TRIP REPORT – BOTSWANA & CAPRIVI 27/02/2017 – 25/03/2017

Botswana Section : Murrae & Tommy Stephens, Piggs peak, Swaziland L/Rover Disco 4

Namibia Section: With Mags Doherty, Johannesburg

Route Summary:

Ppk(Swaziland) –Jhb-Kalagadi Park- Central Kalahari-Maun-Caprivi-Nxai Pan-Ppk.

 6,100kms  27 days  9 days camping  7 self-catering, 11 catered

Route Map – Botswana Section

Namibia Section

Travel Swaziland to Kalahari Transfrontier Park KTP:

Overnight Johannesburg with Mags – get supplies – Family dinner. Entertaining as usual

Mags to Van Zyls Rus Hotel: allow 9 hrs. Make certain of route from Hotazhel, as route has changed. Good Biltong at Vryburg. The Kalahari veld was unbelievably lush at this time of year, esp as good rains had fallen in Feb. VZ Rus hotel remains well managed and a worthy stopover. I should investigate other options as a change for our next trip, as we have now only stayed here for all our trips west.

VZ Rus Hotel to Kalahari Tented Camp (KTC): Went via Middelputs border to enjoy excellent Bots tar road. At border purchased multiple entry visa from Bots as we were going out and back into Botswana after Caprivi. Also, we entered KTP (Kalahari Transfronteir Park) on Bots side at Tweerevieren (don’t go back into RSA at Bokspits if you intend exiting KTP through Kaa or Mabua back into Botswana – this removes unneccesary extra border formalities).

The lush vegetation continued all the way to the camp. Parts of the veld would compete with the Namaqua flower show in August.

Saw cheetah en route (only cheetah seen in the 5 day KTP section of our trip, which was unusual as we have usually seen lots more in previous visits).

KTC was looking rather run down. We stayed in unit 4 and the tent and roof fabric needed repair. It also was not the best unit for views onto river. Units 9, 10 and 11 and 12 are far better for this. You can pre-book units by arranging with admin at Mata Mata once you have a reservation number from Sanparks. Must do this next time if we again cannot get into one of the smaller bush camps which are so popular you need to book at least 11 months in advance.

KTP: KTC (3 days): We did day drives out of camp mainly along the Auob river. We expected to see less game due to all the standing water in the Park, but we were not disappointed. There were good herds of antelope and we saw lion every day out. It’s really important to get out of camp early – this is prime game viewing time for predators and we would have missed out if we had slacked off in camp. We had nightly visits to the waterhole in the riverbed in front of camp from Lion then Leopard then lion again, but sadly our view from tent 4 was restricted. The other guys must have seen the action clearly.

Took a trip to nearby Mata Mata where a Hyaena was lying in the waterhole having been mauled by probably a lion. She was gone the next day, so must have gone into the bush, but I can’t imagine she survived. We could smell her infection from the hide about 40m away.

A classic Kalahari thunderstorm broke over camp whilst we were out game viewing on our 2nd day. The rain and wind was so heavy it damaged our flysheet and even tore off the one over the unit next to us. Water soaked the floors in the tent and the staff had a real challenge making the tents habitable before nightfall. The park aims to upgrade all the tents to the same standard as unit 10(?) (already done), and its clear this is essential to prevent rain water from soaking the bedding etc.

The roads had long sections of standing water after this downpour, and it was funny to see all the guys with heavy capable 4x4s skirting the edge of this water on the bumpy shoulder to avoid the water, whereas its clear the road surface underneath is solid and the water only about 400mm deep. We capitalised on this by driving through the water alongside a lioness walking next to road, giving us an excellent view of her while the others were all jockeying for position off road on the wrong side. Crazy – all the gear but no idea.

Gharaghab Bush Camp (2 days): The drive from KTC to Garaghab is loooong. As with all driving in a park, you need to allow for an average of 35km/h so we took at least 10 hrs for this trip. We encountered a huge male lion right on the side of the road under a shady tree. No other vehicles - so what a pleasure. He was obviously tired from a night’s feeding/mating/whatever so he wasn’t the least interested in even lifting his head to admire SWAMBO or her camera gadgets. We reached Nossob just before 1 pm - very fortunately as the fuel station and shop close from 1 to 2pm, and we needed diesel and water for Garaghab and Kaa gate. North of Nossob we came across another male Lion in the road just as the Park grader was coming from the north. He growled at the grader but the driver had obviously seen this all before and didn’t back off at all – he had a job to do. Fortunately the lion returned as soon as the grader passed and we got some pictures. Again, no other cars! Try to experience this in the Kruger Park!

