Travel costs and information for Botswana - Kasane, Maun, Ghanzi

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (October 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and P (Botswana pula).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly P6.62=$1 and P10.79=£1.

Botswana

• Botswana does not really want independent travellers, especially ones on a budget.  This appears to actually be government policy rather than simply a side-effect of relatively high prices.
• There isn't much in the way of public transport, meaning that hitching is an accepted way of getting around. 
• A minibus here is called a kombi.
• People here are friendly and helpful, and in particular don't have the same wariness that I found in East Africa.

26th October 2009 I came in from Zimbabwe at the Kazungula Road border post.  A visa for Brits is free.  I was asked how many days I needed, and I went for 15.  You'll probably have to wipe your shoes on a disinfectant-soaked (?) rag.
26th October 2009 P3 Minibus from near the border to Kasane, taking about 20 minutes.  Though it's possible to get a minibus from the border, you'll increase your chances if you walk the 15-20 minutes to the main road - I caught mine about half way along.  This got really crowded!  Since I and another guy didn't have any pula, the conductor allowed us to pay $1 between us.


Kasane

• You would be advised to book accommodation before arriving, as there isn't much of it and it's spread all over the town, so traipsing around with luggage is not fun!
• None of the ATMs I tried here would accept my Mastercard ATM card, though it's possible I could have taken out money with it over the counter (this worked for me in Maun).
• Internet access is available for P25 per hour.
• Most people come here to do safaris in Chobe but, having already spent enough on safaris elsewhere, Kasane was simply an overnight stop for me.

26th October 2009 P410 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Liya Guest House, including TV and aircon.  You have to order your meals a couple of hours in advance, and service is slow.  Dinner is P72 - that would normally include meat, but you'll pay this price even if you ask purely for vegetables.  This place is a couple of km out of town on Plateau Road/Upper Road - I was told to be careful walking it because of elephants and buffalo.  Apparently a taxi from the centre of town to Liya should cost P10 but no cabbie would budge below P30 for me.  Phoning for a cab FROM Liya costs P20, or you can try to find a shared taxi (P3.2).
27th October 2009 P30 Taxi from Liya Guest House to the bus station.
27th October 2009 P54.4 (though I wasn't chased up for the P0.4) Minibus from Kasane to Nata (final destination Francistown), leaving at 5:50AM and taking 3 hours 40 minutes.  Note that this service is scheduled to leave at 6AM but will go when full - you might want to get there for 5:30AM to make sure.  There is at least one later service but if you're heading to Maun then that later service might get you to Nata too late to get a connection to Maun.  Keep an eye out for wildlife - I saw an enormous herd of elephants on this route.  You may have to get off at some point to disinfect your shoes.  Note that Nata "bus station" is actually a filling station that all buses/minibuses happen to stop at.

27th October 2009 P54.4 Bus from Nata to Maun, leaving at 11:10AM and taking 3 hours 20 minutes.  This bus arrived at Nata at 10:50AM - the wait was for the existing passengers to get food and/or go to the loo.  We had to stop for a passport check at one point.  Keep an eye out for wildlife on this leg too - I saw a lot of ostriches.


Maun

• None of the ATMs I tried here would accept my Mastercard ATM card, but I was able to take out money with it over the counter at Barclays - the only drawback was the ~20 minutes of queuing each time.
• Most of the accommodation is in Matlapaneng, about 7km from the centre of Maun.  A private taxi should cost about P30 and a shared taxi P4 but I was never able to find a shared taxi (the nearest I managed was when 1 other person was in the taxi and I paid P20, i.e. the fare for 5 people!)  You can also take a kombi (P2.75), or try hitching.  
• Note that getting to Old Bridge Backpackers requires a bit of a roundabout route by car, so taxis are quite likely to want to drop you at a point where you can walk through a shortcut. 
• Internet available for P30 per hour.
• The BP filling station near the bus station has a toilet that they will let you use (you need to ask for the key at the checkout). 
• To get to Windhoek, you can either fly (expensive), use the minibus company Tenna Express (charging Namibian $1250 (i.e. ~$170!) per person for a minimum of 2 people), hitch, or - as I did - go by public transport to Ghanzi and then hitch.  I also saw an upcoming service advertised at Old Bridge Backpackers that was offering a cheap ride to the border (can't remember the price but it was reasonable) - from there you can hitch or take public transport.

