Bisou de partout: AFRICA - Part 2 Zimbabwe and Botswana

We flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe from Johannesburg on a very new and comfortable South African Airways flight. Leaving a sunny but slightly chilly Jo’burg, we arrived to a warm and balmy afternoon in Victoria Falls. After obtaining our visa at the airport on arrival we met our transfer and drove the 30 minutes to our hotel – The Victoria Falls Hotel a mere 1km from the Falls.

We chose this colonial hotel because of its proximity to everything but also because we love the classic style of these older hotels with their history. Our room overlooked the gardens and out towards the Falls (all you could see in the distance was the “Smoke that Thunders” as the Falls are known locally.

We had pre-booked a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River and were fortunate enough to have been recommended to take the cruise on the Ra-Ikane a smaller, more intimate experience. Also, the boat has a shallower draft so you can go further up the river than the other boats. We had a total of 8 people on board and the cruise was accompanied by all-you-can-drink beers, wines, spirits or soft drinks as well as lovely nibbles.

It was our first encounter with hippos, water buffalo, crocodile and elephant and very beautiful. That evening we had dinner at the hotel restaurant and were treated to some singing by the restaurant staff to congratulate us on our wedding (our travel agent had told them we were on our honeymoon!).

The next day, we walked to the Falls and spent a couple of hours walking along the gorge taking photos and marvelling at the power of the water rushing over the cleft in the earth. The spray rendered us rather wet but as the day was sunny and hot, we soon dried out. Back at the hotel we relaxed at the pool for a couple of hours before embarking on our elephant trek. Although this optional tour sounded a bit tacky, my brother and sister in law and family had done it and said it was worthwhile. We were very pleased in the end as we learned a great deal about African elephants, had a glorious ride through bushland and even had the opportunity of feeding our elephant at the end! We also had the special treat of meeting Sylvester the cheetah!

The next day we were driven across the border to Botswana where we boarded a small aircraft (4 people) for our flight to Linyanti Bush Camp. The flight was only about 30 minutes and we had great views of the land from our plane.

After a rather bumpy landing on the dirt runway, we were met by our guide and tracker KG who drove us in the 4WD back to camp. We had the most wonderful drive through the bush and saw lots of elephant, giraffe, water buck, buffalo and lots of different ‘boks’. We were greeted by the staff singing a Botswana welcome song and then given some afternoon tea in the lounge area. It turned out that we were the only guests there for the three days of our visit and so we were truly spoiled by the wonderful staff.

The camp is situated along a tributary of the Linyanti River and consists of a central ‘lodge’ area, which contains the dining table, some comfy sofas and chairs and the bar; 8 permanent tents nicely spaced apart so there are no privacy issues and a pool with deck chairs. Our tent had its own ensuite, a king-sized bed and lots of room to move around in. We also had a lovely deck out the front overlooking the waterway.

The daily routine is similar in almost all of the Botswana game lodges: wake up call at 5:30am (!!), breakfast at 6am (usually a light meal) and then off on the first game drive at 6:30am. Back to the lodge by 11:30am for a good lunch at noon, and then free time/siesta until 4pm when afternoon tea is served. The next game drive is at 4:30pm and often includes sundowners (drinks) somewhere at sunset with nibbles) and then back to the lodge by 7:30pm for dinner at 8pm. By the time dinner is over most people are exhausted (as we were) and hit the sack early. Most game lodges are also all-inclusive, so meals, drinks and even laundry are part of the package. You can imagine that after basically sitting all day, plus what felt like non-stop eating and drinking, we felt like a couple of blimps after 10 days!

The game drives were wonderful – we never knew what we were going to see but we were never disappointed. Linyanti treated us to more elephant in wonderful surroundings than anywhere else. We also had a ride in a mokoro (traditional canoe pushed by a pole), as well as a pontoon boat ride through the tributaries, the latter showing us a couple of very large hippos!

The Linyanti Bush Camp staff could not do enough for us and organized an intimtate candlelit dinner for the two of us by the pool on our last night. It was difficult to say goodbye to such lovely people but our stay came to an end on the third day and we were driven back to the landing strip to catch our next small plane flight to the Okavango Delta.

