Africa, Botswana, Part 3, 12 July 2025

Alright, buckle up, we are already on out next Africa trip, but while Derek is replacing a blown alternator and fixing random leaks in the truck, I thought that I would upload the last trip.

Rose my sister and her husband Lawrence, decided to join us on this trip. From South Africa, Johannesburg area to Botswana as far as the Nxai Pans, then back into South Africa, visiting Mapungubwe, Tshipise and Kruger park, from top to bottom. We had a short exit from the park to visit the Blyde River Canyon area, then back into the park at Hazy View to carry onto the Southern border. This leg was definitely a highlight because our younger sister and her husband joined us from Letaba down to Skukuza.

We left Joburg early, spirits high and the truck packed like we were relocating permanently. Food, tent, mattresses, stretches and extra chairs all fitted in. After visiting Johannesburg, Soweto, and family friends we headed off to:

Sondela
The trip kicked off with a gentle warm-up at Sondela, easing everyone into holiday mode. Spirits were high, expectations were reasonable, we had our route planned and our accommodation booked by Ultimate routes which made the trip planning much easier. The one thing we didn’t count on was how cold it was going to be in the tent, R & L froze. The second night they were in the camper with us and on the third day they went shopping for electric blankets, which was no problem because the truck has enough battery power to run a small village.

We spent a day at Warmbaths enjoying the pools.
Next night in Vaalwater, a lovely camp in the African bush. The night was again freezing but this time R & L were snug in their tent.

Crossing the border into Botswana at Groblersbrug, we drove around the huge lineup of trucks carrying goods. The border formalities were easy, a health check, passports stamped and we were on our way to Khama Rhino Sanctuary. This camp delivered the first proper animal sightings. Derek and Lawrence took a walk into the trees to ask the Rhino security guards what time the Rhinos are likely to come down to the water hole for a drink, 2 pm they said. As there are no big predators in the park we put the deck down so we could sit there and wait for the animals. Silence was respected (mostly), beers were drunk, biltong eaten and everyone felt very nearly outdoorsy sitting on the deck cooking up a braai on the gas cooker and waiting for the Rhino to make an appearance. At 2pm, as predicted the Rhinos walked passed us to get to the water hole, doing what rhinos do best looking ancient and unimpressed with our setup. Meanwhile we had Cameras clicking, well mostly mine.

Then came Kumaga Camp, on the Boteti River, entrance to the Makgadikgadi Pans.

Kumaga Camp, on the Boteti River, entrance to the Makgadikgadi Pans.

Amazing, watching the zebra migration, 30 to 50 thousand zebras travel annually to the river waiting for the rains which were a couple of weeks away. We drove onto the riverbed parked there and watched the Zebra, wildebeest, elephants, hippo, crocs, birds all milling around waiting for the water to come. Magical. Some excitement in camp when monkeys raided the neighbour's campsite, which they had not secured properly. Lawrence did manage to save some eggs.

Moved over to the other side of the river and camped at Camelthorn farmstead, very narrow road lined with thorn bushes, for Derek the thorns running along the side of the truck felt like nails along a chalk board. Lovely camp, drinks by the fire and dinner.

Thought we should stock up on beer and meat for the braai so stopped at a local butcher shop. Third time lucky they had some meat. The first braai with the meat (Possibly donkey) was so tough we couldn’t even bite into it. We thought we would stew it and give it another go. Half a day on a slow simmer and still the meat was barely edible. As Lawrence said even a bottle of coke couldn’t soften this meat, but we kept it for the gravy. The men had better luck with the beer, a woman at the shop said follow me if you want beer so off they went to her house across the road and bought a few bottles of beer.

We often saw the Zebra and wildebeest together, apparently, they have a symbiotic relationship. The Zebra feed on the tall coarse grass while the wildebeest prefer the short grass underneath. The zebra have keen eyesight while the wildebeest have an excellent sense of smell and hearing. So, during the migration they keep each other safe, the zebra lead the way to water with their superior memory and vision while the wildebeest can smell and hear distant rains.

Next stop Nxai Pan, at the top of the Makgadikgadi Pans.

We camped at South camp and had a wonderful day parked at the pan watching the herds of animals taking their turn at the water hole.

South camp was fantastic the elephants would come in for a drink and walk through the camp, a short cut from one water source to the other. The ablutions area was fenced off with electric wire and concrete spikes to deter elephants from damaging property.

On the second morning I stepped out of the camper fresh as a daisy after a good nights sleep to see what all the car hooting was about. Why would a safari driver be hooting so aggressively outside a roof top tent and other campers? Lawrence gave me a run down on the nights activities and it wasn’t the animals we had come to see making all the ‘animal’ noises. Apparently, some campers were making a LOT of noise in their roof top tent and all the other campers were sitting around giving a running commentary, until well into the early morning. Derek and I didn’t hear a thing in our soundproof box, but Rose and Lawrence in their tent had ring side seats, to it all. Needless to say the noisy campers were all kicked out of the camp that morning.

Gweta, Planet Baobab, and the giant Baobab.

A nice place to camp, but nothing much happened here because we didn’t want to pay $200 AUS to go and see some Meerkats, we will see those somewhere else…..Like the Rockhampton Zoo, for free.

What did happen though was Rose cracked her tooth on a bit of bone in her Oxtail stew, I have noticed bone fragments in our mince or stew happens quite often … and Derek was bitten by the local grumpy cat. (Didn’t get infected.)

There wasn’t a lot of fresh food around so we thought we would buy some frozen stuff, We though at the time it could be dodgy because of the heat in Botswana.

Nata Bird Sanctuary, we were here to see the flamingos. Beautiful game drive down to the lake to see them, we were lucky they had come early this year. A nice campsite with a few low hanging branches, the only excitement in this camp was when a big overlanding tour bus got stuck under a branch. Derek and Lawrence rescued it buy cutting down the tree branch with the extended saw we carry for just this occasion.

Nata bird sanctuary, very relaxing, saw flamingos.

Onto Francistown, where we could stock up and Rose could get to the local dentist to get her tooth looked at.
We camped outside of town and had the frozen food for dinner....OH yes, you guess it....food poisoning — every great trip needs one incident to keep everything real. One of us (we’ll protect identities, but we all know it was me) fell victim to” The Food Poisoning Incident™.
The next morning, Derek drove us into Francistown, with me lying on the back sleeper seat. Lawrence accompanied Rose into the dentist and Derek did the shopping and fuel refills.

By the following day, recovery was underway, dignity was reclaimed, and the problems of food poisoning and cracked tooth had been officially downgraded from crisis to shit happens. With everyone upright again, we carried on to Thuli block Kwadiwa Ranch Lodge. It was a long and dusty drive but when we got there we were welcomed with a lovely long cold drink. My stomach was still feeling a bit delicate so the rest went into the lodge for a lovely dinner by the river while I stayed back.

Turning back toward South Africa, the safari continued north to Mapungubwe National Park, Mazhou camp.