14th Sept Maun

14th Sept. Maun, Okavango Delta, Botswana.
Botswana is flat and built on sand. As soon as you go off the sealed road it’s all sand.. We traveled almost 600kms yesterday and saw three hills, the highest about 50 metres tall. Yet there is water here, more than we saw in the 7 weeks in Namibia. We hope to get out to some of the national parks over the next couple of weeks but the parks board is similar to that in Namibia, saying all camps are full. We shall see today.
The trip to Windhoek was very successful, having the work done on the camper and a new battery fitted in the one day. We put a 102ah one in compared to the minuscule 60ah one that was already in. That means we should get 3-4 days without plugging in. Caught up with a couple of people, did the shopping the next day and were heading east to Botswana by lunch time. We made it to the Zelda Game Farm a few kms from the border but spent two days there as we both felt we needed to recuperate after REST.
It was good to have grass in the camp site again as those in Namibia are generally devoid of such a luxury. Also to walk around in bare feet, something the acacia thorns don’t allow you to do. They can pierce all but the thickest of shoe ware.
The Okavango Delta is well known as where a large river, the Okavango, divides into many channels then disappears into the sands of the Kalahari Desert. Most of the area is privately owned with very expensive lodges built to cater for the well off fly-in guests. The area for us plebs is the Moremi and Chobe National Parks. I see on the map there is one stretch getting to Moremi that takes 5 hours to do 45kms. That will be interesting.
These blogs may be delayed as I can’t use my Namibian dongle here in Botswana so will be making use of internet cafes etc.