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Currency: Pula. 11 to the pound.
Cost of diesel: 45p a litre.
11th January.
Today we crossed into Botswana. You have to cross the Zambezi via this knackered old pontoon ferry type effort. There is only room for one lorry and one car. I must admit I did have visions of us sinking and being eaten by crocs in the Zambezi. However, that didn’t happen and we pitched up in a town called Kasane safely. This is the jump off point for tips into Chobe National Park. This is where we are headed tomorrow. It is also the most direct, although all off-road route to Maun. I have heard some interesting things about the road so it could be fun!
12th January.
We are now in Chobe Park and camping at this beautiful campsite in the banks of the Zambezi. We only traveled about 50kms from Kasane. However, this is all along the banks of the river and we saw loads of game and so took us a couple of hours to drive. The park is famed for its elephants. There are apparently 120,000 of them. I reckon that we saw approximately 119,999 of them today! We couldn’t drive more than 100ms without having to stop and wait for an enormous herd to cross the road. It is was also quite scary because the bush is quite thick, which meant that as you rounded a blind bend there was every chance an huge elephant could be on the other side. We surprised a few, but I’m not sure who was more scared, them or us!
Above, crossing the Zambezi. Below, rare Sable Antelope in Chope NP.
Elephant crossing the road in Chobe and the view from our campsite in Chobe.
13th January
Last night was an interesting one. Although we were camping in an official campsite, they have no fences and so all night elephants walked past our car. They were so close we could hear them munching the grass and also farting. An elephant fart really is something to behold! Today we head to a place called Savuti, which is about 90kms further south. This stretch of road is supposed to be really deep sand and plenty of opportunities to get stuck. Bring it on!
14th January
Well, we made it here. The road was very sandy. The sand was deeper than it was in the desert in Sudan! The road is basically a set of tyre tracks through the sand and you just power through. We didn’t get stuck but did come close a couple of times. We are now in a place called Savuti. Which is right in the heart of Chobe Park and one of the most famous places in Botswana. It is stunning scenery. There is loads of game, so much that apparently there were lions in the campsite last night! Should make for another night of no sleep! Tomorrow we head to Maun and this stretch of road is supposed to be really bad. Loads of black cotton soil and deep deep mud. Some local guy got stuck near here for 11 days! We also heard of another lorry driver who got stuck for 6 weeks! This road is often closed during the rainy season. Basically because you are driving across a swamp. In the dry it is fine, but you can imagine what it is like in the wet. Luckily for us it hasn’t rained up here for about a week and so, by all accounts, it shouldn’t be too bad.
An elephant paying us a visit in our campsite. Sunset over the Zambezi.
18th January
Not a lot to report really as we haven’t been doing too much apart from drinking in lots of different bars around Maun! There’s a really great crowd here. They’re all very friendly and we seem to have fitted right in with them. We met a South Africa couple called Werner and Chantelle who work / manage a baboon research camp right in the middle of the Okavango Delta. They a wicked laugh and Werner loves his booze so him and I got on well, as you can imagine. Anyway, they have invited us to come and stay with them for the weekend, after our old friend Henry arrives tomorrow. Apparently this is the first time they have been able to drive out of the delta in 2 years due to flooding. This all makes for some good off-roading to be had. Werner has given me the GPS co-ords but basically said go for it and stick to the dry islands!
The sand track to Savuti
Elephant in wateringhole, Savuti. Camping with Henry at Baboon Camp, Okavango Delta.
15th January
In Maun now. We made it down the road without too much bother. We got half stuck at one point but were able to reverse out. The road was very muddy and we can easily see now how it could be closed for the wet season. It would simply be impassable. Anyway, we got here ok and are now camping for the night and due to met up withy our friends tomorrow.
17th January.
Met up with Hannah and some of her crowd last night. We went for a quiet beer at 5pm and got to bed a 2 am! Feeling a little jaded today. Last night was an interesting evening to say the least. We met this chap called Lars. He’s an old Norwegian guy who has basically traveled all over the world. He walked from Kenya to Morocco through the center of Africa, he lived with the San Bushmen in the Kalahari for 2 years. To say he is a character would be putting it lightly! Lars promptly invited us to stay at his house, he was so insistent that we thought it would be rude to say no. So we all headed back to his place, which turns out to be this enormous mansion type effort with Ferraris and Lambo’s in the garage. Not a bad place to stay! Next thing we now Lars has got his boat out and we’re blasting up the river next to his house towards another bar. All very surreal but a great laugh. It turns out that Lars is going away for a few days and has asked us to house sit for him! So we are now staying in this massive house living the life of luxury, tremendous!
Baboon on car.
20th January
There was a new pub opened in town yesterday, which tied in nicely with Henry arriving so we went to investigate the place. I’ll leave it at that because this is a family show!
