2022 Botswana

After a couple of years of Covid-19 restrictions, some of the brakes came off travel in 2022. Only some, though; we may have been allowed to travel but airports and airlines weren’t exactly ready and things were testing.

For two weeks in July we were booked on a bucket list 2-week safari in Botswana organized by Explore!. We chose their tented safari which included a few days on a houseboat in the Okavango Delta, as well as sticking its toe into Zambia to see the Victoria Falls, before spending seven nights under canvass in the Chobe and Moremi game parks.

Having spent little money on travel in the previous two years, we lashed out on posh-class seats and flew out on Virgin Atlantic through Johannesburg. We departed Heathrow an hour late because the plane was short a pilot. The plane was also short by five cabin crew. I told you the airlines weren’t ready. With only 60 minutes at Jo’burg to make the connecting flight to Maun, we made a mad dash and made it. Our baggage did not hurry and we arrived in Maun luggage free, as did most other companions. Three of the companions didn’t make the connecting flight and were stuck in Jo’burg along with the luggage.

Happily we had a wonderful tour leader called Bibi who managed to sort things out. The tour went ahead smoothly after that and was wonderful. Tearing along roads of varying quality in a Toyota Landcruiser truck wasn’t smooth but it was good fun and, apparently, good exercise for the core. Bird life in the Okavango Delts was superb and the game parks were wonderful.

Start and Finish