Four weeks in Botswana (page 2 of 3)

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

We picked up our Hilux yesterday evening with our repaired hard top. This morning, we reload our gear into the hard top. We leave Senyanti Safari Camp, which deserves nothing but praise. We set off early in the morning heading toward Chobe National Park. We enter through the Phedudu Gate. Cost: 290 Pulas for 2 people and one vehicle. We follow the sandy track along the Chobe River. We come across a huge number of 4x4s outfitted for tourist excursions. We’re not used to so much traffic anymore. It’s worth noting that in Kasane and along the Chobe River, there are many lodges, which explains the high visitor numbers in this easily accessible park.





















Gorgeous views of the Chobe River, which we sometimes follow very closely. The track is 60 km long. Plan for 4 to 5 hours to cover it. Along the way, we come face to face with a large herd of buffalo blocking the road. There’s no way around them. What to do? Knowing how dangerous these animals can be, I hesitate between waiting for them to move or slowly driving forward to encourage them to clear the track.



You feel a bit helpless when you don’t know how wild animals will react. I choose the first option, not wanting to risk a charge. After a short wait, we see a 4x4 carrying tourists approaching from the other side of the herd. It starts moving slowly toward the buffalo. The buffalo stand up to let the 4x4 pass, so we do the same and start driving gently, allowing us to cross the herd without any issues. We see elephants, antelopes, zebras, and birds, but fewer animals than we expected based on the various accounts we’d read.









We exit the park via a very sandy track leading to the N'Goma Gate. We leave Botswana through the N'Goma border post. Exit formalities are very quick. We enter Namibia at the end of the bridge over the Chobe River. Cost: 295 Namibian Dollars for the vehicle entry fee. A long 400 km drive awaits us to cross the Caprivi Strip.







The Caprivi Strip is very populated. We pass through countless villages with huts that are extremely clean and neat. I don’t know how the residents manage to keep their villages completely free of litter. We arrive in the late afternoon at our campsite, N'Gemi Camp, located on the banks of the Okavango River. We have dinner at the campsite, where the meal is excellent (kudu steak, mushroom rice, spinach, butternut purée) for 210 N$ (around 12 €). After dinner, we get an unpleasant surprise when we unfold our tent. It’s twisted, the hinges are torn, and the access ladder is barely holding on by a thread. We didn’t think to check the tent after our hard-top issue, and it seems it also suffered damage. My wife, not trusting the tent’s stability, will sleep in the car, while I’ll sleep in the tent.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Up at 6:00 AM. Temperature: 14°C. It's chilly. Campsite price: 150 N$ per person per night.



Our campsite by the Okavango.





We head to the nearest village, Divundu, where we find a tire repair shop that can fix our tent and the spare wheel attachment for our friends.



The repairman straightens out the tent with some heavy hammer blows and re-welds the tent hinges. Great job!







After the repairs, we head toward the Mohembo border post. Along the way, we enter a private park that provides access to Popa Falls. Toll: 20 N$ per person. Total rip-off.



The drop at Popa Falls is only 3 meters, and there’s not much to see. My advice? Skip it. We get back on the road and cross the Namibian Mahango Park. It’s free if you’re heading straight to Botswana. We cross the Namibian border quickly. On the Botswana side, since we already paid the entry visa three weeks earlier, we only pay 65 Pulas to re-enter the country. We arrive at Drotsky's Cabins campsite, 10 km south of Shakawe, in the early afternoon.

Campsite terrace on a branch of the Okavango

The campsite is part of a luxury lodge, and we visit its gardens with beautiful lawns.





When we arrive at the lodge reception, we ask about dinner times and prices. Without us asking anything else, the receptionist tells us we must be from the campsite. You’d think our look didn’t match the usual clientele. We’ve covered 3,600 km since Johannesburg. Temperature: 35°C.

Hi there,

I’m planning a 4-week trip to Botswana in September/October 2019, so you can imagine I’ve been following your adventures—and your mishaps—very closely!

The LP guide says Chobe Riverfront is only accessible between 9 AM and 2:30 PM for independent travelers without on-site accommodation. Can you confirm this? What time did you enter and leave the park?

If other travelers can share their experiences, I’d really appreciate it too.

Hi there, Glad our story can help future visitors to Botswana plan their trip.

I’d read that access to Chobe River Front was regulated, but on the day we visited—October 9, 2018—no one at the park entrance mentioned it to us.

