BOT to SA - Where's the Bridge?

We woke to a very cool morning overlooking the Limpopo River and decided to rethink our plans now in search of a little warmth. We discovered access to the game viewing roads at Tuli Game Reserve was only via staying at a private camp and doing their organized game drives so we abandoned that plan and decided to head back to South Africa and take a slow cruise back to Weenen.

Crossing the Botswana – South Africa border was an adventure as in between the two countries is the Limpopo River and no bridge.  From the Botswana side, you could see the road into the river and the road out with the section in between covered by water – depth unknown.  We parked at the river edge and couldn’t actually believe that was the road ahead.   We chatted to some other travelers who had just crossed the river from the SA border who told us about their trailer that had floated across!!  What a daunting experience driving into a river….but what a highlight as we emerged with only a damp floor mat.

We decided a great place for an overnight would be camping at Tshipise where there are hot spring pools….and arrived to a sea of caravans in the campsite who hadn’t left a blade of grass to spare for our Landy amongst the 370 camping spots!  They were filled with caravans equipped to be homes away from home including just about any gadget that opens and closes including satellite dishes.  Some even had privacy screening to enclose their area, which were filled with kids, parents and grandparents.  Tshipise offered everything from relaxing in the warm baths to horse riding, game drives, touch rugby, action cricket, mini golf, trampolining and jukskei.   There was a real sense of family everywhere you looked. 

We saw hundreds of stunning old baobab trees in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  

After Etosha, Moremi and Chobe, we seemed to be suffering from game viewing withdrawl symptoms so decided to head to Kruger for our last couple of days and hope there was space for us amongst all the SA kiddies on school holidays.  No space at any of the campsites and fortunately there was a cancellation at the Shipandani Hide so we booked it for our first night as probably not quite so popular in winter for the non-campers.  For the non SAers, a hide is a wooden structure overlooking a waterhole where you can sit “hidden” and watch the animals drinking.  This one is open to the public by day and takes those wanting to be just that little bit closer to the elements by night.   They give you a mattress, linen, and crockery.  There are pull down bed frames and the rest is just turning the hide and braai areas into your home for the night!

We arrived at the hide with three ellies and lots of hippo to greet us.  Any noises we made seemed to set the hippos off on a “barking” frenzy and they always sounded like they were on the other side of the fence to us.  Check out time was 6.30am so we were up just as the hippos were returning to the waterhole for the day.  Luckily our paths didn’t cross!

We continued to head South through Kruger getting us closer to Weenen.  We luckily got a camping spot at Letaba so enjoyed the day exploring the back roads and saw lots of ellies, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, hippos and the highlight of the day was 3 hyenas snoozing by the side of the bridge and a leopard leaping across a pool of water.  

Kruger offers lots of other activities for the safari enthusiast…bush walks, morning/ afternoon/ sunset/ night drives, evening nature movies…so a great place to learn about the animals and the bush...unlike Botswana where living in the wilds of the bush gives you that first hand learning experience.