Botswana Adventure

Botswana Adventure: My First Botswana Experience

By Kay L Trotman

Front entry of Meno Camp; Botswana, Africa

My latest adventure was Botswana, Africa in July 2009. What an adventure! I’ll be anxious to escort a group to this country. After my first visit back in 2003, I knew I would return and return I did. Botswana is a game rich country with the ever unique Okavango Delta contrasted with the Kalahari Desert. There is no doubt a first visit or a subsequent visit would be fantastic. The Delta was filled with inlets and islets throughout the country, making travel by roads impossible. So, our journey was by bush plane between camps, and traveling through water on Land Cruisers within the camps. It was quite an experience.

*The Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Citizens of Botswana are called “Batswana” (singular: Motswana), regardless of ethnicity. Formerly a British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It meets Zambia at a single point.

Geographically the country is flat and up to 70% of Botswana is covered by the Kalahari Desert. Botswana was one of the most impoverished countries in Africa when it became independent in 1966. Today, it is home to a relatively stable political system and a rapidly developing market economy. Being closely tied with the economy of South Africa, the country’s economy is one of the most successful in Africa and is dominated by the fast-growing service sector, world-renowned diamond industry, tourism, and manufacturing.

About 60% of the population live above the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day. Botswana’s economic growth rate has outpaced the economic growth of even the Asian Tigers, and the World Bank cites Botswana as one of the world’s great development success stories.

The Okavango Delta (or Okavango Swamp), in Botswana, is the world’s largest inland delta.

The area was once part of Lake Makgadikgadi, an ancient lake that mostly dried up by the early Holocene, except for seasonal flooding. Today, the Okavango River has no outlet to the sea. Instead, it empties onto the sands of the Kalahari Desert, irrigating 15,000 km of the desert.

The waters of the Okavango Delta are subject to seasonal flooding, which begins about mid-summer in the north and six months later in the south (May/June). The water from the delta is evaporated relatively rapidly by the high temperatures, resulting in a cycle of cresting and dropping water in the south. Islands can disappear completely during the peak flood, then reappear at the end of the season. This process of evaporation was badly understood as late as the early 20th century:

The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometers (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari Desert is the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not true desert. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. It usually receives 3–7.5 inches (76–190 mm) of rain per year.

We traveled from Delta Camp in the Okavango Delta, situated on the South Western edge of Chief’s Island in the heart of the Okavango Delta. Predominantly a Water Camp with walks on Islands, at Delta Camp the traditional mokoro (dug-out canoes) are used as the primary mode of transport.

Always sneaking an ad in.: Click image for a better view

Then, onward to Meno a Kwena situated on the edge of Boteti River, which forms the western boundary of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. This year, just two weeks prior to my visit, this river flowed for the first time in twenty years. There was huge excitement here. It had been dry and animals roamed for miles in search of water. Now, the water finally flowed down from Angola after twenty years to fill this river. It was the most amazing thing. This Land camp is in an unparalleled and unique position to do extensive and varied Kalahari safaris including the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans National Parks, and Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Salt Pans were fantastic, and the landscape was moon-like as it felt like you could easily fall off the edge of the earth.

We fly from Meno to Xakanaxa Mobile in the heart of the Moremi Game Reserve, a traditional tented safari with your own guide, cook and camp staff to take care of you. A real ‘safari’ experience with camp established on a dedicated site. These safaris are operated on a FLY-IN basis. The highlight about this camp experience was the Cheetah on the hunt as we left camp the following morning.

Then it was on to Santawani which is situated on the southern boundary of the Moremi Game

Reserve on our own exclusive private area. It is a Land Camp with game drives and night drives. The game experience is enhanced through off-road operating – a key to delivering a quality look at the predators that are widespread in this area. The highlight of this experience here is the Leopard Warthog kill and the hyena below the tree waiting for scraps. They were fortunate because the leopard dropped a huge leg and the hyena grabbed it before the second hyena came in for his share.

It was then on to Mapula Lodge, our last accommodation, which is situated in the northern area of the Okavango Delta, just outside the Moremi Game Reserve. This is a private area, giving the lodge the ability to offer a full spectrum of activities, including a mokoro trip where hippos abound. It is a Land Camp and Water Camp with day and night drives with guide and tracker, bush walks and mokoro excursions.

So anyone out there interested in a Botswana experience.