I’m sitting in the Gaborone departure lounge. My flight has been delayed almost an hour, slightly longer I think. No reason has been given and the only explanation is “Not boarding yet”. The flight has disappeared from the monitor, but this all appears to be usual.

I left Nitani yesterday morning at around 9:30am. Callie and Lovemore seemed determined to delay my departure as long as possible. When there are no guests they have to do other tasks like fix the roads in the Nitani concession.

My average speed back to Gabs was about 160km/h. I wanted to get back in time to borrow the internet and printer at the SMEC office to check-in for my Singapore flights, thereby avoiding the transit counter at Jo’burg airport. I got back in time but the internet was out. I hate to think how long I’ll be standing in line to check-in now.

Flight has finally been called to board.


Update:
Typing this in Changi airport, Singapore.
I had to stand inline for over an hour in Jo’burg to check-in, and there were only about 30 people in front of me. All the time the check-in counter staff are merrily chatting and joking with one another. Everyone except the Africans are getting impatient, they know how it works and so they expect the delay. Nothing has changed in nearly 10 years.. except for getting worse.
My flight was boarding by the time I got through the transit area so souvenir shopping will have to wait till the next trip.

Three weeks have gone so fast and it feels like I’ve hardly done or seen anything. Botswana has been everything I’d hoped it would be and I really don’t want to be heading back to Australia.

My next trip has already been half arranged for February 2010 and will be for at least 4 weeks, hopefully 5.

Now comes the processing of all the photos. All digital this time. Go here to see them:

http://www.pbase.com/johnstob/botswana2009

Tags: travel

For the past two nights I’ve been staying at Nitani Lodge in the Tuli private game reserve. Strictly 5 star. Game drives each morning and evening and while you’re out the chalet’s are made up, beds are turned down, heaters turned on etc etc. All too posh for me but I guess I’ll get used to it.

The drive here was and adventure in itself. Head north along the A1 then turn onto the B152 20kms north of Palapye. Follow the B152 to Bobonong and onto Semolale. Find the Kgotla in Semolale and take the best looking dirt road 25kms out of town. Easy ...NOT.

Getting to Semolale was easy enough, just following good quality bitumen roads. Once in Semolale there are no street signs, so no indication of where the Kgotla is actually located. I spent 15mins driving around I just happened across it. Heading of down the best looking dirt road in the Yaris, it quickly deteriorated into a two wheel track. The road was graded and getting ready for road base. It takes me about 50 mins to travel 25kms and I get to a Nitani sign. I must almost be there. I was told the safari truck would be on the side of the road to meet me, and as I didn’t see a safari truck I headed down the two wheel track indicated by the sign.
I knew it wasn’t the right road when almost immediately the belly of the Yaris is scraping along the centre of the track. However, I persist for another 4kms, crossing rocky creek beds, dodging acacia thorns and generally 4 wheel driving in a YARIS!

I eventually get to a river (not running) but decide that the Yaris was going to get hung up if I tried the decent to the rocky river bed, plus I wouldn’t be able to get back out even if I made it down. I turn around and head back to the main track, mindful that if I destroy the car on a rock (many of them) it’s a long walk back to anywhere.

Uneventfully I reach the main dirt road again and continue down it hoping to find the safari truck. Less than 2kms down the road, there it is proud as punch just where it should have been all along. I’m not believed when I tell them just how far I managed to get down the Nitani road, heads move between me and the Yaris as if to say “yeah right, in that thing?”.

With the Yaris safely left in the hands of the local cattle post, Callie and Lovemore transfer me via safari truck (ex-military Land Rover Defender) to the Nitani River lodge.

I’m the only one here. There are only 5 chalets with a maximum of 10 guests. My chalet is the “Leopard” and is a long walk on the board walk to the lapa, along a raised boardwalk.
Game has deserted me but have seen lots of impala and giraffe.

