Photo Album: Long Drive from Kasane to Maun
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After completing my homage to Chobe National Park and the World's second largest waterfalls, Victoria Falls, its now time to head for Maun, the gateway to another grand natural wonder, the UNESCO World Heritage listed, Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Here is the UNESCO information about the Okavango Delta.
It is another long trip, over 700 Km to be covered. And there is only one route possible with a 2WD car, that is, to retrace back to Nata in the south, then go west from there.
If I had a 4x4, I could have gone through the central parts of Chobe National Park. However, I could not book any of the designated camping sites when in Australia, it would have meant driving straight 400Km of unknown terrain in one day, leaving little time to find wild lives.
I decided to have a stop overnight in Nata, have a rest and to explore a local nature's reserve, and try my hands on doing my own safari, instead.
Soon after leaving Kasane, on the brand new highway leading south to Nata, there was a road accident with a overturned truck.....burned cargoes and scorched grasslands.
At this season, being winter, the bare Acacia trees that are present throughout the landscapes, are full of characters, in a way, very African.
Interestingly, and is probably unique to Africa, is the warning signs at some of the rest stops......
The landscape is very flat, and there are some large, possibly wheat fields along the road.
And the laborers harvesting the reed grasses for thatching roofs were still busy....
It was early afternoon when I set up camp at Nata Lodge in Nata, a restful afternoon for the first time since arriving Africa.
I was told to book my table early for the evening meal as a large group was coming........and luckily I did.
So it also meant, there were no places in the early morning 4x4 safari into the nearby salt pan.
It was a large overland tour group in a truck, which also setup camp next to me. Their before dawn departure, also meant a lot of noises of packing up their tents etc., unfortunately.
I entered the nearby Nata Bird Sanctuary just across the road and started my first self safari.
Almost straight away, here they are, a herd of Wildebeests on the grassland,
And some fast running ostriches.
A few hippos in the distance....keep it that way, these are the worse tourists killers in numbers by far, never stand between them and the water!
A small elephant with his friend.
Not bad for a first time safari "hunter", in a space of just under 40 minutes, in a small sedan. However, though it is a bird sanctuary, there weren't many around probably due to the winter season.
Finally it was time to head west towards Maun, the gateway to Okavango Delta a further 300 Km from here.
The road condition was nowhere near as good as the highway north to Kasane, however, it is not too bad, just lookout for those small pot holes. There are quite a few Baobab trees, a different type of bottle shaped trees like the Australian Boabs. In fact, the elephants likes to chew on their trunk, in Chobe National Park, many were damaged.
But here the damages are done by humans.
I was interested to do an overnight safari into the Nxai Salt Pan National Park, however, I could not find a guide who could take me in a 4x4, despite trying to find one in the nearby villages. The instructions I was given was too vague, and I did not like getting lost in these villages.
Upon arriving Maun, after making a few wrong turns, I finally located the Old Bridge Backpacker Lodge on the north side of town, which was recommended by quite a few travelers in online forums.
As it was the high season, the camping ground was quite cramped. The best spots with a river sunset view were taken, unfortunately.
But then again, I was told, Hippos roam during the night in the river, and they occasionally would come up during the night, recently, one actually dropped into the swimming pool and could not get out without the help of a crane....they weight a tonne or more.
So it wasn't such a good idea to camp by the river anyway....
After settling in, the manager was very helpful in organising my adventurous activities for the next few days in the Delta
- a 2 day Mokoro ( canoe ) safari
- a 4x4 land safari
- an aerial safari over the expanse of the Delta.
Happily, I joined the gathering crowd in the bar and mixed, and enjoyed a good sunset, with a spicy local vegetarian meal.
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