That day, we entered at 8:00 AM and left around 12:30 PM. Worth noting: there was no time limit for visiting the park. We could’ve easily stayed until 5:00 PM.

Maybe during other times of the year, the park gets busier, and they need to limit access.

It’s also worth mentioning that during our visit, there were very few private cars but *tons* of tour operator vehicles shuttling tourists around, which felt a bit off compared to how quiet the other parks we visited were.

Wishing you a great trip in this stunning, still-wild country!

Thanks for your reassuring reply. I won’t hesitate to reach out again if I have any questions. I really appreciate your detailed account—things like temperatures, prices, accommodation spots, and more are super helpful to me.

Thursday, October 11, 2018

This morning, change of plans. Initially, we were supposed to go to Tsodilo Hills and later to Mabuasehube Section in the southern Kalahari, but my travel companions are tired of driving on dirt roads and are afraid of having more mechanical issues with the cars. So, we’ll head to South Africa by road. We take the direction of Ghanzi. It’s a long leg of 400 km on a monotonous road. Upon arriving in Ghanzi, we head to Thakadu Camp, 7 km to the south. It’s a very clean campsite but lacks shade at this time of year since the trees have lost their leaves.





We have visitors at the campsite.

We dine at the campsite restaurant for 800 Pulas for 4 people. For my part, I’ll have a delicious pepper sauce beef fillet. Temperature: 35°C We’ve covered 3,950 km since Johannesburg.

Friday, October 12, 2018

This morning, a pleasant temperature of 18°C. We head toward Kang via the Trans Kalahari Highway (a two-lane road), 250 km further south.





We arrive around 10:30 AM. We continue to Sekoma, where we don’t find any campsites.





















We take the Trans Kalahari Highway again to Jwaneng, which has a diamond mine. It’s a wealthy town—you can tell by the beautiful houses along the streets. There’s even a golf course. All the hotels we stop at are fully booked, forcing us to continue toward Lobatse, not far from the South African border.





We stop at Stawo’s Palace Hotel, which we had spotted on Booking. The room costs 600 Pulas. The hotel owner is very kind and helpful. Today, we covered a long stretch of nearly 800 km, partly out of necessity since we couldn’t find accommodation between Ghanzi and Lobatse.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

We’ve covered 4,730 km since Johannesburg. This morning, we leave Lobatse for the Pioneer Gate border post to return to South Africa. We exchange our last Pulas at a small office near customs.



The local food truck.







We head toward Pretoria. We stop in Magaliesburg, about sixty kilometers west of Pretoria, where we find a campsite priced at 250 ZAR for the four of us. We set up on a lush green lawn. The sky suddenly darkens, and we’re hit with a hailstorm of rare intensity. The hail is so violent that we park the cars under the trees for fear of damaging the bodywork. We don’t feel like sleeping in our roof tents in such a storm, as we’re not sure if they’re truly waterproof. Our friends head to the reception and manage to rent a roundavel for an extra 350 ZAR. It’s cold and damp, but at least we’ll be dry. The storm lasts all night.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

In the morning, the campsite ground is soaked, and the electricity is out, so no hot shower. It’s 13°C. We go online to look for a hotel and find Nullarbor Cottages in Magaliesburg.



The price for a cottage for two people is 1,200 ZAR (about 70 €) for two days, with all the comforts and wood-fire heating. Accommodations in South Africa are much more affordable than in Botswana. The rainy season is approaching, as the weather still isn’t great today.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Today, the weather is beautiful. We set off for a drive along the Magaliesberg Nature Reserve. We’re looking for a garage because a gas strut support tore on one of the side hatches of the hard-top. By sheer luck, we pass by a hard-top manufacturing plant.

Africa Canopies hard-top factory.

Cyclists training with their escort on a scooter.

I speak to the receptionist to ask if it’s possible to get my hard-top repaired. She calls the factory owner. Henry, the boss, calls one of his workers to carry out the repair. Meanwhile, Henry gives me a tour of his 35-person factory, which manufactures polyester hard-tops for pick-ups. The price of a hard-top is 600 €, whereas in France, it would cost three or even four times as much. Henry is very enterprising. To diversify his production, he’s built a prototype of a polyester coffin (half the price of a wooden one) and a prototype of an electric Willys Jeep, which he plans to start small-scale production of for South African farmers to use on their vast ranches. He absolutely refuses to let me pay for the repair, so I tip the worker who did the job. His hospitality is truly commendable—something unthinkable in France.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Today is the last day of our trip. Our flight leaves Johannesburg at 6:50 PM.

