Schlagwort-Archive: around the world

Botswana, Namibia, World Trip 2018-19

Botswana off the beaten track & back into Namibia

Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Our original plan after visiting the pans was the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). Once out of Nxai and in cellphone range, we called up the campsites we wanted to stay at…and got a bad surprise: everything was fully booked, most likely due to the Easter holidays. Damn! Spontaneous plan change needed. As a first step, we drove back to Maun, where we made up our mind to go off the beaten tourist track and drive up to Drotsky Cave and the Aha Hills next day.

It was a long drive on some proper 4×4 roads and we started to doubt if this had been a good idea. But once we arrived, we got welcomed by a really friendly guy from the Botswana National Museum, who works in researching the caves of the region. He offered to show us around the caves – which was a good idea. By ourselves, we wouldn’t have found the way around in the dark, certainly wouldn’t have squeezed through some gaps and just wouldn’t have seen the cave properly.

He told us lots of stories about his work and how he sometimes encounters leopards hiding in the niches of the caves. Uhm, did I mention I was glad we had a guide!? The only animals we got to see were spiders, cave cockroaches and looooooads of bats though. Loads, and loads of bats! Some caves were just buzzing and I was worried a bat might crash into me. Lol. The guy also showed us a great wild camping spot, where we spent our last night in Botswana! Sigh… time went fast suddenly.

The next two days, we drove back to Windhoek, stopping in Grootfontein and at Waterberg Plateau on the way. Waterberg Plateau is a beautiful table mountain with red rocks and lots of green vegetation. While our campsite wasn’t the best in itself, the views were really nice!

We also went on a short hike up to a viewpoint on the plateau which was nice. Unfortunately, they don’t allow any longer unguided walks anymore.

In Windhoek, we spent a lot of time organizing ourselves, doing laundry, cleaning up the car etc. We also headed out to Daan Viljoen game reserve for a bit, but found it rather disappointing and empty.

In Windhoek city, we drove past the most important buildings – nice to see, but nothing really special. Namibia really is about nature and not cities of course!

And then it was time to say goodbye to our awesome car (sneeeef!), and to Namibia. It’s been an amazing time driving around by ourselves, filled with adventures. From here on, we became backpackers again, hopping on a 24h bus ride to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Botswana, World Trip 2018-19

Travelling the pans – Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pans

2 Kommentare

After our disappointing time in Khwai and Moremi, we were a bit done with staring into (empty) bushes, aka safaris. So we decided to see some landscapes in between! From Maun, we drove to Nata in one day, and then on to Makgadikgadi Pans national park. This park also has some animals, but it’s mainly famous for its large salt pans that you can in parts drive across. On our way down South to Kubu Island, it was first more bushes and grassland that we encountered though.

Kubu Island is a pretty island full of baobab trees. We camped right at the edge of the pan to see the trees in the beautiful evening light and witness the sunset over the pans. It was beautiful and definitely something different than bushes!

Next day, we drove back „up“ on a different route, to Gweta. This time, the route led us across the pans – which was really cool at first!

At first, until the pans became wetter and muddier and we got more and more worried about getting stuck. I ended up walking halfway across one pan, with Mathijs driving behind me, to ensure the ground was solid enough. At one point though, there was just no good way to go. And surely enough, this was where we got ourselves stuck! Oops. After trying some ways to get out and a mud-shower for me (trying to push is not always the best idea), we luckily made it out! We were quite relieved I must say…

The rest of the drive was easy and dry, passing by some famous baobabs up to Gweta where we were happy to see the pool at Planet Baobab Camping waiting for us. Just what we needed after our mud adventures!

From here, we drove to Nxai Pans the next day. Here, the pans are less visible, more overgrown by plants, and there are more animals. Safari time again! We spent again one night in the park, driving around the day before and half the day afterwards. Well… while there weren’t loads of animals again, we did get a bit luckier than in Moremi and Khwai: Mathijs spotted a lioness hidden in a bush, who, after waiting for a bit, stood up and went for a drink. At least, a little lion show for us!

Also, Nxai had one really good waterhole where there were always some animals. This is something we missed it Moremi. Just being able to sit there and watch. At one point, more and more elephants came in for a drink and there was plenty of action! They seemed to be from different groups and not always friendly with each other.

Nxai Pans is a small national park, but it was quite nice to visit and provided some easier animal sightings again.

Botswana, World Trip 2018-19

Unknown Khwai & famous Moremi

Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

We exited Chobe national park in the South at Khwai region. This region is situated between Chobe and Moremi national parks and not a national park itself even though it has lots of animals, especially elephants, but even leopards (apparently, they eluded us once again). We spent an afternoon driving around there, mainly spotting hippos and some antelopes – not the most exciting but still nice.

That night we decided to wild camp, as the camping didn’t have any facilities whatsoever but charged 30€ pp. Crazy! And as there’s no fence around the campsite either, there really is no difference to wild camping (other than paying 60€). At night, we had a very early dinner and were soon surrounded by all kind of animal noises. I think this was our „wildest“ night. Sometimes we woke up, asking each other „what was that!??“ – only when a lion roared right next to our tent, it was rather clear which animal that ROAR belonged to.

After a rather sleepless night, we drove around a bit more in the Khwai region – unfortunately though rain came in and our spottings soon went down to zero. We wild camped again, but at a much better spot. No animals but birds around us.

Next day, we went into Moremi game reserve at the North gate. We drove all the way to Xakanaxa campsite – but again the luck was not on our side. Some nice landscapes, but otherwise… just not many animals in general. It seems that we really chose the wrong season for Moremi, too bad!

In the afternoon, when driving up to Dead Tree Island, we at least came across a teenage male lion – but he was very sleepy. For the rest of the day, we didn’t end up seeing much else other than bushes. Lots of bushes.

In the night, we got visited by an elephant who was a little too curious for our liking, squeezing between our car and the bushes next to it and moving our car while doing so! Ouuuf. A bit scary. He went on to destroy our neighbours‘ trailer tent – while they were in there, sleeping (well, not so much anymore at that point). Crazy!

Next day, we woke up early once again and drove out via Third Bridge to the South gate. We went all around the highly praised Mbola Island, but didn’t end up seeing much of anything. It was frustrating. Even more frustrating was the drive out of the park afterwards. Loads and loads of deep puddles, of a size that they should be called pools rather than puddles. It was exhausting, especially for Mathijs (the driver) and we didn’t get rewarded with any good sightings.

From the South gate, we moved on to Maun to spend the night, get organised and plan our next few days.