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Into Botswana

This part of the world has the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana all close together. We drove through the Mosi-oa-Tunga National Park, where the speed limit is 40kph and where the trucks do 100kph, to the border town of Kasangula where hundreds of trucks waited lined up to cross the border. Fortunately for us, cars get priority on the ferry across the Zambezi, while trucks have to wait interminably for passage. As the ferry will only carry two trucks at a time, it can be a very long wait indeed for some.

Only the drivers were allowed to be in the car as it drove onto the ferry; the passengers had to walk on. How that was safer we couldn't determine. The planking on the deck was rotten and some had collapsed leaving large holes to negotiate your way through. The machinery was open and unfenced, and there was only a narrow space to walk to avoid being knocked down by cars entering the ferry.

On the other side - Botswana, our tenth country on the trip. Here, though immigration was fast and painless, we were subject to the same sort of quarantine requirements as Oz. No meat or dairy to be carried over the border, the car was to be driven through a disinfectant dip and you had to walk in your shoes through a wet disinfectant pad, and the small fridges in our cars were checked for food.

Chobe River

That afternoon, after checking in to our camp, we were taken - by yet another open safari truck - to a ricketty old jetty on the Chobe River, passing a tame warthog on the way. We motored up and down the river with Namibia on the other bank. Swish lodges lined the Botswanan side, beautiful buildings with elaborate thatch rooves. Each lodge had a long lightning conductor rising above the trees - thatch is flammable!

Chobe is famous for its elephants, and we saw them aplenty, coming down to the river to eat and drink in the late afternoon. Some would walk through the shallow river to reed islands and feast on the grasses there. One large elephant only metres in front of us would pick a large trunkful of grass then swish it vigorously in the water to wash all the sand off before eating it. We watched this one for ages, along with his two smaller companions who rolled in the mud and sprayed themselves with water to cool down. In other herds by the water, youngsters played and mock-fought each other, while very young ones watched from the safety of their mothers' sides.

If we hadn't seen enough hippos before, we had our fill of them too. Up to now it had been the rare one we had seen out of water - mostly we just saw eyes, ears and the occasional back protruding from the water surface. Here, in the late afternoon, there seemed to be hundreds all over the flat, low, reed- and grass-covered islands dotted through the river. Big pods wallowed in the shallows, family groups - mother, father and baby - grazed on the islands. We motored in close to watch, but the guide motored out very quickly whenever even one headed our way and slid into the water near us.

We saw the shy Kudu for the first time this trip as well as another sleek antelope the Red Lechwe. Beautiful water birds darted around, and crocodiles large and small sunned themselves on banks and quietly slithered into the water at our approach.

Still parts of the river are covered with dinner-plate lily pads, green on the surface and showing a brilliant purple underneath when they turn over in the wash of the boat motor. And rising up towards the sun, breaking through the pads, are the lotus-like flowers, white to a soft blue. Brown and white African Jacanas with long legs and wide splayed feet walk across the lily pads while rainbow coloured Bee-eaters with delicate long bills catch and eat dragonflies. Majestic Fish Eagles perch imperiously on overhanging branches looking for a suitable meal.

Chobe National Park

An early morning game drive. The safari truck this time actually had padded seats and a metal roof that theoretically shouldn't leak like a sieve in the rain! Such luxury. But this time there was no rain while we toured the park.

On the way to the park, we passed an elephant grazing by the side of the road. Wild elephants like this make travelling between villages very dangerous for the locals. A smallish spotted cat, probably a serval, darted into the bush in front of us.

In the park we saw most of the usual suspects, though unfortunately no cats - the leopard is the elusive creature that we have yet to see. Banded mongoose bounded and tumbled over each other as they disappeared into the bush by the side of the road. Black backed jackals stalked small prey through the long grass. Large herds of buffalo grazed amongst impala and their smaller cousins, puku. Our guide told us that buffalo are the most dangerous animals on land. If they see you on foot, they give no warning and simply charge. Elephants and rhino on the other hand, give you pleanty of warning that they are upset - ear flapping, trumpeting, snorting, pawing. In water, hippos are the most dangerous. Again, they go for you without warning and are unstoppable, grabbing and crushing you in their formidable jaws.

On to Namibia

Packed up and in the cars again, we headed out along the main highway which passes straight through Chobe National Park to the border with Namibia.

Wildlife on the road took a different turn - leggy, green chameleons and giant millipedes, thick and black and up to 200mm long ambled across the tarred road. Shortly after entering the park, we could see on the road a pack of what looked like brown, black and white dogs. As we drove closer, they didn't disperse as we had expected. One lying on the road looked up and we realised that he was badly injured, probably from a collision with a car, and fresh blood was under him. All the other animals, about a dozen of them, were watching with apparent concern. As we drove around him, the injured animal dragged his obviously broken back legs across the road and into the grass at the side. The others followed. We had seen a pack of African Wild Dogs, a very rare sight indeed. These superb, stealthy hunters are highly sociable animals who look after each other, but who are listed as seriously endangered. Most people only see the tops of their ears in long grass; we had seen a whole pack interacting at close range.

The border was the quiestest we had ever seen. There were no trucks, buses or cars, nor any moneychangers to hound and bother us. Our car tyres and shoes were dipped once again and we drove on onto the good, wide, straight roads of the Caprivi Strip, the panhandle of Namibia. We stopped in Katima Mulilo on the Zambia border, hoping to change our Zambian Kwacha which no money changer would touch in Botswana. However, we discovered that all telephones and electronic banking had been "down" for the last two days in the region and no-one could do anything. By sheer good luck, Ingrid chanced upon a South African family heading to Zambia, who needed the currency and we lined up at their car window and off-loaded the no longer useful banknotes.

So, now armed with Namibian dollars, we headed for camp on the banks of the Zambezi and set up our tent right in front of the Beware of the Hippo and Crocodiles signs.