A Trip to Botswana
The close proximity of two public holidays, one for the local elections, gave us the opportunity to go and explore Africa some more. Our nephew, Max, has joined us for a month volunteering at the school Annemarie is involved with, so he was able to benefit from a holiday starting the day after he arrived.
The first event on the trip was Annemarie suffering an attempted shakedown by a Botswana ‘policeman’ for stopping 2m over a line. The aggressive demand for a monstrous fine diminished after I took his photo several times and threatened to ring the police, ‘But I am the police!”, and it all fizzled out without payment.
A visit to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary was great, our self-drive bringing a very close encounter and the sight of a galloping group of rhino on the pan, as well as lots of other game. This success was not matched on the early morning game drive with a guide, sadly! But the inquisitive birds at the campsite rounded off an enjoyable first night.
The next run was a long drive north into the Makhadikgadi salt pans. It was a slow 70km run on small tracks through the bush before it opened out into an amazing landscape. The surreal sight of nothing but a flat salt ‘sea’ interspersed with outcrops of rough grass is breathtaking. Stopping overnight in the middle, some 25km from the nearest bush/human/light, made for an incredible night sky, even if it was accompanied by the howling of wild dogs some way off. The only life was some ostriches in the distance.
Dawn was spectacular, and a return to heading north. Another 60km of salt and bush resulted in us eventually reaching Gweta and tarmac, and a turn west to spend the night at Maun. Thankfully we arrived early enough to fit in a sightseeing flight over the Okavango delta, which was simply stunning!
Freebooter 