I had a great work visit to our (fairly) new Hatfield Consultants Africa office in Gaborone, Botswana. From the Vancouver “summer” to the southern African winter, I thought I had packed enough warm clothes. I was wrong, but no complaints about the amount of sunshine!<\/p>\n
The travel from Vancouver to Botswana is pretty brutal – a 10 hour flight from Vancouver to the UK, followed by another 10 hour flight from the UK to Jo’burg. Fortunately, I broke the journey and visited my family for a few days over the weekend. Lovely – nieces and nephew growing so fast! Arriving in Gaborone, it was great to catch up with Simon and get the run down on the office and projects that I was being entrusted to look after while Simon took annual leave. It was great to stay in the house\/office, and the three large dogs are mostly harmless. Day-to-day life in the office and in Gabs was good – it’s a nice small capital city you can buy pretty much all the food and comforts you need. The price of the South African wine would make an expat in Indonesia weep.<\/p>\n
The highlight of my visit (and one of the most fantastic trips I’ve done) was a quick weekend in the Okavango Delta in the north of Botswana. The Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta – the water flowing in from Angola, through Namibia, does not reach the ocean and ultimately evaporates or is transpired. It’s a spectacular natural landscape with wetlands, grassland savanna and forest\/shrub habitats that host a diversity of animals, birds, and plants.<\/p>\n
I took a flight from Gabs to Maun, and then flew into Kwara camp in the north of the delta in an 8-seater light aircraft. The flight was fantastic. I got a “good last minute deal” at Kwara camp, which is fairly high-end – this is definitely “glamping”. (Note to self: must hide credit card statement). The staff, food, and accommodation were awesome; not to mention the variety of activities, including game drives, boat trips, and canoe trips. It’s also great if you are travelling alone, because the camp has a very sociable setup – all the guests eat meals at a large table and you meet lots of interesting people on vacation, or doing a similar short trips tagged onto work in the region.<\/p>\n
In the short time I was there, I saw cheetahs, leopard, serval cat, endangered wild dogs (eating a kill and then feeding their pups at their den), hippos, elephants, kudu, giraffes and the usual “savanna fodder.” There were lots of great birds, even though winter is not the best time to see them – saddle-billed stork, African fish eagle, vulture, ostrich and many others that I already forgot.<\/p>\n
It was bloody cold though – we had a light frost and I was absolutely freezing when out on the morning game drive, despite wearing ALL my clothes. Winter in Botswana requires a down jacket, gloves and a toque (that’s a woolly hat to non-Canadians).<\/p>\n
Would love to come back to Gabs and the region! Check out my photos – it’s hard to take good photos with my point-and-shoot. I spent most of my time watching the wildlife with my bins (thanks for the recommendation, Nick).<\/p>\n