Maun (17th - 24th Jan)
After passing successfully through the Botswana border, we drove 6 hours to a town called Maun that sits beside the infamous Okavango Delta (river). This is where Stu's cousin Rochelle lives with her husband Rainer, and the couple had kindly offered for us to stay at their house whilst in Botswana. We met Rochelle in town, and even though I hadn't met her before, after all the childhood stories I'd heard from Stu I already felt like a knew her and she is just as lovely as I'd imagined. We followed Rochelle in the car to their house and were very impressed by what we saw - an amazing house right on the riverfront with our very own bedroom / bathroom condo. To top it off, we were met by their super cute Yorkshire terrier, Dexter, who I've now become quite attached too and might have to pop in my backpack when leaving!
Our 2 weeks in Maun has been well spent. We had a delicious Braai on our first evening there and then headed to the river the following day to sunbathe and swim with a gin and tonic in hand. During the week days whilst Rochelle and Rainer were busy at work, we were busy relaxing! We swam in their pool, met them for delicious lunches out in Maun town, went to the nearby gym to burn some of those lunches off, and shopped in the small shopping centre. Stu and I took a long drive one day down to an area called Kwai, known as being an area for excellent wildlife spotting. We drove 2 hours out of town and stumbled across plenty of giraffe and zebra, right next to the car. We wanted to take a cute little tortoise home with us but decided against it. Our best spot was the wild elephant that we'd been hoping to see all week - our first African elephant spot, and it was huge! We stopped at a small waterhole for a picnic lunch and then headed back to Maun later that afternoon after a successful day with the local wildlife.
On our first weekend in Maun, Friday night was party night. We headed to Sports Bar which is where the local crowd congregate to celebrate the weekend. Rochelle was the first to order Springboks - a green and light brown shot that consists of a mixture of peppermint liqueur and Amurela cream ( a baileys type drink). It actually tasted pretty good and a few more followed later that evening. We ate pizzas, drank a little too much and partied into the night. It was a great evening meeting all of Rochelle and Rainers friend and getting a taste of a typical night out in Botswana.
Moremi (24th - 25th Jan)
The following morning, we had a much needed fry up at Hilary's cafe in town, and then we drove to a game reserve called Moremi, where we were camping for the rest of the weekend. We arrived at our camp site at the South Gate of the reserve and set up camp. We were the only campers there for the weekend. That afternoon, we went on a game drive in a four wheel drive car that Rochelle had borrowed from work to ensure we got through the mud and sand in the park. The truck had a safari seat bolted onto the open back, so Stu and I were enjoying being driven around the park in our very own private safari vehicle. Although where we were sitting offered very little in the form of protection if charged at by elephants or attacked by lions, so I kept my wits about me and made sure I was ready at any moment in time to leap through the miniature window that was open to the drivers cab!
We had a great time driving around the reserve and stopped at a waterhole with hippo to our right and zebra to our left, to drink wine and eat canapés. We drove late into the afternoon and saw plenty of elephant, giraffe, zebra and hippo, but our hunt for lion was unsuccessfull on this occasion. That evening, we had a delicious Braai back at camp and popped open the Moët to celebrate a great week. Rochelle, Rainer and Stu were set on scaring me with talk about hyena surrounding the camp, and being able to see their eyes glowing in the forest surrounding us. I had my torch on me at all times, plus Babs the baboon stick for protection! We hit the sack around 11.30pm and thoughts of hynena and lions coming into camp weren't far from my mind. After snoozing for a couple of hours, I was woken up by what I can only describe as a trumpet style howl - loud and only one metre away from our tent! I froze on our blow up bed. I was convinced there was a monster elephant stood right next to me with only a piece of tent nylon protecting me from the beast. A second howl came and at the exact same time something touched my foot (could have possibly been a moth in the tent but either way, I thought I was going to die!) I jumped two feet out of the bouncy blow up bed, rolled to the right and fell straight out of the bed. Meanwhile, Stu was still snoring away next to me oblivious to the commotion. On the third howl I made it back into bed, shoved my earplugs in and lay with heart pounding, trying to ignore the wildlife around me. No more howls followed and eventually I made it back to sleep. Only to be woken up again (stu joined me this time!) by roaring in the forest. Lions were close! Thankfully not as close as the previous animal encounter. We both listened to the lions passing by and soon after fell back to sleep hoping we wouldn't be woken again.
