Botswana is a country that I never thought to visit, sadly I didn’t had it in my mind but I’m happy I was able to discover it. If you are thinking about safaris and extreme adventure this is your destination. Botswana is a country that is a bit expensive, so people try to avoid it, but in terms of nature it has everything. Wetlands, deserts, salt flats, jungle … you can find everything here. This reason makes it a spectacular place to discover animals and make unique safaris.
The national parks cover almost 20% of the country but its main attractions are: Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and Makgadikgadi Pans National Park each with different environments and things to do. But the reason I decided to come to Botswana was for the first. When I heard about the delta, I knew I should do it, it is something unique on the planet and even if I had already done safaris, it was a safari that was going to drive me crazy.
If you ever thought what happens when a river meets the desert, here you will understand. This is one of the few rivers that does not flow into another body of water. The Okavango River is born in Angola and while it descends the mountains it meets a more arid zone until it opens in Botswana creating a delta on land. This has caused their animals to evolve with different characteristics so you can find lions hunting while swimming.
To get to the delta, you need to get to Maun. I was in Livingstone, Zambia and I had to hurry a bit in Botswana because I didn’t had enough time so I knew that it was my time to take long overnight buses. If you come traveling from Zambia and go to Botswana, this is what you should do:
- Shared taxi Livingstone – Kazungula: 1 hour / 3 USD
- Zambia Migration
- Cross the Zambezi River by ferry
- Botswana Migration
- Kazungula – Kasane shared taxi: 15 minutes / 2 USD
- Bus Kasane – Maun: 7 hours / 15 USD * Depart at night
* If you have more time, I recommend stopping in Kasane and doing Chobe National Park.
I was traveling with Alon, an Israeli I met in Kenya and we saw each other in Livingstone. We decided to stay at Old Bridge Backpackers since we had good recommendations and we knew that we could organize the tour directly with them. Upon arrival, we opened the door of the camp and you can not imagine what was the first thing that greeted us! A hippo !!!!! Next to the camp they have a lake and there you can find it! I could not believe it.
When we organized the camping site, we talked with the people in the hostel to organize the tour. We wanted to spend a night in the delta. Just in case I forgot, the safari here is in a canoe “Mokoro” and walking!!! In addition to this, it is possible to camp inside the park. That was our dream, to be able to feel nature, to enjoy the safari first hand. After discussing with Alon, we decided that we were going to camp 1 night so we could enjoy almost 2 full days in the park.
We decided that we would do the safari as cheaply as possible, we chose only the guide, the tent, the transport and that it. We were going to “cook” and bring everything we needed. So this day we are dedicated to organizing everything and buying our food. The next day we had to get up early. At the end we payed 90 USD + our market for two lunches, a meal and a breakfast (15 USD).
The next morning they picked us up at the camp in a Land Rover and we started heading towards the Okavango Delta. You have to drive for 1 hour before arriving at the park and because we were in the dry season, we had to drive a little bit into the park to reach where the Moros started. In the car, we saw some animals but nothing special, we were starting to get scared because our driver told us that it is very dry, that there are not many animals …. Maybe we payed for nothing …..
* If you are going to do a safari, you have to keep in mind that they can never promise anything. The safaris since they are in the nature, they do not guarantee that you will see any animal you want to see. I assure you that the guides will do their best but it is not that simple.
Already in the Mokoro, we begin to see different animals approaching the river and you can’t imagine our happiness. Being a few meters from animals is a feeling that I don’t know how to describe. You need to ride the Mokoro on the river for a while until you reach the base camp, there are certain parts of the park where you are allowed to camp not at all. So we prepared our camp and we where ready for the adventure!
We walked for 4-5 hours seeing different animals very close, elephants, zebras, buffalos. This park is known for having the big 5 in Africa. If you don’t remember what the big 5 is, I recommend you read the blog about the Safari in Tanzania HERE. So we were very excited because any animal could come out. It is important that you follow the guide’s instructions as you are exposed in the nature and an animal can attack. You always have to respect this environment.
When sunset comes, it is time to be at the camp. It is not safe to walk in the dark because the risks become bigger since the difficulty of seeing is greater. The next day the plan was to see the sunrise so we were not going to stay awake until late.
If you have trouble sleeping with noise outside, you don’t know how complicated it will be this night for you. It was a great night for me although I know and have heard people who can’t sleep. You would believe that in the middle of the park you should not hear much noises. Well you’re wrong, you hear absolutely everything. You hear lions roar, you hear the zebras in the distance and out of nowhere you start to hear steps very close to you. You can not leave the tent in the dark because it is not safe but if you thought the mosquito net, you will realize that you have an elephant less than 5 meters away from your tent
After a night surrounded by animals, it was time to go for a walk. We had a little more than half a day so we went in search of the big 5. The day started very well when we found some elephants near the camp and some buffalo. We were walking when we saw some zebras running. Looking closely, we saw that there was a leopard chasing them. They were less than 50 meters from us. A magical moment so we went in search of the leopard, we wanted to see it more closely since we lost it on the trees. Sadly we did’t find it again and we had to continue with our path.
The heat increased every minute, we knew it would be very difficult to find lions because they always hide in the heat the same way with rhinos. The lion is a very lazy animal and tries not to move more than to hunt and they do not hunt every day. The sun had already exhausted us so we started returning to the camp watching different animals along the way. Before leaving the campsite, we had a pleasant surprise, we where having lunch when a family of elephants passed a couple of meters away from us.
To return to Maun, we return again to the same place the Land Rover left us. This time we could enjoy the journey to the fullest, we saw many animals on the car. Although I did not have the opportunity to see the big 5, it was one of the best experiences. A national park that deserves all the awards. It is definitely an experience you have to live.
