Wessie having returned from a private tour through Botswana had a wonderful time and has this to share with you... The 12 day tour started off in Johannesburg – the city of gold.  Our first stop was a half day tour in Soweto which is one of the largest townships in SA. We also stopped at a local, newly opened bar and restaurant and had a very delicious traditional braai with boerewors, lamb chops, salsa, pap etc. after lunch we had a walk through Vilikazi Street where Desmund Tutu and Nelson Mandela once lived.  Our last stop was the Hector Peterson memorial and museum.

The next morning we headed to Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Botswana.  We arrived there late in the afternoon and did a game drive to some of the pans in the reserve hoping to view some rhinos.  We were very lucky and saw plenty of bird life, also a lot of blue wildebeest, hartebeest, zebra and impala.  We were fortunate enough to have had a very good sighting of three white rhinos enjoying an afternoon dust bath near one of the waterholes.  So a lot of animals do roll in the mud or dust and covers their body with the soil for a few reasons but mainly to cool themselves down when too hot and also it helps them with control of ecto parasites like ticks.One of the best afternoons for me on this specific tour was when we visited the Makgadigadi saltpans in Nata Sanctuary.

I have been there a few times before but this time was really different.  It had been raining quite hard in the afternoon and so at first we thought we would have to cancel our trip in fear of getting stuck, but it stopped raining for a few minutes and we did take a chance.  When we got to the gate we actually saw that in that specific area, only about 20 minutes from the lodge we stayed and it was raining cats and dogs, it haven’t really rained too much and the soil is still good to drive on.  On our way to the viewing platform we also saw a few birds, jackals and also some blue wildebeest.  The best view of the pan awaited when we got there, it is filled with water and there was a few pelicans on the water and also flying over and of course the flamingos that was standing in the shallow sides.

But it was the area around that was most spectacular….all around us the sky was covered in black clouds and one could see the thunder storms happening on the horizon while we were standing in the clear with open sky above us.  It was really any photographers dream to take photos of that moment.  Definitely my favourite!
The end, or the beginning as some says because there hasn’t been too much rain just yet, of the raining season in Botswana is definitely something to look forward to, seeing everything change just before winter is going to set in.

Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are the largest salt pans in the world covering an area of over 15 000 km2 and display a unique expanse of landscape with fascinating natural scenic beauty. It has a dramatic geological and climatic history in the sense that in its initial stages of development, it was one of the largest inland sea in the world covering over 275 000 km2. It is one of the most diverse in terms of ecological habitats ranging from the Lesser and Greater Flamingo breeding and feeding area to one of the most spectacular zebra-wildebeest migration on Earth as they move from Boteti River to Chobe during dry season.