The next morning, whilst making coffee and packing up camp, Rochelle and Rainer told us they had both heard the close encounter too, but it was in fact hyena and not elephant. Doesn't sound quite as impressive but still a scary experience! Once packed up, we headed out into the bush for another safari day out. We saw our fair share of African wildlife, and at one point I had to duck down in the back of the truck whilst we passed a nervous looking herd of elephants who didn't look too impressed with us being there. We stopped in the shade later that morning to cook egg and bacon sandwiches on our portable gas braai, and then continued driving into the late afternoon. Although our trip to Moremi didn't show us the lions we'd been on the lookout for, we still had a great weekend camping and seeing the sights. We were back in Maun later that evening, exhausted and happy to sit infront of a Trevor Noah comedian DVD with takeaway pizza for dinner!
Maun (26th - 30th Jan)
The following week in Maun continued to consist of delicious lunches out (cafe Hilary's being my personal favourite!) and on the odd occasion Rochelle and Rainer came back to the house for lunch and we all sat in the garden soaking up the sunshine over sandwiches, salads and nibbles. Mid week, Stu and I went on a traditional Mokoro boat trip - a long, thin boat that the locals use to get around the river. We had a lovely trip down the river (keeping an eye out for crocs and hippos!) and then went on a game walk with our guide in the bush, walking through a huge group of zebra and keeping an eye out for devil thorns in the grass - long sharp thorns off the trees that have a habit of piercing through your flip flops and sticking deep into your foot. We then sat down for a picnic lunch that the travel organisers had provided for us, but feeling slightly guilty on our guide for the day who hadn't brought any water or food along for the 8 hour day trip in the baking sunshine, we gave him some of our food and water too so that he wouldn't pass out on us!
The rest of our week days were spent around the pool at Rochelles, hitting the gym, and playing with little Dexter the dog. One evening Stu and I also went to a local outdoor community centre for movie night, and on another night we met friends for a delicious Indian meal. After Rochelle and Rainer had finished work one evening, we all went to a nearby quarry armed with 3 rifles and a shot gun and practised our aim on a target sheet 100 metres away. Luckily my shoulder and ear drums didn't pop out with the force and noise from the guns! Another Friday night came along and we hit Sports bar again for more spring bok shots, caramel vodkas and luckily a fairly early night to ensure a hangover didn't ensue.
Ghanzi (31st Jan - 1st Feb)
For our last weekend in Maun, Rochelle had planned a trip to a place called Ghanzi where her friend Hayley and her family lived. They own a lodge there which was empty of paying guests for the weekend , and so we travelled down there and stayed in a lovely chalet on the plot. There was a good group of us, Hayley's family and friends plus the four of us from Maun, and we had the bar to ourselves. So after a delicious meal outside, we hit the bar! Shots were poured, beers and gin was drank, police helmets from behind the bar came out and I remember at one point there was some serious twerking taking place! At midnight, a few of us even decided to take a late night swim in the pool, fully clothed! It was such a fun night, and the next morning we paid for it. Over a delicious breakfast of warthog bacon and eggs....we all moaned about our sore heads and laughed over the pictures taken from the night before. We chilled at the pool for the day, had pizza for lunch, and said our goodbyes that afternoon before driving back to Maun. KFC was calling for dinner and so with a little de-ja-vous from the weekend before, we sat and watched a Trevour Noah DVD with takeaway in hand.
The following morning we said our goodbyes to Rochelle and Rainer, and to Botswana. We'd had an amazing time there, and we are so thankful to the two of them for having us stay and showing us around. We were sad to be leaving, but thankfully we'd be seeing Rochelle again the following weekend in Zimbabwe, so it wasn't goodbye for long. We set off early on the Monday morning for a long drive to the border. Stu had received a unnecessary fine from the police earlier that week for not putting his seat belt on within 30 seconds of starting the car engine, but friends had told us not to pay - apparently no one ever does! As we reached the Botswana border post and they typed our car registration plate number into their computers, Stu looked nervous as he was convinced his unpaid fine was going to come up on the system! Luckily, we were waved on through, the fine money still in our pockets and we were ready to hit Zimbabwe.
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