Makgadikgadi Pans, the Boteti River (5)

After passing Rakops on your way north, take the opportunity to turn east anywhere for a kilometre or two and explore the banks of the Boteti.

Wet or dry, it is an extraordinary place.

Drive over a few hundred metres of short grass to the edge of the tree line.



A fringe of giant but dead Acacia erioloba (drought-dead due to a falling water table as the Boteti dried) brings you to the edge of the riverine forest.
It is followed by more trees and shrubs and then the river itself; park and walk this last short bit.
Whether it is wet or dry (it was a full river in 2010, but fell short of Rakops by some 15 km), it is a remarkable sight.




More remarkable still is that on the brief trip from the tar to the river bank, you cross first the old calcrete road, and then, just before the river you will cross a very narrow but deeply entrenched track.
Maybe this is the remains of the original, historical track along the Boteti, a track used by Livingstone and all those who followed him.

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