maziwanka

Hey everyone, we're finalizing a trip in Africa and I'm a little overwhelmed by the choice of safari in Botswana.

Before we make our way to Botswana, we'll be in Windhoek. We were thinking we'd first get to Victoria Falls and then make our way down to Jo'burg, going through Chobe NP and Okavango Delta. We initially looked at a tour through Intrepid (http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/URO) since that was easy, but now, I'm reading more and more about Okavango and I want to make sure we see both the water wildlife and animals in the Moremi Reserve.

We're more than willing to create our own tour of these areas and make our way ultimately down to Jo'burg. We have 7 days total to get down to Jo'burg, but 6 days may be better. There's also 3 of us going and we're budget travelers - so we can't stay at places like Mombo.

Any help would be much appreciated! We're looking to go leave Windhoek and head towards Vic Falls and all that around the first week of september.

Thanks!

luangwablondes

Transfer from Vic Falls to Kasane. Hire a kitted out 4x4(based out of Joburg-delivered to Kasane) and tour the parks yourself, camping along the way. Tents on the roof of the vehicle. The one major thing you need is a good map. I recommend the gpsr maps from Tracks4Africa. IT has all the tracks and important places you need. You can do a quick shopping in Kasane at Spar and off you go. See Chobe NP. Savute, Moremi including do a Mokoro ride into the delta, and then Maun. Drive to Joburg and turn in the vehicle. The cost would probably be 2/3 of what you pay to do a tour with a company. 6 or 7 days isn't a whole lotta time for this.

divine54

maziwanka
at what time of year you are going to travel?
have you got sufficient experiences in 4x4 driving as parts en route might have deep sand and black cotton soil - important if it's rainy season or occasionally raining.

happy planning

div

tockoloshe

We are doing the trip that luangwablondes suggests at the beginning of Sept - from Kasane to Maun through Chobe and Moremi with 4x4. Your problem might be getting Park Campsite bookings, we keep phoning and they say they are full in that period, so we hope to get a place in the community campsites outside the Park.

maziwanka

thanks for the info so far - we're probably going to be there during the first week of september. the self-drive sounds great, but im not sure we have enough experience to do that and we wouldn't mind paying more for a guided tour.

maziwanka

tokoloshe - if you could share any info you might dig up about the 4x4 trek that would be much much appreciated.

luangwablondes

Send me an email and I'll tell you how you can get around some of your reservation problems.

tockoloshe

maziwanka

We got our basic info from the usual travel books (mainly Bradt Botswana guide) but by far the most useful was a blog by a couple I first found on this forum:

www.wilddogsandenglishmen.wordpress.com

We have about the same level of driving experience as them and their report contained just the right amount of detail and comment to think that we could have a go ourselves.

luangwablondes has also been very patient in answering my (at times, mundane) questions. The website 'A guide for the overseas self drive, self sufficient, vehicle dependent visitor in Africa' at www.freewebs.com/luangwablondes is also very useful.

As I said our main problem has been booking the campsites, and we are hoping it will sort itself out when we get there, which is a bit of a risk but it sounds like luangwablondes may have some tips on getting round reservation problems.

If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to help, but maybe someone who has actually done the trip might have more to contribute!

However we are very excited about the trip, we're also starting off from (and finishing in) Windhoek and renting our vehicle there, but it's a local company (we used them for our last trip to Namibia and were happy with them) so they might not do a drop-off in South Africa.

luangwablondes website has details of vehicle rental companies with cross-border retals.

Happy planning!
(PS sorry can't get rid of double email address I see in the preview)

tockoloshe

ignore last sentence, it didn't happen in the post!!!

maziwanka

thanks for all the info so far! i'll definitely pitch this idea to the group. BUT, if we'd rather do an organized tour of sorts, are there any suggestions on who to book through or what to do?

luangwablondes

Contact Self Drive Adventures out of Maun. Hire a guide and vehicle from them, let them organise the itinerary,supplies,and campsites.
www.selfdriveadventures.com/services.html

Let the guide do the driving. Pickup in Kasane or at the Kazungulu ferry- transfers can be arranged from Safpar out of Vic Falls, do your safari through Chobe, Savute, and Moremi(mokoro boat trip out of Moremi, drop off in Maun, and fly to Joburg.

maziwanka

this is an awesome suggestion. emailed them. let you know if this works out!

luangwablondes

Too bad you will not be there in August.
http://tinyurl.com/4et3yf

maziwanka

man. that does look great too.

i think we've ultimately decided to go with Kruger NP since the Botswana stuff ended up being a bit too expensive for us and we are severely short on time for planning since we have the bar exam in less than one month from now.

all the tips and advice were much much appreciated and will be used/looked at on our next trip out to africa (hopefully in the near future).