Sandwich board man.

We arrive in Pretoria mid-morning at our rental company, Safari 4x4 Hire, where a discussion begins in an attempt to get reimbursed for the repair costs of our hard-top in Kasane. In the end, we reach a compromise. The rental company won’t charge us for the bodywork damage caused by the hard-top tipping onto the left side of the Hilux, and they won’t withhold any money from our deposit. Phew! Given the practices of rental companies, this wasn’t a sure thing.

We’ve traveled 5,160 km since leaving Johannesburg.

A friend of our friends picks us up to have lunch at her place. After sharing our travel stories, she drives us to Johannesburg Airport, where we’ll catch an Air France flight to Paris.

Thanks for sharing—great trip with a few detours! In the end, who paid for the hardtop repair?

Hi there! Thanks for your encouragement. It was my first travel journal. I hope it’ll help other "forum members." For the hard top repair, I had an agreement with my Botswanan mechanic to reimburse me 30% of the costs, but I’m still waiting. I don’t think I’ll ever see that money again.

Your original post starting from Johannesburg seems to have been deleted. Could you (just in a few lines) recap the beginning of your trip (stops, etc.)? Thanks in advance.

It was my first travel journal. I hope it’ll help other "forum members".

For a first attempt, it went really well, and I’m sure it’ll come in handy later.

Hi Ludo, Yeah, you're right—my original post disappeared. My bad. Since it was my first travel journal, I accidentally opened two posts with the same title. I’ll take your advice and finish my story.

Hi Michel, and thanks for this travel journal—it brings back so many memories.

I really like Christo, but I’m skeptical about the repair bill. It clearly seems like a wear-and-tear issue, not something you caused... On the contrary, I think you ended up dealing with the consequences of that wear during your trip, *and* you got stuck with the bill. Sure, you could say it’s all part of the journey, but in the end, *you’re* the one paying for it. At least he didn’t charge you for bodywork costs!!

Definitely adding heavy-duty straps to the gear list from now on! [;)

Hi Pierre, Thanks for your message. It’s always the same issue with rental companies. As customers, we’re not in a strong position to negotiate. On one hand, the rental company has your deposit, and on the other, when you return the rental car, you often have a flight to catch, which doesn’t leave much time for negotiation. In my case, Christo from Safari 4x4 Hire bailed on me. He was supposed to be there the day I returned the car, but on the day itself, he was nowhere to be found and left his assistant or partner, Rishard, to negotiate with me. On the car we rented, I suspect the hard-top fasteners were already in bad shape. The proof? On the first fastener that gave way, both sides of the tear were already rusted, when the steel should’ve been shiny. It’s frustrating, but it’s part of the ups and downs of travel—and it doesn’t take away from the great memories we brought back.

Since my initial post about the start of our trip disappeared, I’ll complete my story.

Having already stayed twice in Southern Africa—South Africa in May 2016 and Namibia in May 2017—we decided to head to Botswana using the same setup as in Namibia: renting a 4x4 with a roof tent.

Why Botswana? First, the appeal of wildlife and adventure. Having crossed the Sahara several times in my youth (which isn’t possible anymore), I was tempted to traverse the Botswana side of the Kalahari Desert.

Considering it’s not safe to cross the Kalahari alone (900 km of tracks with no supplies), we asked a couple of friends who are used to off-roading to join us.

Botswana’s tracks are rarely traveled, and camping conditions are more like bivouacking than traditional camping. The campsites in the parks aren’t fenced (so nighttime animal visits around the tent are possible), unlike in South Africa and Namibia. The challenge in Botswana is booking accommodations. It’s practically mandatory to go through a tour operator. After talking to a South African guide specializing in Botswana, he confirmed that even he uses an agency to book campsites because, according to him, the campsites don’t respond to email requests. You should know that to access Botswana’s parks and reserves, you must prove you have a reservation at a campsite or lodge by presenting your vouchers at each entrance—so no improvising, and you need to plan your itinerary in advance.

In early June 2018, we bought our flight tickets for an Air France round-trip from Paris to Johannesburg for 1189 € for two. Departure on Tuesday, September 18, and return on Tuesday, October 16, 2018.

We booked two diesel double-cab Toyota Hilux 4x4s with roof tents from Safari 4x4 Hire in Pretoria for 50,000 ZAR (about 2940 €), plus 7830 ZAR (460 €) for excess waiver and additional insurance per vehicle for 27 days of rental.

