Africa Spectacular: BOTSWANA FOR NEW YEAR

For our last trip of 2010, we travelled to the Kalahari to see in the New Year with good friends. I had not travelled to that area ever before, and so was looking forward to the new sights. It was a long trip and so we planned a night's stopover in the Makgadikgadi Pans area, and I had read and heard about the quirky Planet Baobab, so this was where we booked in for the night. It was everything I expected it to be and has an awesome atmosphere. One can't miss it ... just look for the signs !!!!

This is one area that I definately MUST visit again.

We continued on our way the next day, stopping in Maun for breakfast. I liked the look of Maun, I wouldn't mind spending a little time there.

After breakfast and some supplies shopping, we continued on our way until reaching the turn off to where we were headed. I thought we were in a "desert", but I had to open the gate in the pouring rain !!

We spent a wonderful 5 full days with our friends .. in that time we still did not get all around the property. We saw plenty of game .. including lions .. and learnt a lot about this flat, featurless, but VERY interesting land. Every day we drove out, we appeared to be heading directly for the rain storm (hence we nicknamed ourselves The Stormchasers), and it became clear that being in a "desert", doesn't mean it that it never rains ... the vegetation and soil also has something to do with it !! We visited friends of friends for lunch ... that was a 2 hour drive away !! but what a wonderful day with lovely people. It was an awesome trip, and once again, this area definately warrants further exploring !

All too soon our stay in the Kalahari was over and we had to head home. We decided that on the way back we would do the drive all in one day. It was interesting to see that the pans in the Makgadikgadi had filled with water in our absence !! We stopped briefly in Nata to grab a Wimpy breakfast, and had a quick stop at Nata Lodge to look around !