African Adventurer’s Guide: Botswana, by Mike Main.

African Adventurer’s Guide: Botswana, by Mike Main.

African Adventurer’s Guide: Botswana, by Mike Main.

Mike Main's African Adventurer’s Guide is not a comprehensive guide to all the places of interest in Botswana. It is, instead, a guide to the country's wilder regions that lie off the beaten track, and is aimed mainly at independent travellers with their own 4x4 vehicles and a penchant for adventure.

Mike Main  

In his preview Mike Main writes: It was originally published in 1987 as Visitors' Guide to Botswana, co-authored by John and Sandra Fowkes. I took over the project in the mid-1990s, and in the preface to the third edition I wrote: In the decade and a half of my time here I have seen significant changes, many of them a source of concern. Fuelled by diamond wealth, the country is rapidly hauling itself out of the 18th century and into the 21st with all the social, economic and political difficulties associated with such a traumatic shift. For a people who traditionally saw wild animals only as a food resource, their aesthetic value is presently of marginal concern. Due to a combination of factors such as veterinary fences, devastating drought, poorly controlled hunting and, above all, man's steady encroachment into the Kalahari, wildlife numbers have dramatically collapsed and animals are now largely confined to reserved areas. It is unlikely that populations will ever recover to former levels. Well, things are looking up. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) is improving its service. Recent game censuses indicate that numbers are increasing.

However, these very successes contain within them a new and unforeseen threat. To many, the unigue attraction of Botswana is the freedom of its uninhabited (or sparsely inhabited) wilderness: here it is possible to experience, in unfettered isolation, the vastness of Africa. Like everything else, though, this is changing. 'Use it or lose it,' we all used to cry, decades ago. 'Make it pay or it will be lost, 'we said. So, recently, in pursuit of just this kind of thinking, large chunks of Botswana have been identified (and old areas rationalised), turned into concession areas and rented out, at very high rates, to the highest approved bidders. These concession holders, therefore, must invest and develop their concessions in order to create the large revenues needed to sustain the whole operation. As a result, public right of access to these areas is controversial, to say the least. Almost all of the Okavango and much of Chobe District is covered by concessions or national parks, and the right of independent travellers to go where they will, without payment, is now less sure, more open to question

 To protect its wilderness, Botswana has engulfed and, inevitably, changed it. Soon, enjoying the freedom of the past will become a very expensive experience indeed. This must be progress! Despite this, there are still huge areas of true wilderness; any place along the way where one chooses to stop is a campsite (provided it is not in a concession area!). Like elsewhere, bureaucracy and regulations understandably blanket the national parks and game reserves, but there is as much to enjoy outside these places as there is within. While the Okavango is now largely available only if you are prepared to pay for it, Makgadikgadi, the vastness of the Kalahari, Tsodilo Hills, Gcwihaba Caves, fossil rivers, ancient dune-fields and remote and beautiful woodlands all still await you. But be quick. Kubu Island is now under the management of the local community; Tsodilo looks set to follow quickly. I suspect Gcwihaba will not be far behind. In a way, this is right and necessary.

A decade ago, there was talk of a commercially organised millennium party at Kubu with tens of thousands of guests! I can understand why - it is the most perfect setting for such an occasion - but can you imagine the environmental impact of so many people? Botswana remains special because its wilderness is still seductive; it still whispers the call to excitement, adventure, challenge and self-discovery. But it is not going to stay that way for long. Lastly, remember too, as Sandra Fowkes once wrote:

Of those who consult this book, those who seek the soul solace of earth untrammelled by city man, I ask only this: Be thoughtful of your actions that you might not so selfishly enjoy and use the wild areas that you destroy or change them for those who will follow you. Mike Main.

This is an excerpt from the book:  African Adventurer’s Guide: Botswana, by Mike Main.

Title: African Adventurer’s Guide: Botswana
Authors: Mike Main
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Travel and Heritage
Cape Town, South Africa 2010
ISBN 9781770078857 / ISBN 978-1-77007-885-7
Softcover, 14x21 cm, 304 pages, throughout colour photos

Main, Mike im Namibiana-Buchangebot

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