Botswana

We spent six days driving around Northern Botswana. We entered in the northwest corner of the country and drove down and around the Okavango Delta, venturing in to Moremi, the private game preserve that covers most of the eastern part of the delta. From there we drove north through Chobe national park and along the Chobe river before crossing in to Zambia. Botswana was definitely the most wild, undeveloped, and raw country we visited in Africa. The number of animals was astounding and unlike all the other parks we’d visited in other countries, you camp out in the open among them, not inside a fenced area. It was the most intense off-road driving we did and and we got in to the most remote areas of our trip.

Moremi

Moremi is a private game park that covers most of the eastern part of the Okavango River Delta. It’s only accessible by 4×4 vehicles and during the wet season, which was when we were there, many of the roads are totally impassable. It had been a fairly dry winter so we were able to mostly get wherever we wanted to go but we definitely got a little wet doing it.

After a rainy night in Maun, the main staging town for trips in to the delta, we spent an entire day driving through serious 4×4 tracks. The bush was pretty thick, so it wasn’t easy to see wildlife, but we still saw some really cool stuff and had a blast driving through really deep puddles and mud pits.

 


 

We ended up spending two nights camping out in the bush of Moremi. Our camp sites weren’t fenced off and each night we’d hear all sorts of wildlife including hippos munching on grass, lions roaring, and hyenas cackling. The driving got a little sketchy at times but was probably the most fun part; at least twice if felt like we were completely floating in a deep flooded area before the back wheels would sink to the bottom and gain traction.

Chobe

From Moremi we drove to Chobe National Park, probably the most famous wildlife area in Botswana. The first night we camped in Savuti, a super remote area with elephants everywhere. The camping area had actually been completely destroyed by elephants a few years back and now the bathrooms double as a supposedly elephant proof shelter (it looks like a bomb shelter).

From Savuti we drove to the Chobe Riverfront area of the park which was definitely the most beautiful area we’d seen since leaving Namibia. There were 4×4 tracks that we followed all the way along the river and the concentration of animals was insane. We ended up camping under a tree that also served as a home base for a group of about 40 baboons. They were super active and loud around sunset but by 8:30 they were all asleep and completely silent.

We spent one more day in the area fishing on the Chobe before heading in to Zambia to check out Victoria Falls.