We were allocated tent 4 at the Garaghab camp and were really impressed by the make-over these tents have received. Everything was neat and new and all worked perfectly. The views from the tent were spectacular with the Kalahari so green.

The camp has one drawback and that is that there are no short game drives out of camp. There is a one-way direction in and a one-way out, so you need to do a long loop if you wish to explore. For us though this forced rest was a relief. And to add to our good fortune a lioness arrived the next morning with her cub (the camp attendant said she had had 2 cubs about 3 days previously) and spent most of the morning between camp and the waterhole. The cub was quite old (about 5 months estimate) and it just drank and drank and drank water all day until we were convinced it was sickly. We worked ourselves up about that so much so that I walked the 30m or so to the nearby deck where cell signal is available to Google the cause of excessive drinking but could not connect. On my way back (unknown to me) the lioness had moved to just behind and to the side of our tent, where she must have covered my progress, but thankfully left me alone. There I was looking for where she had been all morning without moving. Shows how things can change in an instant.

She then left the cub after much plaintiff moaning but came back in the late afternoon to collect her cub again and off they went walking right through camp and setting off an excited twittering from the guests. A male lion arrived in the night and was very interested in the smells of the female and her cub. He left early the next morning, we hope not to find and kill the remaining cub. All in all we had seen lion pretty much every day and every night of our trip in the KTP.

We later learned from the Ranger at Nossob that the excessive drinking is in fact normal behaviour when lions have been away from water for some days, so with luck the cub is still alive and well.

Kaa Gate – Thutapedi Camp

The drive from Garaghab to Thutapedi was pretty uneventful. We saw very little game once we left the Nossob river. You can stay over at Kaa gate but they do not encourage this as these are not official campsites – only meant for staff and emergencies. We decided to keep our booking at Thutapedi and it was good to get some experience of this side of the park. We were not expecting much as we had done the Polentswa trail about 8 years ago and found it very bleak in terms of game viewing. Although this time again we did not see much game and admittedly we were only using Thutapedi as an overnight stop, this part of the park does have potential. The pans on the Kaa game viewing trail (Sisatswe, Gnus-Gnus and Swart pans) are magnets for game and we did hear lions all night from our camp, as well as seeing their fresh prints early next day on our way out.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) to Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR)

We exited Kaa gate with minimal formality. The road to Hukuntsi goes via Zutshwa. The section between Kaa and Zutshwa is very scenic and we came upon a pan (Jeff Morris Pan?) with large herds of game even though this was outside the Park (KTP).

At Zutshwa we got stopped by a ‘Road Toll’ official and had to pay some BWP 100 for using the road from Zutshwa to Hukuntsi. Turned out he was indeed correct as there was an official notice about this, and the money went into a deposit box. The Road to Hukuntsi has been upgraded so the 100 Pula was worthwhile. Hukuntsi turned out to be quite developed though rather disorganised. The new shopping complex as you exit town had everything we needed for our CKGR camping trip so we stocked up. We refuelled at Kang at headed for Kalahari rest Lodge about 30 km further on.

The Rest Lodge is a useful pitstop. The rooms were okay, but for the money the owners have spent on the lodge, my preference would have been for less concrete, and a softer touch – but that is minor. What did impress us was the dinner. It was really first class, and we overheard other guests also complimenting the quality. We Filled our water tank here and headed out early the next day.

I planned to follow the cutline bordering the CKGR from the south. When the GPS instructed me to turn right off the tar, I took a long hard look at the overgrown deep sand ahead before deciding to carry on.

But the track turned out to firm up so diesel consumption remained okay and the route was not difficult at all in the end. It was definitely shorter in distance (and I think time) over the alternative via Ghanzi. In any case it’s what overlanding is all about, though a breakdown here in one car could prove proved problematic. Luckily I drive a L/Rover not a L/Cruiser!

When we stopped for a picnic lunch I noticed elephant tracks in the sand and could not believe it – elephants in the GKGR.! But when we got to Xade, the officials reported that large herds were there over December, and they had destroyed the water tanks and piping supplying the ablution block and the staff compound. The rain and wet attracted them in. From where I wonder?

We camped at Xade 1, which was not too bad – the other campsites were completely overgrown and unkempt, and the ablution block was a mess, so I gave Xade a low rating for future stops. An elephant passed by our camp in the night (tracks in the road next morning) and fortunately did not visit us as he may have decided to get at my water tank on the car roof!

