Botswana – Page 3 – Clancy Abroad

Back in Botswana

It seems hard to believe now, that the first time we visited this beautiful country the only thing I wanted to do was go to Gaborone. It’s not far from the SA/Bots border and I’d read so much about it in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. I just wanted to see it for myself, and maybe catch a glimpse of the Tiny White Van.

We’re now visiting Bots for the 4th time and each time we fall a bit more in love with the place, the people, the incredible scenery and the overall ‘vibe’. And we keep on finding more places to see and more reasons to visit.

We crossed the border at McCarthy’s Rest/Tsabong yesterday and almost as soon as we’d arrived in Bots, we relaxed and heaved a sigh of something close to relief that were back here. Our last full day in Sth Africa had been a bit of a trial – the last big town before the border, Kuruman, is a rough place and we were glad to get out of there. Then the first place we tried for a campsite didn’t offer camping any more, despite multiple signs on the road advertising same. And then when we got to the next place, OppiKnoppi, we got our first flat tyre. At least we were able to spend the night there, in a nice cabin that cost us R150pp – around $30 total.

Last night we stayed at the Tsabong Eco-Tourism Camel Park, which is about 10kms out of Tsabong, and 30kms from the border. We have a powered campsite, which has a braai (of course!), huge stack of firewood, outdoor sink and we also have our own bathroom area with toilet, shower and fancy washbasin. And plenty of hot water! We got here early enough yesterday afternoon that we were able to do a load of washing, Greg got some stuff done and I had an afternoon nap. A couple of groups of camels wandered past our campsite, but otherwise we had our space to ourselves. Lovely place, I’d recommend it to everyone visiting this area

We’re heading ‘bush’ and will be off the air for about a week. Going to the eastern part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at Mabuasehube, then west to Kaa, leaving the park and heading to Hukunsti, where we’ll have internet access again hopefully, Kang and then north to Ghanzi. Sadly we’ll miss the Heavy Metal Festival in Ghanzi, but we’ve read about it and it looked like a hoot! Then to the CKGR – Central Kalahari Game Reserve. That’s the plan.
See you in a week!

Moremi Game Reserve

Some pictures from our stay in Moremi Game Reserve Botswana 23rd-25th March 2019

After entering South Gate of Moremi Game Reserve, we drove only a few kilometres to find a group of Elephants at a water hole.

Crossing 1st Bridge on the way to Third Bridge. We got lost along with several other people on the way to first bridge.

Seeing Giraffes on the way to Third Bridge campsite.

Our first night at Third Bridge in Moremi Game Reserve. This was the first night at A$140 per night camping at Third Bridge campsite.

Camped for the second night at Third Bridge campsite. We had to shift campsite because the campsite we stayed in the night before was booked out. The second night campsite was much nicer.

We drove though a group of Giraffes heading to South Gate of Moremi Game Reserve

Hippos at a water hole heading to South Gate Moremi

Camped again at the Wild campsite outside of South Gate Moremi. We never got tired of tropical sunsets.

Camped at the wild camp outside South Gate Moremi, we awoke surrounded by Zebras and Giraffes

Back in Maun

Another very quick one – we’ve just spent a few days camped in and near Moremi National Park. We saw lots of wildlife including a wild dog!

Very exciting as they are rare and we haven’t seen one before. Now we’re heading to Francistown on the A3, which is hopefully a decent sealed road.

When we have some decent internet, probably when we get to South Africa, we’ll post photos. At the moment we’ve hooked into Botswana Post’s free internet access, 10 minutes at a time.

Botswana the Beautiful

We’re back in one of our favourite countries in the world – our favourite African country (so far!) – Botswana.

We wild-camped last night and now we’re in Maun (rhymes with town), having just organised to camp at 3rd Bridge in Moremi National Park, part of the Okavango Delta. It’s costing us USD $100 per night for a campsite. Yes, you read that correctly. A hundred bucks. US. Per night.

We’ll be offline for a few days, see you next week!