The ‘bush pilots’ (the people piloting the small planes that carry people around the various game lodges/camps) are an assortment of young men (we didn’t see any female pilots although no doubt there are some) from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. They are all skilled pilots and must have a lot of fun banking their flying hours while taxiing people around the skies of Botswana.

We arrived at Kanana Camp in the Okavango Delta after a night’s rain – this meant that the camp’s landing strip was flooded and we were forced to land at a neighbouring camp’s airstrip. In spite of the fact that the neighbouring camp was a mere 2km away, there was no road between the camps and a river separating the two properties. The solution? A very short helicopter ride between the two camps! That was an unexpected treat.

Kanana Camp is a deluxe ‘Ker and Downey’ camp and at the time of our arrival there were about 8 other guests staying there. Once again, there was a main lodge for dining/lounging/gathering before game drives and our individual tents spaced out nicely with views of the water. As the climate has changed over the years, the river on which the camp sits has receded somewhat and this was aggravated by the dry ‘wet’ season they had just experienced. Our guide, Amos, was an older Botswana man and who had previously been a game hunting guide (hunting has been banned throughout Botswana since 2013) and was a very experienced tracker. It was here that we saw our first lions, got close up to hippos, and saw more giraffe, elephant, buffalo and boks. The geography was quite different to that of the Chobe area (Linyanti Camp) with more wide open spaces and grasslands. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to do a ‘game walk’ with Amos leading us through the grassy fields to see game from a distance (he was armed with a rifle just in case).

Two days and two nights was a short stay here, but we were happy that it worked out that way, as it began to rain and we were concerned about getting stuck at Kanana and missing out on our final camp in the Kalahari.

Once again we took the helicopter ‘shuttle’ to the neighbouring landing strip and our small plane flew us to Camp Kalahari at the Magkadigkadi Pans. As it was rather overcast with low-hanging clouds, the pilot flew at a mere 350m off the ground which meant for great game viewing along the way!

Fortunately by the time we arrived into Camp Kalahari, a mere 15 minute drive from the landing strip, the weather had cleared to a sunnier afternoon. Following the same theme as the rest of the game parks, there was a central lodge and our tent was a short walk away. No views from our tent here as it’s one of the driest places in Botswana but still a lovely room and very comfortable beds.

Due to the dryness of this area, it is more of a migratory destination for animals and birds. This means that animals do not tend to stay in the area unless there is water, and are also not used to humans/trucks, etc. and are therefore rather skittish. No ‘up-close-and-personal’ viewing of game at this camp! In some ways we were rather disappointed with the quality of the viewing because of this (there was no water in the Pans and the migration had not yet begun), however we were rewarded with spotting some rather rare and unique animals at dusk: aardvark, aardwolf, bat-eared foxes, striped jackal, genet and a few others. We also saw a plethora of birds, including flamingoes, secretary birds, bustards, vultures, eagles and the beautiful if ubiquitous lilac-breasted roller with its brilliant azure wings. Two of the highlights for us were the up-close-and-personal visits with the meerkats and the opportunity to meet with some of the San bushmen and learn a little of their lifestyle. Camp Kalahari and Jack's Camp collaborate in having someone stand near the three colonies of meerkats all day so as to get them used to human presence. This results in visitors being able to stand around and watch while the meerkats feed without interfering in the process and without the meerkats being scared away. The San bushmen live in a 'regular' camp nearby but are encouraged to dress in the traditional way and demonstrate their skills to visitors. It's not tacky or 'touristy' in any way and was very interesting to watch. The sad thing is that these people are being forced, by 'progress', to live a European lifestyle rather than what they have been doing for thousands of years. Their language and skills will soon be lost forever.

On our last day we saw ostrich and zebra and that completed our ‘must see’ list! No rhinos at any of the camps, but we did see one in a fenced compound outside a petrol station in South Africa!

All too soon it was time to head back to Jo’burg and we flew to Maun in a small plane to connect with a commercial South African Airlines service to Jo’burg.