Traveling In and Beyond Botswana While Studying in Gaborone

Before coming to Botswana, one of my biggest questions was whether I would be able to travel within and beyond the country and explore other places across southern Africa. Sure enough. I was only in Botswana for eight weeks (and seven weekends) for the Summer Wildlife Ecology and Conservation program. But after the first three weekends of getting settled in and exploring Gaborone—hiking Kgale Hill each Sunday, brunches at The Daily Grind, a homestay braai and a volunteer day, walking and combi-ing to malls and parks and museums—we packed the remaining four with trips. First, we visited the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for class, spending a few days camping and going on game drives in the reserve. For the following weekend, our entire thirteen-person summer study abroad cohort, including all six wildlife students and the seven Community and Public Health program students, planned a trip to Kasane and Victoria Falls.

 

Kasane and Victoria Falls

CIEE Gaborone has a trusted driver by the name of Bethel who is typically available to provide rides around Gaborone or help plan, organize, and execute larger plans like this one. Bethel promised to procure a combi (van) to drive us all up north, and provided recommendations for activities and accommodations in and around Kasane. So we loaded up at 3:00 am on Friday morning, breakfasted in Francistown, and arrived at the Elephant Trail Guesthouse and Backpackers in Kasane by mid-afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on a Chobe River boat cruise organized through Elephant Trail, which was one of my favorite excursions in all of my time in Botswana. The river was beautiful, and we were able to get up close to an incredible richness and diversity of wildlife: elephants, giraffe, buffalo, hippos, crocodile, puku, and more.

Elephants at sunset on our Chobe River boat cruise

The next day we took a bus into Zimbabwe, again organized through Elephant Trail, and spent the day at Victoria Falls. Some folks bungee jumped, and the rest of us simply walked the paved path along the edge of the gorge in Victoria Falls National Park and enjoyed the spray.

Victoria Falls

We left Kasane at 3:00 am Sunday morning headed, unbeknownst to us, into possibly our single most memorable day in Botswana. A little over an hour into the almost twelve-hour drive back to Gaborone, we pulled over on the side of the A33 with a dead battery and bad alternator. Daylight slowly dawned as Bethel, Neil, and I flagged down trucks to try and jump us. Three hours and a new battery (fetched by some of Bethel’s friends from the nearest town) later, we limped a few kilometers down the highway into the outskirts of Pandamatenga and the yard of a shade tree mechanic. We spent the next six hours tying friendship bracelets, drawing in the dirt, and making trips to the nearby Choppies for snacks while the mechanic built us a new alternator. I had a nice time, all things (most notably, the ten hours of travel still looming) considered. But at 1:30 pm the engine started up and stayed running, and we thanked the mechanic profusely and kept on down the road. We got home late but boy did we get a story out of it.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect, all thirteen of us each paid $75 to Bethel for transportation to and from Kasane, $30 for the two nights of lodging in Kasane, $40 for the boat cruise, $30 for transportation to and from Victoria Falls, $30 to enter Zimbabwe, and $50 to enter Victoria Falls National Park. That comes out to $255 for the trip, plus food.

 

The following weekend we travelled for class to Maun and the Xaoo Safari Camp in the Okavango Delta. This was a much more luxurious experience than I expected. I was appreciative of our accommodations, but somewhat embarrassed to be living like a “high value, low volume” tourist.

 

Cape Town

Our final weekend in Africa was a long one thanks to the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday and Tuesday. Eight of the thirteen of us decided to visit Cape Town, with the other five students choosing to go to Maun and the Delta, which the CPH students had not visited for class. The Cape Town crew got on a Flight Connect bus at Riverwalk Mall on Friday morning, which ferried us to O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, where we boarded a quick flight to Cape Town. We checked into our airbnb in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood after a long day of traveling and, after a late dinner of game meats (ostrich, springbok, eland, kudu, zebra) and mopane worms, headed to bed. Over the next three days I walked around downtown Cape Town and the V&A waterfront plenty, hiked up and across Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge one day and Skeleton Gorge the next, saw African penguins at Boulders Beach and swam at Windmill Beach, and ate döner and samosas and a few pick-n-pay feasts (the other kids chose fancy real dinners of seafood and steak). I really thoroughly enjoyed Cape Town. It is green and feels very much like the US. On Tuesday we replicated our previous travel day in reverse, and were back in Gaborone for a final few days of classes before it was time to leave and head home.

Looking south to the tip of Africa from the top of Table Mountain

For Cape Town, each of us paid $75 for the bus from Gaborone to Johannesburg and vice versa, $185 for flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town and vice versa, and $50 for four nights in the airbnb. That comes out to $310 for the trip, plus food and the few other costs incurred along the way: I paid to get into the botanical gardens to do the Skeleton Gorge hike, and to take the cable car down from the top of Table Mountain because I didn’t want to hike down in the dark and cold, and for the uber to Boulder’s Beach. You also have to pay to get onto the penguin viewing platform at Boulders Beach, but I chose not to, because if you walk south down the boardwalk from the main parking area you’ll see lots of penguins beside the walkway for free. And if you keep walking through the parking lot at the end of the boardwalk you’ll hit the Burgher’s Walk, which takes you down to Windmill Beach and Frank’s Beach, which are perfect for swimming. I found polyps and anemones and starfish in the rocks at Windmill Beach. And I also saw penguins come right up by me as I lingered along Burgher’s Walk in the late afternoon. So save your money on that one at least folks.

African penguins at Boulders Beach