Anyway, after some shopping etc we set off to drive to Baboon Camp. The drive lived up to expectations. Although it wasn’t as wet as we had expected there was some really deep sand, far deeper than anything we’ve done so far. Also there was one river crossing stretch that was about 100m’s long and in the middle it came up to the bonnet! It’s about 120kms in distance, but it took us 5 hours. Admittedly we took a few detours, I should add unexpected, but that should indicate the quality of the track. As you can imagine a track that has only been driven twice in 2 years isn’t very distinct, so parts of the drive were what they call bush banging, i.e. making your own track. Quality fun was had by all!! As the drive is all through game reserves and a bit of the park we saw loads of game. Everything apart from cats and seeing as this is all free, because technically we shouldn’t be here, it makes it even better.
As soon as we got the camp it was beers all around and a sit down at the “bar” Werner has made up there. The place is amazing. It is right in the middle of no-where and has stunning views across the delta. In the wet the camp is an island and so is surrounded by huge grassy plains on which huge numbers of game roam. The views are spectacular. Anyway, Werner and I were sitting there and he was pointing out some game, he used to be a guide and is an uber-bushman when it comes to game and such like, when this lioness lept out of the grass 200m’s in front of us and went after the antelope. We never actually saw the kill but the chase was something to behold alone. Werner has seen her a lot and reckons she has cubs hidden in the long grass somewhere, although he has never seen them. After we’d had a couple of sundowners we got the fire going and had a proper South African braai, which basically means lots of bbq’d meat!
Crossing rivers in the delta
21st January
Got woken up this morning by a baboon jumping on the tent. Rather a shock I can tell you. We got up and went and had showers etc and when we came back to the cars there were baboons all over them. We shooed them off and found that they’d crapped all over the tents. They had also pulled our roof tent down, luckily not breaking it because all that had happened was that the clips had come un-done. Welcome to Baboon camp as Werner said. After breakfast we packed up the boats they have to use when it is really wet and set off across the lagoon. The morning was spent fishing, swimming in the river, whilst someone watched for crocs and basically drinking more beer. Werner lives in the bush for 3 months stints with 3 women so when males turn up he gets quite excited! This probably explains his next idea, which was to drive to a place called Eagle Island. This is where Andrew, Hannah’s boyfriend, lives and works. It is a safari camp run by Orient Express and is only about 4km south of Baboon Camp, However, it is across at least one major river and the rest is malapos, which is the local word for swamp. No one had managed to drive there for years but with 3 trucks Werner wanted to try. Again, he hardly needed to push Henry and I to agree to going so at around 3.30 we set off. It was proper bush banging. We crossed rivers up to the bonnet, got sunk in mud up to the axles and tops of the wheel arches, we used the winches, towing, waffle boards jacks. Basically every type of recovery technique we knew to get us there. All this meant that we finally arrived at 6.30. 3 hours to go 4 km! When we got there we found that Andrew was actually flying so we couldn’t see him, so we collected more gin (we’d run out at baboon camp and this was another reason for the expedition) and started the drive home. Well, all I can say it that we nearly made it!
Random off-road expedition photos!
Me not realsing my car was sinking into the river. Look at the number plate.
Exhaust pipe under water. Using the waffle boards as bridging ladders to get out.
The thing with the malapos is that it can be bottomless mud in one place, but 1 m to the side it is dry and firm. So although there is a lot of skill involved in driving across them without getting stuck, there is also a lot of luck. We wanted to try and find the original track back to see if it was driveable and as we went along it wasn’t too bad. We then reached a malapo about 100ms long. Henry went first and sunk about half way. Too far to winch or tow so Werner went for it to see if he could get through and tow from the other side. He made it to the dry land the other side. I decided to follow the route Werner took, but not driving in his ruts, as this is definitely not the thing you want to be doing. So my track was about 2ft the right of his and after 30ms I sunk up to the axles. His track was dry, mine was a swamp. Rather annoying. Anyway, we spent about the next 2 hours trying to get our 2 trucks out and in the process managed to get Werner's stuck as well. At this point we gave up and decided to camp in the bush. We set up camp, ha some dinner, finished the gin and went to sleep. It was a great experience. We were really camping in the bush, miles from anywhere. All night we could hear lions roaring around us and loads of game wandering about.
At first light we got up and had another go at getting the trucks out it. It took us about 1 hour and involved using the high lift jacks to get the cars up, then put the waffle boards under all 4 wheels and try to drive out. We continued on the journey, getting stuck loads more times until we finally reached the river to cross about 1 km from camp. I went first and got totally stuck getting out the other side. I was cross-axled, if you know what that means, and so had no drive. Henry tried to winch me backwards and nearly dragged his car into the river! He then tried to tow me backwards and this worked. So that let me parked in the middle of the river whilst we decide what to do. After 1 minute and 5 seconds (we know because we looked at when the photos were taken) my car had sunk another 6 inches in the river. At this point we decide to tow me out completely, which we did, backwards!
