Nxamaseri Lodge Maun

... the delta. We hear that when it’s cold, it can get quite cold (so pack fleece tops and bottoms). And if it’s damp, you never seem to warm up. On the other hand, if it’s hot, it’s really hot and always humid. We’ll have to wait and see what weather awaits us. On average, this is the hottest month in Botswana and right now is also the hottest time of the month.

Some of the seats in the front row of the truck ...

... Da es bereits zu spät war, um aus dem Park zu fahren, durften wir auch noch auf ihrem Campsite im Park übernachten. So kamen wir unverhofft doch noch zu unserer Übernachtung auf dem Campingplatz innerhalb der Parks, welcher eigentlich: „Sorry, in September everything is fully booked“ war.
Nun, nachdem das Auto immer noch fährt und wir auch die letzten Schlammspuren beseitigt haben geht es jetzt wieder in Richtung trockenere Gebiete. Die Kalahari im Süden Namibias wartet auf uns.

Here is the little propeller plane we took which was actually very nice on the inside. We had the second to last row on the plane going Johannesburg to Maun (Botswana), it was 2hrs long and without a single cloud in the sky we could enjoy looking down on the Botswana country side. It was brown, and then light brown oh and we saw the one road that cuts through the middle of the country. When we started to descend for landing the pilot ...

... easy to see from the air and the lushness of the delta stunning. We saw many herds of elephants, zebra and impala and marvelled that we had seen so much life down on the bush camps as this was such a massively spread area seen from above. Sadly we said goodbye to Emma and Paul who were leaving the truck tomorrow and with our early start planned we had a few farewell drinks tonight. This is our last night in Botswana as tomorrow we enter Namibia.

... morning we were up early as usual and on the road to the campsite at a cheetah park by 7am. We arrived to the site at lunchtime and once we'd eaten we were loaded onto an open top lorry and brought to see the cheetahs in the sanctuary. There were two adult females and a male cub. We were able to walk beside them, pet them and take lots of photos. The cub was very playful, just like a kitten would be. We also got to see our first Zebra. Unfortunately it was dead and they were cutting it into ...

... embrace our backpacker lifestyle again after two comfortable weeks with Maureen and Don. In an effort to get organized, we called South African airlines to enquire about one of our flights on our round-the-world ticket. Stephanie knew something was wrong when Chad's face turned white during the call. We immediately packed our bags, abandoned plans to get a bus to Botswana and caught a cab to the airport. In short, what happened was a grave mistake on the ...

... of Africa's prime examples of success. Another positive factor is that Botswana is formed primarily of one ethnic group, the Batswana and thus the country suffers less from ethnic strife than many of its' neighbours. However there are still large problems, one of the worst being the AIDs crisis. It is stated that one in 3 people in the country have aids. The Botswanan government appears to be tackling this issue, so ...

... which was fantastic. It really is impressive how big the place is and the view from above gives you a very different perspective. We saw herds of Buffalow, Giraffes, Elephants, Zebras and Empala all over the place and the pilot threw in a couple of tight turns to add a bit of excitement to the flight. It was great fun, well worth it.

... went for a shower so Suze and Sarah stole his clothes only to be met with "Guys... help... please... it's cold". Hahahahaa attracting of course Oliver, Martin and me who were too busy laughing to be of any assistance.



Suze and I chatted to some pilots for most the night, one from OZ the other Kiwi. Nice lads out here to up their flying hours. Shots were getting bought left right and centre resulting in an incredibly messy night to say the least. Thankfully I'm not too ...

... in Gaborone also has a host of blood suckers, but there the walls and ceiling are white and I can hunt them down. My first night I squashed 6, the second 9. At least those weren't malarial. But here in the bush the mosquitoes can be as deadly as the crocs, and harder to avoid. As I finish up the basket weavers' story I scratch my new bites, poke at the old and make a mental note to buy the biggest, baddest, most environmentally non-friendly bug spray I can find.