Botswana, A Secret Destination of Africa

EM has checked into … Botswana

As mentioned in my Instagram, many of you would know that I have embarked on an overland camping trip with On The Go tour, travelling from Zimbabwe to South Africa passing through Botswana and Namibia.

Prior to arriving in the country, I actually have never heard of Botswana and had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what this country could offer as a tourist destination. No clue about what to do and where to explore at all! But since it is part of the tour for us to venture from Zimbabwe and Namibia, I entered Botswana without any expectations.

And boy was I surprised! I could not believe that my experience with Botswana was extremely incredible and I can definitely comment that this country is such an underrated safari destination that nobody knew existed. Botswana is truly a hidden gem and secret paradise of Africa.

Why do I say so? Read on to find out more!

Game drive at Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park is one of Botswana’s premier game parks, well known for its large elephant herds in fact! One crucial thing to note for all game drives is that nothing is guaranteed, no one will know what we would encountered so every game drive is always something different and exciting.

For my particular experience here, we saw many elephant herds and got quite close with them as well (with extra precaution of course since we had an experienced guide/driver).

Fortunately, we were extremely lucky to spot a lion feasting on a dead elephant. The smell was so bad that I was going to throw up in the land cruiser. But still it was a fascinating sight to see, how many times can you tell someone that you witnessed a lion eating a dead elephant?!

Overnight Camp with the Wildlife at Chobe National Park

As part of the itinerary with On The Go tours, we got to experience a true bush camp in the national park, an unfenced area and we were literally sleeping amongst the wildlife.

We also got to see a beautiful sunset which was our first encounter with African sunset, I have heard many positive stories about African sunsets but seeing one in person was another level, took my breathe away. WOW!

When night fell, our guides began to tell real-life stories about past incidents of tourists not obeying the rules for the night. Because hey there were possibilities that lions would come to our camp! And if you need to go to toilet in the middle of the night, there are steps to ensure it is safe to do so and you would just do it behind your tent, seriously not funny to walk 10 steps away from your tent in the dark.

Sure enough, there were noises during the night, I heard footsteps and some even said that they felt a warm body lying beside their tent. It was certainly a memorable experience, scary and surreal but an interesting story to tell to my family and friends!

River Cruise at Chobe National Park

This was an optional activity which costed additional USD, but the price was certainly reasonable and worth it!

Our guide highly recommended to go for this activity and I certainly support that notion after experiencing the river cruise.

We saw many different types of birds, elephants, buffalos, crocodiles and more. The most memorable and interesting one was that we saw a family of hippos out of the water and there was a baby one too! How adorable!

The river cruise ended with spectacular sunset views which again added to my visual list of sunsets in Africa.

Double thumbs up!!!

Traditional Mokoro experience at Okavango Delta

The Delta region contains many local villages where families live in a traditional way, as such Mokoro is the crucial and still is used as a mode of transportation. Mokoros are like the gondolas that you see in Venice whereby a pole is needed to ‘drive’.

This experience was included as part of our tour and was indeed a relaxing retreat for ourselves.

Everything was peaceful and the pleasant sound of the water just slowly drifted my senses to have a nap and soon I realised that we have reached our destination where we would be spending the night at their tented camp situated in the heart of the Okavango. The tents were already set up with proper long drop toilets. This was like luxury! How we have humbled ourselves to extreme basic needs haha.

Game Walk at Okavango Delta

Instead of game drive, we had the opportunity to do a guided walk in the wild. This was an interesting experience as we were used to game drives and this was an exciting new perspective with spotting animals.

Our guide also gave us a lot of insights and knowledge about the animals along the way, for example how to differentiate between female and male elephants as well as how elephants cannot digest food properly.

And again as well as expected, the game walk ended with another gorgeous sunset view. Simply could not get enough of it! I could see it again and again and would not get bored of African sunsets.

The Traditional Dances and Songs at Okavango Delta

The local guides were extremely kind enough to provide us with their version of entertainment to remember the night. They started off with traditional songs followed by group dancing and then ended with an hilarious game, all which we were more than happy to participate.

But most importantly, their songs were extremely soulful with strong senses of emotion being communicated to us. Even though I could not understand the lyrics, I was getting a bit overwhelmed.

Being surrounded by friends and incredible locals, this was one of the most memorable experience that I ever had in my life. Unforgettable!

An off the beaten destination in Africa, should I keep this a secret?

After having a taste of what Botswana offered to us, I felt incredibly grateful for the opportunity to explore this country. I couldn’t believe that I never heard of this place and now I could highly recommend to you guys to consider travelling to Botswana. The experience was so worth it and it certainly was an off the beaten track from the other well-known destinations in Africa. Sometimes I wonder if I should talk about Botswana at all and maybe should keep it as a personal secret if I was to be selfish haha.

Next up, Namibia!!!

Stay tuned for my next blog post as I explore another iconic African destination that many people heard and dream of.

Till next time, take care and stay inspired.

xoxo EM