After this we had to find another place to cross and did so successfully, finally getting back to camp at 10.30. When we got back Chantelle, who had stayed at home, told us that all the time we were walking around the cars she could see a lioness in the grass next to us! A somewhat sobering thought!
22nd January
This morning we went out with the guys at Baboon camp to track the baboons. It's really cool. You are just walking around the bush trying to find them and when you do you follow them all morning. All the time these baboons are just milling around you, walking next to you etc. The only thing you must not do is look them in the eye. Apart from that the are happy to have you walk amongst them. We did this for a couple hours then headed back to camp packed the trucks are drove back to Maun. we'll definitely head back up to Baboon camp because it's a wicked place.
24th January
Well, the last few days have been eventful. For the first time in Africa we have been robbed! Some kids broke into our car outside Lar's house and stole the camera, gerber, 2 pairs of shoes and a loaf of bread! Rather annoying. Then last night they came back and broke into the house whilst we were out. Luckily this time they didn't get any of our stuff but it's getting a bit tiring. Lar's has now decided to hire an Askari to watch the house at night and hopefully this will deter them.
26th January
Gav and Vicky arrived yesterday so we thought it would be rude not to visit the pub for a while. Off to the Buck and Hunter again, i think this place is becoming our second home. Not a bad home really because they do the best pizzas in town! Henry also tried to leave today to visit some friends in Botswana. Unfortunately he only made it about 20kms before his car expired! The fan snapped punctured the radiator, causing the engine to overheat, blow the head gasket and melt the return fuel lines. Rather a mess to say the least. So we had to go out and and tow him back into town. This could be rather expensive!
27th January
Today Gav and everyone have headed into the Delta and we're staying in Maun to sort some things out and commiserate with Henry. Although our mocking of him was rather short lived as the clutch has packed up on my truck. One of the hydraulic hoses went and this meant that the clutch wasn't working. Being a weekend we can't do anything until Monday. Rather glad we didn't head up into Delta today!
31st January
Got our truck fixed on monday, Henry's is still in about a million pieces on the workshop floor whilst he's running up a bill that's probably going to be more than most African's countries GDP. Haven't been up to much really. Had a few bbq's and generally caught up with Gav and Vic.
2nd February
Spent last night at a place called Meno A Kwena. It's a tented camp on the Boteti River about 100kms out of Maun. It's a stunning setting. The camp is on a cliff overlooking the (now dry) river bed. As you are sitting there you can see Elephants drinking at the waterhole that the owner, David, pumps to attract the animals. Whilst we were having dinner 2 lions could heard roaring no more than 200ms away. It was amazing.
After we left the place we headed to a place called Baines' Baobabs. There are some trees that are about 2000 years old and were made famous by a painting down by Thomas Baines, the Victorian painter, in 1862. They are right out in the pans and the drive there is stunning. We saw a lot of game and Gav even drove the truck. Although he did make the door fall off. Cheers mate!!
4th February
Gav and Vic flew home yesterday. We all went for dinner the night before and they very kindly paid. We then ended up a place called the River Lodge and had a rather late night. After we dropped them off at the airport yesterday we went back to the Buck and spent the rest of the day watching the rugby. Come on england. Finally something to vaguely smile about! Today my Dad and Maddy arrived and we are now staying at a lovely lodge south of town for the next couple of days.
6th February
Have just spent an excellent couple of days with my dad at the Tree Lodge. It’s been brilliant to catch up on everything that’s been happening at home, especially the rugby! Haven’t seen dad for 6 months so it’s nice to spend some time together.
Gemsbok in Nxai Pan, the Pan itself.
9th February
We spent the last 2 days at a place called Nxia (pronounced nigh) Pan. This is one of the saltpan national parks about 140kms to the east of Maun. In the wet it is under water. However, as the rains haven’t really started yet it is dry, which means you can get in. Having spent a long time in Maun it was great to get back out into the bush, even if only for 2 days. We saw lots of game, including cheetah for only the third time this trip. We had a rather interesting route out of the park. My GPS showed a road that exited to the west of the park. As this is a rarely visited part of the park we thought we would go this way and see some game. Little did we know that this road has been shut for over 5 years. We ended up driving over fallen trees, through bushes higher that than car, and as we seem to have done a lot, just driving along a bearing until we found that main road. Still it added a few more bumps and bruises to the car, each with its own little story.
The pan at Baines Baobabs
Last night we camped next to the Baobabs we visited when Gav and Vic were here. There are loads of pans around it and it is a stunning landscape. It rained all night as we had visions of the pan filling with water and leaving us stranded on the island. Luckily as it has been so dry the rain didn’t even touch the surface and so we got out fine. There are loads of stories of trucks getting stuck in the pans and never being seen again as they sink!
