Botswana 2022 (Part 1 Nata and Maun)

Updated with some video links

After 3 days of hard driving, totalling over 1800 km, we eventually reached Nata Lodge.

Visiting Nata Bird Sanctuary, we knew not to expect too much bird life so late in the dry season, but encountered the first of many spectacular sunsets which we were to see during our trip.

After two days at Nata, recovering from our long drive, it was on to Leopard Plains, where we were given a very friendly reception in this lovely setting.

Along the way, we had an interesting sighting of elephants, that had removed a heavy concrete slab, covering a fresh water pipeline next to the main road, transporting clean water from a water treatment plant to neighbouring villages. Apparently the elephants prefer this clean water to that which they could obtain in the nearby Boteti river.

While at Leopard Plains, we did a guided daytrip to Makgadigadi Pans National Park, encountering large numbers of zebra, wildebeest, elephants and pelicans in the Boteti riverbed and quite a few vultures around.

Some video from Makgadigadi on Liana’s YouTube channel

The next morning we did an early morning game drive on the Leopard Plains farm, unfortunately did not get to see any leopard, but saw some really good looking kudu

From here it was on to Maun, where we had the best coffee in Botswana at Dusty Donkey Cafe.

Boteti Tented Safari Lodge near Maun, was a pretty mixed experience. We did have a lovely sunset mokoro cruise on the river on our first afternoon.

The next two days were spent on excursions: a mokoro trip on the Delta and a day trip to Moremi, where we saw some very sleepy lions, suffering in the 40^oC daytime heat.

Liana’s Moremi video link

This effectively concluded the first part of our trip. We departed Maun for Kasane, with an overnight stop at Eselbe Camp, an interesting, rustic camp, where we could unfortunately not go canoeing on the Nata river, due to presence of hippo in the river close to the camp. We did get a very nice fillet steak supper, prepared by the owner, Rupert and a good night’s rest in comfortable lodging.

Part 2: Pangolin Voyager Houseboat