Botswana - Meno A Kwena

Welcome to the start of our odyssey into the heart of Botswana.  Mrs B and I count ourselves extremely fortunate to be in a position to make such a trip. My hopes of posting live were somewhat dashed, however, when I shockingly discovered that Wifi is not  available at every corner café (I guess the fact there are no cafés in the Botswana savannah was a somewhat limiting factor – Blimey not  a Starbucks within a 1000  miles). 

So much has happened over the last couple of weeks that I could blog daily to the end of the year and still not do justice to the trip.  Instead I have decided to break the trip down into 4 parts covering the different camps we stayed in.

Camp 1 – Meno A Kwena

Not the most luxurious of camps but all the better for it (The showers were posh buckets filled with hot water ).  I arrived under a cloud of disappointment having discovered that my luggage had not made it to Botswana with us. It was last heard of enjoying a solo trip around the world… My disappointment was tempered because I had wisely secured all my camera equipment and a spare set of clothes in our hand luggage…This was at a great personal cost to Mrs B  who practically tipped over backwards every time she struggled to heft her overladen rucksack onto her back.  At times like this I truly appreciate Mrs B’s ability to pitch in.  I had managed to get our luggage weight down to a respectable 45Kg only 15KG over our allowed weight so I guess I should have been grateful that my 10KG hold luggage went off on its own….

A huge thank you to Toff  and Kiddy, the camp managers, for making us so welcome at Meno A Kwena  and also the two lovely Brazilian girls who waited patiently at the airport  for us while we tried and failed to find out what had happened to my luggage.  I got chatting to one of them, Helena, at dinner one night and the subject of why she had come all the way to Africa came up.

Helena “I have come to Africa on my honeymoon….”

I was about to ask her where her husband was.  Fortunately, as the words formed in my mouth I had a flash back to the wedding of our friends Philip and Christian and Christian’s comment about a couple of gate crashers being not only confused about being at the wrong venue but also at wedding where there was no bride…. Helena may have had similar confusion at her wedding only in this case it would have been about the lack of a groom…. While just about managing not to put my foot in it Helena recommended the Brazilian Pantanal  as a great place to see wild life….

We only had two nights at Meno A Kwena and as we arrived late (thanks luggage) and were leaving early on our last day we only had one whole day to cram in as much as we could.  We decided to take the full day out option rather than a morning game drive with a break followed by an afternoon/evening game drive.  

A big thanks to Edward at Africa odyssey for sorting our holiday itinery out.

Photo finish



Hippo - This beautiful creature has a bit of a dark secret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSKQ3ZNQ_O8
So be wary of the potential  consequences  next
time you try  and sneak one out ...

Zebra  manoeuvres...



A tent with its own private...well tent???

Mrs B who had a big smile on her face for the majority of the trip -
it was only the rudest people in the world  who managed to dislodge it
but more of that in a later posting...

A Slender Mongoose who's attempt to eat a whole Zebra
 was going to leave him a long way short of being a
member of the  slender club....

Vulture  - looking almost regal....



Dusk - bringing to an end the first of our Botswana post  

If you want to see some more pictures from Meno A Kwena then follow the link    http://blacklogthebeast.zenfolio.com/p3236161.  Next time we move onto Mombo camp deep within the heart of the Okavango Delta...