After about 12 days in Namibia, we were in Botswana! This is a country that we didn’t know much about but we were prepared to learn. Our first port of call was the Okavango Delta, where we spent two nights in tented lodges and did a sunset cruise on the Delta as well as boating out to a Makoro Island where we hopped into traditional Makoro canoes- ok so not so traditional anymore, now that there’re made of fiberglass instead of hollowed out trees.

                  It was 2 people per canoe with a local to “pole” the canoe (like punting), and he also talked about the wildlife that we saw as we went along. When we got to the island, we followed some fresh elephants tracks (on foot)  and we got a lecture on elephant poop. We heard the elephants but didn’t get close enough to see them.  Two of the ladies said that they saw the arse-end of a leopard but, sadly we didn’t see it. It was  decided to leave the island early as the elephants were making lots of noise and the guides were a bit antsy about staying longer. While poling back to the lodge boat, we saw a couple of young crocodiles and lots of birds.

                  MJ didn’t do the canoe trip, but she came out to the Makoro Island to see us off and then got a private guided tour back to the resort. She saw a crocodile, about 3 years old, some Malachite Kingfishers, a couple of African herons, an African Darter, and Cobra (the guide) and she discussed the the difference between the birthing cycle/motherly care of crocodiles, aquatic terrapins and turtles. She also got an in-depth explanation about how the islands in the Delta are formed – either due to  blockages or termite nests!

                  Nick had planned on a Helicopter ride over Vic Falls but instead he decided to do a chopper ride over the Okavango Delta. He went with Bernd & Shirley, two fellow tour members and he said that it was absolutely stunning, a real highlight. To see the way the Delta spreads out over quite a large area and the chopper pilot (a young Kiwi who got his license in Australia) really gave them the opportunity to see as much as possible.

                  From the Delta, we headed down to Maun, and stayed in another camp with tented lodges, but at least this one had en-suite bathrooms. This particular camp is owned by Drifters and is on the Boteti River. We had a riverfront lodge but the only downside was that it was a Saturday and there were lots of “party boats” with music on the river.

                  Before leaving Maun, we did a Village Walk. Botswana has a lot of “Cattle posts” which are like a village and are for people who don’t want to live in a town. If you choose to live in a Cattle post, then you are entitled to 3 plots of land – for Residential, Farming and a Ranch where you keep your stock, eg goats, cattle, chickens. When you register for a plot of land, you indicate what it is for and you get a block of land that is a preset size, eg residential blocks are 20m x 30m. And it is free! And yours until you die or you sell it. If you die, it can pass on to a member of your family, eg wife, nephew, mother, son. But if you sell it, then the government takes the value of the original block of land, which is usually about 3000 Botswanan Pula. It was interesting to walk around the village, learning about everything from their justice system to their schooling system.

For example, they are very tough on stealing! If you get caught, it is 5 years in jail. If you get caught a second time, then it’s 10 years in jail and if you get caught a third time, it’s automatically 15 years in jail!

                  From Maun, it was onto Elephant Sands Resort, which is in north-eastern Botswana. Their claim to fame is that elephants walk around the lodge at night. In fact, after dinner, you are taken to your lodge and you have to stay there until morning. You can sit on the verandah and watch the elephants, but it’s a bit hard to see them in the dark. We were dropped at our lodge and when I turn towards the lake in the middle, there was a big black shape, which was a elephant about 5 metres from me!!

                  Our last stop in Botswana, was at Chobe National Park for a boat cruise on the Chobe River. Words fail me! That’s just an expression, not for real! We saw so much wildlife – Pied Kingfishers, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Egyptian Geese, African Darters, a Water Lizard, a few different crocodiles of various ages, White-Crowned Lapwing, Banded Mongoose, Elephants, Hippos (one with a calf), Cape Buffalo, Waterbuck, Giraffe…

Some of the highlights were:

We saw a fight between Lapwings and Mongoose. The birds were protecting their nests which were in burrows on the riverbank and Mongoose like to steal the eggs for a meal. We saw a Mumma Hippo with her young calf and we also watch a breeding herd of elephants who crossed to the island in the middle of the river. What made this special was the depth of the river and the different ages/sizes of the elephants. It was sooo cute to watch a baby elephant (about 1 year old) cross the river which was deep enough for the largest elephants to be completely submerged and seeing how the herd helped the baby elephant get across. Apparently this was also special because breeding herds don’t often cross the river.

                  Now it was time for another border crossing, from Botswana into Zimbabwe. It was relatively fast even though there were extra health checks due to Ebola in the Congo. We also had to make sure that we got the right sort of Visa as we wanted the option to be able to go into Zambia. From the border, it was a short drive into Vic Falls and our hotel.

                  After breakfast, we caught the shuttle down into Vic Falls. We decided to head straight over into Zambia – to get a cache for MJ but also to see Vic Falls from the other side. This involved a walk, down to the bridge, across the bridge and back up the other side, running the gamut of touts who wanted us to hire a taxi, and also getting the necessary exit and entry stamps for Zimbabwe and Zambia.

                  And, of course, you have to pay to enter the National Park on the Zambian side, to see Vic Falls. We meandered around the Park, to see Vic Falls from a couple of different angles but we didn’t walk down to the Boiling Pot. We met a guy who runs adventure motorcycle tours! He & Nick got talking – Nick as sorely tempted as there was a tour about to start which would go up to Rwanda, to see the gorillas. He said that he still had a couple of Trans Alps of various capacities available, but I kept a firm grip on Nick’s shirt, his wallet and his passport! We were also amused by the number of baboons that walked along the footpaths and just ignored all the tourists. We watched one baboon at a rubbish bin – he managed to remove the locking pin of the rubbish bin, pull out the big bin, and then tip it over so the baboons could rummage through the rubbish!

