Americans would call it a “panhandle”, here it is called a strip. Early German colonialists, who wanted access to the Zambezi River from their colony in South West Africa, secured an agreement with the British, in what today is Botswana, in 1890 and so the Caprivi Strip was born.
Our 500 km plus trip through the region today was fairly uneventful, except for the heavy rain that followed us for the first few hundred kilometres. Tonight we are on the banks of the Zambezi River, enjoying our afternoon beers and looking across the river to Zambia. Earlier on in the day we drove along the border with Angola through more traditional villages and small towns. It is Saturday and people were everywhere along the 300 kms of the strip. Small stalls again line the highway outside family compounds, but this time the offerings seem to be a little more well-crafted than those we saw yesterday.
We read a lot before we came here about the challenges of the roads. We admit to being more than a little concerned about driving ourselves. This concern, as we have mentioned before, led us to hire a large 2x4 SUV vehicle, the Toyota Fortuner. If we had been driving a standard sedan with low clearance, our views would probably have been a little different, but as we have explained previously, if you intend driving on anything but sealed roads in Namibia, a sedan just won’t cut it.
So, based on our experience of driving a sturdy, high clearance 2x4, we can say with confidence that while some of the gravel roads we have driven on have been a little uncomfortable, they have been well managed by our chosen vehicle.
The major highways, “B Roads” have all been in fantastic condition and they compare favourably with similar roads in Australia. “C Roads” on main routes that travellers would take, have also been excellent, though a little narrow at times.
Overall, we would say that Namibia is easy to drive if you choose the right vehicle for what you intend to do. The top pick if you can afford it, would be a 4x4 Toyota Fortuner or better. We were happy with the 2x4 version, but we didn’t go way off road. If you are prepared to stay on the major, or good secondary roads and join short organised tours to visit more inaccessible attractions, a good quality sedan would do the job. Whichever vehicle you choose, driving in Namibia entails great distances, with few service towns en route. Australians, Americans and Canadians may be more used to this type of driving than Europeans, but the same safety precautions apply to everybody. Drive at speeds to match the conditions, drive in 2hr shifts, top-up fuel at every chance and know how to change a tyre.
7 April, Masikiro Self-Catering, Kasane, Botswana
Our stay in the riverside lodge last night was a bit, no, a lot more expensive than our normal fare, but to be right beside the Zambezi River, looking across at Zambia and hearing the singing and conversations from the villages over the river was well worth the expense.
A late start was due for us after two hard driving days. We had thought it would take at least until early afternoon to manage the border crossing and the 130 km trip from Namibia into Botswana. As it turned out the border was a breeze on both sides, though, as veterans of many border crossings in many parts of the world, we have to say that there are common elements; no signage and no clear directions. Today it was not too much of a problem at this dusty outpost, as only a handful of vehicles had passed through either side by the time we got there at around 10:00 am.
We were a little concerned about the location of our self-catering apartment here in Kasane. From Google Earth, it looked as though the place was in the middle of a squatters’ settlement. This judgment was a bit harsh as it turned out, but not too far off the mark. We have driven past shanty towns like this in Africa many times and immediately checked that our doors were locked. At least here, things are not as glum as they might seem from the outside. Most houses are a little ramshackle, but not the hovels they seemed from a distance. The streets are windy, rutted sandy tracks where kids play, dogs wander and people stop and chat, but up close, things are not all that bad.
To our dismay, despite rattling on the doors of the bottle-o, we learned alcohol is not sold on a Sunday in Botswana and, yes, today is Sunday. In a desperate attempt to resolve this cataclysmic problem we asked the extremely pleasant receptionist at our great little digs if there was anywhere locally we could buy beer. There are a few tiny “Tuck Shops” (small corner stores) around the village, but they didn’t appear to be likely suspects. Rising to the occasion our receptionist, the lovely Ennie, offered to direct us to a bar where we could buy some beer.
Now if we had by some chance taken a wrong turn and found ourselves in this shanty village, we would have hit the pedal and made tracks. Warming to our environment and driven by desperation, the largest and bravest of us set off with Ennie to find the bar. Through a labyrinth of sandy tracks we found our way to a tin shack with an outdoor pool table and a slightly rowdy clientele sitting under trees on plastic chairs, logs and upturned plastic drums. Ennie declined an invitation to come into the bar and was more than happy to stay in the car. This may seem strange after all this build up, but the place was as safe as an Aussie pub on a Sunday afternoon. Inside, the two barmaids showed no surprise at the presence of a white customer and in true Botswanan style smiled, and in perfect English asked, “What would you like?”
