Anyone been to Botswana?
 

I'm heading to Capetown first then on to Botswana and Victoria Falls for a safari with Wilderness Safaris. Has anyone been there before and have any comments/recommendations or other input? We've been on a Kenya safari before(17yrs ago!) but this should be a totally different experience. Thanks in advance.

I've been to Botswana but not the north where I am sure your safari will take you, to the delta region. I have only heard good things about it! I have stayed several times in the capital, Gabarone which has a nice small town atmosphere and I have driven on the now paved Trans Kalahari highway from Windhoek.

Have fun!

I see you cross posted, so I will go ahead and answer in both places http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif This thread seems to have a little more information.

The camps were all very nice and the game drives felt very personal because we typically only had 5 people in the land rover. The game parks are large enough compared to the number of camps that you feel like you are all alone with the animals. I stayed at Kwetsani, Duba Plains and Linyanti.

We also spent a few days in Zimbabwe. At that time, the economic problems were just starting but we felt perfectly safe because we were away from farms and Harare. I imagine it may be a little more tense there now and the tourist trade may have dried up completely.

Thanks a lot for answering my post-I'm not getting a lot of replys! We are going with Wilderness Safaris and they seem to be quite a respected company so I'm really excited about the trip though nervous also since we're taking our 14yr old. We're staying at Chitabe Trails, Jao Camp and Duma Tau in Botswana then on to the Zambian side of the Falls and staying at the River Club. All the camps look great and it should be a completely different experience than the Kenyan safari we did 15yrs ago.

Any comments on immunizations or antimalarials? We DON'T want to take Larium. The CDC seems to think we need EVERY shot there is almost.

I have taken Larium each time I visited Africa. I noticed I felt "warm" after taking each pill the first trip, but there were no other noticeable effects. I did not notice anything my next trip. I keep my immunizations reasonably up to date: tetanus, hepatitis are the ones that come to mind.

I spent one night at the Victoria Falls Hotel and really enjoyed. It is worth visiting the hotel just to have tea and look around. It is like a museum in many respects. The rest of the falls felt quite touristy but I enjoyed my one day there. We took an ultralight flight over Victoria Falls. It was nice but unfortunately the Falls peak in March and were rather low in August.

My daughter and I took Lariam for our last visit to Indonesia and noticed extreme fatigue as a side-effect. You might want to research a new anti-malarial "Malarone" which is expensive but supposed to have few adverse effects.

The bugs are HUGE in the Okavango, I remember when we flew out of Xaxaba airstrip the tsetse flies smashed against the aircraft windscreen and there was blood everywhere---yech. But we looked out the side windows and saw herds of giraffe running right below us.

This was years ago, we camped using local guides who poled us around the Delta in their mokoros (hollowed out log canoes). At the end of each day out guides would select an island and scout it out before telling us where to spend the night. Six of us set up camp each night around a large campfire and slept feet-outward in a star arrangement---so if a lion came into camp we could all awaken and yell to frighten the lion. I thought this was a big joke, but when we got back to Jo-burg we read about another camping party a few miles from us who were attacked by a lion, they scared the lion away just as we had been told. Whew...

You are wise to take your teen to Botswana now, I think all the wild game will be gone in not too many more years.

Have a wonderful trip.

Thanks so much for the info-now I'm REALLY worried about the bugs! We aren't camping though and it will be the winter there so maybe we won't see quite so many? The big game doesn't scare me at all, just insects. I have read something about malarone and will check it out with the Dr.-haven't read one good thing re:larium(other than it does protect against malaria).

We were strongly advised by our friends in Jo'burg (who work for US pharmaceutical companies) not to take Lariam, since it had just been relabeled to include warnings about "neuropsychiatric events" including "suicidal ideation." One German guy we met said he had vivid, terrifying dreams on Lariam.

We took Malarone, which was OK. We think the Malarone caused some lower G/I distress (loose stools primarily), but that could have been all the traveling, new food & water, etc. too. We were also on the veldt before the rains really came, so there were precious few bugs.

(Incidentally, several South Africans we spoke with said they never take anti-malarial drugs, as they can interfere with or delay diagnosis of malaria without preventing it 100%. They said malaria was easier to treat if you hadn't been taking the drugs.)

We also did not get any additional immunizations, because we were staying entirely on the beaten path. We both had hepatitis A & B, tetanus, measles, etc. already. We didn't think rabies or typhoid fever were much of a risk.

