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