CKGR – CKKor 04

We were concerned about the mud in the CKGR, after the heavy rains in February, but as it turned out we had no rain at all and the roads were very negotiable.

The road from Xade to Pipers is monotonous. 2 interesting things happened – We saw a Spotted Eagle Owl which was very relaxed and even ran along the road in an odd gait in front of the car.

The other was meeting Marina(?) a young German lady travelling alone in a Hilux towards Xade. She had been on her own in the CKGR for 10 days and does this type of thing regularly alone. Of course I could not hide my surprise at this but she’s probably had this reaction everywhere she goes. Free spirit and good luck to her – though I do hope she carries a Satphone. You can think you are invincible until suddenly you are not. We had great sighting of large herds of springbok and giraffe at Piper Pan and encountered residual cotton mud at Pipers Pan 4 (eastern-most pan) which caused us to bog down and gave us a short scare for about 20 minutes until some spadework came to our rescue. There were no campers at Pipers and our Satphone was stukkend so it could have been interesting had we not succeeded.

Kori 4 was a bit of a disappointment due to its location right on the road. I think 2 and 3 are better. 3 especially for its size and shade.

I have been to the CKGR 4 times now and only on this trip did I appreciate the sense of staying in the Deception area: easy access to the game rich locations of Deception, Deception Pan and Sundays and Leopard pans.

These locations all gave us predators. At Sundays we had a mating pair of lions right next to the road. The grass was so thick and long that when they lay down they completely disappeared, even at only 10m distance, so we waited the statutory 15 mins and got another set of great pictures. We did this for about an hour and literally set our watches and started to prepare at 12 minutes. Sure as day the snarling and growling happened almost spot on at the 15 min interval.

We also lucked upon a large male leopard crossing our path .

We saw cheetah at Deception and watched her and cubs trying to get closer to some springbok. The patience! Only to be firstly revealed to the prey by 2 annoying jackals and then later to have to flee the scene when a lioness suddenly appeared coming towards them. It was a fruitful few hours for us but not so for the cheetah.

At Deception pan we had 2 lion brothers right on the road – and though the location was great the action was slow, as they were in Park mode with no intention of getting sunburned. But lion sightings can never be boring!

We left the CKGR for Maun after 3 nights at Kori. The Deception - Matswere gate road must have been pretty muddy a few weeks earlier but it proved no challenge at all, though the L/Rover finally got some mud to prove its credentials to the fleets of Toyotas we saw.

From Matswere the quickest route to Maun is north along the Park boundary. At the Vet control station at Kuke we kept east of the vet Fence though my T4A map showed an alternative along the West of the fence. Not sure which is better, but the Eastern route was quite okay and we managed 60km/h.

Maun to Caprivi

We met up with my mother Mags in Maun as she was joining us for the non-camping Caprivi section of our journey ahead. We splashed out (only because I managed a very good out of season rate) and overnighted at the Royal Tree Lodge. This turned out to be nowhere near where its marked on the GPS and in fact is nowhere near town at all, but about 15 kms out. It took some hyperventilating but eventually the manager met and escourted us from the Maun airport to the Lodge.

The Lodge turned out to be very pleasant indeed, and after a St Louis beer (not the most authentic sounding name for a country beer, and it tastes kak too!) all was forgiven. The Royal Tree Lodge is set within its own well managed game farm. Bird sightings were excellent.

The next day we headed for Riverdance Lodge in Namibia, travelling via Shakawe along the A35. The road was heavily potholed which I felt reflected poorly on the country, and which surprised me seeing as Botswana is a so tourist oriented, has a high relative GDP, and somehow seems to have strangled corruption and wastage to a minimum. It was the same with the A33 travelling south along the east of Botswana. Maybe it was the recent rains but the damage could not have been so severe in so short a time.

Caprivi – Riverdance Lodge – 3 nights I chose to stay here as it had been recommended on the SA 4x4 Forum. We were not disappointed and in fact astounded at the quality of this lodge, both in term of its architecture, build quality, environmentally sensitive setting on the Okavango river, and attention by staff. The Cabango River (Angola is across the river) was running deep and strong just 5m below our deck under huge trees. Very impressive.

The lodge offers boat trips down river which we did. The sunrise trip is best for photo opportunities.

The birding turned out good but not as rich as on the Zambezi, and the tigerfish were not that easy to catch due to the rather muddy water. The Lodge has 3 campsites which are really excellent. All separate and all adjoin the river with private ablutions and cooking facilities.

Riverdance proved a good base to explore surrounding sights. We visited the Muhango Core Reserve in the Babwata Reserve which was excellent. The section east of the C48 adjoining the wetland gave up lechwe, a giant eagle owl, buffalo, elephant and of course the famous Baobab tree.

