Botswana was a lovely time! I wished we could have gone to a couple of more spots within the country. Like Zimbabwe, Botswana is considered quite safe. It is an upper-middle income country with approximately 2.5 million people. The capital is Gaborone and the country covers 581,730 sq miles, of which 70% of it is the Kalahari Desert. Other African nations joke that their national flag is mostly blue because they need water so badly. Their soil is not good enough for farming but they do have a big export of beef and diamonds. The official languages are English and Setswana. Botswana became independent in 1966 and the country is safe and stable. Prior to 1966, the country was called Bechuanaland. Botswana is one of Africa’s richest countries due to their rich diamond mines. When we went into Botswana, we had to wash our shoes on our feet at the border as well as all shoes in our bags. There is anthrax in the dirt in Zimbabwe and with Botswana having such a big beef industry, they are very careful.
We stayed in Chobe National Park, which is the 2nd largest national park in Botswana and home to over 15,000 elephants over the 4,500 sq mile park. The Chobe River runs through the park with Namibia being on the other side. We went on a river boat cruise on of the evenings to see the animals in and near the water and to watch the sunset…which was spectacular. The rest of the time we did land game drives in open air vehicles. Some of the animals and birds we were able to see was a leopard (only on good camera), impala, maribu (the ugly bird), lionesses, giraffes, elephants, baboons, kuru (the ones with spiral horns), hippo, fish eagle, cape buffalo and warthogs. (just to name a few.)
Messina Musings 