From the itinerary: July 23, 2024
7:30 pick up from Parker Cottage to Cape Town Airport
10:30 flight to Maun - 2.5 hours
Clear formalities to enter Botswana. Take connection at 14:30 to Savute Game Preserve (located in Chobe National Park)
Game drive to Tented camp (below shows approximately where the camp is located from the main gate and where we were in Africa)
Weather: Maun-sunny and 23. Savute - 28
I was awakened by the call to prayer. I hadn’t realized that Cape Town had such a large Muslim community, but I did remember walking by the mosque on my way to the waterfront yesterday.
Chris was due to pick us up at 7:30 but was caught in huge traffic backup due to an accident.
Thankfully he was able to arrange a backup driver and we got to the airport in good time enjoying the sunrise along the way
Checkin was a non-event, but going through security I forgot that honey is considered a liquid, so back to the desk to check in my bag.
While waiting for the plane we ate our anticipated breakfast from Parker Cottage. Since Parker Cottage is known for its breakfast, and since we had to leave before they started serving, they made us a breakfast bag. We were hugely disappointed in the muffin and banana - not even a breakfast sandwich….
We had an empty flight and I had an entire row to myself. Since the flight was so long (over an hour) we were offered lunch with a hot drink - I had the vegetarian option.
It was also interesting to see the advertisements in the inflight magazine that seemed to be all about construction
Flying into Botswana for my first time my initial thoughts were that it looked dry and brown. Maun also looked very basic.
I wasn’t sure what to expect regarding entry procedure to Botswana. The current president has been in power for 5 years and this year they also have an election.
The entry procedure was relatively involved:
Stop 1: Health check - in my case it was a question about whether I had been to a place with yellow fever within the last 2 weeks.
Stop 2: Passport check: I can’t say I’ve ever had this take longer, and that includes going into the USSR. I think the issue was they wanted to see evidence of an itinerary and planned stops. People weren’t prepared for this, so it took probably 5 minutes (?) per family group.
Stop 3. Pick up bags: There was a bag collision resulting in bags getting stuck on the carrousel and Lisa had to unstick them. Lisa/Rob got out first and took my bag, as I asked. Since I didn’t see them (nor my bag) in the baggage hall I assumed they went through, but I wasn’t anticipating…
Stop 4: Customs: where everyone was stopped, irregardless of the need to declare. We were all interrogated again as to destination and asked how much money we were bringing into the country. Lisa and Rob had a rough moment wondering if they were going to insist on opening my suitcase as it was locked and they didn’t have the key.
Once we were all through the formalities, we met up again to check in for our onward flight to Savute in Chobe National Park.
This was a small Cessna Grand Caravan that sat 10. The first stop was a gravel airstrip (my first landing on one) about 20 minutes on and the flight altitude was maybe 5,000 feet (very low).
Thankfully things seemed a bit wetter. We were able to see animals drinking from the river along the way. We picked up 2 people, also going to Sauvute, and the Belmont Lodge here.
The next stop (ours) was about 35 minutes on. Thankfully we flew higher this time and the interior plane temperature was a bit more comfortable. No meal was served, but we did get a bottle of water.
We were met by Mootia (pronounced moo tea a), a.k.a. Cavin, who is our guide for the next few days. He has been with &Beyond 2 years, but guiding for 13 years, and enjoys working at the tented camp because when there are not guests he can be “on call” and just go home until guests come. At the lodges they don’t get that option.
Other main staff includes:
GG or ha oo oo be who runs the staff
Chef- sele
Butler- OP
We are to be spoiled as we will have the entire camp (6 tents) to ourselves. They have to move the camp every 6 days - to another government assigned campsite in the park. This is very involved, since there are a lot of amenities, and involves a large truck.
I say camping, but this is really glamping because there is an en-suite bathroom complete with shower and flush toilet. Here are some photos from when we arrived (after dark) and the next day when you can actually see something. Although there is no electrical charging in the tent, there is in the car by our seating, so no issues there either.
Botswana offers an option for self driving/camping, but no one, not even our team can have a gun. When I heard this I understood that if we do have some animal charge us, we have no protection.
I’ve gone a bit too far ahead and need to backup to when Mootia met us off the plane.
We had a small safari over to the check in Sauvate Gate. This is the Gate and this is where the camp is. The camp sites aren’t named, only numbered….
While waiting to register we watched a pack of striped mongooses (mongeese?) nearby.
After checking in we took our time driving to the camp. We saw a few animals like Steembok, Elephant, Impala, giraffes and warthogs
And birds like the horn bill, spur fowl, long tail shrike and lilac breasted Rollers.
And a tawny eagle eating its dinner
And an elephant that wasn’t so lucky
As the sun went down we stopped for a drink and a snack. The snack was beef biltong which tasted too gamey for my liking, and dried pears. I tried Botswana lager which was not to my taste and I switched to cider with ice
We got to the camp at about 18:30. It was very bumpy, but these trees were lit up very nicely by the setting sun.
and we enjoyed the sunset afterglow along the way.
Here’s GG greeting us and our initial view of the camp (again- bumpy entrance). More views of the campsite and tent tomorrow when it’s lighter….
The moon was late rising and we got the full star display. This was even better than I expected.
Dinner was a lovely butternut cream soup, fillet of beef on a baked potato and a pear in red reduction sauce for dessert. They can’t serve game meat because they don’t allow the killing of wild game.
The night was incredibly quiet. I heard the lions several times during the evening - sometimes rather close
When the moon did come up it was like a big orange headlight, due to the dust in the air. Unfortunately, no photo.
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