Never judge a shanty village pub by its plastic and corrugated iron exterior.
8 April, Kasane
Chobe National Park is rated highly as one of the best wildlife reserves in Africa. We hit the road at 5:30 am for a three hour safari through the park, commencing just after sunrise. The park is not accessible by two wheel drive vehicles, and entry by private 4x4s is restricted, so we were picked up by a standard, high-mounted Landcruiser safari truck. Masses of impala roam the park, but most other game were fairly thin on the ground today. Out on the river flats hippopotami grazed, but they were a long way off.
We did spot a couple of Cape water buffalo, giraffes, elephants and a few small species like mongoose, but the trip was a bit of a disappointment in comparison with Etosha. It had rained the night before our trip and that may have limited the numbers of animals on the move.
Despite the reputation of Botswana as an expensive destination, we felt that under AUD40 each was reasonable for our trip. The fact that we only spotted a fairly limited number of animals was just the luck of the draw.
9 April, Kasane
Travelling is more about what you experience than what you see. When we talk about our travels, it is almost always about experiences rather than sights and today’s trip into Zimbabwe was a perfect example. On entering our minibus for the trip to Victoria Falls, we were greeted by two smiling young South Africans, Frans and Mantsha. Frans is a food technologist and buyer for the South African chain, Pick and Pay and Mantsha is a chemical engineer. It wasn’t long before we were engaged in a wide-ranging conversation on everything from racism to the politics of our home countries. We learned a great deal about the current situation in South Africa from the African perspective and even more about the sort of discrimination that is still rampant in the Rainbow Nation.
As we settled in for lunch in a small cafe in the Victoria Falls Park we noticed some curious stares from the other, totally white clientele, most of whom were white South Africans. Later in the day while visiting the palatial 150 year old Victoria Falls Hotel, the “pukka sahibs” who were taking tea or a late lunch, also shot our merry little group some strange looks. It seems this sort of reaction is still common in South Africa if Africans, irrespective of who they are, choose to go to places that whites consider to be their preserve. We also felt that the reaction was magnified by the fact that they were obviously in friendly company with us. As we have always maintained to our South African friends at home, many white South Africans just don’t see it.
The day will always be a memorable one for us as a great experience and, yes, the falls were spectacular, though the constant mist and spray limited visibility.
Back in our room, we were surprised by a knock at the door by the receptionist who said that one of the other guests would like to meet us. Sure, we said and we were introduced to a nice young Botswanan archaeologist by the name of Laurence. Partly, he wanted to ask us about our experiences in his country, but he was also interested in any ideas we might have to help him get some work in Australia in the field of Forensic Archaeology - an Australian/Botswanan “Bones” and yet another experience that you don’t get if you stay at the expensive lodges down by the river. To meet people like these you have to stay at the end of sandy tracks in the poorer end of town, that our new friend Frans described as much the same as a Johannesburg township.
Zimbabwe does very well, thank you, from tourists visiting the falls. Most foreigners pay US$30 each for a visa to cross from Botswana and another US$30 for park entry fees - unless you happen to be Canadian, for once singled out, they mostly flying under the radar - charged US$75 for the visa. Who did they offend? We were a little too quick to pull out our US$. We could have paid in pula at about a 20% cheaper cost.
Because the park entrance is right at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the usual rules about border crossings apply - no signs, no help and an environment of total confusion, with trucks, mud, hawkers, people, push bikes and cars going every which way. We were lucky that our new friends had another fairly common African talent; they were multi-lingual. Frans spoke ten languages/dialects including English and Afrikaans and Mantsha eight. Not that the officials didn’t speak English, but things move much more smoothly when someone communicating in a common language is asking the questions.
11 April, Pelican Lodge and Camping, Nata
In the middle of the Chobe River just outside Kasane is Sedudu Island. Once a point of serious conflict between Namibia and Botswana, this small island is today a wildlife refuge for thousands of animals and birds during the dry season, when grazing options on the mainland become scarce. In the late 1990s Namibia claimed the island, wishing to farm it. Botswana claimed it as a game reserve for tourism purposes. At the end of the day, the International Court of Justice came down on the side of Botswana. Yesterday afternoon we were able to enjoy some great wildlife spotting from our 20 person flat-bottomed boat.
Botswana has a clearly espoused policy of providing up-market wildlife tourism, but with a little local help, it is possible to get reasonable tour options that provide much the same wildlife experiences, without all the flashy extras. Our three hour plus trip cost AUD40 each, including park permit fees. On top of that, we were provided with a bottle of water and a can of soft drink each, which Ennie picked up for us at the local Spar on the way to the jetty.
