Botswana

From Zambia, we took a 5 minute ferry to cross the border into Botswana. As Botswana's main industry is cattle, they are fearful of foot and mouth disease so we had to put our shoes and the truck through disinfectant dips. We are also subject to random roadside checks and have to hide any meat or fresh produce whenever we see a check point coming up. So far we've only had a few pieces of fruit confiscated as they don't check the truck that thoroughly.

Our first two nights in Botswana were spent in Chobe National Park where we took a river boat wildlife cruise. We saw some massive crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, water buffalo and lots of different birds (although I can't get too excited about birdwatching!). The best thing was seeing a herd of around 40 elephants crossing the river at sunset. The larger elephants can wade across, but the smaller ones have to swim. All you can see is their trunks poking up out of the water so they look really funny. It was quite sad because one elephant got left behind and was quite distraught running up and down the shore calling to his friends. When some of the others realised, they turned back to go and get him so all was okay in the end.

From Chobe, we headed to Elephant Sands Camp and spent a leisurely afternoon relaxing by the pool. The tan is coming on nicely. The camp has a large watering hole which normally animals come to visit after dark, but we didn't see any elephants just some antelopes.

Next stop was Maun where we have been based for three nights. Maun is the gateway to the Okavango Delta, the largest inland waterway in the world. The water doesn't ever reach the ocean as it all just disappears into the land. We left the truck at camp and took mokoros (traditional dug out canoes) and camped on an island. It is so relaxing to lie back on a mokoro as you glide quietly through the water and reeds. We did some guided walks on the island and saw lots of elephant poo and animal tracks. No animals though but may be that is just as well as it would be a little bit scary to turn a corner and come face to face with an elephant! After dinner round the camp fire, the polers (people who pole the mokoros) and guides did some singing and dancing. The frog dance finale was a particular hit (Bruce even felt compelled to join in).. and yes, a frog dance is basically leaping around like frogs making frog noises - it was hilarious.

To finish up our time in Maun, we then took a 45 minute flight over the Okavanga Delta in tiny seven seater planes. I've never been in such a small plane before so it was exciting to do that, although I felt pretty sick after a while particularly when Jon asked the pilot to do some "fun" flying. Good to see Botswana from the air though and all the animals, including a herd of eight giraffes and lots of buffalo. Botswana is scarcely populated in comparison to many of the other countries we have visited, with a very dry arid landscape (although we are here in dry season so I guess it would be greener at other times of the year).

We now have a couple more nights in Botswana and then it's on to Zimbabwe.