3,343 km, twice as many photos, unlikely encounters, an unforgettable journey!

Once upon a time, a couple made the slightly crazy decision to contact Julie and Vincent for their first safari in a fully equipped 4×4. It turned out that this slightly crazy decision allowed them to experience the most incredible part of their entire trip!

Before leaving

In November 2022, we decided that Botswana would be our next destination! We discovered the Tawana Self Drive website and immediately contacted Julie and Vincent. We may be travelers, but we are far from being adventurers: this will be a first for us. Responsive, reassuring, and informative, we are now set to embark on an incredible 16-day trip next March. All that’s left to do is count down the days.

To tide us over, a month before departure, we received a 90-page file with all the information about our trip and lots of advice! We can’t wait.

On the agenda

• Victoria Falls: Simply magical. You feel tiny (and very wet…! Don’t forget your poncho, and even then, you’re guaranteed to get wet!)
• Chobe and its river, where you can see animals at water level
• Savuti: two incredible memories, the first with a lion father dragging a wildebeest for his three cubs and the lion mother bringing up the rear. The second was when we got stuck in the mud. We stayed calm, got out the sand plates, and managed to get out. We laughed a lot (afterwards :) ).
• Khwai and its leopards
• Baines Baobab: wow. Probably the most incredible night of our lives.
• Nxai: a superb region where we saw everything: elephants, zebras, springboks, oryx, otocyons, bee-eaters, rollers, and more. Only the cats didn’t want to join the party. According to the locals, it seems that a storm had scared them away.
• Makgadikgadi, where we counted zebras when we arrived, but as they were in the middle of their migration, we quickly stopped.

The essential elements

• The agency, Tawana Self Drive: professional, responsive, attentive.
• The 4×4: practical, well-equipped, indispensable, it goes everywhere (well, except once, thanks to the sand plates).
• The camps: comfortable or basic, unforgettable experiences. Our favorite: Baines Baobab.
• The roads: um, which ones? Oh yes, the two tire tracks on the ground. The MapsMe app proved to be super useful, as did the maps available for purchase at the various park gates.
• The wildlife: incredible, rich and varied, fascinating.
• The landscapes: river, forest, dried-up lake, savannah, never the same.
• The meals: lost in the middle of nowhere, around the campfire in the evening. Well, we relied too much on wood and didn’t think about charcoal when we first stocked up: that meant we had a few evenings without a campfire. The second time we stocked up, we didn’t make the same mistake!
• And let’s not forget the hammock for afternoon naps!

The downsides, if there were any: The 6,000 photos to sort, organize, and edit :D

Mix all these ingredients together and you get the most incredible and fascinating trip we could have had. Julie and Vincent’s impeccable preparation greatly contributed to making it the experience of a lifetime! Thank you again.

Published on: 5 April 2023