I’m typing this up as I sit by my own private pool - too cold for swimming. The elephants like the chlorinated water... perhaps because it tastes salty.
The guides are excellent (Callie and Lovemore) as is the chef (Wayne, a Brit), whom I have all to myself. It’s a bit daunting being the only one eating and 3 people hovering around at your immediate beck and call. All very lovely people, chatty and easy to get along with. Thanks to Wayne, I’ve sampled Springbok, Ostrich, Crocodile and some excellent Botswana steak. The Amurula creme caramel is brilliant, I could eat a gallon of that stuff. Honestly though, there was far too much food and I had to ask for a 2 course instead of the usual 3 course meals.

Currently there are warthogs browsing around the camp and the day before I arrived there were 30 elephants walking through and around also - the resulting damage to the trees is very evident. I’ve heard the ele’s but yet to see them here. Also Lion, leopard and cheetah but also yet to see them.

No fences at the lodge and small gates are put up every night to stop the hiena getting onto the walkways.. not a lot you can do about the cats, they get up if they want to. Driving around this reserve is wonderful, even if the game have moved to other parts of the place. About 70,000 hectares in all.

One day left here before driving back to Gabs.

Tags: travel

Today (Saturday) we drove to Madikwe game reserve in South Africa, about 30 mins or so from the South Africa / Botswana border. I can now say I’ve been to South Africa four times. I have a SA visa in my passport again so all is well with the world.

Madikwe River Lodge, which is were Dad and I are staying, is very opulent. It’s not what I’m used to and for a good part of this afternoon I was thinking this is not my sort of thing. Here, you have designated game drives. You can’t drive yourself around and between game drives you sit by the pool and have “high tea”, (the iced coffee has Amarula in it and is to die for). However, my opinion changed when getting back from this evenings game drive, we were met by a porter with a glass of sherry to warm us up. I can certainly get used to this.

Dinner was 5 star all the way. South African singers welcomed us to dinner with some traditional singing (excellent stuff) and the menu was amazingly described, as was the food. Of course, Dad and I took the opportunity to order a bottle of excellent South African Cabernet Sauvignon to go with dinner. On return from the game drive, someone had closed the shutters in the chalet, turned down the beds, turned on the heaters, put little thank-you notes on the pillows and generally made the environment very luxurious - not what I’m used to at all.

The game drive was brilliant. As sunset approached the driver pulled over in the middle of nowhere, lions probably watching our every move, laid out a table of snacks and offered us beer/wine/other. An ice cold Castle beer was the choice for me as the sun set, along with some Wildebeest biltong.

The highlight of this afternoons drive was a lion kill. Three lionesses brought down a Wildebeest and we got to the site within 15 mins of the takedown. We watched as 14 lion cubs and the lionesses gorged on the carcass. I wish I could have recorded the sound of the feast, thrilling stuff.

On the drive we were joined by two other Australians from Adelaide, who were amazed at South Africa, it being their first visit. As a seasoned traveller here I was more than happy to give them some advice on getting around, and recommended they give Botswana a visit too.

Our driver will give us a wake-up call at 6:00am tomorrow morning, at 6:30 we shall be plied with coffee and cake and then taken on another drive. We leave to head back to Gabs tomorrow after “Brunch”.

Right now I’m going to hit the sack and listen to the truly african sound of lions roaring in the night. I hope you have something just as wonderful to listen to wherever you happen to be :D

Update: The game drive this morning was every bit as good as the one last night. This time we got to see not only the lionesses and cubs, but also two of the males (brothers). They walked right passed the vehicles, and having been in the park their entire lives paid no attention to us. The drive back to Gabs was via the Deerdeport border crossing, much less hassle than the Tlokweng border out of Gabs. I have a rest day tomorrow. I’ll attempt to upload some more images and do some catchup on the emails. Sorry to anyone trying to ring me. I have purchased a local sim card so am un-contactable on my Australian number. I’ll be looking to pick up another coat, Winter has caught up to me.

