The Masticated Vellie, a Botswana Trip Report
Many years ago during the early 90’s some family members travelled to the Okavango Delta.
The stories of lions wandering through camp, elephants delaying breakfast and the general
wildness of Botswana was music to my young ears. Ever since then I have had a desperate
desire to travel to Botswana.
In 2007 I was fortunate enough to accompany my parents and friends on a trip through
Botswana. Looking back on it, the itinerary was not all that well thought out with very little
time in genuine game park areas. Nevertheless, it continued to stoke my interest in
Botswana.
My now wife and I have, since about 2012, said to ourselves that in 2 years’ time we would
do our first Botswana trip. Unfortunately, when you are young this sort of trip is not that
easy. Problem number 1 is of course that we did not have a 4x4. Problem number 2 is that
most of our generation are more willing to spend thousands a month at the local watering
hole than on a trip to a real water hole.
Problem number 1 resolved itself in 2017 and at last the real planning could begin.
Unfortunately, problem number 2 was still there. Thankfully the kind members of
4x4community as well as the blogs from numerous European tourists reassured me that
provided we were cautious a solo trip was not reckless.
Now for those old salts out there the thought of planning where to travel on a trip is not
that difficult but for those of us who don’t know the lie of the land this feels like planning a
trip to the moon. Can one travel from Khama to CKGR in a day? Can one travel from
Passarge to Khumaga in one day? All followed up very often by the old salt’s favourite
response “Well it depends”.
Eventually our trip resolved itself to the following:
1 Night Khama
2 Nights Sunday Pan 3
1 Night Passarge 2
1 Night Khumaga
2 Nights Nxai Pan South Camp
1 Night Nata Lodge
1 Night Woodlands Stopover
Now for many this may seem like somewhat of a whirlwind trip and in retrospect there were
parts that could have been adjusted to give a more relaxed trip but all in all it was an
excellent tour of Botswana.
Now to understand part of my constraints in planning my trip you will need to keep in mind
that when I first met my wife Megan she did not camp. Not that she didn’t rough camp, she
did NOT CAMP AT ALL. Slowly over the years I have managed to change this attitude to the
point where she looks forward to our Kruger camping trips and had wrapped her head
around the lack of facilities at CKGR. My one concern with the trip is that she would hate the
CKGR portions and this would be our first and last trip to this area. Therefore, it was
imperative that this portion be short enough to be tolerable and followed by access to good
ablutions!
Day 1
We left Benoni around 4 30 and head to Groblersbrug via Mokopane. The border post was
relatively painless aside from the usual governmental department haste. We arrived at the
Botswana entrance gate and found the two cars in front of us being subjected to a full
search for any meat or fresh products. I pulled up and was ready to proudly display my
empty fridge/freezer primed to purchase Botswana’s meat only to be waved through.
Somewhat surprised by this and more than a bit disappointed at not being able to display
my law- abiding nature I asked the lady whether they did not want to search the freezer.
She looked Megan and I up and down and responded that we did not look like bad people
and waved us on. If only the Department of Justice could employ this lady!
Having just been given a beautiful Kalahari lamb by a colleague weeks before I felt a
sneaking thought that I could have snuck my South African meat and produce through. This
was washed from my mind when returning home and hearing of my business partner’s
brother who had surrendered an entire freezer full of meat after ignoring my advice that
any imports of meat etc were currently banned. Kama strikes!
We stopped in Palaype to do our grocery shopping. I found this to be quite an experience.
Stopping at the Spar one could have been forgiven for feeling that this was just another
town in SA. All the branding was the same and most products were the same. Only on
entering the meat section was one reminded that the Botswana palate is very different to
the South African palate. A thorough selection of offal as well as chuck, blade and brisket
had Megan wondering whether she would be eating an Irish mixed grill for the week (baked
potato, boiled potato and roast potato!)
Fortunately, I found a lonely piece of fillet and rump and had the butcher cut a further fillet.
The selection of fresh produce was rather dismal and this was definitely something we
missed! Although we will be the first to admit that when it comes to choosing salad
ingredients Megan and I are amongst the fussiest people around so perhaps not Spar
Botswana’s fault.
It was also interesting for me to note the enormous change that Palayape has undergone
since I was last there in 2007. From a dusty village it is now clearly a growing town with
substantial investment in the retail sector.
Just an example of the calibre of the shops
We proceeded on to our stop over for the night at Khama.
On arrival we were greeted by friendly staff and stocked up on wood for the week. I was
quite surprised by the roads in Khama which had deep sand and in patches were badly
humped. I presume this is due to the fact that most people stay over for one night and don’t
bother with deflating tyres. The roads seem to take a bit of a beating from this.
We proceeded to the pans for the afternoon. It is quite amazing to see how when driving
through the thick bush leading up the pans one sees virtually no game only to arrive at the
pans and find life everywhere.
We travelled around the rest of the park with game throughout when around the pans.
We then stopped in at the waterhole hide. This was a bit of a strange experience as there
seemed to be a number of locals travelling around on dropside trucks. Those on the back
seemed to have no clue as to the etiquette of game viewing areas shouting and talking at
the tops of their voices. Particularly irritating at the bird hide! We managed to see this little
guy who was harassing the squirrels but were unable to identify thanks to the loud mouths!
In addition to the rowdy passengers most of the trucks seemed to be fitted with reverse
warning beepers!
We headed back towards our campsite and were stopped along the way by a roadblock
We arrived at our campsite which had a lovely Mogongwa tree
That evening we had our first dinner of Botswana beef. Certainly no better or worse than
SA’s! By about 7PM the temperatures absolutely plummeted going from pleasantly warm at
5PM to condensing breath in front of you by 7PM.
Now on my previous trip to Botswana we found ourselves in the Kalahari during the same
period that Joburg had snow. Our temperatures must have dropped to the region of -10
given how virtually everything froze solid. Based on this I was very nervous of the cold
temperatures!