27th October 2009 P132 Nightly rate for a private chalet tent with shared bathroom at Old Bridge Backpackers (aka Back to the Bridge Backpackers).  The tent has just a light and a powerpoint - no mossie net, though there are plenty of mossies!  The restaurant/bar has a good atmosphere.  You can put everything on a tab.  There are also 2 dogs and a cat in residence.  This place offers all sorts of activities apart from mokoro (i.e. dug-out canoe) trips to the Okavango Delta (described below), e.g. horseriding is available for P200 per hour or P350 for 2 hours.  Internet available.  Note that the laundry is P35 per load, regardless of how much stuff, so don't just hand in 2 T-shirts (as I did ...) 
29th October 2009 P605 Mokoro day trip to Okavango Delta from Maun.  A motorboat took us to Boro (about an hour away), where we were allocated a poler (2 customers in each mokoro, plus the poler).  He poled us around for about 1 hour 45 minutes, then we stopped for an (included) packed lunch of 2 decent-sized sandwiches and an apple - no drink provided, so you would be advised to bring your own if you don't fancy drinking the delta water.  We then went for a nature walk for about half an hour, during which our poler described the uses of some of the plants - we also saw some zebras.  We were then poled back to a place we'd passed earlier, where we could have a cooling swim in the water.  After about an hour there, we were back at Boro, so there was about 4 hours of poling in total.  Note that the poler actually gets the best views of anyone, as when you're sitting in the mokoro you can pretty much only see reeds!  Our poler was paid P40 (!!) for this trip, i.e. P40 out of the P1,210 the 2 of us had paid, i.e. less than 4% of the cost.  I was rather disappointed to find this out, as Old Bridge Backpackers makes great play of the fact that they are in partnership with the polers' collective, whereas it sounds as though they're screwing the collective.  You might be better off trying to contact the collective directly - I think they're called the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust.  Apart from day trips, Old Bridge Backpackers also offers a 2 day trip (P770) or a 3 day trip (P990).  You can hire camping/cooking equipment for P132 per night.
Friday 30th October 2009 P88 Nightly rate for a (small) private room with shared bathroom at Old Bridge Backpackers (see 27th October 2009 entry for more information about this place). 
Saturday 31st October 2009 P40 Taxi from Old Bridge Backpackers to the bus station, stopping also at the airport.
Saturday 31st October 2009 P47.3 Bus from Maun to Ghanzi, leaving at 8:30AM and taking 4 hours 10 minutes.  Make sure you're there in good time - it was already half full at 8AM.  There's at least one stop for people to disinfect their shoes.  I think there's also a later bus at 2:30PM.


Ghanzi

• This is the last town before the border with Namibia, which is about 200km away on a good road.  A bus supposedly runs from here to the border at 1PM, but it seems to be rather erratic and will deposit you at the border quite late in the day to be able to get onward transport to Windhoek, so your best option is to hitch from Ghanzi.
• There doesn't seem to be much in the way of accommodation here, so if you're on foot you'd be advised to try to book in advance.

Saturday 31st October 2009 P20 Taxi from Ghanzi to the turn-off for Thakadu Camp.
Saturday 31st October 2009 P150 Nightly rate for a private tent with shared bathrooms at Thakadu Camp.  The turn-off for this place is 5km out of town (on the road to the border), with the camp itself a further 3km down a track that's in poor condition (my taxi driver refused to go down it).  Apparently you can phone the camp from the turn-off and someone will come to pick you up (some other guests gave me a lift).  It's run by an English guy and his South African wife, and there's a restaurant too.  It's also a good place to hunt for possible lifts to the border :-)