Oh yeah. I also managed to have my first haircut since May last year. I now resemble something vaguely human.
Before......
during.....
after.... i'm keeping the rhino look
10th February
We came back to Maun yesterday to meet up with our friend, Werner, to arrange another trip to Baboon Camp. This of course had to been done over lots of beers and today was another morning that I awoke feeling a little groggy. Anyway, we met up and heading into the Delta along a new route that Verna found. Along the way we saw loads of game and I had lots of fun driving through some seriously deep sand. Our friend Katie and her mum came with us, which was excellent. I managed to break my truck again on the way up. Another fancy polybush went, leaving my front axle all over the place. Scorpion racing may be getting a brick through their window when I get home. Just about every piece of super heavy-duty super expensive piece of kit I have brought from them has packed up. Less than impressed I can tell you. Anyway, through bitter experience I am now carrying spare bushes so that is another job to do tomorrow.
Yup, Toyotas never break or get stuck... say no more
11th February.
Fixed the car first thing this morning. But that’s the boring bit. In the night there was a lion kill literally about 50m’s from camp. 4 male lions chased down a buffalo. Part of the chase went right through camp until they finally separated one and brought it down right on the main track into camp. We heard the kill but didn’t know where it had happened exactly until we went out for a walk in the morning and walked straight into them. I didn’t actually go on the walk due to fixing the truck but everyone else did and returned rather more quickly that expected. We quickly jumped in Verna’s truck and drove the 5 sec trip to where they were. It was amazing to see them chomping on this huge buffalo. We watched them for a while and then went back to camp for brekky.
All day we’ve been popping out to see them and it is scary how quickly they can devour 500kg of meat. By the end of the day it was a third of the size it had been in the morning.
We also took another run to Eagle Island. However, as it is drier than before and Verna has now driven it a lot it only takes 2 hours as a round trip. Unlike the 18 hours it took us the first time!
Heading back to Maun tomorrow.
Drinks at Verna's pub he built in the Delta! Sitting outside the kitchen tent at baboon camp.
Hungry simba
13th February.
Had a great dinner cooked by Amy at Katie’s house last night and today we drove about 350km to a place called Ghanzi. Amy has in-law relatives that live here, Gavin and Vicky Richards, and we are now staying with them on their game farm. It is an amazing place. It is right down towards the Kalahari and the changes in landscape and vegetation are striking. The area is completely flat and covered in low scrubland vegetation. There are no large trees to speak of at all. We went out for a sundowner and you can see the horizon in a complete circle around you. We haven’t seen anything like it since the desert. They are a great couple and have very kindly agreed to put us up for 2 nights. Amy is even going horse riding in the morning, which she is very excited about.
14th February
Rather forgot it was Valentines Day. But seeing as we are in the bush I guess there was nothing I could do anyway (at least that’s my excuse!) Amy went for her ride and I went out with Gavin for a drive around the farm. It is an enormous place and they have all kinds of game, including rhino. They place has only been operating as a lodge / game farm for a couple of months and they have lots of plans to introduce more game to the park. It will be amazing when it is completely finished.
2 of Lars' puppies. Amy riding Ditto
17th February
Dad and Maddy flew home today. They had a great time in the delta. They saw more leopards and cheetahs in 9 days than we have seen in 7 months! Typical! Anyway, it has been great to see them and I’m really glad they had a good time. We’re waiting for Hannah and Andrew to get back from Jo’burg and then we’re off to Namibia.
Us with Dad and Maddy
19th February
We had a final meal at Hannah’s yesterday. Proper roast dinner with Yorkshires and everything! If any of the random people we met in Maun read this we just want to say thank you for all your hospitality and friendship. We’ve made some great new friends in Maun and if any of them are ever in the UK they have to look us up! Cheers to Jo and Jamie for excellent beers and pizza at the buck and hunter. Cheers to Mr T. for lots of random conversations and beers. Cheers to Werner and Chantelle for being wicked company! Cheers to Lars for letting us use his house! Cheers for Katie for not being too Australian. And finally a massive thanks to Hannah and Andrew for putting up with us hanging around for a long time! Thanks to everyone else as well. Bit pathetic doing this seeing as we’ll be back there on the 17th March though! Why the 17th I hear you ask? Well, I’ve spent a long time planning the itinerary and working out where and when we’ll be place and by complete fluke our plans coincide precisely with being in the Buck and Hunter in Maun at the same time as the England Wales 6 nation’s game. I mean what are the chances of something as random as that happening?
Then this morning we left for Namibia. So we are now camping at a place called Ngepi camp right on the banks of the Okavango River. We plan to stay here for a couple of days and then head into the wilds of the Kaokoveld, Africa’s last great wilderness apparently.
