Botswana: no fences

To get to Botswana we were going to have to drive across the Mohembo game reserve which we had previously visited to see their giant Baobab tree.  We came across a group of baboons, some of whom had babies clutched to them at the side of the road. 

Troop of baboons with babies

We also stopped to photograph a single adolescent bull elephant who was crossing the road ahead of us.  I took a photograph of our friend's vehicle as they were stopped with the elephant ahead of us.

Elephant crossing

This trip was a little fraught with concerns on my part.  We had handled the roads in Namibia well.  On the whole these roads are well maintained dirt roads, often with corrugations and sometimes with ruts or sudden dips.  In Botswana we had been warned there are roads with deep sand and sometimes river crossings. 

Added to this was no clear indication if we could get mobile data for maps there.  I had prepared by downloading google maps to cover our entire trip but we had already learned that while this may place you in a location and on a road, the directions mapping was not reliable. 

The border crossing was easy, although it included a health screening for ebola.  There has been no ebola in this region but they are making sure that they catch someone who is sick before they enter the county.  So the health check was not much more than a casual visual check and a temperature check.

At the gate the official confiscated our firewood and told us no fresh food or meat was allowed to cross.  Three out of four of us are vegetarian so there was no meat in our little camping fridges but we  had the option to discard, cook or eat the vegetables in the fridge.

Our friend who had so far been cooking amazing meals (we were a one day on, one day off rotation between the couples) cut up all the vegetables and we boiled them for about 5 min while we ate apples. We were then allowed to cross with that which that night became our vegetable stew supper. 

Our first stop was at an island in the Okavango Delta called Guma Lodge.  The website warns that this is a 4x4 only road and strongly advises visitors uncertain of their vehicles capabilities to call ahead and arrange to be picked up and ferried to the lodge.  We had booked a river-facing campsite so we had no option but to take the road.

The WhatsApp message from the host simply read, go to Etsha 13 and follow the signs from there.   Now, in the luxury of our home in Portugal I was able to find out that the Angolan refugees that settled there in 1969 were put into locations called Settlements - each with a number associated.  A local official decided to rename them and used a Khwe word (San Bushman of this region) which means pool of water and this naming convention stuck.

Guma lodge road - photo by Anne

Google was able to map directions for us to Etsha 13 and when we got there we saw rough signs pointing at a 2-wheel dirt track with deep fine sand - finer than sea sand.

After a very bumpy ride with deep wide corrugations that were sometimes alternating so that you felt you were in a rocking boat without the gentleness that water brings to the experience, we came to our first river crossing. 

There were several of these - in some cases the path ahead was signaled by poles stuck into the water, some of which described a sharp right turn in the middle of the river or by sandbags that had been put down to raise the level of the road.  We didn't realize how deep one of them was until I saw our friend's rear left tailgate dip into the river as they took the right turn.

Our rental company had warned me that we should not go through deep water and I had no idea how deep that meant but we had no choice at this point and so we went for it.

Towards the end of the road we were wondering how much more we'd have to endure the rocking and bumping and then suddenly we were on a more level, less sandy road alongside an open area where a helicopter was parked.

Guma lodge helipad

The lodge is very impressive and we were given a campsite right next to the river with a dedicated ablution block.  

This was the third location we had visited that had no barriers between the water and the campsite and there were warnings to be on the lookout for hippo and crocodiles but we had grown accustomed to the burbles from hippos near us and I reassured myself that a crocodile could not come close without being noticeable because of how shallow the water was within a few meters of the edge of the campsite. 

Guma lodge campsite private view 

On offer was a Mokoro boat trip and helicopter tours of the Okavango.  The location is pretty famous for fishing and there were motor boats to take people out fishing and a large barge that you can go onto the lagoon overnight.  We opted for the Mokoro boat trip.

We were up early, leaving just after sunrise.  The two guides were impressive.  They had vast knowledge of the area and of the animal behaviour there.  They explained how the hippos made these channels between the islands as they made there way back and forth each day to the deep water in the morning and the shallows in the evening.  Our trip was timed to begin after the hippos had left the shallows at 7:30am.

We started off in a power boat which dropped us off at a landing on one of the islands in the lagoon where we were given some brief safety instructions. 

The Mokoros were originally made from hollowed out trees but are now being made from fiberglass which lasts longer than the wooden boats did.   They are powered by a man standing in the bow with a long pole that has a forked end.   

