Category: Kazungula & the Chobe River

Tomorrow we head to Livingston, Zambia where we’ll spend 4 nights at a lodge situated on the Zambezi River. Our reservation says “riverfront view” so hopefully this will be the case.

We dropped off our camper truck/home for the past month on August 25th and had accumulated a total of 6,456 km travelling through Namibia and Botswana.

We traveled a total of 1,497 km through out Botswana. Some of this was on paved roads but the majority of our travel time was spent going short distances on incredibly challenging sand roads. The map below shows the route we took through this relatively small but diversely landscaped country.

The people of Botswana are some of the most friendly we have met to date. Always a smile, a hello and how are you today. The nature is truly unspoiled and rugged and we felt like we truly were in the wilds of Africa.

There were no fences at any of the campsites so we always had to keep a look out for baboons and hyenas or elephants and although not advisable we did walk to the ablutions (toilets) at night but we always had our super-duper military grade 1,000 lumen flash light with us!

The weather was hot during the day and comfortable at night. It is the dry season so it really was dry throughout the country which created great game viewing opportunities along the remaining water holes and river edges.

The driving was challenging but if it had been any easier I don’t think this would have been the true adventure we experienced.

Adventure comes in many forms. This was an exhilarating trip at times and at other times we were challenged to keep going but keep going we did and except for the last 2 days we endured a truly wonderful experience that was both just as hard to put into words as it was to not want to stop and give up. As I sit here writing this we asked ourselves “would we do this again?”. The hardship, no showers for days, the dust and grime. Yes, absolutely and without a doubt. The last two weeks have left a mark on us that we will never forget and I know we will return again someday to Botswana.

Yesterday after a somewhat recuperative day after the wild concert the night before that never happened, we hired a guide and boat for a private 3 hour late afternoon Chobe River cruise.

There were a lot of other boats large and small on the river but having a small boat to ourselves allowed us to get up close and personal with the many birds and animals inhabiting the shoreline.

We did get up close and personal and for the first time in Africa saw many crocodiles along the river banks (we did see one croc on the Nile River in Uganda several years ago) and our first out of water hippos. This area is also a birders delight.

The banks of the Chobe separate the countries of Botswana and Namibia and a few kilometres away joins into the Zambezi River which separates Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Angola.

Multiple bands, great local talent all advertised to start at 7:00 pm at Trekkers Bar in Kazungula, just outside of Kesane.

We arrived tonight on time and a little worried it would be busy and hard to find a spot to sit. Well the bar hasn’t even opened!

We did convince the bar owner to get us some drinks fortunately but now it’s 8:23 and there are a grand total of 8 people here and of course we’re the only white faces in the “crowd”.

Earlier back at our hotel we asked a couple of local guys what time the show started and they told us 10:00 pm. The advertisement signs around town said 7:00 pm and a lady at hotel reception thought probably 5:00 pm so we settled on arriving at 7:00.

Well there ain’t nothing happening yet except a loop of recorded music. Fingers crossed something starts soon.

10:30 comes around and still nothing so I get agitated and mention this to one of the dudes with a gold chain who looks like a roadie. We’re here to hear music I say and we’ve been here for hours and we want our money back. Just wait he says and off he goes to the stage to chat with the Manager/DJ. Well the next thing you know “Mambo” the lead entertainment for the night stops by our table, apologizes and proceeds to hit the stage for a duo rap session backed up by canned music.

When they finish their mini two song set he comes back to our table and we have a very good chat. He is well-educated and explains the challenges musicians face in Botswana due to government regulations. He is a very nice man, very intelligent and passionate but it is now close to 11:00 pm so off we go very appreciative of him singing a couple of tunes but still disappointed that we didn’t hear any more of the local talent.

As we exited through the doors to the parking lot we encountered quite a large congregation of parked cars, music playing from their open trunks, beer flowing freely and bonfires blazing. Why aren’t they inside getting set to hear the concert we wonder?Because they can’t afford the 50 Pula entrance fee and they will party outside the walls of the concert area and listen to the music (when or if it eventually starts) and have a great old time and then drive drunk back to town. Here were two white folks genuinely interested in hearing some good local music and we left feeling very dissapointed in the whole situation. It seems to be almost impossible to find and hear local talent.  Lots of Drake and Bieber and western rap, but seriously lacking in local, true down to earth roots music that we were really looking forward to hear. Bummer.