Makgadikgadi

After a great night's sleep with a cool desert wind and occasional Elephant commotion, we loaded up the car and headed over for breakfast. Then, off to our next destination at the Boteti River on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Not going to see the pans as we have plenty of huge salt lakes at home. Wanted to see the smaller Nxai Pan, but it's not within reasonable reach. Too far away.
Saw ostriches on the way, some zebras, and more elephants. Slowed down but didn't stop for the elephants. We have already upset enough of them.
After getting slightly lost at Nata, we topped up with fuel and proceeded along the correct route. This is an 'A' road but turned into a Botswana special with sections that were 90% pothole. When this happens, you just pull off onto the shoulder which has become a decent dirt road. The more dangerous potholes are the 'loners', lurking by themselves or in small groups. They can be very deep, and even in a 4wd, you would lose a wheel if you hit one at speed. Full attention is required.
Boteti River Camp is small and basic, right on the banks of the now dry Boteti River. The sun is scorching hot, but it's cool under the trees. We are sat on the upstairs deck with a couple of Savannah's watching some Elephants drink at a tiny waterhole in the river.
After a lunch of a bag of chips, we went for a safari drive. Was interested in seeing hyenas as we haven't seen any on either trip yet. We'll that's not what we got. It turns out that thousands of animals, zebra, elephants, giraffe, gnu, kudu, etc gather in the semi dry river bed waiting for the water to arrive so they can go back out into the bush and the currently dryish Okavango. There are also still hippos and crocs here as well and lots of catfish.
Our safari wagon was an old Land River 110 with the 5 cylinder diesel. Rattly and loud but gee it could pull through that hot, soft sand. On the way back, the twilight was just like those cheesy African Savannah paintings that tourists snap up.
Tonight, we are being serenaded by zebra instead of elephants. They are here in their 10s of thousands. It's almost a shame we have only one night here.Les mer