second leg of southern africa - botswana to Nelspruit

From the border crossing at Rietfontain we drove north to the Kgalagadi National Park, a game reserve that borders both South Africa and Botswana. This is the only park in Africa that contains two countries. We spent the night at Twee Rivieren  campsite and started the two day drive through the park the next day. We had such a huge distance to  travel that we had to drive faster than we would have liked and couldn't spend as much time at water holes to see the animals. We were lucky enough to see lions though which was a big bonus! We also saw heaps of birds and the binoculars and bird book came into full swing (mum you will be pleased to hear!). We also saw meerkats, mongoose, puff adders, black mambas, oryx, springbok, red haartebeast, jackals and a honey badger. Beautiful landscapes driving right through the middle of the kalahari desert. 

The second day was an eventful one as we drove north to exit through the Kaa gate on the botswanan side, this time no such border troubles. We knew the road would be bad as it was rarely travelled but what we encountered was something of a different kind!! it was deep sand, heavily rutted and more up and downs than a yo-yo!! we thought the drive out of the park and to Ghanzi would take about 6-7 hours. But 11 hours later and we had only arrived in Kang, it was a pretty tough day of driving, I only drove 3 of the 11 hours with Pattrick driving the large majority. The road was so bad that most of the time we could only drive 15kms an hour! there were points on the road/sandy track where we were so remote no one would have ever found us! It was kind of scary but exciting at the same time, that we had to be completely self sufficient and no one would come pull us out if we got stuck! We reckoned only about 5 cars a week travel that road! We stopped for a quick homemade ham and cheese sandwich freshly made from the kitchen in our trailer!  whilst consuming such sandwich we spotted what looked remarkably like lion poo!! And quickly got back in the car! Even though we were now outside of the park there were no fences on the northern end so Lions could quite possibly be roaming in the area we were driving!.

We gave up on trying to make it to Ghanzi and found a motel type place at a service station that luckily had a room spare. Turns out the Harnas phrase of "Expect the Un Expected" can be applied across Africa!!

We spent the next two days in the Okavango Delta (but based in Maun), camping right on the river which was beautiful but we shared our campsite with plenty of mosquitos!! We spent a day on a Mokoro (a wooden boat pushed along by a local guide with a long wooden pole, much like they do in venice but a little less glamorous!). We travelled for about 7 hours through the delta seeing elephants, zebra, antelopes, lots of birds (still need to learn the names!!) and the odd croc as well, just the small ones though! It was a lovely day out but maybe if we had researched more we would have spent the day in the Moremi game reserve on safari as we might have seen a little more animals. But the delta is about being on the water so it was great to experience that.

Then we travelled to Nata, about 4 hour drive from Maun and stayed in a lovely lodge on the edge of the Maghadihadi pans, a huge salt pan which attracts heaps of birds but mainly flamingos in their thousands. We had a beautiful sunset here and enjoyed the luxuries of staying in a lodge for a night rather than camping.

The next day we drove 300km to Serowe where there is the Kharma Rhino Sanctuary. We decided not to take the main road to Serowe and just and have a bit of an adventure, as if we weren't already! so we took what is marked on the map as "secondary roads"! As you can imagine this is little more than a dirt track and took substantially longer than planned, but we did see a bit more of the country and the back roads took us through some interesting and very remote villages. the locals waved madly at us and then ran towards the car, i can imagine that they have probably only ever seen white people on the tv!

Kharma Rhino sanctuary is actually more of a rhino game reserve with the aim to breed rhinos in a safe environment to then re locate around botswana to the wild. It is a 5000 hectare area with 30 rhinos in it. We camped within the park and could self drive around which was really fantastic. it only took about 40 minutes before we spotted our first rhino in the distance. You are not allowed out of your cars and you have to stay 50 meters away at all times, but when we could only see the bum of the rhino and thinking this could be our only sighting we took our chances and headed out on foot!! We got within about 20 meters and made sure the wind direction was right so they couldn't smell us! Rhino's actually have very poor eyesight so as long as they couldn't hear or smell us we were pretty safe. Right until we realised it was a mother and calf!! this swiftly brought back memories of a walking safari i was on with my family in zimbabwe when we came across a mother and calf and got a little too close for comfort! The mother charged us and came within just a few meters of us! Luckily this encounter was not so heart stopping but a little nerve wracking so we headed back to the safety of the car!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon spotting many rhinos all over the park, on one particular road we turned the corner and were faced with no less than 7 rhinos including 2 babies!! we switched the engine off and just let them graze around us and wonder pass in their own sweet time!! we must have been there for close to 45 minutes and it was really magical to be so close to them and for them to be so relaxed. Another beautiful sunset and a great campsite, braai and bed. In the night i heard the noises of what i instantly assumed was leopard as there are some in the park. Slightly nervous i peeked out of the tent gauze to try and see but to no avail. Next morning looking at the tracks we deciphered it was a huge hyena and he had walked all the way around our tent! Definitely in the middle of all the action!

Next day we drove to South Africa across the border, which i assumed would cause hassle with my visa etc but it was very smooth and quick. Spent the day driving as far south as we could and made it all the way to the Blyde River Canyon arriving in the dark with no campsite booked we took the first one we found which was adequate!! Following day was a short drive to Nelspruit through a very beautiful and mountainous area. Sadly the cloud was low and the mist was hiding the beauty of it so we saw very little. 

Finally arrived in Nelspuit after 14 days, 6000kms and 3 countries of driving through the most beautiful parts of Southern Africa. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to see so much of the area and travel it with such an awesome person! The only arguments revolved around map reading in the cities!!! I was always right!! But huge thanks goes to Pattrick for doing 90% of the driving and putting the tent up and down every night and every morning!

Next step: Eco Training. 1 year living and working in the bush..........bring it on!