Tag Archives: Chobe National Park

Botswana with Kumuka: Our Overland Tour

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Since we had first come to South Africa in 2007, we had heard the great stories of people who had the opprotunity to visit Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Many had described the experience as magical, and once in a lifetime, but a trip there had always been out of reach for us because of the costs. Many had said that doing it on the cheap by on your own was no feasible and not worth the effort. However, to go the ‘proper’ way cost thousands of dollars for the flight to your 5 star resort/lodge in the Delta.

Alisa was determined to make it to Victoria Falls this time in Africa while I had made list of the Etosha Pan, the Delta, and Chobe on my list of things to do.  Upon looking at options for overland tours that would bring us to the Falls and incorporate the rest of our wish list, Alisa stumbled across numerous tours and organizations, but finally decided on Kumuka Worldwide, and their overland trip through Bostwana that originated in Victoria Falls and returned us to Joburg. It was also in our budget range, which made it seem like a great way for us to see three of our outstanding destinations.

Getting to Victoria Falls was half the fun, and you can read about our journey to Bulawayo and our train journey to Victoria Falls here.

For Botswana, we weren’t able to post updates as we went, so here is a recap of our journey with links below. We’ll add more days and we finish filling in the details on our notes of those days.

Best of Botswana Pictures

Enjoy!

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Kumuka: The Start of a Journey

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July 11

We set the alarms for 5am so that we could be ready for our 0630 pick up in order to meet up with the overland truck at Shoestrings. The next casualty of the trip was my quick try towel that got left in the shower hut this morning as. We had bought donuts from afternoon before and munched on those while waiting to get picked up and then in the minibus while we rounded everyone up.

We arrived at Shoestrings where we packed the truck, and we saw John and Christine that we had met the night before. We were quickly on the bus and headed off to the border. The Kumuka bus was a bright blue overland truck with a front cab with a driver, and a massive compartment about three feet off the ground where there was a bunk in the back and then two sets of facing chairs and a table on either side and then two rows of four at the front. The chairs aren’t terribly comfortable, but there’s lots of space. Sarah, our Australian tour guide sat up in the front cab with Jay, our English driver, who gained his experience in the British armed forces driving military trucks. There was a telephone that connected the front cab with the passengers that was used for communication while we were moving. Our bags were packed in compartments lining the side of the truck with the kitchen supplies, food and cookery, on the other side. On the back side of the truck, the compartment held the tents and cooking gas. Alisa and I and John and Christine were the only people just starting a Kumuka tour. The rest were made up of two groups that had already been on the road. The group that came with the truck, a group of 4 or 5 had come all the way from Nairobi, and the other group 6 or 7 had come up from Johannesburg through Mozambique. Continue reading →