We also drove the loop west of the C48 which, in terms of game was sparse, but just to experience the woodland vegetation is amazing. Further south in SA you just do not get this prime woodland Vegetation type. It’s nothing like bushveld, and would be any SA game farmers dream.

Popa Falls gets a 1/10 from me. The falls themselves are rapids, not falls, and the accommodation is featureless and typically government. The prices were unbelievably high as well. No thanks!

Our trip to the Buffalo Core Area East of the swamp the following day was interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly there was a commotion at the entrance gate with us being waved down by a family whose son and daughter-in-law had just been shot at by the NDF inside the park doing anti- poaching patrols. They advised us to turn back if we valued our lives. Then a hunting outfitter and an NGO official said that was rubbish – it was an incident caused by the tourists driving off away from the roadblock. Then we had a long discussiuon about elephant hunting and the pros and cons (no change of attitude from either side of course. Its like religion or politics). The upshot was that we decided to enter anyway as the hunting outfitter assured us we would not drive into an elephant slaughter yard, as had happened to us 8 years previously. Also we figured that the NDF had had their fun and were probably wary of the political fallout after their behaviour, so would not be doing it again in a hurry.

The Buffalo section was rich with game and birds on the short excursion we had – highlights were many vultures on the ground and Sable.

The NGO guy told us that there is a tender out for lodges within this section of the park. It has great potential and Namibia should have woken up long ago to this fact. The reserve has not developed in any manner since last we visited 8 years ago and this is indicative of how The Namibian government is not capitalising on the rich wildlife and tourism potential it owns. It is the same at Chobe – but there its is even more of an oversight. Chobe is such a huge generator of tourism income for Botswana, yet right there on the Namibian side tourism is virtually dry. Cattle graze there with the Botswana lions not 300m away across the channel. Hundreds of tourists in boats are viewing game at Chobe every day and they are all staying in Kasane and spending Pula.

Mashi River Safaris – KWANDO River : 3 nights

The B8 road from Divundu to Kongola was in very good condition and we made easy headway. A visit to the Kongola Craft Shop had the ladies in a state of high excitement with the result that I had to somehow find non-existant space in the car for baskets and crafts. But we know all the unwritten rule in the overlanders code – she who always must be obeyed.

Dan Stephens (turned out to be a very distant relative, though a family discount was not entertained!) runs a campsite and does river trips where you can camp out on an island in the Linyanti/Kwando delta downriver. We stayed in his tented camp, which was comfortable, though the campsites have prime views over the water. Dan also catered for us.

The trip downriver was spectacular in terms of birding and we saw many specials – malachite Kingfisher, Pygmy Goose, All the bee eaters, etc etc. Dan knows his birds, so if you are a keen birder it’s a pleasure to do this trip with him. He’s also pretty handy as a Captain and knows how to negotiate a Hippo Road block (River Block?), which had us holding our breath quite a few times. The busy months for him are July to Oct when large herds of game congregate along the bank for water, but we were not complaining at all. It was a great experience

The Kwando is not so much a single river but a series of channels with swamps in between, In a way it is a mini Delta with all the same features as the Okavango. Again it is another missed opportunity by the Nam Government to develop and protect this water system for tourism. We sadly did not have time to visit Mudumu and Nkasa Rupala national Parks. Its another trip to look forward to.

Kongola (Namibia)– Ngoma Bridge (Botswana) – Chobe – Kasane

After entering Botswana at Ngoma Bridge (where they confiscated our fruit and meat, but not before giving us the option to eat the apples and cook our meat on an open fire they had going, seemingly just for this purpose), we turned left into the Chobe Game Reserve gate and spent the day travelling along the Chobe to Kasane.

All the hype about this section of Chobe is true. Although March is not the prime game viewing season, we saw so much variety.

Many many birds (African Skimmers were the speciality), Lion, Elephant, Croc with a fresh young buffalo kill.

We stayed at River View Lodge in Kazungula which was very enjoyable. They were doing renovations at the time (this ALWAYS happens to us), but the location and layout of the chalets is difficult to beat. Kasane was so much more tourist oriented, with large hotels and very busy streets. I would not like to be there in July August when the hordes descend on the place.

