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23rd april - 9th may

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Botswana

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 15:19:02

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our bush camp. it contributed to the sense of adventure and when we entered the park at dawn it felt wonderfully deserted.

the landscape opened up at the ever-so-slight depression know as deception valley. large numbers of springbok, oryx and wildebeest grazed on the yellowing grassland. doubting that we'd be disturbed, we stopped there for breakfast; using the land rover's flat front wings as a table whilst keeping an eye out for predators.

we spent the day circling the central kalahari, mostly looking for game but also sheltering from the searing afternoon heat. we'd originally planned to cross the kalahari, but with our water supplies diminished from a few days camping rough and an essential part of the land rover tied together with string, we decided to content ourselves with a modest tour.

as we camped that night, amongst the sounds of the wilds and the stars of the desert, we realised that the end of our trip was drawing to a close and it would probably be our last night in the bush. it was a sombre thought but looking back on what we'd done, we were pretty content.

maun, ghanzi, tsabong, kalagadi - 9th may

we left the central kalahari and drove north back to maun. it was the beginning of the end for us. from maun we would head almost directly south to the border, then on to cape town. no more driving round in circles, it was time to get to our long anticipated destination. and to tell the truth we were ready for a bit of city living.

after a much anticipated shower and a night's rest we left maun for the long drive south. the tarmac was good, the road straight and virtually traffic free. we broke the journey up with a night at ghanzi, then another long drive brought us to the border at tsabong where we camped at a farm on the botswana side.

we were advised to drive west before crossing into south africa, to enjoy the scenery and the red sand dunes of the adjacent kgalagadi park. this proved to be a frustrating mistake as we couldn't get our carnet stamped and the delays meant we needed to camp at the south african side of the kgalagadi park, without actually entering the country offically, then re-enter botswana the next day, only to re-trace our route and leave again. oh well, there were certainly worse places to spend the night.