Well Im writing this a bit after I got back as I forgot Id started it. Well the last blog I left for Gaborone which was a plesant trip on an air-con'd bus. The scenery in South Africa is beautiful just shame about the rest of it. Ill get back to that later.

I arrived in Gaborone late at night having booked a place on hostelbookers, I had the name of where I was going but not much else. I got chatting to a Sweedish couple who hadnt found anywhere so I suggetsed the same place as I was stopping, they liked the sound of the place so we jumped into a taxi together and off we went. The place was called the mokolodi and its was just outside a small game park. We arrived and after a long arguement with the taxi driver we went in. The place was great still quite new and really well put together, the owner was having a BBQ and we got invited as soon as we got there. We had a great night chatting with his friends and finding out about botswana.

Its a suprising place although a big countries it has small population but a high GPD. So when you walk around the town and cities there really modern but as you step out of the towns, you walk into the middle of nowhere your phone stops working, the small villages are really dusty and quite poverish.

Anyway the next day we went into Gaborone except getting a bit confused on the local bus we got off at the wrong stop and suddenly find ourselves in the back of a truck that is full of grain lol. I loved Africa already, it took me by surprise, I had an image of maybe it would be too dangerous to travel alot on your own. Its the other way round, its probably the best to travel, if you cant get somewhere, somebody will give you a lift for a small fee lol. I wish I had a couple of months to explore it properly but I just didnt have time. :(

Well after that I did a horse safari which was cool, saw some hyeners and hippo's in the lake. See the photos and you will see what I mean. I then left for francistown and heading for the highlight of my trip( the reason I went the Makadakadi salt plains. After a long day on public buses, (proper african style) I arrived at planet bowboa, named after the tree. You see loads of them about but the best type to see is in madikaskar. So I got to where the slat plains were and booked my trip, I was told there would be myself and another person. you may have seen theses pans on top gear as it was included in the special they did as they drove across them. Well I set out the next day to find that i was doing the trip on my own as the guy had pulled out. so I had my own guide and cook lol. The sunset and sunrise were the best Id ever seen, one of the wonders of the world that place. Just to explain what the Makadakadi salt pans are, they are huge area of a dried sea bed, Forget the ones in bolivia or nevada these are the biggest in the world. lol. A must see for anybody but unfortnately not many venture to see them.

After that I left for maun, the gateway to the Okavango Delta. But I had to pay by cash at the pans as my mastercard wouldnt work on their machine. So I arrived in Maun with 2 pounds to my name. I thought just get to a cash machine and u will be fine no probs :) The only machine that would take my card was broke and i couldnt get any money so I ended up in this posh hotel cost me 50 quid a night. This kindof ruined the delta for me as I wasnt able to go into the inner delta and see more wildlife. But I did finally manage to get some money and then do a day trip on a Mokoro which was ace. Its a carved out wooden boat and u canoe down the delta with a man pushing u along with a pole. We went on a trek and saw Elephants, Giraffe, Hippos, Vulturs, Zebras and loads more. But no Lions sorry to say :(.

The trip had been great a really adventure and Im glad I did Botswana independantly as I think people miss alot when you do the organzied tours which most do :) All I had to do now was get back to Jo'burg for my flight home. I was going to bus it back but on the second to last day I met another couple, who told me they had bought a 4x4 and were drivng africa. they had done alot of Southern Africa already and were now going to head north. They said though they we heading back to jo'burg to repair the 4x4 as they knew they could get cheap parts :). So they offered me a lift and said they were going to a rhino santury on the way back. I jumped at the chance, so a bonus really, got to do another day's safari and saw rhinos fighting in the wild. That explains the photos where all you can see is dust, there are rhinos there honest lol.

So we headed back to jo'burg it was a hell of a trip. 800 mile in 2 days :P. here was me think the adventure was over, but no. lol

We got back into jo'burg about 6pm it was starting to get dark and we didnt really wanted to be out at night. I cant stress how dangerous Jo'burg is at night. We were stopping at the same hostel as i had on the way down., so knew roughtly where it was. we were following a sat nav and i gave the girl the postcode with the address. The one place we were told not to go was hillbrow, the most dangerous part of any city in the world. :O So u can guess where the sat nav took us, yep right bang in the middle. It turned out there were two address in Jo'burg which were the same I couldnt believe it. So we driving through thre main street and what happens, the car breaks down with a flat battery. So here are three white people in the middle of hillbrow 7pm on a friday night, there was hundreds of people about all looking at us!!! Ive never felt so scared and calm at the same time. we then had to go up to the locals and see if anyone had any jump leads, I think tbh they were so surprised that they just helped us!!!!! lol. we finally did get out of there and to the hostel, as we sat there laughing and joking about it, the owner of the hostel came in and said, I dont know why your laughing your lucky to be alive, most people that go in there dont come out alive, he then showed us all the scars he had when he was car-jacked and attaked with a knife!!!

TBh before I went I thought it was mostly hype about how dangerous it was but Ive travelled alot and have never had that feeling about a place before. I would go again if I had too but i certainly wouldnt go out at night!!!!

Well all in all it was a good trip, have to say Im not the biggest fan of South Africa it just needs to sort its security out. The rest of the southern countries are great and suprisingly safe. Africa had won my heart the people are so friendly and will help you out, they also know how to have a good time, sadly lacking in most places now.

rich