Day 81-83: Maun to Nata

December 22, 2024 to December 24, 2024

Three days for this last stretch heading east in Botswana.

Leaving our accommodation (cheapest guesthouse in Maun) complete with burnt out car out the front

We had been told (by other travellers and locals alike) that this stretch would be ‘more dangerous’ – i.e. there might be elephants by the road. Others (the Spanish cyclists) have stories of stumbling across a small pride of lions. We’ve also heard that there are Hyenas.

The road verge is mostly grass between the edge of the road for about 20 m before there trees start. In Namibia, the grass is very short (either it hasn’t grown, or someone constantly mows it). Through Botswana this ~20 m zone has been mostly clear of tall vegetation. Some parts are more clear than others. SO now that we are really interested in looking out for wildlife, the grass is taller than most of the rest of the road. And the grass is a mixture of new (green) grass and older, tall, dry grass. Brown. The same colour as most of the predators.

We had our eyes peeled for the whole day. Nothing. The most interesting thing for the day was the name of the village we stopped in Phuduhudu. The police let us camp under a tree in their camp, but not under the rain shelter… Pity, because the heavens opened later that night. The rainy season is a challenge camping. It’s hot and fairly humid, so we camp with the fly off the tent. But then it rains and someone (read that as Stevo) is up and down half the night adjusting the fly. Failed dismally tonight – we ended up with several mm of water in the tent. Not enough to drown the air mattresses, but enough to have a wet everything.

Everything looked promising in the evening (despite Stevo having to fix yet another puncture)

Trying out the ponchos again before we set off in the morning

Rain continued the next morning. When we left it was still quite overcast and the camping gear hadn’t dried at all. But it was ok, because we’d been told that the next section should have some animals (we’d heard that before!). But this time they were right. Despite the recent rain, there were plenty of elephant on the road. When we were waiting for a group of elephants to somehow get off the road, we also had a small group of giraffe stare at us for a while. And a lion roar somewhere in the distance. We counted 16 elephants. Not as many as others (40+ for some!) but a pretty good group given we hear they can head into the delta once the rains start.

We got to Gweta about lunch time as the sun came out and turned the place into a furnace. Since everything was wet, we pulled into a small guest house and spent the afternoon drying everything. No internet again. This time the air conditioner gave a valiant fight that it ultimately lost against the heat of the sun.

The stretch from Gweta to Nata was also uneventful. It was just hot. Needed to drink a lot. And the road deteriorated for a section outside of Nata. It had been a tar road all the way from Windhoek – perfect tar near to Windhoek, and slowly decreasing quality until this section where the road gave up and was more pothole than tar. The drivers just go around, so the road is gravel and very wide for a few kilometres. We did bump into the French couple on their way to Gweta for Christmas. Hope they have a great trip south!

Today's ride: 328 km (204 miles)
Total: 4,272 km (2,653 miles)

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