Beautiful Botswana

Having received our negative Covid tests, and had some worn bushes replaced on the front of the Landcruiser, we headed to Botswana. A new sweeping bridge now connects Zambia to Botswana, replacing the very old ferry system across the river at Kazangula, so we were soon walking into the brand new combined Zambian Botswana border post. Both countries occupy one large building with the Zambian immigtaion and customs on one side of the hall, and Botswanan immigration and customs on the other. With no other teravellers around we were through both border processes in less than 30 minutes, a new record for Africa!

Immediately you notice the superb main roads in Botswana, paid for by the revenues from their extensive diamond mines. Our first visit was to Chobe Waterfront National Park. When we last visited in the dry season this stretch of river plain beside the Chobe River was full of animals, now in the wet season many of them have dispersed into the watered pans to the south, so there were fewer animals. However we enjoyed some close encounters with a large group of giraffe, and a couple of families of elephant, as well as enjoying the lively hippo, mock fighting in the cool of the afternoon.

We were reminded that it is still the wet season when the clouds gathered in the afternoon. Torrential rain for half an hour or so created a slimy mud surface on the previously sandy track. Back at the campsite the previously dry site we had used was very boggy, so we camped on their hard standing.

Heading further south and west we visited the Nxai Pan in the centre of Botswana where the wet season sees an annual migration of over 100,000 zebra and wildebeest, second only to the Serengeti migration. However this part of Botswana had some heavy rain in January causing the grass to grow, but had little rain for the past few weeks, and the main migration had not yet arrived. There were some large herds of the beautiful springbok, along with a hundred or so zebra and a herd of buffalo, but not the spectacle we had hoped for. We had lunch under the famous Baines Baobabs, before returning to our campsite.

Botswanan sunrises and sunsets are dramatic with the sky changing colour quickly from blue, through yellow to deep reds and crimsons. The following day we booked a safari to see meerkats. Over a period of years one family of meerkats has been habituated by a team who follow them every day, and they no longer see people as a threat, quite happy to come right to out feet, and even considering climbing on us as a lookout. The family had seven recent young who were very cute. This is the group filmed by the BBC a couple of years ago. It was a real privilege to see these entertaining animals so close up just going about their normal day's activities.

A visit to the huge Makgadikgadi pans National Park involved a man hauled river crossing on a pontoon, but revealed even less wildlife, just huge skies looking like a clouded dome overlying the grasslands which stretch to the horizon. With virtually no visitors you can experience the complete isolation impossible in Europe.

Just before leaving Botswana we stopped at Orapa where one of the huge diamond mines is located. Just to get into the town required security checks and passes. The museum gave a fascinating insight into the extraction. For each carat of diamond, a tonne of material is extracted and sieved, no wonder diamonds are so expensive. A very ordered country Botswana has taken Covid precautions very seriously, with complete compliance on mask wearing in buildings used by the public, such as shops, and hand sanitisation as you enter, as well as at each ATM. More photos below

And into Zambia

After receiving our negative Covid tests we headed to the Zambia border, where we were soon stamped out of Malawi, and half an hour later after sorting out insurance and carbon tax our Carnet was stamped and we were on our way into Zambia.

There is an immediate difference, in Malawi people are walking or cycling along all the roads, everywhere you go, in Zambia, where the population density is 1/10th of Malawi you drive for kms without seeing anyone. A brief stop in Chipata where we stopped at the supermarket to buy food, (though we get our fruit and veg from roadside stalls) and topped up SIM cards. We headed straight to Wildlife Camp at South Luangwa.

The campsite is right on the river front looking into the National Park and is open to wildlife. We spent the afternoon watching the elephant, listening to the hippo and following the puku impala and babboon out on the promontory. As it was getting dusk a bull elephant made its way round to our campsite, and a hippo came out of the river and walked up beside the van. Both were within 20m of us, but completely ignored our presence.

The following day we got up at 5.30 to be in the park first thing, but were delayed by the bull elephant coming back through the camp.

The roads in South Luangwa park were reasonably dry, so we managed to cover quite a large area. The park is ioncredibly green compared to the last visit with lots of young animals around, especially very cute, unstable baby elephant. Most of the elephant were travelling in small family groups of 5 or 6 animals. A lovely day, spotting two lazy lion sleeping under a tree, but no buffalo, giraffe or rhino, which move away from the river in the wet season. We decided to spend the following day in the camp, and on getting up at 5.45 weere amazed to find four wild dog in the camp, which scampered off as soon as we moved.

Around 8.30 a huge herd of around 50 elephant went past the canp, with the rest of the day spent watching them out on the grassy promontory with the baboon and antelope. The elephant returned in the afternoo, back to their overnight location. Steady rain overnight turned the surface of the campground into a mud bath so we decided to pack and head towards Lusaka. Lusaka is one of the more developed cities in Africa with western style shopping malls, a lot of new building and a real buzz of activity. A couple of nights on a beautiful campsite before heading to Kafue National Park.

We planned to drive down through Kafue, then take a newly built road towards Livingstone where we plan to cross to Botswana. A beautiful drive through a very green kafue national park where the rivers had subsided enough to be below the bridges, and where despite suggestions that the wet season is not good for seeing wildlife we saw huge amounts, including otter and leopard (see photos below) An amazing day. On reaching the southern end we were told that a bridge on the new road had been washed away,

so the only way to Livingstone is back north along a minor road then an 800km diversion back through Lusaka! - That's Africa for you. Having taken three days we are now sitting by the Zambezi just outside Livingstone listening to lion across the river in Zimbabwe while we wait for our Covid test results before crossing to to Botswana.

Some of the wildlife we have been privileged to see.