Botswana - green deserts and wooden boats

It was a very quiet border into Botswana. I had to hitch to the border post and then wait for half and hour before the next car came through! Eventually I was able to hitch a lift east with an unlucky tour operator. He was unlucky because he got a call Xmas eve to deliver a new truck from Jo'berg to Swakopmund nearly 2000km away. He seemed to find a bright side to it whatever that may have been. It was good talking to him to get the inside info on what goes on inside those big metal tourist transporters. Unfortunately he was not going all of the way to my destination and dropped me off at the turnoff 40km short. The shadows were growing longer and not one car passed. I started to look for a campsite by the road when a ute full of lovely local ladies pulled over to give me a lift. I was very thankful.

The next day I jumped on a bus to my ultimate destination in Botswana, Maun. This place is the heart delta and also has easy access to the rest of Botswana's highlights. I got talking to a few Aussies on arrival and they offered me a place in their car heading to the Kalahari for a few days. I thought long and hard about it (over a few well deserved beers) and eventually told them I would go at about 3am when one of the girls woke to tell management to keep the noise down. I was still drunk when they woke me and lets just say packing up the tent was not fun!!

It was only 160km to the gate, however it was along 4WD track so it took a few hours. We drove to the campsite, set up the tents and had a quick snooze (thank god!). That afternoon we headed out for a game drive in search of the cheetah, apparently common to these parts. The drive began slowly and I was beginning to think maybe I had made the wrong decision (Etosha all over again). It all changed when we came across our first pride of lions. I had not seen a feline for a good month now so I was very happy! The other great thing was that we had them to ourselves, in fact I only saw 4 cars in the 3 days we were in the Kalahari! Amazing! That afternoon we were fortunate enough to come across a lone giraffe as the sun set and were able to get the token silhouette shot!

The next day we started early and I announced to everyone,"I name this day cheetah day" whilst sipping on my coffee. We went off in the morning without luck, the highlight was probably lunch when we returned!! We went out again that afternoon and somehow the guide managed to spot a cheetah poke its head up about 500m away. The other great thing, I forgot to mention, about this park is that the rules about driving off road are very flexible, so we took a hard right and headed for the tree where he spotted the cat. Sure enough there was a cheetah there. I had only seen one of these before so, again, I was ecstatic! We only stayed for a little while but took a million photos.

We reluctantly left to search for more. Shortly after we came across our second pride of lions. We were driving along when we all simultaneously spotted the massive head of lion just two metres from the car. I could not help but to yell a few expletives in surprise. He was not phased by us and on further inspection there were 3 lionesses with him. It made me think how much trouble you you be in if you were walking in this part of the world!! Afterward we journeyed back for another look at the cheetah. This time he was walking about in search of a kill. It was great to watch him move, such long powerful legs.

We went back to camp very satisfied so I broke into to my emergency supplies of gin and we had a few drinks around the fire. It was not until we heard a lion growl that we decided to retire to our tent in our UNFENCED camp!!! The guide confirmed this the next morning which was a little exciting as the lion pride we saw that afternoon were only a kilometre away!! We left the park the next morning all very happy!

I spent new years eve in Manu at the backpackers. I had made a few friends and funnily enough the Irish girls (from Swakopmund) resided in Manu so they successfully drank me under the table again. I had a tab running that night which was bound to be trouble and it took me two days to gather up the courage to have a look at it! It only happens once a year, right??

I arranged to go to the Okavango Delta on the 3rd so I could have a bit of down time. I could only afford to go to the eastern delta as to go any further in you basically have to fly (big $$) and then stay at the expensive camps! It still gave me a great feel for the place. We jumped into our morkoros (dug out canoes) with our poler and headed a couple of hours upstream. It was quite relaxing gliding along waterlily lined streams. We sent two days there camping. The highlight was a morning walk we did on one of the islands. We saw buffalo, elephant, hippo, zebra, wildebeest and antelope! All on foot. Two of the male elephants put on a show for us as well, having a little scuffle! During the day i commandeered one of the morkoros and went for a solo mission. I gained a new found respect for the polers. To pole one of these things was an art. I had to go backward to get anywhere, very amature! It was a shame to leave but any longer and I could have started counting the melanomas popping up, the sun had quite some intensity to it!

So tomorrow I head off to Zimbabwe which should be interesting to say the least! I have stocked up on USD and pasta which hopefully will be enough to get me over to Mozambique for a last injection of beach time before I hit the dreaded shore of Ireland!

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