Apparently there are 10,000 elephants in Chobe National Park and many thousands more roaming Botswana, so many in fact, that the government is thinking of introducing a program of “hunter culling” to control the numbers. Hunters would be charged huge permit fees to hunt a controlled number of elephants to control total herd numbers, while proving a funding boost to assist in maintaining the significant areas of wildlife reserves in the country.
Driving from Kasane to Nata today, we only saw one elephant by the road, but their droppings were all along the highway. How do we know they were elephant droppings? If you have ever seen an elephant poop you would know.
Our boat trip provided far more wildlife sightings than our road safari a couple of days ago. Many varieties of water birds, impala, hippos, crocodiles and of course elephants were all over the island and on the river front on the mainland side. The elephants were the stars. We enjoyed watching three males wallow around in the mud, a mother and baby at the river’s edge having a drink, the calf having fun chasing birds and best of all, a lone bull who swam across the river right in front of our boat, enjoying himself doing duck dives in the 15 metre deep channel.
12 April, Nata
Nata is a crossroads town, probably more accurately, a village, at the junction of the A33 from Kasane in the north and the A3 that runs south to Francistown and west towards the Namibian border. There isn’t a lot to Nata - a couple of petrol stations, a few hairdressers, tyre repair places and a Choppies supermarket. The truck traffic through the village is heavy enough to have torn up much of the road and potholed what is left. It has been raining the past couple of days, so the mud and grey, heavy skies do little to enhance what is already a fairly glum picture.
Our lodge is pleasant enough, with a pool, grass-roofed dining areas and nice gardens. We are probably the only people here, other than staff and a few staff kids that seem to be corralled here, minded during the school holidays.
This morning we drove out to the Nata Bird Sanctuary about 15 kms out of town. The rain held off, but the sky was steely. Once we were in the sanctuary, it was a slow 7 km drive, over a heavily corrugated road, wildebeest grazing here and there, to the edge of the salt pan and the bird viewing platform. Thousands of birds lined the shores - flamingos, pelicans and dozens of varieties of other water birds. Sadly, the water levels are so low at the moment that the shore line was 100-200 metres from the viewing area so the birds were a little hard to see. We were however well entertained on our return trip by a couple of bull wildebeests charging about, fighting over a small herd of females and calves.
Our plan for the afternoon was to take a salt pan sunset tour, but it turned out that the tour took the same route we took this morning, so we saved ourselves AUD25pp and had a quiet afternoon catching up on emails and listening to audio books. Seems it is possible to do both the sanctuary and the salt pans as a combined tour deal for around AUD37pp, or do the sanctuary alone self-drive, for just AUD12pp plus AUD5 per vehicle.
13 April, Airbnb, Maun
Main highways we have driven to this point in Namibia and Botswana have been excellent. Today on the journey from Nata to Maun, we “bottomed out” almost literally! This is the A3, one of the major highways in Botswana, which, for a fair portion of its length, is no better than a goat track. Even on the less potholed sections we had to use both sides of the road to miss the cavernous holes that would have easily destroyed a small sedan if hit at any speed. On some sections we were reduced to 10 km/h, driving through virtually end to end potholes.
As usual, goats, donkeys and cattle roamed the verges; most are fairly traffic aware, but we still have to keep an eye on them. One, more welcome, animal traffic hazard was a giraffe who gracefully sauntered across the highway to join a small herd of his friends grazing just off the road.
We have become so attuned to the human and animal intrusions onto the roads, that we no longer find it strange to be avoiding herds of goats, or cows, even in the middle of major towns. This afternoon a donkey moseyed into our path in the main street of Maun as we left one of the town’s malls.
14 April, Maun
The rivers and streams that feed into the Okavango Delta start their journey in tropical Angola and beyond, taking months to arrive and bring life to the Delta. It has been a dry year and the rains in the north have not yet arrived to replenish the now almost totally dry streams and swamps. Sadly for us, that means that we will not be able to take the boat trip we had planned. There were road trips available, but at AUD300 pp they were well outside our budget. As a consolation, we went looking for somewhere nice to have lunch. No joy there either on this Sunday as all that was open was the Wimpy Bar. To amuse ourselves we sat and watched the expressions on the faces of tourists as they arrived at the liquor store beside Wimpy’s only to discover, as we did a week ago, that no alcohol is sold in Botswana on a Sunday.