Our friends in the Mokoro boat

Our guide explained that the end is to catch on the floating papyrus and hippo grass, much like a wading bird's foot.  Because of the silent approach on water we were able to get really close to the birdlife - starting with an African Darter which is an anhinga. 

African Darter

They look like a snake when they are swimming along because only their long necks stick out of the water.

One of the guides made a necklace from a waterlily plant by breaking off alternate portions of the stalk while keeping the milky skin in place and each of our partners were given one.

Waterlily necklace

Once we reached the island destination we were told about the role that termite mounds play in building up little islands in the lagoon.  The termites bring in seeds and in many cases a tree seed germinates and you see termite mounds with large trees growing from them.

Termite mound with a tree growing from inside

The island we were visiting was much larger than these little ones, having formed naturally on higher ground.  The approach to the landing offered these beautiful reflections in the still water.

Reflections in the lagoon

We were asked to tread carefully, keep silent and walk in single file, observing hand signals to stop or come forward.

We emerged on an open plain to see a group of young elephants with a matriarch.  We were on foot about a football field's length from them and, the guide later told us, downwind of them so not really easy for them to notice us.  

Matriarch emerging from the bush on our island

We were overwhelmed with the emotion of being on the same field as these elephants, aware of how dangerous they might be and yet comforted by the reassurances of our guides who were careful but confident in their presence.

After the matriarch emerged the young elephants came out including a rather crazy little one who ran on to the plain trumpeting and waving his trunk around in a display of youthful exuberance.  

Baby elephant joy

After walking across the plain and hearing from the guides about elephant and hippo behaviour and also how common elephant kills are in the Okavango.  The reason is that there are a few large prides of lions - sometimes with up to 20-30 adults, which makes it necessary to kill larger animals to feed all of them.  The lions tackle the elephant's back legs and then one or two of them grab the trunk to suffocate it.  It was a pretty brutal description.

On our return trip in the Mokoro we came across a beautiful bee eater.

Bee eater

Once we got back into the motor boat at the landing that we had started from we headed back towards our campground and at one point the boat captain suddenly slowed down and did a big u-turn to pull up at the bank where a huge crocodile was lying. 

Enormous crocodile

The boat captain pushed the nose of the boat right up to the bank a couple of feet from the croc and I was pretty panicky, having been at crocodile farms where they demonstrate the speed at which crocodiles can move both in and out of the water.

The captain reassured us that this one was really full, having very recently had a big meal and was not likely to be moving much - but I did breathe a sigh of relief when we pulled away from the bank and headed off again.

The next day we had to retrace our steps across the river crossings but this time they seemed less intimidating and the entire trip a whole lot shorter, if only because we knew what to expect.

The roads to our last wildlife stop near the Moremi game reserve were pretty bad.  We first had a stop in Maun overnight to break the journey at a community run campsite which turned out to be pretty noisy with a group of young people who didn't stop their loud conversations until about 2:30am.  Fortunately I slept through it all but Anne was pretty annoyed in the morning.  We had a word with the camp organizers and they were very good about it, saying that they don't want something like this giving them bad publicity and discouraging visitors.

The two towns that we stopped at in Botswana were intriguing.  They are pretty low key with a lot of the economic activity taking place in small little metal containers that are referred to as "tuck shops".  This is where we looked for eSIM cards for Botswana.

In the end we discovered that Orange - the French mobile company sell eSIMs for Botswana and there were adverts all over for Orange so we were able to get data for our phones for WhatsApp and google maps using the Orange travel service that we had used on previous trips to Europe, selecting Botswana as the target country.

We started early the following morning knowing that the roads would be a challenge.  The trip distance is 156km (96 miles) but the travel time was projected to be 4 hours and we took a little longer than that.

We were disappointed at first with the campsite which was not what we'd seen advertised but the person at reception and the community guide allocated to settle us in explained that they had to build these campsites because the river crossing to the main lodge and campsites was impassable by vehicles and could only be made on Mokoro boats.

After settling in for the night we felt a little more comfortable with the site, but the guide had warned us that there was a good chance of coming across PDAs (potentially dangerous animals) and we were prohibited from visiting the ablution blocks after dark and warned that baboons, hippos, hyenas and elephant could come into the campsite.

Hyena at her den, early evening

In the case of the first three it was at night and we were to learn after two nights there that the elephant could come into the campsite during the day.  Anne saw a group of hyenas in the campsite sniffing around on our first night there.  Since our meals were all vegetarian they didn't linger for long.

