Although we went across a border from Botswana to Namibia, we are still on Botswana/South Africa time because we are on the Caprivi Strip, which is a strip of land just above Botswana and to the east of Namibia. My phone changed over to Namibia time, which is an hour behind, so when I thought I woke up early at 5am this morning, it was really 6am. Anyways, it was still really early.
It took us an hour to get ready, put the tents down and have some breakfast before departing for the Mahongo Game Reserve. This was our first bit of seeing wild animals on this trip, and my dad’s first time seeing any in Africa, so it was a bit exciting. We pulled in at reception, paid $90N (90rand/$9aud) for a permit for the day, and drove in. There were 2 loops you could go on, one which ran by the river front and the other by an artificial waterhole, and was partially 4x4 only. We spent the day doing both several time, as the park was quite small.
Elephant friends
Impala
The first sighting of the day was some zebras by the river, followed by plenty of impala, kudu and warthogs. We also managed to pass by a family of baboons, and then a family of monkeys (with little baby ones hanging onto their mothers). Several towers of giraffes were seen, which are apparently my dads favourite, and several herds of elephants. There were some massive elephants, and some of them were walking right in front of us on the road. This was my first time doing a game drive without a tour guide, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do if an elephant were to decide to charge at us!
The best sighting of the day was a family of meerkats that ran across the road in front of us. I think we were very lucky to see this, as I haven’t seen any meerkats in Africa yet. We spent the rest of the day driving around. At one point we did the 20km stretch of road which you could only don by 4x4, twice, however the first time we did it we saw only one ostrich, and the second no animals at all! No lions or big cats were seen, but hopefully Botswana will have some more …
Meerkats?????
big day, tired people
We arrived
back at Ngepi Camp at around 5:30pm where my dad’s laptop was returned and I
tried to connect to very, very slow internet.
Dinner was one-pot spaghetti with baked beans because I’m too lazy to
cook with two pots (and don't want to do dishes), and tomorrow we drive back to Botswana, to Kasane. Cooking
has been pretty fun, despite having to do it in under torchlight and surrounded
by many bugs. And doing the dishes isn’t that much fun. Here’s to another
border crossing tomorrow!
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