Moremi Gorge

Waterfalls in Botswana?  In a country of sandy, dry, flat land the prospect of seeing a waterfall and mountains was very enticing.  I had heard of a place called Moremi Gorge near Palapye, of course it was not on any maps or road signs, so I made a trip to the Botswana Tourisim office in Palapye.  They gave me directions typical of those I have received since arriving in Bostwana: “Go down this highway here (pointing), turn right at the billboard with all the villages on it, drive down that road for awhile past the first sign to Moremi.  Turn right at the brown sign for Moremi village, take that road until it ends at the Kgotla [village civil court] and then someone there will help you.”  Okay seemed easy enough. 

We (Gelane, Dany, and I) set out on a hot Saturday morning (temp according to the car’s outside thermometer was 38C or 100 F at 10:30 am and promised to climb higher.  After a relatively uneventful drive during which we passed very few other cars or people, but many cows and donkeys, we arrived at the village.  There were plenty of houses (mostly traditional huts), many cows, and 2 boys sitting in the shade sharing an MP3 player.  The road we were traveling on ended at a building, which the boys informed us was in fact the kgotla.  But no one was there.  We asked the boys which way to the gorge, but they had no idea and said they did not speak English (though they did know enough English to ask us for money).  So we parked the car and set off to find some people.  After many false starts and many people who did not know what we were talking about, we finally found a man who knew.  He went off to find the manager of the kgotla.  She opened the building had us register, (the last visitors were a week before – no wonder they don’t staff the building 24/7), charged us an entrance fee (30 pula ($4.50) each and 30 pula for the car) and asked if we wanted a guide (another 30 pula).  Given the fact that when she pointed out the “road” to the gorge we questioned what had led her to call the grass with the faintest of tire tracks a road, we thought a guide would be a good idea.  She went off to find one and 15 min later brought back “Charles.”  Charles was a cheery guy with a nice smell of alcohol on his breath and very minimal ability to speak English, but we were not exactly in a position to be picky.  1.5 hours after arriving in the village we were on our way. 

"The road"

Charles pointed us toward the hills and, with me driving my trusty CRV, we set off for adventure.  After about 2 mins. we got to a dry riverbed with a relatively steep hill, I was skeptical but one Charles just kept saying “go” so I went.  The drive was a good test of the car’s four-wheel drive capabilities and it did amazingly well through the sand, rocks, brambles and amongst the cows.  30 min later we reached a point where we could go no further.  Thank god for Charles because there was not a single sign other than one saying “please don’t litter” randomly placed among the trees.  Parking the car among the trees we got out and began to hike, again with no trail or signs we were very lucky to have Charles. 

The landscape was like nothing else I have seen in Botswana.  We were among mountains with lots of lush trees.  We reached the first of the waterfalls without difficulty, though we were dripping with sweat the second we stepped out of the car and wishing that we had brought more than 3 (½ liter) water bottles. 

 “The waterfall” was probably one of the smallest I have seen and yet it was incredible given the landscape in the rest of the country.  A small pool had formed beneath it and throwing cool water on our faces proved to be very refreshing.  We sat happily for a few mins dunking our feet in the water, walking along the edge of the pool, and enjoying the cool breeze.  Then Charles informed us that this was only the first of the waterfalls we could visit.  He began to scale the rock face on one side of the pool and crawl along the edge of the rock. We were very skeptical, there was not much to hold on to and falling meant landing on pointy rocks many feet below but we had come for adventure so we crawled after him.

 Crawling along the cliff was not as bad as we had thought looking up at it and we reached the second waterfall without much problem.  We then climbed higher into the mountains scaling rocks and oftentimes having to swing our legs up one at a time to reach the next level, luckily we are all pretty tall and taller than our 57 yr old guide, so if he could do it….

 The view was amazing some of the prettiest mountains I have ever seen.  I even discovered Botswana’s equivalent to poison ivy.  One tiny brush with the leaves of this plant and you get a burning sensation unlike any I’ve ever experienced.  A min later there is a swelling (as if you have been bitten by a mosquito) with some surrounding redness.  But luckily, unlike poison ivy, the effect only lasts a few hours and there is no subsequent itching.  Of course after I screamed upon touching the plant Charles said “no touch that one.” Oops. 

Don't touch this one...

After the third waterfall we were beyond thirsty and Charles assured us that we could drink from the waterfall (after all it is a spring).  I was very skeptical, but it was nice and cool and the few sips I had did not cause any problems (and after a few days I can say this with confidence ;)  Ironically the only markers we found on the trail were at the top of the mountain – orange arrows pointing one direction or another with no discernable path to follow. 

After the third waterfall the path was completely covered and Charles decided that it was not a good idea to continue.  We were more than satisfied with all we had seen and anything he called dangerous was certainly not worth trying since what we had already done was “Go same” (Setswana for ok) and I thought it was questionable at points.  We made our way down carefully and all reached the car in one piece.  All in all, we had an amazing day and were wonderfully surprised to find such a beautiful oasis in the desert.