UKC

I've just returned from a two week tour of both. Fascinating countries and really nice people. Botswana is dead flat and a mixture of bush and desert with the huge expanses of the Okavanga Delta, where we did a 3 day camping trip in Mokoro pole pushed dug outs. It's absolutely teeming with wild life including hippos, elephants and lions which we heard roaring a night from our camp. Did a 45 min flight over the Delta in a light plane and it's huge. The other interesting feature is the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan which is also huge and normally a flat expanse of dried salt, but this year its had rained and has turned into a vast inland salt lake.

I don't believe there is any climbing in Botswana because it's so flat.

In Zimbabwe we visited the Motobos hills which are granite and a mass of granite boulders . If it was allowed it would be a bouldering paradise, but as it's a National Park I don't know if this is permitted? Again it's teeming with wild life including Rhino and we met a six man anti poaching patrol armed with AK47s who operate a shoot to kill policy against poachers. These hills are beautiful and Cecil Rhodes' grave is there on a granite dome surrounded by boulders.

Poverty is very evident in the country which has run out of money, and we found many ATM's could not provide money. In spite of this the crime rate is apparently very low and both Botswana and Zimbabwe have generally law abiding populations. They both desperately need more tourists to boost their economies. The Zimbabwe Police set up numerous road blocks to catch motorists and are really picky about speeding, wearing seat belts, and well maintained lights. On the spot fines of up to $20 US for just a minor infringement Between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, approx 350 K, we were stopped in 17 different road blocks!!

The Victoria Falls are stunning. Again I don't know if there is any climbing in the gorges when the river levels are lower, but there is a lot of Adrenalin sports like white water rafting, bungee jumps, bridge swings and zip wires all of which are mega expensive.....

In reply to Trangia:

Mrs Diluted lived in Botswana for four years, two of them on a game farm in the middle of nowhere. She speaks very favourably about it, despite having puff adders in the toilets, scorpions under the pillows, leopards on the doorstep and crocodiles at the end of the garden.

In reply to DerwentDiluted:


Yeah saw a few of them, although being mid winter the snakes and scorpions are mostly in hibernation. It was much colder than I had been expecting. Only just above freezing near Bulawayo, although that's at an altitude similar to Ben Nevis.

In reply to Trangia:

Yes she hankers to go back. She taught in Gaborone for two years then married a South African Hunter (not me!) and moved into the bush on the Limpopo hence the Crocodiles at the bottom of the garden. She has loads of stories, including watching hundreds of elephants at night on the salt pans, and running barefoot on a landing strip amongst Giraffes. It seems amazing she survived as every five minutes she seemed to encounter a spitting cobra, black mamba or honey badger, but as she said, she had a husband with a gun for every occasion.

In reply to Trangia:


Does the lizard man (or, more likely, his son by now) still feed the agamas for the tourists?

There's loads of potential for great climbing in Zim, from Chimanimani in the Eastern Highlands to the granite koppies in the Great Dyke Range in Mashonaland. I had a week in Mutorashanga decades back (the local Mountain Club had bolted loads of lines and many were awaiting second - or, in some cases, first - ascents.) We did routes easily as good as anything in South Africa.

Sadly, the effects of HIV was already very evident on the tobacco farm where we camped and this, combined with Mugabe's campaign of intimidating white farmers off their land, has , I think, destroyed the climbing scene we met.

I should dig out the slides from that trip and get them scanned and uploaded. There were a lot of first and second ascent pictures on some really beautiful crags.