Botswana trip..

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739  is the place were some of the pictures from this amazing trip can be seen.


It was a long flight out to Johannesburg (we went via Amsterdam) and arriving into a driving rain storm did make one wonder why we had bothered - I can get driving rain storms in Cumbria no problem at all!!

After a few hours kip and a lovely breakfast at Mugg and Bean in Jo'burg airport - Claire assuring me that they wouldn't give us any food on the plane as it was only a 40 min flight - we eventually got on the plane (a saga in itself) and spent the next 30 mins trying to shovel in all the food they gave us - oh well....
                                                             

Typical scenery - on the drive to Little Mokolodi

This is typical of the scenery in Botswana, as it was the dry season, we had 1mm of rain during the whole of our 2 1/2 week stay! Gaborone is also a very interesting city, it is a new city 'created' to be the capital after Bots's became independent in 1966 - it has not got a 'centre' per se as most European cities do, it has several large shopping arcades (for want of better term) which have restraurants etc in them.

After a day and a half at Claire's parents house - resplendent with 3 dogs - nowhere near as badly behaved as I had been told - and with me being already covered in Mosquito bites! we set off for the trip to Little Mokolodi.

It is quite difficult to describe Little Mokolodi. It lies right on the bank of the Limpopo river (pictures are on the Photobox site) which also happens to be the border between Bots and S. Africa. The location is utterly idyllic and very quiet - it is owned by a school friend of Howard. The Limpopo also looked superb for swimming in - until a 7-8ft long crocodile drifted gently past - followed by some of his mates!! Maybe not then.

We had lovely dawn and evening walks at Little Mokolodi; night comes extremely fast in Botswana - even in summer it is dark by 7.30 and here it was dark by 6.30 - none of the endless evenings that we get in Britain. Darkness meant it was time to get the braii going (that is BBQ to us Brits) and Howard and Claire produced two fantastic meals for both nights we were there...we also got our wedding blessed on the shores of Limpopo which was lovely.

After two lovely days; the party split up. Howard and Fiona were returning to Gaborone whilst Claire and I headed north - to the famous Salt Pans.