Tags: travel

You’ll never guess where I’m typing this entry, so I’ll tell you shortly.

Yesterday saw a full day driving to Gweta and my next stay for the following two nights. I was hoping to get a full day + lunch on the pans today but luck was against me. There was nothing going at the Gweta Lodge. To give the lady credit she had tried everything. So I finished yesterday at the bar with the owners of the lodge. I was the only guest in residence so I received special treatment.
I had a great chinwag with a Brit who is one of the investors in the lodge and the manager, a South African. They gave me some great tips on seeing the Makgadikgadi and also regaled me with tales of their travels. I will definitely consider hooking up with one of their treks around the place in the future. He also gave me some information on motorcycling through Botswana. These guys actually caught up with the Top Gear team when it came through!

Today started out OK. I booked a Gweta village tour with Planet Baobab (just down the road from the Gweta Lodge) which included a traditional lunch. I got to eat Mopane worms and all the other fare a normal rural Botswanian family would eat. Lovingly prepared by a local lady. It was absolutely fantastic and I was the only one doing it. Again I had an audience with everyone wishing to see the look on my face when I chowed down a worm. They’re excellent.. I ate the lot!

That took me to lunchtime which brings me to now. I managed to tag along on a tour of the pans this afternoon. This was excellent and I got my first live view of Meerkats, lots of photos ensued. The very best part is this tour includes a sleepover out in the Ntwetwe Pan. So I am now typing this up with a blaze of stars above me and the only lights still shining are the glow of my macbook screen and the campfire behind me, about 4 kms onto the Ntwetwe pan, not another thing in site.

A long drive back to Gabs tomorrow that will start late because of my delayed return from the Pans. Do I care.. hell no!

Update: The Yaris happily sits on 160km/ph for extended periods of time. I was actually passed by another Yaris as I was doing 160km, and it disappeared into the distance.

Tags: travel

I was up with a yellow-billed hornbill fart this morning and watched the sky change colour as the sun rose. I got the main gate early to book my nature drive this afternoon. Hopefully two hours of African animal goodness.

I was running out of Pula and had to make a few phone calls (there is no mobile reception here by any network and yes, you can tell the difference) so I ducked into Serowe. I checked in with Amina (Harvey World Travel) and all seems well with my further travels. I am running the risk of not getting a tour into the pans on Wednesday but these are the risks you take when “winging” it. The lady at Gweta Lodge is working hard for me.

The only bank that accepts foreign MasterCards is Standbic Bank. There is no branch in Serowe, I did a bit of asking around, so I had to make the 40km drive to Phalapye. Not unpleasant but I’d rather have been sitting on the porch of the chalet. I have to leave here by around 8 am tomorrow morning if I’m to make it to Gweta before dark.

I’m the only one eating at the restaurant at the moment, so I have all the staff to myself...which hasn’t made much difference actually.

Update 1:

I have just returned from a rather excellent game drive around Khama Rhino Sanctuary. I was the only one in the truck, aside from the driver and her assistant. Animals seen and mostly photographed include Ostrich, Gemsbok, Impala, Zebra, Rhino, Steenbok, Springbok, Warthogs, Wildebeast, Red Harts beast, Crimson breasted shrike, and Grey Laurie (go-away bird). As I type this up I can hear a Rhino walking around outside my chalet. I can’t see it or photograph it because I don’t have a torch or an outside light, yes I have considered just walking around in the pitch black with my hands outstretched until I run into it... most frustrating.
The game drive finished with us watching the sun set over a waterhole, while a couple of Rhino were drinking. I finished watching the sky turn from deep red, to deep purple, to black, back at the restaurant with a glass of Botswana’s finest beer... St. Louis.

Once again the sky is full of stars.

