We headed north east from Etosha to up near the Angolan border to allow us to reach the crossing to Botswana. Soon after leaving the park we crossed the "vet line" -a fence that stretches the full width of Namibia and has been maintained since 1905 as a boundary to prevent diseases in the cattle of the north impacting the farmed herds of the south. I'd read it was an economic divide but was surprised by the abruptness of it; south of the line, whilst very arid and in many cases empty and unpopulated, it had been a land of small towns, both substantial old white towns and more insubstantial black and coloured dominated towns; whilst, to the north, it was suddenly African villages from the pages of National Geographic, groups of small reed huts inside small fenced compounds. There was a palpable change in the orderliness of it all and an obvious drop in average income level - poverty in the south had been disguised by the existence of a slightly richer up and coming group, here in the north that layer was largely absent and the basic subsistence level of many people's life much more obvious.
In Botswana we headed towards two of the main game parks - first Meremi, then Chobe. Botswana has a different policy towards game park tourism compared with Namibia's mass market approach, they prefer low volume- high value tourists. Here it's quite easy to pay several thousand dollars a night for the lodges and equal amounts for the extra such as fly in/ fly out. Tourists like us in 4x4 are catered for, but to a much lower level and still at a stiff price; bare bones camp sites in the national parks were between US$30 and US $50 per person per night (plus daily park entry fees). The upside though was we had some fantastic individual animal sightings in the parks; up close and personal within 2 or 3 metres of two elephants grazing on a freshly pushed over tree was off highlight, as was another when we found ourselves driving (carefully) through a herd of 40 spread across the width of the road. But it wasn't just elephants, we saw giraffes, zebra, hippo, wildebeest and countless types of antelope type animals.
Driving around, and between, the parks also brought the 4x4 into play, with lots of thick sand to negotiate. We managed to avoid getting bogged (sometimes only just) and even managed to tow out someone who was. Great fun, I can now better appreciate the fun of 4x4 driving - something to do when I decide I'm too old for bikes?
In Botswana we headed towards two of the main game parks - first Meremi, then Chobe. Botswana has a different policy towards game park tourism compared with Namibia's mass market approach, they prefer low volume- high value tourists. Here it's quite easy to pay several thousand dollars a night for the lodges and equal amounts for the extra such as fly in/ fly out. Tourists like us in 4x4 are catered for, but to a much lower level and still at a stiff price; bare bones camp sites in the national parks were between US$30 and US $50 per person per night (plus daily park entry fees). The upside though was we had some fantastic individual animal sightings in the parks; up close and personal within 2 or 3 metres of two elephants grazing on a freshly pushed over tree was off highlight, as was another when we found ourselves driving (carefully) through a herd of 40 spread across the width of the road. But it wasn't just elephants, we saw giraffes, zebra, hippo, wildebeest and countless types of antelope type animals.
Driving around, and between, the parks also brought the 4x4 into play, with lots of thick sand to negotiate. We managed to avoid getting bogged (sometimes only just) and even managed to tow out someone who was. Great fun, I can now better appreciate the fun of 4x4 driving - something to do when I decide I'm too old for bikes?
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