Entering Botswana

We only had a 30-minute drive to the Botswana border this morning, so we didn’t have to leave until 8.30am. While we were packing down our tent, Liz shouted us over as there were otters in the river. Watching them playing was a lovely way to start the day. On a depressing note, my mattress had gone down overnight, so I had slept on the solid ground. I hope it’s just a one off!! Before leaving the campsite, we dropped off our laundry as we are staying here again on Wednesday.

We drove through the Bwabwata National Park to get to the border. Bwabwata National Park is a protected area in northeastern Namibia that was established in 2007 and covers 6,274 square kilometres. It was created by merging Caprivi Game Park and Mahango Game Reserve. The area is an important migration route from Botswana to Angola for African elephant and some other game species. It is an unusual Protected Area as about 5,500 people live in the park. The Namibian government involves park residents and neighbours in planning and managing the park.

There were hundreds of impala on or near the road as we drove through the park. We spotted a couple of zebra, too. We all had to fill in exit forms in Namibia and entry forms in Botswana, but the crossing was pretty quick. We are now in country number 57!!

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country. It is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is connected by the Kazungula Bridge to Zambia, across the world's shortest border between two countries.

A country of slightly over 2.3 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation state of the Tswana, who make up 79% of the population. About 11.6% of the population lives in the capital and largest city, Gaborone. Botswana used to be one of the world's poorest countries. In the 1960s it had a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year. It has since transformed itself into an upper-middle-income country, with one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and a GDP per capita of around US$18,113 in 2021!

Modern-day humans first inhabited the country over 200,000 years ago. The Tswana ethnic group were descended mainly from Bantu-speaking tribes who migrated south to modern Botswana around 600 AD, living in tribal enclaves as farmers and herders. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate under the name of Bechuanaland. As decolonisation occurred, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a representative republic, with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections and the lowest perceived corruption ranking in Africa since at least 1998.

The economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism. Botswana is the world's biggest diamond producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living.

The scenery as we drove to our campsite was very similar to that in northern Namibia with the same style of round wooden huts with thatched roofs. The roads seemed in better condition, though, and we were struck by the number of bus stops there were – we hadn’t seen any in Namibia!Read more