Tags: travel

Today saw the start of my self-drive Botswana road trip. I left Gabs around 9am and headed toward Mahalapye along the main highway going North. The guidebook says there is an archeological site along the road north of Rasesa so I stopped in for a look. The half-a-kilometre road to the site was all sand. I’m thinking it’s Kalahari type sand. The Yaris handled it quite well, though there was in instance or two that I thought I might be walking back to the main highway looking for a snig out of the soft stuff. The archeological site is a set of footprints in the rock, some human some animal. The legend around this goes something like this. Matsieng (Botswana’s Adam) emerged from a water hole at this site (water hole still very much alive and well) With him came all the animals of the animal kingdom, as can bee seen by lion tracks among others in the rock. The ages of the rock the footprints are caste in is around 450 million years old. There is also some thought that the San people carved the human footprints into the rock around the water hole to make it look like the normal mud type holes where animals come to drink. The choice is up to the viewer as to which they want to believe. Maria, the guide, was full of interesting information and was worth the 20 minute side trip.

My destination for today was the Khama Rhino Sanctuary just north of Serowe. I took a circuitous route to Serowe passing through some very nice hill country. It’s marked on the map as a worthwhile tourist drive. I dawdled a bit on the way to Serowe which caused me to rush toward the end of the day. This rushing caused me to miss the turn off to Peja twice and added an extra hour to my trip. Roads are not well signed in Botswana (if at all) and then sometimes only signed in one direction. You need to continually check your rear vision mirror at every intersection to ensure you’ve not missed your turn. Which I did... twice! Anyhow, I made it.

I was under the impression I could drive the Yaris around the Rhino Sanctuary but alas this is not the case. One look at the sandy two wheel tracks told me it would not be a good idea. I am booked into a chalet 2.5 kms from the Restaurant and main gate into the bush - for two nights. There are two other chalet’s further in and I’m glad I’m not in one of those. The thorny acacias were getting extremely close to the paintwork on the Yaris and only get worse the further in you go. However, this was all worthwhile when I saw Rhino footprints in the sand surrounding the chalet. No fences inside the park, you share the space with the animals. I stopped at the restaurant briefly on the way in and there was a Rhino casually munching about 50 metres from the building. These are all wild animals which makes it all the more exciting. Alas, no lions in this park. You can also camp here, but the thought of a rhino walking through your tent in the middle of the night should be enough to put anyone off.

Have also seen Waterbuck wandering around the place.

The sandy tracks to and from my chalet are being handled quite well by the Yaris. I’m glad I haven’t yet had to pull off to the side to let another vehicle pass, hopefully they’ll have pity on me and give me right of way. I’m becoming more appreciative of the Yaris the more I drive it. As an appliance to get from A to B it is very good. I wouldn’t want to own one though.

The sky is absolutely full of stars as I type this up on the back patio of the chalet in complete darkness. The milky way is a blaze across the heavens and black has never looked so ...black!

Note so self: duck back to Serowe tomorrow to find an adapter so I can charge the macbook!

Tags: travel

Dumela!

I couldn’t be bothered subscribing to one of the local internet providers. The internet is free at most coffee establishments. A reasonably local portuguese coffee shop has free internet and great coffee so I’ve been there a few times to check the mail and update the facebook. By “local” I mean on the other side of the city.

I have a hire car. A Toyota Yaris, 1.3l 4 cylinder horror. Toyota make some great vehicles, this Yaris is not one of them. Still it’s wheels and it allows me to get around.

I’ve been to the local Mokolodi Game reserve which was quite good. Four rhino’s walked right up to the safari truck. There was also elephant, zebra, giraffe, impala, water-buck, Ibex, ostriches and kudu... oh and cheetahs. I managed to photograph most of these with differing success. There were only two of us on the excursion. Myself and an American who worked for the US defense department.

