Elephant kingdom: A budget adventure trip to northern Botswana

Buckle up and rev your city car! We are off to an astonishing short trip just a few miles north of Botswana’s capital city Gaborone. To enjoy our adventure to its fullest, we decided to leave behind the luxury of flight connections to our main destinations and explore Botswana’s road network to reach the cities of Maun, Nata and Kasane. A smooth nine-hours-drive through the inlands of Serowe and Orapa introduces us to the vastness and secretive aspect of the country’s landscape. The suggestive trail of the N14 unravels between Northern Kalahari and the lunar scenery of the Makgadikgadi Pans. Occupied by a sea in ancient times, the Makhadikgadi (literally ‘dry thirsty place’ for the San people) dried up to become a massive salt desert. The region is scarcely inhabited, with the exception of a few mining hubs that rose over its rich silicon deposits. The size of the Makgadikgadi Pans forecasts the majesty of the Okavango Delta, which used to be the main emissary of the ancient sea and has now turned into a whopping 2,000 hectares wetland. We reach Maun, the region’s capital city, in the afternoon. Since it’s dry season, we hardly notice any change in the landscape. The Thamalakane river, which cuts through the town, has shrunk completely. As we reach the Old Bridge backpackers, we start thinking we might not to get to see a lot of water or any wildlife in this portion of the trip. You might want to read this related article:…

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