34 replies to this topic

[Advmoto18]

Eagerly awaiting more..

 

To me..."Wander The West" is simply heading in the direction of the setting sun...

Your geographic location on Earth matters not. 

 

I hope that philosophy resonates with others and the "decision makers" here.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Eagerly awaiting more..

 

To me..."Wander The West" is simply heading in the direction of the setting sun...

Your geographic location on Earth matters not. 

 

I hope that philosophy resonates with others and the "decision makers" here.

That's exactly my thoughts.

Doesn't matter where you wander,just go out and have a great time.

And of course TRIP REPORTS a must.

Frank

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Eagerly awaiting more..
 
To me..."Wander The West" is simply heading in the direction of the setting sun...
Your geographic location on Earth matters not. 
 
I hope that philosophy resonates with others and the "decision makers" here.

I bet it resonates just fine... wandering is wandering. Botswana has to be west of someplace

[kpredator]

looking forward to more pics!! if anyone wants to learn more about a southern africa self drive.google 4x4community forum.za

its a south african overland forum.lots of good info.

we have spent about 75 days in southern africa.the wildlife viewing was just incredible.

border crossings were easy,people welcoming and felt pretty much safe.my wife might say different"lions,hyenas"

its really a incredible trip.

if your on the bubble on going,do it you won't regret it.

good luck

kp

[smlobx]

Thanks for your patience.. It is my hope to complete the TR over this weekend...

First off, here is a rough map of our travels. Starting from the upper right corner in Kasane traveling clockwise down to the Makgadikgadi Pan (the largest salt flat in the world , https://en.m.wikiped...akgadikgadi_Pan ) and continuing for the rest of the first week then ending up in Maun where we reprovisioned for the second week back to Kasane.

As you can probably guess the first couple of hours going South (as shown by the straight line) were on a paved single lane highway. Even this part of the trip was exciting to me as this was the first time I had driven a right hand drive vehicle on the left side of the road. In truth I was a little nervous but with the patient vigilance of my wife, Terri, we didn't have any issues. We traveled between 100-120 KPH (60-75 MPH) and the truck was not as stable as I thought it should have been. I think this was in part due to the top heavy nature of our load. In addition to our Ezee Awn RTT we had four 20L cans of diesel and a spare tire mounted on the roof rack. Of course when our fearless leader got on the radio and shouted "Elephant in the road!" We had to come to a complete stop and wait for the beast to get out of our way...

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[smlobx]

As soon as we turned off the paved road we aired down to 1.4/1.5 bar (20/22 PSI) which was 50% of the road pressure and put in in 4 high. We stayed this way for the next two weeks.
Initially we were in grasslands but once we got to the pans vegetation quickly disappeared and we could see for miles in all directions!
One thing we were warned about was that the rainy season had lasted a month longer than usual and the whole pan was covered in about a foot of water. Because of this, we had to drive in each other's tracks. A deviation of even a foot or so and you could find yourself stuck up to your axles and we saw plenty of tracks where people tried but weren't successful...

We drove until the late afternoon to an "island" which was a rock outcrop with various vegetation including the infamous Baubaub tree we would see throughout the trip.

A note about camping in Botswana, about 75% of the country outside of the towns have been designated as National Parks, Preserves, or Game Areas and you are only allowed to camp in designated areas with a reservation. Due to the abundant wildlife you are also required to stay in your vehicles unless there is an emergency (more on ours later) or are at your campsite. Also, the campsites are not like those we have in North America. The actual sites are about 100 yards apart from each other and there aren't more than a dozen or so at each area so you still get a feeling of isolation.
Our routine was that we took turns cooking a communal dinner while breakfast and lunch were on our own. Nicolas took the first round this night while the rest of us got our chairs out and started a fire... After dinner we were sitting by the fire when a jackal casually walked right through the middle of our campsite...it happened so fast I didn't get a picture but would see hundreds in the following days...

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Edited by smlobx, 15 June 2018 - 05:56 PM.

[smlobx]

We quickly settled into a routine of getting up about 5:30 and have a quick breakfast, break camp and be on the tracks by 6:30 just before the sun came up (keep in mind it was their Winter). The reason for the early departure was that most animals are active very early in the morning or near sunset which was about 6 PM. During the middle of the day most animals tried to find some shade or water but tried to stay out of the direct sun as much as possible. During that time we would usually drive into a new area.

The topography varied depending upon the area we were in but one thing that was a constant was the pinstriping we got due to the Acacia trees being partially in the tracks. Now many of you have gotten the occasional pinstripe but this happened hundreds of times a day. I was really concerned that I was going to have a huge claim when we returned the truck but the Toyota's paint barely showed any signs and the rental company didn't care! PHEW! As you can see in the picture the thorns are several inches long and are very hard and sharp. The only animal that eats this plant is the giraffe. They take their long tongue and wrap it around a branch and pull, stripping the tiny green leaves but leaving the thorns...yikes!

The other thing we had to get used to was the dust. It just amazed me that due to the longer than normal rainy season the rivers were all flooding but 50 yards away there was just dust...and plenty of it. It was a pleasant surprise to find the AC button on the dashboard so we could keep the windows rolled up while driving.

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Edited by smlobx, 15 June 2018 - 07:30 PM.

[smlobx]

One of the main reasons we chose this trip was that Botswana is well known as perhaps the best country to see animals. It has the largest elephant and giraffe population in the continents so here are a few of over 100 different species we saw...
Elephants at the water hole
Gembok fighting at first light
A Gemsbok with a difformed horn??

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Edited by smlobx, 15 June 2018 - 05:50 PM.

[smlobx]

More...
An African Wild Cat ( Very rare)
The everpresent Jackal

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Edited by smlobx, 15 June 2018 - 05:51 PM.

[smlobx]

More..
Another elephant at a water hole
An African Buffalo with a friend..
Another Buffalo with his mirror image..

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Edited by smlobx, 15 June 2018 - 05:53 PM.