We elected to do a river cruise using a charter operator arranged by the Lodge. It was well worth the money and it is one thing you need to experience if you have travelled all the way here. We were the only party on a small boat, which is MUCH better than joining one of large barges owned by the hotels, since you are much more flexible and get personal attention from the guide. Our guide (Haskins) had eyes in the back of his head, and was picking up leguaans (water Monitors) which we could only find using binoculars, he got us into the best positions for viewing buffalo and elephant in the water, he knew his birds and showed us malachite kingfisher, knob billed duck, pygmy goose and of course the iconic Fish Eagles of which there are so many in this area. He told us how the border line between Namibia and Botswana was finally settled by the International Court quite recently. The deepest channel was judged to be the boundary, thus ending an age old dispute about ownership of certain islands within the Chobe Floodplain. These reverted to Botswana, so halting Namibia’s plan to farm rice there. The environment won for a change.

After 2 nights at Kasane we packed Mags into a plane for the Johannesburg smog and we headed south for more camping at Nxai Pan.

Nxai Pan Game Reserve – 3 nights We were told the road from Nata to Maun was impassable due to water across the road, so it was with some trepidation that we decided to risk it as the alternative via Francistown was not attractive at all. The road is badly potholed and standing water was everywhere along the side of the road. We reached the water barrier to find cars backed up waiting for the enterprising guy with a flatbed loader to ferry them across for US$30/trip for about 1 km. When I saw a Van crossing from the Maun side wading with ease I knew it was very do-able in the Landrover. Tourists in 2 Fortuners quickly tagged onto us when the saw they had company and we crossed easily, with the water only reaching the top of our wheels at the deepest section.

The water had been there for at least 3 weeks without subsiding despite no rain in that period. Either the soil has lots of clay or the water is being fed from the Delta system. Is this possible? I planned on filling up fuel at Gweta, but there are no fuel stations here, despite the garmin and T4A maps showing a fuel station. Very fortunately I listened to my wife (uncharacteristically in matters car, mechanical, directions etc) when she suggested we fill up at Nata. As it was I still had to arrange for an extra 20lt at Nxai to get back to Nata 3 days later. I’m tempted to install a Long Range tank, but I know Swambo will only be appeased if she can see a LOT of full jerry cans on the roof, so I may as well save myself the effort and cost.

We arrived at South Camp pretty late. Tip – from the entrance gate take the park boundary road to the camp. It’s much firmer than the one running parallel to the east. What a pleasure this camp is. The ablutions were the big surprise for us – spotlessly clean, hot water, even toilet paper and hand soap! Somehow camping becomes that much easier with a hot shower, clean toilets and a place to clean up dirty dishes. The only negative is the proximity of the camp sites but we were very lucky in having only one neighbour and they were thankfully quiet. In fact the camp was only about 20% full.

We discovered that the prime game was to be found on the loops north of the camp, so we did these twice every day, and again we were rewarded with lion (every time, except on one trip) and cheetah. The zebra had migrated into the area and there were many, many many of these.

We took a trip to Baines Baobabs one morning. Though game viewing was unproductive on the route in, there were signs of activity around the pans at the Baobabs. I noticed a campsite of the T4A map near the trees and wonder if its open to the public? It would indeed be an amazing place to stay with the Baobabs across the pan, and the solitude of the area. At the time of our visit the rains had cut off access to the campsites, so we could not view it. The Baobabs are magnificent and the sight of these grand old trees generates a realisation of how transient man is in the greater scheme of things, yet how so much of history and how utterly the future of the environment rests in our hands. Very few leaders in Africa who are ultimately entrusted with this responsibility, are aware of it. Thankfully Botswana (for now) is a reliable conservationist.

All in all Nxai Pan was a great experience. I would even rate it ahead of CKGR in that it has all the game you find there, but with better facilities. There’s even a small informal shop at the gate for basic supplies!

We left Nxai for home, overnighting en route at the Limpopo River Lodge. Both Platjan and Zanzibar border crossings into RSA were closed due to the flood damage, so we had to detour 200 kms to get to Martins Drift the next day, and then rejoin our route home.

Main travel tips we learned:

 Don’t overdrive and understay. Tours like this usually involve long distances but once you are where you want to be, stay as long as you can. 3 days minimum, esp if camping as its an effort to setup properly and get relaxed.

 A drawer system recently purchased (fully removable from the car) made a huge difference to storage and finding the right tupperwares and items.

 Buy fuel whenever you can if in remote areas.  The fewer of you in the group the easier it is to organise.  The whole dual battery, solar panels, aux battery setup was completely unnecessary in our case. I ran everything off the car battery (fridge, night lights and inverter) and never went below 12v once. Car recharged battery in no time at all. I saved a ton of space by leaving the aux battery and solar panels behind, and I’ll do this again next time.