Alex Yates

When I was in my late teens, and early twenties I had the privilege of spending my holidays in Botswana.

My delight, fascination, and joy for this great country was revived when I saw the first episode of Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency on HBO. This series is based on the books of Alexander McCall Smith which I read when they were first published. I felt this writer really knew the country of Botswana and it's people. The series hits the right note and is exactly as I remember it. As the last work of the famed Oscar winning Director Anthony Minghella , it is a tribute both to him and to the land and people of Botswana.

Botswana is in Southern Africa, the capital City is Gaberone and is in the South East of the Country. Botswana is a democratic nation with little of the political turbulence seen in several of it's neighbouring countries. Botswana is home to the Kalahari Desert, The Chobe Game reserve, the Okavango Delta, and The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. All of these areas are home to an extraordinary collection of Game and birds.

I was lucky enough to get chosen to Safari for 2 weeks with a convoy of Vetenarians during a time when the border with Zambia and what is now Zimbabwe was tense and closed to Tourists. During this Safari, we camped in the middle of Chobe Game reserve and received a night visit from a full grown rhinoceros who wandered through the camp leaving footprints and dung but without pulling out a single tent peg! I had the honour of seeing the horizon at dawn, black, from one side to the other with a herd of Wildebeast, it will live in my memory forever.

The Okavango Delta is an amazing network of little rivers you navigate in dug-out canoes, (the guides do the paddling!) where I saw the most incredible collection of exotic birdlife, Truly a birders paradise! Chobe Game reserve is known for it's large population of Elephant and one of the last places in the world where the African Wild dog still lives in it's natural habitat.

These days Botswana is often regarded as Africa's best Safari Destination and for good reason! Traditional Luxury camps are much more sophisticated and safe than when I went, but you go to Botswana for the experience of Untamed Africa, of vast expanses of land virtually untouched by man and by the opportunity to get up close and personal to a huge range of animals and birds in their natural habitat.

Contact me to find out about how to find your own memories of this fantastic destination!