                  That was Zambia done – not really but we still had the Zim side of Vic Falls to explore, so it was back across the bridge, back through 2 lots of immigration and into the National Park on the Zimbabwean side. Poor Nick was starting to feel his feet – and not in a good way, so we stopped for a coffee and a bite to eat.

                  MJ had a cache that she wanted to solve (of course she did), which involved walking all the way from where you first see Vic Falls, down to the viewing point where you can see the bridge across the Zambezi River. We also found statues of Dr Livingstone (I presume) on both sides of the River and MJ managed to complete her cache and came back looking like she had been caught in a rain storm – yes, she was also wearing a rain jacket, but against the spray from mighty Vic Falls, it was puny!

                  After 2 nights in a hotel we were back on board the Green Elephant and heading down to Hwange. Just a quick word about our accommodation in Vic Falls. We stayed at A’Zambezi Lodge which ran a convenient shuttle down into town but they need to work on the staff – our room had no bath towels and another room had no toilet paper. Whilst the food provided was tasty, the service was slow! We had dinner in the hotel on our last night and had been advised to preorder our meals, so it would only take 15 minutes to be served instead of 90+minutes!!

                  In Zimbabwe, tour guides have a saying “In Australia/NZ/England, you drive on the left-hand side of the road. In Zimbabwe, you drive on what is left of the road!” And the speed limit for trucks is 80kph on “wide tar road” otherwise it is 60kph, but even that is too fast. The roads are disgraceful – if Nick didn’t have a sore back before we started driving on these roads, he certainly did by the end. The Green Elephant spent more time swerving all across the road, trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid the bumps. I can’t even call them pot-holes because that implies the presence of bitumen! A BIG Black Mark is awarded to Zimbabwe for their roads, or lack thereof!

                  We reached Hwange and discovered that we had been given an upgrade – we were staying at the Hwange Safari Lodge, which was really nice but, why, when we stay in a really nice place, are we there for such a short time. Between the late arrival, due to the condition of the roads, and an early start – we had to be up and on the bus by 6am, which meant that we got a Boxed Breakfast (not great)! For those who know MJ, that was not a popular decision!

                  We did manage to get a short game drive and saw zebra, impala, baboons. We also came across of family group of elephants and we sat and watched them for a while. There were a couple of adolescents who were either play fighting or decided to show how scary they were (sorry, that was a big fail – too cute) by “threatening” the tourists. We’ve seen lots of elephants on this trip which has been great and we have obviously come at the right time because we are also seeing a lot of young/baby animals.

                  Our last port of call in Zimbabwe was in the Matopos (Matobo) Hills. We did a game drive through the National Park and, the highlight was finding a White Rhino with a 6-week old calf! So, the White Rhino isn’t white but it was called a “Wiit Rhino” by the Dutch – “wiit” meaning wide but the English heard it and thought they heard White Rhino. And then the opposite of White is Black, hence the name of the other type of a rhino!

                  Anyway, back to our game drive, our guide/driver took us to a point where there were a couple of Rangers who showed him where to find a White Rhino, so we got out of the vehicle and walked towards the Mumma Rhino. At first we couldn’t see the calf as it was lying in the grass and Mumma was grazing, but then the baby stood up and it was sooo cute! and so small compared to the 2-Tonne mother!

                  Our accommodation for the night was an amazing Lodge that was built on the rocks – it’s called Big Cave Lodge. Our lodge was divine, the food was lovely and Nick was presented with his 3rd birthday cake of the tour! A Croqenbouche! This isn’t the sort of place where you can duck down to the cake shop at the corner to buy a cake!

                  The title of this blog refers to a comparison between Botswana and Zimbabwe. Roads – Botswana has a mixture of sealed and dirt roads and some of the major tourist roads being upgraded. In Zimbabwe the roads are probably about 10% bitumen and 90% dirt/sand – the problem is that this is all on the same road! Rubbish – Botswana is very aware of litter and make a concerted effort to keep the areas around their villages. In fact, the Government send people out undercover, and if there is litter around a house block, then they send a letter to the owner, with a fine and it tells them to get it cleaned up. In Zimbabwe, there is litter everywhere and no-one seems to care!  Safety – we never felt threatened or in danger anywhere we went, in either country. We found the people to be very friendly and welcoming.

                  Good-bye Zim, Hello Botswana – our last night on the road was back in Botswana, staying at a Game Reserve close to the South African border. We would have to say that this accommodation was probably the worst – no hot water in the shower (poor Nick, I can still hear his screams & curses) but plenty in the basin! The food was ok – dinner was a bush dinner around a fire, which was pleasant but they had a dancing display as well, but with no extra lights you couldn’t see anything and the music was African-Techno, which we had not expected! And it was very loud.

                  Our last day on the road was a huge day – 450+ kms but we finally reached our final point in Johannesburg. With a few tears, we said goodbye to Lu and Dihann who have been amazing guides, cooks & bottle-washers! We have made some new friendships with a bunch of lovely people, even if they were mostly Kiwis! One last night in a very comfortable hotel, across the road from the JSE (Jo’burg StockExchange) and we are now waiting for our transfer to the airport, so time to finish the blog.