I’ve also been out to “site”. Site is Maunatlala, a village where a water storage project is occuring to provide potable water to about 20 villages around it. The first “sod” has been turned, by which a buldozer has cleared the mopane scrub to allow one to see the line of the proposed dam wall. I got to wander all through the botswana scrub looking at bore-holes. Might sound rather boring, but in actual fact it was fantastic. Who else would get to do such a thing??? In amongst all the mopani trees (no mopani worms for me to eat) we came across a small corral. All lined with umbrella thorn to keep the “wild beasts” away from the heard boy and the cattle. Neither of which had been there in a while.

A man by the name of Progress took me on a tour of Maunatlala and a few of the surrounding villages and we had a great chat about the changing face of Botswana, political and social. I haven’t checked the photos yet but I’m hoping I grabbed a few of the traditional style of house here.. rondaavel. There has been so much progress in Botswana that finding traditional style anything is becoming very difficult. Progress wished he could put the brakes on his namesake for a little while longer. I met a few other very interesting people, including an environmentalist from Lesotho and one of a number of Chinese engineers.

I spent the better part of half a day at Harvey World Travel on Old Lobatse road in Gabs sorting out my travel and accommodation details on my up and coming self-drive tour. Amina was fantastic and figure of patience as she sorted out my wild roamings into something she would work with. I am now booked into two nights at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary and two nights at Gweta rest camp. Mkgadikgadi here I come. This will take up most of my second week in Botswana. The coming weekend I’m arranging to go to South Africa and visit the Madikwe game reserve just across the boarder. It will be nice to have a South African visa stamp in my passport again.

The last week of my time here will be spent at Nitani game reserve in the Tuli block. This is billed as a 5 star resort type thing. Getting to it will not be 5 star. As I’m driving myself in a YARIS! I’ll need to leave the car at a village police station, ring the resort and someone will come to collect me. This is if all goes well. If it doesn’t all go well, then I guess I’ll be in Africa for a very long time... no issues there. At the end of all this I will have seen only two of the five main areas of interest in Botswana. Next years trip is already in the planning stages.

Food, my God the Food! There is everything anyone could ever want in food here in Gabs... and not a McDonalds or KFC in site!

Tags: travel

I’m standing on the balcony watching my first sunrise in Botswana with a cup of 5 Roses tea (SA brand). I’m back in Africa, Southern Africa... home.

I’m taking today to get over the flights here. About 24 hrs of travel including transits (Singapore and Jo’burg). The final flight into Johannesburg didn’t feel the 10+ hours that it was. Probably because I slept most of it. Sleeping during flight is not something I usually do, but thanks to my new status as a “Krisflyer” member, I can get priority seating within my class (economy). I flaunted my new found power with requesting isle seats in front of the wings. Makes a huge different in the amount of engine noise you have to put up with.

Singapore Changi airport with it’s new Terminal 3 is now absolutely huge. There is good reason they provide trains to get around it.
Johannesburg airport is also going through renovations and is more than double it’s size the last time I passed through. The Transit desk is still the worst in the world (some things never change). There is no organised chaos here, just pure and uncorrupted chaos.

First impressions of Botswana: More than I was expecting. Infrastructure of all types is quite advanced. I can’t count the number of internet cafe’s and my macbook is picking up no less than 6 wireless networks, three of which are public internet subscription services. Had a coffee at one of the shopping centres (very much like Sunshine Plaza at Maroochydore) and came to realize that the Africa I remember from 9 years ago is slowly disappearing to be replaced by a more western society. Makes for less of a culture shock for the new visitor but still a big shame. Dinner last night was at the “Bull and Bush” a local steak house. Food was excellent, as I expected.

Plans for the day included hiring a car for the next 20 days (most likely Avis), getting a local sim card for the mobile, going for a walk to the local shopping centre to flush myself with Pula’s (Botswana currency), un-boxing some of the furniture in the flat, and studying the Gaborone city map.

If I can be bothered, I may enquire about subscribing to one of the local internet service providers...perhaps.

Tags: travel

He who thinks the world has only ten wonders needs to get out more often.

Tags: thoughts