Money

Aloe

Baobab

 28.04.12 Serowe, Botswana

It’s hard to label this week. It’s been a fair bit of driving, one major disappointment and one major positive surprise. At the moment of writing (which is not the moment of posting) I’m sitting in Khama Rhino-Sanctuary. When we looked at the map this afternoon to plan approximately where to spend the night we saw it marked on the map, and decided to give it a chance. We did a small game-drive in the afternoon, seeing rhinos close up, in addition to the more common zebras, giraffes, wildebeests and antelopes. Now I’m seated at the dying camp-fire, the moon is just about to go down (it goes down early when it getting bigger).

The week started with a drive to the north of Namibia and the Caprivi-Strip. We wanted to enter Botswana from north, and pass the Okavango-Delta on our way to Maun.  The drive was rather eventless, but nice and trouble –free as well. We wanted to hit the famous delta from Maun. This proved to be a mistake. The Okavango is famous for many things, including being the biggest inland-delta in the world, having a big variety of wildlife and being uncommonly expensive. The problem with the Okavango-Delta is that if you take the “cheap” option (which is still more expensive than anything else you would do in Botswana) you won’t get far into the delta and you’ll miss the wildlife. You do get to ride in a mokoro, a dough-out canoe fueled by a long stick, rather than paddles. You get a decent lunch and you do a walking-safari where you see some zebras. It is not bad. In fact it is quite nice, but it just does not match the price by any means.

After Maun we needed a bit of a boost, and we got it in the salt-pans of central Botswana. In general Botswana is an empty country, and this area consists mainly of savanna and bush-forest, salt-pans and some gigantic baobab-trees. We spend two days in the pans, navigating around on gps. (Le)Kubu-Island was immensely beautiful, so we spend a night there.

As this trip is closing in, I start thinking of what I am going to take with me. The trip has certainly changed my life in several ways. I have grown a beard, and I think I have learned plenty about myself. I guess I’ll elaborate more on this when I’m back in Norway, but for now I’ll lend some of Roger Waters’ words

Money

Money it's a crime
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
Money so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're giving none away

A huge baobab. Note the size of my father
compared to the tree

Mokoro-"driver"

Daddy in a mokoro

Rhinos

Sunset over the savanna

Trails

A nice comping-spot