10 Days in Wild Botswana

Ziv and Hadas - We are a couple, together for several years now, and we set out in October 2015 on a six-month trip across the continent. We started in Uganda and made our way all the way to South Africa via Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia.

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Wild Botswana

Botso-what?! - 10 days in wild Botswana​

It's hard to plan a six-month trip from home. Especially when there isn't a lot of information on the internet.

When we started planning our trip, which began in Uganda and went further south, we gave up on planning at the Victoria Falls stage. We simply said – "from Victoria Falls straight to Johannesburg, in the cheapest way possible."

Five months later, we entered Botswana, mainly because the visa to it is free, and because we heard about all kinds of interesting things in it. So we decided to pass through Botswana when we were not even on the way to South Africa, but rather to Namibia.

In this article we will tell you about ten days in one of the most developed yet wild countries we've been to!

It's always reassuring to see such a sign.

Looking for the elephants

Near the border with Zambia is Chobe Park, known for its abundance of elephants. The elephants in this park, so we heard, don't really understand borders and sometimes wander around the neighboring town of Kasane.

So we camped in Kasane for two nights, each night at a different place. We saw wild boars, antelopes, squirrels – but no elephants!

From Kasane we continued to a place called Elephant Sands, a place where according to the description elephants arrive on a daily basis.

We took a kind of shared taxi, as we were used to taking throughout our trip until then, and we were in shock!

The shared taxi left according to the set time and not when there were fourteen people more than the maximum that could be squeezed inside! We felt like we were in America...

On the way there, while both of us were dozing off, we suddenly saw giraffes and an elephant – just like that on the side of the road! "But that doesn't really count because it's while driving..." and we want to see it up close and standing still!

We arrived at Elephant Sands and to our surprise no elephants were waiting for us. "Well, they must be on their way...". We set up our tent, settled in, and together with another couple who was there began solving a 1,000-piece puzzle – "maybe by the time we finish it, the elephants will come?"

We planned to stay one night and in the end, because we were deep into the puzzle and even deeper in the illusion that there would be elephants, we stayed another night, and to our surprise – no elephants! (Here it's worth noting that in the season we were there everything is blooming around, so the elephants don't come. When everything is dry, they visit the place on a daily basis.)

When we left Elephant Sands towards Nata, almost as if they were laughing at us–

we saw dozens of elephants on the sides of the road, wallowing in mud and enjoying life, less than 5 minutes drive from where we were!

Is that an elephant there on the road..?

Surprise flight

A few days after the false search for elephants, we found ourselves in the town of Maun, which is the gateway town to the wonderful phenomenon called the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is a river delta that empties essentially into nowhere (and not into the sea) and ends in the Kalahari Desert. This whole area of the delta is flooded during certain months of the year, and at other times the water level drops significantly – creating interesting phenomena in the place. The most common trip in the delta is a mokoro boat trip, but we will get to that later.

In Maun we decided to try to find a flight over the delta. At first we thought about trying all kinds of workarounds, something last-minute, 90th minute, some plane taking passengers and returning empty – "surely we'll find something like that, right?"

The delta from above

So not really. After wandering around the airport looking for a workaround, we realized it just wouldn't work and that we'd have to pay for a "scenic" flight of 45 minutes to an hour on a small Cessna plane that loops over the delta and returns.

The initial prices we got for this pleasure were around $100, which was an amount we didn't intend to pay for a flight.

From here to there, after restless rounds at the airport and between different companies, we reached a specific company named Mack Air that gave us a good price of $50 per person if we were 5 or 6 people and basically filled a plane – awesome! Now we just need to find 3 more people.

One of the companies we talked to called us back and said there was another couple wanting to go and that we should come to the office and close with them. They wanted $75 dollars and now we had a better offer in hand.. We came to their office with the second offer, hoping they would simply match it so we could go, and surprisingly they told the other couple – just go with them, it's a great price and we can't match it.

So now we're 4, exiting the terminal towards the office of the second company, and on the way we see a man with a suitcase. We asked him if he wanted to join a flight over the delta – and here we are 5!

The flight was an extraordinary experience in our trip! Special views hard to describe, lakes and streams and marshes and endless green, and inside all this goodness you see tons of animals – elephants, giraffes, and hippos bathing and roaming among the trees!

A great way to celebrate 6 years together!

With all the guys after the flight

Looking for Nooki and arriving in paradise

As mentioned, the most common trip in the delta is a mokoro trip. A mokoro is a type of flat fiberglass canoe designed to navigate through the shallow channels and marshes of the Okavango Delta, where its operator, the "poler", doesn't paddle the canoe but actually pushes off the bottom with a long pole.

During our elephant-less days at Elephant Sands, we met Jeff, who told us many stories about Botswana and Namibia and claimed to be an exclusive expert on the region. When we asked him how to do a cheap mokoro trip, he immediately answered that he knew the perfect place for this purpose.

Jeff told us about a remote village named Etsha 6, which is an untouristy and very local place in the western part of the Delta. There, he told us, look for "Nooki" and she will take care of you – if that's not the guaranteed route to an authentic experience, then I don't know what is.

When we were on the bus on the way to Etsha 6, we already realized we had very little information in hand, but we were optimistic – after all, we were on our way to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We got off the bus and were astonished when the first person we asked didn't know who Nooki was. Neither did the second or third.. The fourth led us to a certain place, called a friend of his, we waited in his yard for half an hour with his whole family, and only then realized he had no idea who Nooki was.

So what to do?

We knew we were fairly close to a few beautiful resorts, which were indeed a serious budget overflow, but in case we got stuck that would be the option. So we left Etsha 6, with a vague understanding that Nooki was probably at one of the fancy resorts, and that Jeff probably didn't quite understand the meaning of doing something cheap. From Etsha 6 we reached Etsha 13, and from there we ordered a pick-up to a place called Guma Lagoon. Just for this pick-up they charged us $10 per person, which seemed like an exorbitant price by all accounts. During the drive we somewhat understood the price, because it's a half-hour 4x4 drive in deep sand, and many of their guests arrive by the more convenient option of a private plane.

At Guma Lagoon we immediately understood it would be heavy on the wallet, but that didn't stop us from admiring this amazing place! The resort is situated on the edge of a gorgeous lake, where you sit with a beer, watching the sunset and the crocodiles in the water.

Sunset at Guma Lagoon

In the end we said "might as well" and went through Guma Lagoon on a half-day mokoro trip as well. The trip starts in a motorboat that took us to the spot where you embark with the mokoro. On this motorboat we saw a crocodile much closer than we would have liked to see! We were literally within arm's reach from it while it just floated in the water and looked at us.

Then we set off with the mokoro and sailed in the shallow channels of the delta. The boat ride is interesting and the scenery changes from passing through high thickets to sailing among breath-taking carpets of water lilies! On the way we also saw a hippo, and this time we kept a reasonable distance because we wouldn't want to meet its bad side. Later in the trip, you take a short walk on one of the islands to stretch your legs, and sometimes to see elephants. You can already guess that we didn't see elephants, only their dung and tracks. We returned to the mokoro and on the ride back, every now and then a tiny toad the size of a finger joined us and hopped around inside the boat.

At the end of the day, the budget overrun at Guma Lagoon didn't empty our pockets. We got to see an amazing and very special place, and the couple we did the mokoro trip with ended up giving us a two-day lift all the way to Windhoek, capital of Namibia.

Water lilies in the delta marshes