13 April, Maun
Another quiet day due to the unavailability of tours on the Delta. We put in about 10 minutes visiting a very small local museum, then retired to our extremely comfortable and well equipped Airbnb, where we worked on planning the next leg of our trip to Scotland.
The remainder of our journey through southern Africa will be taken up with two days of driving to take us back to our starting point in Windhoek. As it is our second last night in Botswana it is probably a good time for a bit of a review.
As we have already mentioned, Botswana has a policy of “top end” tourism. However, in some areas the prices of tours and accommodation are fairly reasonable. We found moderately priced accommodation of a comfortable standard for an average of just over AUD100 per night. The highest price we paid was AUD190 and the lowest AUD55. In all cases the rooms were clean and comfortable. We used self-catering establishments where possible, particularly for stays of a few days or more, which kept our eating costs down. When we had to eat at a hotel the prices were reasonable by Australian standards. A main course and a beer each averaged AUD50 for two.
The day and part-day tours we did averaged about AUD35 pp per day, including park permit fees. One notable exception was our trip to Victoria Falls that cost around AUD120 pp per day due to Zimbabwe visa fees and very expensive park entry fees.
Roads in Botswana have been extremely patchy. As we mentioned previously, the road between Kasane and Maun is almost impassable in some places. For most of our journey though we would rate roads as fair to good. Once again we really appreciated having the larger SUV to deal with the more difficult patches. Animals on the road are a bit of a problem, though elephants and giraffes are a welcome sight. We never drove at night and we would strongly recommend against it. We have been keeping a tally of our fuel costs and they will be included at the end of the trip when we leave Windhoek, but the price of diesel and unleaded are a little cheaper than in Australia and significantly cheaper than in Europe. On the whole drivers are very good. Traffic is very light on most country roads and highways so there is always a good margin for error. In towns people drive extremely slowly, moving at 40 km/h is not uncommon. The level of courtesy is well above what we experience at home, with drivers allowing vehicles turning across traffic to pass without closing up against them which sadly is very much the Australian way. Choosing the least bumpy or potholed part of the road can see vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road, sometimes for significant distances. For those of us used to driving on the left this is not really a problem in such light highway traffic. We have worried from time to time about those more familiar with driving on the right being able to adjust quickly in the face of oncoming traffic.
Safety is always something to be considered in Africa. From our experience and from what others have told us, Botswana is very safe. We haven’t felt uneasy anywhere and we have wandered about in all African towns and stayed in areas that would be considered “townships.” One caveat is that we do not go out at night, but we feel confident that anybody behaving sensibly in Botswana would also be safe in most places at after dark. Police check points can be a little daunting to those who live in countries where they generally mean that something nasty has happened nearby. Here they are simply to check drivers’ licences and, sometimes, vehicle roadworthiness, lights, etc. There are also fairly regular quarantine checkpoints within Botswana where vehicles have to drive through pits to clean vehicles to prevent transmission of animal diseases. At some of these points, passengers have to stand in solutions to cleanse their shoes. At one point, our vehicle was also searched for meat products.
Like most people, we came to Botswana for the wildlife primarily, and then to experience the culture. Tick both boxes. Even given our disappointments here in Maun, we have seen plenty of wildlife in some truly spectacular landscapes. We firmly believe that travelling as we do, we inevitably get up close with the locals and here in Botswana that can be a rewarding experience, as people are generally welcoming and happy, even border guards!
On more mundane issues, ATMs are in most towns and at service stations, despite information on the web, credit cards are accepted at most service stations, all chain supermarkets and at hotels. We always use local currency but, while US$s and Rand are generally accepted, you will get your change in pula.
One last comment. Don’t forget that no alcohol is sold in Botswana on a Sunday!
18 April, Home Inn, Windhoek
Back to our start point. The past couple of days we have just been driving - from Maun to Ghanzi then to Gobabis, breaking the drive into easily managed 300 km sections. Back in Namibia, the dryness of the Kalahari has been magnified this year due to a series of failed wet seasons. Rivers we crossed were dry sandy ditches where cattle wander about mournfully, looking for water. Last night in Gobabis, our lodge was billed as lakeside. The lake, that is in fact a dam that is the main water supply for the town of 20,000, is at the moment more like a shallow swamp.
Our flight tomorrow back to Johannesburg is under a bit of a cloud. It is the Easter weekend and the ground crew of Comair, the airline that manages British Airways’ flights in Southern Africa, are on strike. The airline insists that will operate normal schedules. Let’s hope so!
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