind of gender-crossing when they were doing the traditional dancing, mostly making fun of the female species. At least I found it very funny as the one guy gender-crossing was really cute as well.

It was a very cold evening, but at least it was hot by the fire. I ended up taking photos of the fire and if you are of the kind who believe in spiritual stuff then this was a scary evening as well, despite being an amazing evening. When I looked closer to the photos I took I could see shapes created by the flames and also by the firewood, that resembled something completely different.... like staring eyes, skulls and mummified heads. It turned out that Kelly was very much a spiritual person, and she found it really cool, though when I showed the photos to Taylor, she got terrified. I thought it was really funny the way she reacted – but she ended up having a nightmare that night she told me the next morning, poor girl.

Next morning we wrapped up our camp and headed back to Maun and the Island Safari Lodge campsite. Here we met up with TJ and all our stuff, as we had only brought some things, not all of our stuff into the delta. This morning's mekoro ride was another hour and a half of pure tranquility, best kind of therapy anyone could ask for. It sure was amazing.

GHANZI

Our last destination while in Botswana was the Trailblazers Restcamp close to Ghanzi, a very small town with less than 13 000 inhabitants, close to the border of Namibia. The campsite was extremely dry, hot and sandy. For the first time we really did feel like we were in the Kalahari desert, even though we had been in the area for several days already. As a campsite it was therefore one of the less interesting we had been as there were much to do here.

The Bush-walk

The only optional activity we had the opportunity to take part in was a bush-walk. Most of us chose to join in on this activity where we were met by local bush-people who took us for a walk in the flat landscape close to our bush. None of them spoke English, and their language was of the very funny and interesting click-language. Thankfully we had a guide who were able to translate everything they were saying to us. We were explained how they were able to survive in the bush, which lacks a lot of normal stuff, both like food and water. Also how they hunt, and how use different roots and leaf for medication. It was indeed very interesting, and we got some nice photos as well.  

Dinner and Bush-Dance

This evening we had the joy to experience Muneira cooking, or at least being responsible for our meal of the day, which was a really nice green chicken curry:) Afterwards we got to experience the bush-people do a traditional bush-dance for us around the fire. This was an extremely cold evening and we were unfortunately seated a distance away from the fire, so many of us was freezing a lot. At least the performance was interesting. There was another group as well joining us for the bush-dance – and members from both our group and their group had to get up and take part in the dancing, which was pretty hilarious actually. Unfortunately we had some members of our group who didn't seem to show any respect to the bush-peoples performance. Some of the newbies really did not have respect for anyone at all at times it seemed like. The group was definitely dividing now, as many of us from the old group were calmer and liked to have fun in other ways than drinking alcohol all the time. While the new group seemed to have the need to have to drink alcohol all the time to be able to enjoy themselves – which of course made them loud and seem disrespectful at times. Luckily the youngest of the bush-men «punished» some of them by having to take part in the dancing, haha;)

Taken By Surprise

So this was our time in Botswana! I was totally taken by surprise of all the beautiful things we got to take part in while in this amazing country. The nature is beautiful and the people are really friendly as well. Muneira actually asked one of the locals on one of the first days in the country if the people in Botswana was poor. He quickly replied: «No, people are not poor in Botswana.» If what he says is correct, I guess people feel more safe as well then, which would be awesome, as this of course will affect their relationship with foreigners as well. We did not experience any kind of begging while in Botswana, except for the request of a small donation after the different activities we got to experience, which is ok.

My favorite parts of Botswana was definitely the baobab-campsite and of course everything about the Okavango Delta. I would highly recommend Botswana for anyone who want to discover Africa. It has become one of my favorite countries of the trip as it totally surprised me and surpassed all my expectations, which really were none - haha;)