The Levey Travelogues

Trips in Southern Africa

Botswana / Caprivi April 2004

Trip Summary

Who:

Peter & Penny Levey from Pretoria

Mervyn & Trevllynne Woods and their daughter, Sheridan, from Port Alfred

 

Vehicles:

Peter:  1995 Defender Tdi CSW fitted with a Technitop Rooftop tent

Mervyn: 1995 Defender Tdi CSW fitted with two Easi Awn Rooftop tents

 

When:

Left Pretoria on the 14^th of April 2004 at 07h30 and returned on the 1^st May at 16h30. 

Total distance covered: 4173 km

Fuel Used:   485 litres

Average Fuel Consumption:   11.62 l/100km

Furthest traveled in one day: 667 km from Francistown to Pretoria

Problems experienced: None

 

High Points:

· Sunrise on Kubu Island.

· Bush Camp near Moremi – Will be remembered for a long time.

· Evening boat trip from Xakanaxa lagoon.

· Elephant shaking seed pods from a Camelthorn tree next to our rooftop tent at Third Bridge during the night.

· Savuti Marsh – A very special place.

· Wild Dogs running through our camp at Savuti in pursuit of an Impala.

· Ngoma Bridge border crossing – Must be one of the loveliest views from any border post, especially with the Chobe in full flood.

· Camping next to the Zambezi river at Zambezi Lodge in Katima Mulilo with the river almost a kilometre wide and flowing strongly from bank to bank.

· Mamili Park and Susuwe Triangle in Caprivi.  Time was too short at these places but the area is great and holds a lot of promise for the future.

· Mahango Park between Popa Rapids and the border.  Fantastic area with high concentrations of game and some wonderful birds, including Bradfields Hornbills.

· Drotsky’s Cabins – a wonderful place with the Okavango flowing at running pace.  Will spend more time here on another trip.

· Maun – Flight over the delta never fails to impress.  The water is a lot earlier this year due to the high rains in the region.  Seeing it from above gives a completely new perspective to it all.

· Wonderful sunsets and evening fires as only Africa can provide.

 

Low Points:

· Moremi’s ablutions, especially in view of the fees that are payable.  A lot of the park was also unreachable due to water, but it was still good.

· Popa Rapids – not as good as I’d expected, but then the water levels were very high and that probably masked a lot of the spectacle.

 

Documentation etc:

· Botswana requires purchase of a Third Party at BWP 20 that is valid for the calendar year as well as a Short-Term Permit at BWP 40 that was valid for a single entry.  I’m not sure if one for multiple entries could be bought as I had to buy another one when re-entering from Namibia.

· Namibia now requires a CBC (Cross Border Charge) payment of NAD110 which must be  purchased in Katima Mulilo.  The paperwork is given to you on entering at Ngoma but you cannot purchase it there.  Go figure that one out.  They won’t let you out of the country if this has not been purchased.

· Vehicle registration papers plus a letter from your bank if they still own the vehicle.  I took a letter from my insurance company as well, stating that the vehicle was covered in the countries I was going to.

· Drivers Licence

· Passports & ID Book.

 

Accommodation:

We camped each night and costs for camping (excluding bush camping) ranged from BWP 10 (Sedia Hotel, Maun) to BWP 55 (Drotsky Cabins, including wood) per person.  Some places also charged vehicle fees and other costs had to be taken into account.  The costs for each day are detailed in the daily trip reports.

 

Roads:

All tar roads were generally in good condition with only some areas around Melkrivier in South Africa needing attention.  The road from Vaalwater to Nylstroom is also narrow and not a pleasant drive with all the heavy vehicles on it these days.

Roads in Botswana were as expected.  Heavy rain had fallen over most of the country earlier and a lot of detours around mudholes in the road had to be made in the Moremi / Savuti area.  The cutline road from Ghoha gate to Ngoma was generally good with bad corrugations on the gravel road at Kachikau village.  Others were very sandy as usual.  Beware of the pans when wet.  We did not walk our route fully at first and fell into hidden ruts.  Yes we got out after an hour and a half, but it may have been a bit different.  Always keep one vehicle in reserve until any obstacle is cleared.  The road between Palapye & Francistown is busy and being worked on – keep a lookout for crazy bus drivers.

Roads in the Caprivi area were very good.  The main road to Mamili and then on to Kongola is a very wide gravel road in perfect condition, but very dusty.  Ride with lights on along here, especially when behind another vehicle’s dust plume.  One of our routes in Mamili was blocked by water and mud and we had to take an alternate route.

 

Fuel:

Both fuel stops at Divundu (Popa Rapids) had no diesel and it was supposed to arrive overnight which it did not do.  We were by no means critically low as we had filled up at Katima Mulilo and both of us had long range tanks fitted to the Defenders.

New fuel stops at Gumare were very nice and on the main road.  The latest SA magazines were also available here at the Shell Shop.  All garages we filled up at accepted credit cards. The normal credit card is accepted in Botswana whereas petrol cards but must be used in Namibia.

 

Water:

I had +/- 100 litres of water in tanks in my Defender and Mervyn had 40 litres in his.  I filled my second tank at the Sedia Hotel in Maun.  They have two different taps so make sure the blue ones in the garden area are used if looking for drinking water.  I filled it again at the Zambezi Lodge in Katima Mulilo.  One of the locals said there was no problem with the water & it tasted fine, but one of the other campers said he only bought water in bottles.  Anyhow I filled the tank and had no problems later with the water whatsoever.

 

General:

We found all people and officials friendly and accommodating.  No hassles at the vet fences and no questions about taking meat and dairy products north.  Meat was only looked for on our way south at two vet fences south of Nata & Francistown.