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!