Botswana in October

[dizzy]

We'd been wanting to put our Hilux to its intended purpose, and began planning a trip to Botswana about a year ago.
We were going with a much more experienced "over-lander" that had done a few trips before.

The ball was set in motion, when I contacted Botswana Reservations and made our bookings.

The itinary was as follows:
01 October - Twee Rivieren
02 October - Twee Rivieren
03 October - Rooi Putts Camp #6
04 October - Rooi Puts Camp #6
05 October - Polentswa Camp #3
06 October - Sesatwe Pan (Polentswa Trail)
07 October - Lang Rambuka (Polentswa Trail)
08 October - Twee Rivieren

I had the Lux serviced, bought some spares (fan belt etc) incase, but it is a Lux, so we never needed it.
The back of the Lux, nicknamed Betsy, was packed full. We dont have an extended full tank, so I took Jerry cans.

I filled the fuel and water Jerries at Twee Rivieren.
There are ablutions, that are relatively well kept. Warm water an for convenience, a store that you can purchase pretty much anything you might have left behind.
Twee Rivieren also has a pretty chilly swimming pool, but the kids found it refreshing.

The road to Rooi Putts is fairly good, although the main road has some really bad corrugation. This tends to slow your travel times down a bit, so keep that in mind if you planning a trip up there.
Rooi Putts has showers, but no hot water. Also, the water tanks are filled by a pump, which is solar powered. Someone has vandalised the solar panels, so now it is not working as efficiently as it should. The tank at Rooi Putts ran dry on both nights.
Jackals were around on both nights too, so be sure you pack away your food stuffs.
We had some of the most beautiful sunsets at Rooi Putts.

The road to Polentswa from Rooi Putts is quite a long drive, but if you leave early, you can stop at Nossob and have a shower and get some cold drinks and ice-cream from the shop. The kids chose to swim rather than shower and the pool was even cooler than Twee Rivieren.

Polentswa has a similar arrangment to Rooi Putts, although there are less camp sites.
Here the Jackals were "wit" and ran off with the lid to the Poitjie. Die werf otters!

The trail is stunning, although we saw little game, we did see huge herds of Eland, and Rooi Hartebees. We also witnessed 4 Cheetahs hunting, but they dissappeared in to the bush before they could make the kill.
The road varies from pretty firm sand to thick dune sand, with only really one high dune to cross over.
At first I battled to get over, but by lowering the tyre pressure down to about 800, we crawled over. Happy to have the old man coaching me there, otherwise I might had to admit defeat.

Camping on the pan was simply out of this world. The sound of nature really soothes the soul (I guess the bottle of Whiskey we finished helped a little too).
Needless to say, the next morning, we moved on to Lang Rambuka, feeling like we needed a shower.

Lang Rambuka was great too. I caught up on some sleep that I'd lost the night before, and my old man made us a mean Ox-tail poitjie.

Next day the driving was pretty rough, with the twee spoor being quite narrow in places. There are plenty of scratches on Betsy now, but they should polish out.

When we hit the main dirt road again, it was plain sailing back to Nossob.
Managed to shower there again, and make some grub.

The road between Nossob and Groot Kolk is bad, and needs to be graded.
Check your bolts, I had to tighten the ones on the sump gaurd by the time I got to Groot Kolk.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I will go back.
We had some awesome sightings, including Cheetah on 4 different days. The bird life is simply magic.

Be aware of the snakes, there are plenty. We had to remove a horned adder from the ladies bathrooms at Twee Rivieren on the first night.
On average, we saw at least 2 Cape Cobra's every day.

You can check out my pictures here:
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Thanks for reading my report!

[jacques kotze]

Nice photo's and trip

[OOOOMS]

Nice report tx Darryl :!:

Stunning pics What camera are you using?

[dizzy]

Thanks guys :)

I was shooting with a Canon 30D and 100-400 L lens.

[OOOOMS]

Thanks guys :)

I was shooting with a Canon 30D and 100-400 L lens.

Stunning regtig

[dizzy]

Thanks Mark, ek leer nog :)

[OOOOMS]

Thanks Mark, ek leer nog :)

...dan wil jy nie weet wat doen ek nie.....

[oom dan]

very good report daryl, still chilly during october in the Kalahari how were the early mornings!!! was going to ask the same question as mark is the telephoto a zoom lens? we have a similar nikon 200/450 but definition at full zoom is poor compared to yours, how far away were the subjects +-

[dizzy]

The day time temps were mostly on the hot side of warm, but the evenings were cold forcing us to put the jerseys on.

Yes, the lens is a telephoto/zoom lens.
Its one of Canons better lenses, like those big white ones that you see behind the posts at rugby matches.


Here is a review on the lens:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Revi ... eview.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[oom dan]

thanks for info, still not fully converted to digital like my 35 SLR have (NIKON F) with straight 400 tele and 2X converter if needed it opens up to f3.5 but poor depth of field, with modern high speed film and good light (have to sand bag camera as still need to use slower shutter speeds) can close down to f11 + have had prints blown up to 15'' x 15'' with good results. our local pro is a wizard with his process/print machine.

[dizzy]

Ja, film is a different kettle of fish. :)

I used a sandbag too, at those focal lengths, its virtually impossible to hold a camera dead still.

[oom dan]

have you been to the richtersveld amazing scenery but a real challenge photo wise ie what you see with your eyes and what comes out in the prints!!! still trying to work it out seems like mid day is a no no early morning-late afternoon light gives best results. shooting west in AM and east in PM ,less areas in the shade thou that can also give a good effect(big dark mountains) how did you find the glare in the kalahari. one of my niece's is a pro photographer she has incredible patience and can wait for hours for good light, even with high tec equipment I believe there is still an "art" side to really good photo's. like the top of your jackal's ears and the eye of the pale chanting

[dizzy]

I havent been to the Richtersveld yet, but its on the bucket list.
I'd take a super wide angle lens to capture the experience. The difference for me would be the vast expanse as apposed to a "smaller" subject like the Pale Chanting.
The wide angle will allow greater depth in the image.
Lighting is key when shooting, and early morning and later afternoon are the best times.

The Kalahari is difficult to shoot, as you have alot of the white sand which causes the images to be "blown" out or over exposed on the lighter areas. You can see that on the rocks around the waterhole where I shot the Secretary bird.

There are so many factors one needs to try and consider when composing your shot.
A good, fast lens definitely helps ;)

[oom dan]

it's a great hobby and not that expensive, except for our fuji the other cameras are all over 20 yrs old, minolta SRT101 given to me 1966(cost R135) still works they weigh a ton, new stuff far easier to lug around used to print our own black & white photo's. for us having a good camera is just as important as a good truck when going on a trip, good fun paging thru the piles of albums good laugh as well

[C.R.Gillmans]

WOW!!!! Stunning photo's man! Planning trip to Bots late next year...hope to bring back some photo's as awesome as yours!