With a friend of mine from Salzburg, we took on a massive roadtrip across Africa, crossing six countries and nearly 6000km in two weeks. We started with a week in Cape Town on the southern tip of beautiful South Africa before flying up to Windhoek in Namibia where we picked up our rental 4x4 to begin our epic adventure.
With six days of challenging, intense and wild adventures through Namibia, we headed eastward to cross the border in Botswana, the next country on our itinerary to explore.
Crossing the Border from Namibia to Botswana
Depending on how you're planning to visit Botswana, if you're coming by road you're very likely to be driving across the border from neighbouring Namibia. The last place we visited in Namibia was Etosha National Park giving us two options to head eastward. We chose the southern route below through Gobabis as the roads are better quality (crucial on an African roadtrip!). This is also the same road you'd take if heading east directly from Windhoek.
The border between Namibia and Botswana is nothing like what you'd expect from a European border crossing and quite similar to most other African land border crossings we encountered. We both hold European passports. It's not very clearly marked but you park on the Namibian side, go to the health screening first and provide any proof of required vaccinations (e.g. COVID-19, yellow fever) before proceeding through a series of counters for your exit stamp at immigration upon completion of an exit form and customs. Then you drive over to the Botswanaian side where they check your car, hand over your forms and collect your entry stamp at immigration for Botswana.
How to Visit the Okavango Delta
The first stop on the Botswana leg of our roadtrip was to visit the incredibly majestic Okavango Delta, revered around the world for its natural beauty. Home to grassy plains which flood annually, this is a fertile and thriving part of the country home to many animals.
The best way to explore the Okavango Delta is on the water, traditionally navigated on a simple canoe-like boat called a mokoro. We camped for two nights in the region, spotting many wild animals as we drove through the Delta.
We entered the Okavango Delta from Maun. The road between the Botswana border and Maun is really well paved and easy to drive. After Maun, we encountered the worst roads of our entire roadtrip. This was made exponentially tougher by probably one of the most severe rainstorms we've ever witnessed which we had to drive straight through. The road is completley full of pot holes, sand and dirt, and large accumulated pools of water. The rainstorm turned the road to a swamp. We spent a nailbiting two hours between Maun and our first campsite at Mankwe.
As a result of the bad roads and long days, I had a panic attack upon arrival at Mankwe (likely to do with the releasing feeling of finally having arrived and being safe) and we forwent our booking at the campsite and took a last minute booking in the luxury tented camp instead which was a delightful change with phenomenal owners who went above and beyond to take care of us and make us feel safe. We slept like royalty in the luxurious bed and were treated to a delicious breakfast - beats oats cooked on a gas stove!
The next day, we drove up from Mankwe to our second campsite in the Delta at Mbudi, a much more rustic camp spot offering just basic toilet facilities but with the chance to camp right next to a pool of the Delta home to a big family of resident hippos!
While we opted to self-drive for our entire roadtrip, you can also arrange a driver from Maun to take you into the Okavango, including to your accommodations and for any excursions.
Our route from Maun to Mankwe and then to Mbudi
Mankwe Luxury Tented Camp
Mankwe has its own waterhole for prime wildlife viewing
Driving from Mankwe to Mbudi
Our campsite at Mbudi
A mokoro at camp
Hippo spotting from camp
Spot the yawning hippo!
A Mokoro Ride on the Okavango Delta
The best way to see the Okavango Delta is hands down from the water, drifting gently among the riverbeds in a traditional mokoro. Any accommodations in the area can arrange this for you; we were lucky that we could take a mokoro ride straight from camp at Mbudi.
The mokoro is common and unique to the Okavango Delta area of Botswana, designed specifically for the shallow and plant-filled waters of the delta. The mokoro is maneuvered by pushing with a long wooden pole into the bed of the river.
At our camp at Mbudi, expert mokoro navigators are on hand to transport visitors on a surreal two-hour float along the delta to spot hippos, birds and plants that call this exquisite nature reserve home.
Hippo spotting from the mokoro
Our guide, Bee
CHECK OUT OUR VLOG OF BOTSWANA HERE!
PIN THIS POST TO REFER BACK TO LATER!
Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.
