Botswana, It’s Amazing!

Well that has been an interesting few days! Before we even talk about the places we have stayed, I really should talk about what’s known as the Nata-Maun Road.

This road, I have from good authority from both locals and a certain Andrew St. Pierre White (www.4xoverland.com) was, until recently, a very good road in very good condition. When I say recently I mean within the last two or three years. Today, whilst much of it is in reasonable shape and an easy sixty or seventy miles per hour road, there are sections with significantly sized potholes meaning drivers must remain aware of what’s ahead of them. However, there are two sections totalling around fifteen miles in length which consists of horrendous corrugations, massive potholes and small patches of tarmac.

Frankly, for a road to deteriorate that quickly is a shambles, not that our Land Rovers have any problem with such roads, indeed they are developed and tested on them. Whilst fifteen miles may not sound like much, in such a short distance considerable damage can occur to the unwary or the poorly prepared. Cheap components will break on such roads, and slamming into holes over a foot deep at forty miles per hour is sure to cause significant damage to your vehicle at best, and at worst a very nasty accident.

I may be beginning to sound like the whole drive to Elephant Sands from the Old Bridge Backpackers was a tortuous one. To say so would be a complete fabrication and an exaggeration of the truth, because frankly this broken up section is a relatively localised piece and we all had great fun driving along it, even if the temperatures were well into the forties in degrees Celsius.

About half way to Nata, we took the small diversion to Nxai Pan National Park. Nxai Pan is quite literally a salt pan, a substance that is really quite treacherous at the best of times. The surface is a blinding white hard crust that gives the driver the deceiving impression that it will provide little difficulty to drive on. The problem is that at any time you can break through the crust into a primeval ooze that is seemingly endless. This sounds incredibly dangerous, and potentially it is, but visiting a salt pan, a driveable one at least, has been a long-standing dream of mine. Provided that you stick to existing and well proven tracks, you will be fine. Step off them even half a car’s width and you may never escape.

Nxai Pan is also a wildlife haven, full of wildebeest, zebra, grand gazelle and elephant. Seeing those traversing the pan whilst you are driving across it is a sight I shall never forget. The pans are so flat you can see the curvature of the earth, as if it is a never-ending vista. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish between animals and trees such is the illusion that mirages can create. It’s hard to comprehend the deception that they can create, unless you have actually experienced it.

The drive to and from Nxai Pan is twenty five miles of sandy tracks, some of it quite soft in places. This we nearly found to our expense heading towards the pan, when Sam misjudged where second gear was in the older Land Rover. Not only does it have a notoriously combative gearbox, but it also lacks significantly in power. Virtually all cars currently on sale have more power. It’s like driving with the brakes on, knowing that all you can do is to ensure you have enough momentum to carry through until it gets firmer. These firm and soft patches are often indistinguishable from each other meaning that you do not get any warning when the surface changes.

On our way back, with the ambient temperature nudging forty-three degrees Celsius and the bodywork on the vehicles probably well into three figures, the Series III ran out of fuel. With the right hand tank still full of fuel that was contaminated, we only had the left hand tank which only holds forty five litres. Sure enough, in the middle of a nature reserve full of animals that can quite easily kill you, it spluttered to a halt. Tony climbed onto the roof rack and filled the tank with twenty litres of fuel, enough to get us out of the park but still touch and go as to whether we’d get to the next fuel station.

That was about fifty miles away at the small village of Gweta, where we also stocked up on some food. Having filled up the left hand tank we had are aforementioned experience of the road to Nata, from which we headed north towards Elephant Sands. Elephant Sands is one of those truly magical places, which I shall never forget. I think pictures in this case tell a thousand words.

It’s definitely aimed at the luxury market, but I would still call it value for money, particularly at this time of year when it’s rather quiet. In fact, that pretty much sums up their traffic levels. Never in my entire life have I ever been on roads so quiet. You can literally drive for miles without seeing another vehicle, probably twenty or thirty minutes at a time in some cases. It’s not as if the Nata-Maun road is a minor one, it’s one of their major roads linking major towns, and is the gateway to the Okavango Delta, the Makgadikgadi and the Kalahari Desert. All famous places that I am sure you have heard of before. The road from Nata to Kazungula (upon which Elephant Sands is located) is a little busier being the main route from Zambia and East Africa down to South Africa, but it’s still a case of sometimes not seeing another vehicle for several minutes at a time.

Nxabii Cottages just outside the border town of Kazungula is a really nice place, sufficiently off the main road network and away from the tourist scene. It is also sufficiently close to the shopping mall at Kazungula so as to be a practical place to stock up before crossing the border into Zambia. Yvonne and Sam also took an excellent boat journey along the Zambezi River, seeing crocodiles, water and brown buffalo, hippopotamus, impala, elephants, fish eagles, baboons, lizard and many more.

The border crossing really was a sign of things to come. The Botswana side was really well organised (a trait that seems consistent with the whole country) even with a pair of inspectors from the Energy Board interested as to why I had four jerry cans on my roof rack. They understood when I explained my vehicle’s thirst, even taking photos because they liked the vehicle.

The Zambia side however, was utterly bureaucratic and chaotic, having to go through six different offices to get through the country, taking nearly two hours to get through. I am just glad that we paid an accredited guide to get us through because frankly I think we’d still be there now. Make sure you get an accredited guide though, because most are just opportunists willing to make money. Probbe is one such guide, and can often be found loitering outside the Engen fuel station back in Kazungula on the Botswana side of the border.

The roads in Zambia that we have encountered so far, whilst certainly the worst of our trip so far, are not as bad as many guidebooks would have you believe. I will write a blog regarding the significant embellishment that these guide books print (and out of date advice even in current editions) in the future, because what people need to read is the truth, not drama.

However, today we experienced the bad side of Zambia. Did you know, camouflage, in any form, is totally illegal and punishable by up to fifteen years in prison? Sam had a narrow escape, escaping with just the confiscation of his trousers and an explanation from the police as to why it’s illegal. Basically they have an issue with Zimbabwean’s and particularly South African’s impersonating the military, threatening and attacking people. Sadly, South African’s, particularly white South African’s, are particularly disliked, often being quite rude, demanding and quite aggressive. It really pains me to make this observation, because one of my closest friends is a white South African, and is one of the kindest people you could ever wish to meet.

On a happier note, we also visited Victoria Falls. Frankly, if you are ever in this part of the world, you must visit it, being the largest single drop water fall in the world. I’ve heard from several people that it makes Niagara Falls look like a trickle. It’s really worth a visit in you ever get the chance.

So our future plans are to drive through Zambia and explore what is an unbelievably pretty country, even if Livingstone doesn’t cut it for me.

See you soon!