David

Don't know if you're gone yet... but in any case, you will absolultely LOVE Botswana, IMO. It's the Africa people dream of - not 2 two-hour minivan excursions out of a lodge, surrounding a pride of lions, etc.

We've been twice, on camping safaris (Penduka Safaris out of South Africa - super, reliable, cheaper than deluxe, and you camp out in the real bush. You can use Google to find out more.) There is lots of game here and we have been (on foot and sitting on top of a vehicle) three feet from a herd of 40 or so male elephants (bachelor herd, not poached, carefully approached - you do not want to do this with a family herd wtih yong, led by a matriarch - they may make ant paste out of you.)

But to get to the bugs... Here's the deal (I am no physician, but I travel informed and defensively.) The Anopheline mozzies in Central and Southern Africa often carry the Chloroquine-resistant Falciparum malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum.) This CRFM can kill you - and did kill the CEO of a famous lodge in Kenya when we visited.

You can take various preparations - Lariam (proper spelling), or generically Mefloquine, can have strange side effects, including psychiatric effects. (We divers espedcially don't take it because some of the side effects can mimic decompression illness, and you don't want "psychiatric effects" when you are diving!) In my experience, it is not so effective any more - perhaps 60 - 70%.

Malarone is a much better medication, but the problem with using any medication prophilactically is the malarial parasite soon begins to adapt, and the medication becomes less than useful.

We kind of hedge our best and take Doxycycline, which can have some possible mild gastro-intestinal side effects, some overgrowths of candidiasis in women, and sensitivity to the sun. - particularly when used over longer periods of time. Can have - we have never experienced some side effects.

And we carry the treatment dose of Malarone with us -we have been instructed to presumptively treat ourselves with Malarone if we have malarial symptoms, because they would be of the resistant varieties, and because Malarone is still quite effective.

This is NOT meant to be medical advice - please do not take it as such. But you can certainly ask your treatment provider questions about this... and make no mistake, malaria (which has four different varieties) can kill (WHO says 1 million annually.) Period. So the one thing I will not do in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe,) some parts of Asia and Australasia (PNG and Vanuatu, for instance,) is shine it on. Life is too precious and too short.

[This message has been edited by JDiver (edited Mar 17, 2004).]

I've been with wilderness safaris...they are truly awesome.

You will fly in small plane to Maun...in northern bostwana, after your flight from JNB to Gaborone.

Okavango Delta I stayed about 2-3 days...awesome birdwatching, be sure to go in one of those small wading canoes...

Then you can go to the other park, by the caprivi strip,, you get to see a lot of elephants, land animals, etc...

Victoria Falls is truly incredible...though Iguazu in So America is by far the best I have seen.

Definitely consider the antimalarials...but there are options other than Lariam. If you like, go back into the Africa posting...there is one for Kenya in Nov 2004 that I made that had some good info on this department.

Botswana, I hear, is better than Kenya as the groups are smaller... also more "wild".

I will go to Kenya in late Nov...so then I can compare....

Thanks for all the replies and advice! I have now been back since late August and can confirm that it was a magical trip and much different from our Kenya experience. Open vehicles and night drives were just some of the unique things about it but we also loved the smallish camps(8-15 people). I would HIGHLY recommend Wilderness Safaris and they have won a coveted eco award recently(Nat'l Geo?)-we were well taken care of yet really felt we were in the "bush." The River Club in Zambia was also a highlight. Since we were there in August, there were very few bugs to boot!

I have a free day during an upcoming trip to Africa and am considering a day trip from JNB to Gaborone to simply check it out. How is the infrastructure and will there be anything for me to do/see in about 6-7 hours? Perhaps a mall or local museum? Just want to set foot in Botswana and check it out a bit; perhaps I can return for a longer visit sometime in the future. Any thoughts on how easy it would be for me to do a day trip (airport taxi? finding a restaurant for lunch? immunizations needed for a day in Gaborone?), thanks!

I've only ever been to Gaberone on business a few times. It's a pleasant enough town but nothing to write home about. But then I wasn't looking for museums or anything else. Can say pretty confidently that anything resembling a mall is a very faint copy of anything you would normally call by that name. No problem getting a taxi or lunch. There are a couple of passable hotels including one a short way out of the city which has pleasant open air dining. Bugs aren't really an issue in Gabs and certainly not during daylight hours. I am not aware of any required immunizations.

As you are probably aware Gabs is just about on the SA border and quite far south of the really interesting bits of Botswana. IMO a random trip there is a pretty pointless exercise - but I haven't read a guide book and YMMV.