Hippos were close by.   We heard them in the evenings as they came close to shore but they honored the unwritten law to stay away from a campfire, as did the baboons.

On our second night we heard a loud, urgent trumpeting across the river.  I thought a matriarch was chasing off an unruly bull but our guide the next day suggested that they may have smelt predators nearby.  The next thing there was a loud splashing of something big wading across the swamp.  A large young bull was making his way directly to our camp.  None of us had the presence of mind to try to film or photograph it.  We stood gawking as it came closer.  Our friend had a bright spotlight and shone it at the elephant which we think encouraged it to move to the adjacent campsite which was unoccupied.

The next morning several elephants returned to the swamp from our side.  There must have been several more who ended up crossing in the night.

Our friend at the edge of our campsite watching one of the young bulls

  It was incredible to stand at the edge of the campsite watching them grazing in the water nearby.

Mokoro guide near the young bull elephants

The next afternoon as we were getting ready for lunch we heard some crashing in the bushes near the ablutions.  We had cut some tomatoes and cucumber for salad and we saw one of the young bulls pulling down and breaking branches of the mopane trees.  The guide had described this tree as "sugar cane for elephants".

Young bull elephant approaching our camp

We sat admiring the elephant until it became plain that he was not going to avoid our campsite.  The mopane trees were too attractive to him.

We retreated behind our friend's truck (well all but one of us who was a lot braver than we were) and watched as the elephant pulled down branches closer and closer to our rental and the tent above it.   Our braver friend stood near the front door and watched as it pulled the branches down right next to the truck.

The elephant then made its way very slowly around the front of our truck and then very leisurely through the campsite towards where we were hiding behind the other truck.  

We had to move at some point.  I leaned over to see what it was up to and it was standing a few feet away from me staring straight at me which prompted me to head over to our rental and wait behind it for more developments.

The elephant made its way around our friend's truck and then deftly threaded its way past their solar panels and managed to avoid stepping on the solidly made camp chairs.

At this point it was next to our two tables with lunch laid out.

The trunk carefully extracted a piece of cut cucumber and he tasted it before going again for the plates of food.  One of the plates fell on the ground and he managed to turn it over and check what was inside.

At this point he swung his trunk and it knocked both the tables over and the metal trunk with our coffee and campstove.

We all jumped (including the elephant) at the noise and it took a couple of steps towards the water before deciding that some plants in the shallows were worth eating as well.

In all the elephant spent about 2 hours wandering towards and in our campsite.  More to the point, 2 hours was how long we hid behind vehicles watching the elephant casually make his way around the campsite.

I noticed a second young bull come up half way through this and decide that it was too close to humans to take a chance, but the first one had no such qualms. 

In the aftermath I took a photo of Anne standing next to our truck showing how close the downed branch came to our vehicle.  The elephant has not quite left us, it is standing to the left of the truck at the edge of the campsite.

Aftermath

That night we went on a game drive and saw another final beautiful African sunset and a large collection of other game.  Our guide tried to find a leopard that he was alerted to by other guides but we were not lucky enough to see it.

African sunset

On our last day in Botswana we went on a walking tour with three San Bushmen who showed us how they approach going into the bush to hunt.

San bushmen with an elephant skull found on our walk

One of them demonstrated how they call zebra, they showed us medicinal plants used for treating ailments and injuries and then a demonstration on how to start a fire by rubbing sticks together repeatedly.

Our last day in Botswana involved a drive from our campsite to a campsite not far from the Botswana border. 

On the way out of the park we saw a hornbill with a mouse on the side of the road.

We took the 4-5 hour trip to Maun where we stopped to have lunch at a really nice little restaurant called Hilary's off the main road.  Our friends who traveled with us know a mutual friend of the owner so she was happy to hear about the connection.

Last meal together in Maun

The remainder of the trip was uneventful.  We drove in convoy to Windhoek where Anne and I dropped off the rental truck.

We had been using walkie-talkies to communicate on the trip and as often happens one or the other truck was listening to music or an Audible book so we would inevitably hear "come again" or "can you repeat that?" after delivering the first message.

When our friends were driving back to Cape Town and we were getting ready for our flight Anne wrote on WhatsApp that she wished we still had walkie-talkies to talk to each other so easily.  Our friends immediate reaction was: