When the December holidays descend upon us I am never keen to join the lemming run to the coast, or should that rather be the “sardine run”? To continue the frenzy of a Gauteng city for the ‘Vaalie’ induced frenzy at the coast holds little appeal for me. So often my holidays take me north rather than south, with Botswana once again my destination of choice. Namibia is a great bet too, but it is just a tad too far for a week away. People often ask if Botswana is not too hot in December. What I have found over the years is that once the rains start, Botswana cools down significantly. Whilst it is still humid, it doesn’t come close to Natal north coast levels. This Botswana trip had an allure of another kind.
December of 2023 saw my son Dave and me tiddler touring up to Chobe and beyond. Time around a campfire got us thinking. My daughter Jenny and her husband Ryan and their two teenage boys, Jared and Cameron have never experienced Botswana as we have, so a plan was hatched. We started to plan a post-Christmas extended family Botswana trip for the end of 2024. The old saying goes “The hunt is often better than the kill”. The excitement certainly became palpable as the countdown to our planned departure date began. On Jen’s family’s part it was the prospect of an adventure never previously experienced, and for us Bots veterans it was the prospect of sharing our favourite haunts with them.
We departed Pretoria early on the 27th of December travelling in two Pajero’s. Ryan and his family driving their 3.2 Pajero and Dave his Pajero Sport with Irene, me, Ryan’s mom and our old friend Viv as passengers. Dave’s Pajero had three OZ tents on the roof rack and Ryan had my almost 40-year-old 6’ Venter trailer in tow with all our camping kit. We planned a mixture of Chalets, Safari tents and camping for economy’s sake and also to give the two fresh sprouts, Jared and Cam, a taste of what we have come to love. Nights in a tent in the wilds of Africa with a fire for comfort and on which to cook your food. Vaalwater is always our first stop for a brekkie at the Zeederburg Centre and an opportunity to get anything we may have forgotten at the Spar, and ice for the cooler boxes.
We were giving Groblersbrug/Martin’s Drift border post a miss. Truck traffic has made this option a nightmare and travellers are ill-advised to attempt to cross there. Stockpoort/Parr’s Halt was our new choice. There is a minimum of 15k’s of dirt road which is reasonable on the Botswana side, or 43k’s for a more direct route. The distance to Palapye is then only 14k’s longer than via Martin’s Drift but that is totally negated by the time saved at the border. Stockpoort does not allow commercial vehicles at all, and the result was our crossing into Botswana after all border formalities were observed in under half an hour. Score!! The Pajeros ate up the dirt and we travelled through Mahalapye on the A1 linking Gaborone and Francistown.
After a burger at the Wimpy in Palapye, we turned left off the A1 and travelled through Serowe and on to Khama Rhino Sanctuary for our first night under Botswana skies. Those skies were rather overcast with clouds pregnant with rain, so we were grateful to be staying in chalets. Our second day would see us travelling over 600k’s to Maun, so we wanted an early start without the hassle of breaking camp. The obligatory fire was started, G&Ts were poured, and when we had a good bed of coals our Beef Lasagne was warmed up for dinner. We ate and then, as is our custom, sat around the “bush TV” with a nightcap in hand, watching the Mopani embers flickering glow. A soft drizzle encouraged us off to bed and all was extremely well with the world.
Day two dawned with blue skies dotted with cotton wool cumulus clouds holding the potential promise of rain later in the day. Before getting on our way we did a loop through the sanctuary and were rewarded with various animal sightings, with the highlight being a Rhino mom and her calf mere metres from the road. What a sad day it will be for mankind if we allow these incredible animals to drift off into extinction courtesy of the madness and greed of man. Letlekane after 160 odd k’s delivered a Nando’s breakfast and then it was ever northwards past Orapa diamond mine, Rakops on the edge of the vast Central Kalahari wilderness, and eventually Motopi where we joined the main road linking Maun and Nata for a short run into Maun. A pop-in at the Drifter’s camp before Maun was cut short to a comfort break as they were busy with renovations and not up for visitors.
We refuelled in Maun and drove to Old Bridge camp for “welcome in Maun” drinks. It was immediately apparent that southern Africa has been in the grip of a severe drought in recent times. We had seen evidence of torrential rains a week prior to our trip across central Botswana. In my 40 years of visiting Bots, I have never seen so much standing water in the Rakops area. Dry pans were now full of water. The river that flows through Maun is not dependent on local rains but is fed from the highlands of Angola, so that water typically only gets to Maun mid-winter, during the Botswana dry season.
A pod of hippos and a lone crocodile frolicked in the pool in front of Old Bridge, but the river was essentially dry. We then made our way to Audi Camp where we were staying. Audi camp was one of the few camps in Maun during its real ‘frontier town’ days. Today it is a vastly different experience to the camp I visited in 1984. The amenities are great, with comfortable Safari Tents overlooking the river as well as great camping facilities.
We spent two nights at Audi Camp, the second of which had me ‘assembling’ a rather tasty chicken potjie which I never thought we would finish, by this stage the sprouts had been affectionately dubbed “the hyenas”. I had forgotten what voracious appetites growing teenagers have. The pot was licked clean! We visited some funky pavement cafés, one of which is located where the original Duck Inn was, opposite the airport, which when I first visited was a dusty strip. The other pleasant spot is the Okavango Craft Brewery where we dropped anchor for a very pleasant afternoon. After breakfast the next day we headed out towards Nata, planning to stop at Planet Baobab just beyond Gweta for a cold one.
Driving up to Planet Baobab we were aghast to see a place of absolute carnage. Irene and I visited there last September on a bike trip with some buddies and enjoyed a great breakfast and stroll around the unique architecture of the camp amongst the Baobab Forest. A fire on the 7th of November devastated the place. The iconic pub, restaurant, reception area and even the shaded lapas around the pool are all destroyed and reduced to rubble as re-building commences. So sad! The staff assured us that they will be up and running again by March 2025. We had a drink under a newly built lapa and on a deck surrounding the biggest Baobab, then continued to Nata before turning north again to Elephant Sands, where we would be camping for two nights.
Elephant Sands, ‘Where Elephants Rule’, is always a high point of our Botswana trips. When water is scarce, literally hundreds of elephants come to drink at the freshwater trough in front of the lodge offering an unparalleled wild African elephant encounter. Due to the now ample water in the bush, I suspected that we would be lucky to see any elephant at all, despite having seen four or five along the road from Maun. And so, it was. On our second night, New Year’s Eve, two lonely ellies trundled in to drink and departed soon after. We chilled at the pool, slaking our thirst when necessary and letting the last vestiges of 2024-induced stress ebb away. Our first night delivered an African experience that rattled my fresh sprout grandsons to the core. Strolling around the now deserted waterhole the next morning I took some shots of fresh shoots that had pushed aside the parched sand after the first rains and it looked the picture of health.
Spaghetti Bolognaise was on the menu and we started the makings as the sun was setting. As the lights came on around the campsite, they brought out what Ryan, who must be said is no fan of any flying insect, an ‘Apocalyptic amount’ of flying ants. Dave and I arrived at Elephant Sands during a monstrous storm whilst on our tiddler tour, so we had seen this movie before. Good rains cause a flying ant fest like you will only ever see in arid countries after early rains. The sprouts made Usain Bolt look pedestrian as they streaked between the ablutions and the sanctuary of their tent, where the flying critters were kept at bay by the mozzie netting. Ryan was about to capitulate as well. The hordes of flying ants were exacting revenge for every bug that had met its demise at his hands over the years.
Irene and Viv climbed in the car and Ryan and family ate in their tents. It was just Dave and I who ate outside where, in all honesty, we realised that the worst of the insect aerial attack had abated. I assured the sprouts that the odd flying ant in their food was no biggie and just extra protein. I plucked the wings off one and consumed it in front of them, biting down to stop its wriggling before swallowing it as proof that they were good for eating. They visibly blanched and were clearly not converted to a bug diet. Our second night was nigh bug-free, and our braai proceeded unaffected. The previous night’s antics were certainly the cause for much mirth!
The next morning, we decided that if the elephants were not going to come to us we would go to them. We drove a badly eroded dirt track past a Botswana Anti-Poaching camp that we had driven with good results in previous years. The Pajeros, both sporting General tyres, were seriously put through their paces with sand, mud and deep-water crossings, to which—as we’ve become accustomed—excelled superbly.
For over two and a half years we have put our faith in General Grabber rubber on our 4x4s. My Jimny 3-door and my son’s Pajero Sport have ventured far and wide. The Pajero took us to Khutse in southern Central Kalahari, as well as Savute and Moremi, literally the wildest and most unspoilt parts of Botswana. The biggest compliment I can pay them is that apart from adjusting tyre pressures for the terrain we traversed, we didn’t have to consider them at all. They got us through deep water, mud, sand and over rocks without fuss or bother. On the tar, they gave good feel through bends and on the brakes. All this was without howling about their performance which is tiresome on long journeys. Truly a tyre for all seasons.
Now back to the trip, the game spotting was also successful. We saw herds of zebra as well as kudu, duiker, ostrich, elephant, a lone marabou stork, warthog and unfortunately only the remains of buffalo. We hitched the trailer at the lodge and made the short hop to Nata Lodge, the iconic spot just south of Nata on the road to Francistown. With huge storm clouds brewing we chose the sanctity of chalets and safari tents over camping. The afternoon was whiled away at the pool, eating sumptuous amounts of “slap chips”, before retiring for a nap before dinner.
Meals at Nata Lodge are enjoyed, weather permitting, on the paved area under huge indigenous trees that grow in and around the lodge. Typically, the threatening storm passed us by, and we enjoyed our meal in that balmy evening environment that Africa is so famous for. The heat of the day subsides, the light softens, and everything seems to take on a touch of magic, creating an amazing ambience. By now we were all solidly under Botswana’s spell. Well-fed and watered, we ambled off to bed.
We only had a short 170k drive to our last night’s accommodation at Woodlands, one of our favourite spots in Botswana. We stopped at Nata Sanctuary, planning to access the pans if the road allowed and to see the pelicans and flamingos that descend on the pans after the rains. Upon hearing that they had not yet appeared, we decided not to access the pans. The second reason is a sore point that has developed over the years in Botswana. South Africans enjoy no SADEC rate over European visitors. To drive 7k’s to the viewing platform on the pans and see some wildebeest at best would cost us 100 Pula a head. Locals pay a smidge of that. Remember too that South Africans take a 30% currency hit with the rand weaker than the pula. Pricing is becoming more and more Euro and Dollar-centric at the expense of us Africans.
The Botswana National Parks are another case in point. The facilities are extremely basic, yet the fees are extortionate. On the day you book out of a park and leave when the gate opens in the morning you will have to pay a full day’s rate. The new President wants to diversify the Botswana economy which is heavily dependent on diamonds. The unique wildlife wealth of Botswana is, in my opinion, potentially a far more enduring and greater asset if managed properly and fairly. Right now, Namibia is a far more viable destination for South Africans given the rand/Namibian dollar parity and the fair cost for South Africans. The consistent flow of South African overlanders to Botswana gives them a decent foundation to build on. They should encourage more South African tourists to visit. Road maintenance is another issue that needs attention. Two sections of the Nata to Maun Road have been turned into a dirt road rather than repaired. Why? It has been this way for over 5 years!
Enough negatives, but I would rather raise these issues and have them resolved than vote with my feet and stop going to a country that I love, with wonderful people. Over forty years, I have visited Botswana many times and taken groups of tourists there on several occasions. I have spent tens of thousands of Pula there, and don’t want to stop now. Hopefully, this appeal will not fall on deaf ears. We got to Woodlands campsite before Francistown just after lunch and settled into our comfortable and immaculate accommodation. We purchased braai packs and other yummy food at the reception, allowing it to thaw for our dinner. We were all set for a memorable last night in Bots.
Woodlands is bordered by a dry riverbed. Dry, that is, for all the many years that I have visited, until now. Half of the dry riverbed was now a flowing river, testimony to the good rains in the area which have brought welcome relief to dry, dusty and arid land. We braaied up a storm and, timed to perfection, a storm rolled in as we took the last meat off the coals. We ate under the veranda and watched the blessed rainfall. We retired to bed with the gentle sound of rain on the roof.
The next morning the rain had abated and wonder of wonders, the river was flowing bank to bank! We packed up and got on the road to Francistown and on to Palapye where we would lunch before again using Stockpoort/Parr’s Halt to cross back into SA. For the first time on our holiday, we drove in persistent rain. Shortly before our turnoff at Mahalapye, the rain stopped. We again had to traverse the 43k’s of dirt which was now awash with water. The General tyres shod Pajeros were magnificent. With four-wheel drive engaged they maintained good and safe progress until we rolled up to the border and back onto the tar to home.
Looking back on what was an epic family holiday and listening to Jared and Cam talk about the variety of experiences that this vast and beautiful country of Botswana had offered, got me thinking. They are fast approaching that time of life when they will have to sprout in life. Like the beautiful fresh sprouts which I snapped at Elephant Sands, they will enter the world full of hope and dreams.
Life, like the intense Botswana climate, will inevitably beat them down on occasion, and they may wilt and be filled with self-doubt, but similarly, when you are at your weakest, the rain starts to fall, bringing new hope and growth. Despite its obvious flaws, life remains beautiful when tackled flat-out with the right attitude. Droughts, no matter how long, will break, with life-giving rain restoring the land. So, it is with life. Let’s all embrace life in this special part of Africa that God has blessed us with.
