Botswana: Impressions

By its very nature a safari involves a lot of driving, and thus we were in the Land Rover a lot.  Our days fell into a pattern:

• 6:00am              Wake up
• 6:30am              Breakfast
• 7:00-12:00pm  Game Drive
• 12:30pm            Lunch
• 4:00-7:00pm   Game Drive
• 7:30pm              Dinner

Bedtime came quickly after dinner due to the early mornings.  We had lunch on the road when we were transferring between parks as well as the last day of safari, when instead of an early start for a game drive we had to go into Kasane to get our COVID test, required for the next day’s border crossing to Zimbabwe.

The lodges we stayed at were very comfortable and the food was great.  Each room was a self-contained cabin, usually with a walled-in outdoor shower.  The dining and lobby areas were in stand-alone buildings, open to nature, although at Chobe Elephant Camp they had canvas walls that could rolled down if necessary.  Usually in the evening one of the staff would start a fire in a near-by fire pit, which was a nice place to sit while waiting for dinner.  The Khwai lodge, which was near the bushman village and deep in the back country, ran completely off solar power and all lodges used solar water heaters.   The other interesting feature of at all lodges was the potential for nightly visitors—animals had the freedom to roam through the compound, and they did.  At the Chobe Elephant Camp Lodge guests were not permitted to move around after dark without staff escorts.  The second night we were there a family of elephants was moving through the brush right outside the buildings and consequently no one walked anywhere, we only moved around via vehicles.  While we were dining, we could hear them nearby, tearing up the trees and bushes, but because it was dark, we could not see them.

As we headed north out of Maun towards the Moremi Game Reserve we quickly ran out of pavement just outside the city limits as the black top road we had been on ended in a broad white sand avenue.  It looked like a strip of misplaced beachfront that had somehow found its way inland and was a sample of the type of surface we would be driving on for the rest of the trip.  This particular “bush highway” was flat however, making it relatively easy to drive on despite the loose sand causing the vehicle to occasionally slip and slide as we traveled along at a good clip.  Shabba, who is an extremely experienced driver in these conditions, rarely had to engage the four-wheel drive as we headed out to Moremi.  Later, however, on the road from Khwai to Chobe, the sand became much more difficult to traverse, more rutted and less dense, so four-wheel drive was essential.  I can only image how impassable these roads get in the rainy season!  Apparently the loose sand roads. an become impassable because in several places where there was a large number of lodges, we stumbled across airstrips out in the middle of nowhere, allowing people to move around via small airplanes rather than on the ground.

During the game drives we were also driving on sand, but in this case the road was extremely uneven and daily we got a good dose of “African massage” as we were jolted back and forth despite how carefully and slowly Shabba was driving. Like riding a horse, you eventually learn the rhythm of the ride and accommodate to it.  In Chobe National Park some of the terrain was very rocky and I found that more uncomfortable and harder to adjust to then the heavily rutted sand tracks.  The game reserve and parks were littered with roads and tire tracks that Shabba appeared to navigate at random, but he knew where to go to find the animals due to his extensive familiarity with the area.  It was easy to get turned around due to the constant twisting and turning of the route and the many branches that forked off.  Despite the complexity of the terrain, we saw many families and individuals camping and self-touring, all in four-wheel drives of course!  Shabba mentioned that typically self-touring groups stay on the main paths, rarely venturing off to avoid getting lost, and occasionally they get stuck in the sand and require help.  Luckily the park is monitored, every vehicle has to sign in and out, so help is available, eventually.  After only a day of traveling I quickly reached the conclusion I would never, ever want to drive in the bush and traveling with a knowledgeable local guide was the only way to go.  Even so we did end up with a flat tire at the end of our long drive from Moremi to Chobe.  But it was the work of a moment to change the tire and we were on our way again.

In the mornings we would stop for a tea break after about three hours driving.  Shabba usually found a nice scenic spot and we would get out and stretch our legs a bit and enjoy the scenery.  Over the length of the safari I was amazed by the dramatically changing landscape- from open bare savannas sporting nothing but short brown dried grass to lush green marshes adjacent to lazy rivers; there was a huge variety in habitat.  Open meadows, spotted with small bushes and long grass provided perfect cover for both prey and predator alike.  Scrub bushes and squat trees supplied plenty of food for all the animals.  At the bottom of the bushes, the impalas and other antelopes would munch, and at the upper reaches of the vegetation elephants and then giraffes picked at the twigs and leaves.

The Khwai river merged completely with the landscape around it, looking in many places no more than a large elongated puddle before suddenly emerging out of the green grass to form a lagoon perfect for hippos and crocodiles to hang out in before drastically necking down to a small stream narrow enough that we could four-wheel across.  It was hard to tell where the river stopped and solid ground began. The contrast between the green necklace lining the river and the brown, dry bush was startling.  The Chobe river, on the other hand, was well defined, bracketed by sand banks and grass plains as it serpentine path defined the border between Botswana and Namibia.  Water holes were scattered throughout the various landscapes some already completely dry and others managing to still hold some of the precious water that attracted animals.  Having experienced the amazing diversity of scenery during the dry season I am now intrigued about what it might be like in April and May, right after the rainy season.

The villages we passed, located in remote locations out in the bush, were small and continued to use the traditional brick and grass circular construction.  It was possible to find houses and buildings made from concrete but these were typically schools or other community buildings or small one-room, road-side stalls where it was possible to buy drinks or snacks and other odds and ends. Unfortunately, due to COVID many of these shops were empty and abandon due to lack of tourist traffic.  At night I saw many fires and little electricity although solar cells could be found tucked away here and there.  Wood for fires was easy to find thanks to the elephants and their tendency to knock over trees.  Immediately surrounding the village were small pastures hosting cows and goats, a main source of food.  Botswanans eat a lot of protein!  Life was simple for these people, situated so far away from any modern amenities. Shabba mentioned that the bushmen were trying to negotiate for their children the balance of a modern education against the threat of diluting their traditional culture.  Perhaps with solar energy and satellite-based internet, their choices and ability to balance their lifestyles will be successful.