The equipment we requested for the vehicles was as follows: - Inflatable jack (didn’t use it) - Sand tracks (didn’t use them) - Towing strap and shackles (came in handy—tip: bring an extra strap and shackles from France because sometimes you can’t get close to the stuck vehicle and need to connect multiple straps) - 140 L diesel tank - 2 extra 25 L diesel jerrycans - 3 extra 20 L water jerrycans - 2 spare tires (check the wear) - Electric air pump (used it) - Fridge - Toolkit (used it) - 12V/220V converter - GPS (barely used—we relied on our own with Ozi Explorer, which was more precise) - Walkie-talkies (very useful when traveling with two vehicles) - Bedding plus extra blankets (useful) - Cooking equipment - Table and 2 chairs - Plastic storage bins - Roof tent (tip: unfold it before leaving to check its condition) - Jump-start cables

For booking accommodations, we used the South African tour operator Hamba Futhi Tours, as recommended by our car rental company—a choice we bitterly regretted (overcharging for accommodations, missing reservation vouchers at the start of the trip, lack of responsiveness—definitely avoid them). For 25 days, we paid 35,370 ZAR (2080 €) for two people.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

We landed at 9:40 AM at Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. A friend of our friends was waiting for us and took us to her place. She lives in a beautiful house protected by electrified barbed wire in a gated community, like you see everywhere in South Africa and to a lesser extent in Namibia. We took a good shower, had lunch there, and headed to shopping centers to find a bank to exchange some Pula. Every bank gave us the same answer: we had to order Pula in advance to get any. Oh well, we’d exchange at the border. We visited the famous bronze statue of Nelson Mandela, which attracts a lot of people. That evening, we stayed at our friend’s place, giving us a chance to discuss the lives of French expats in South Africa. Personally, this lifestyle doesn’t appeal to me—sleeping in a house (even a beautiful one) surrounded by electrified barbed wire with an alarm system isn’t my idea of fun. According to these friends, there’s a lot of aggression and theft in Johannesburg.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

This morning, we left for Pretoria to pick up our Toyota Hiluxes from Safari 4x4 Hire. Ours was from 2016 with 172,000 km and seemed in good mechanical condition. A nice surprise: both Toyotas had 3-liter diesel engines instead of the 2.5-liter ones we’d requested. Even better—we’d have more torque and power for driving in the sand. Bad news: the satellite phone we were supposed to get was broken, so we’d have to do without it. In the afternoon, we visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg—a visit we hadn’t been able to make during our first trip to South Africa due to lack of time. Many schoolchildren were there on a field trip.









The visit was fascinating—it really hit home how difficult the living conditions imposed by white people were for Black South Africans. Many films and period photos showed their daily lives. That evening, we bought supplies for the next ten days, including about forty liters of drinking water to add to the 60 liters in jerrycans. We slept again at our friends’ friend’s place in Johannesburg, who was very hospitable.

Friday, September 21, 2018

In the morning, we organized the loading at the back of the pickup and left Johannesburg at 9:45 AM for Gaborone. We arrived at the Botswana border at Tlokweng Gate around 3:15 PM. Exiting South Africa and entering Botswana went quickly, but we had to wait about an hour to pay the entry tax of 152 Pula (for one car and two passengers). The tax is payable only in Pula. That day, due to a power outage, we couldn’t withdraw money from the ATM. We went to a small currency exchange office away from customs, which offered a poor exchange rate: 1 € = 10 Pula. We continued to Gaborone, where we stopped to stock up on supplies and fill up our 140 L diesel tank and two 25 L jerrycans. We arrived after dark around 7 PM at Mokolodi Backpackers, which we had trouble finding. It’s a collection of small bungalows around a pond, located outside the city where you can hear a multitude of birds singing. The place has a shared kitchen. We had dinner outside by the light of our headlamps.

Thanks for this addition—love the start of your trip!

Thanks for this great travel journal. It was a pleasure following along. I was impressed by your "cool" in the face of "setbacks"—well done! 🙂

Yes, the Boteti River is truly a little paradise.😎 Like you, I love sunsets and sunrises.😛

Thanks again and well done! 🙂

Thanks Jean-François for your kind comments.

Thanks for this super detailed travel journal. Do you have any idea of the total cost of your trip?

Hi Marie-Flore

Around 10,000 € for 4 weeks for two people, all included.