Hunter's Road (5)

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Inevitably, a short cut from Shoshong developed.

Instead of passing through Tati and Ramokgwebana, some travellers went directly north, through Tlhabala and along the eastern edge of Sowa Pan to Nata.

From here, the trail led northwest and then north to the watershed, intersecting the Hunter's Road at Ngwahla Pan.
This short cut came to be known as the Western Old Lake Route.


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Modern roads and fences have made the route from Shoshong and Tlhabala to Nata difficult to find; thus, the route we're describing begins at Nata and uses existing roads to get you to the border and Ngwahla Pan.


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Hunter's Road (4)

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Eventually, when early 20th-century politics dictated the need for defined international borders, the commissioners responsible could find no more expedient method for deciding the demarcation line than declare the wagon trail itself to be the boundary between Rhodesia and Bechuanaland.

And so it has been to this day.


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Hunter's Road (3)

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Hunter's Road was both a vital trade artery to the heart of Central Africa and the first major tourist route.


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Mpandamatenga was situated in a cool, well-watered area at the southern limit of the tsetse fly's range.

Visitors to the Victoria Falls, who came in ever-increasing numbers as the year passed, typically left their horses and oxen in the care of Westbeech at Mpandamatenga before setting off on foot to visit that remarkable site.


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Hunter's Road (2)

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Livingstone's early explorations had created great interest in the Zambezi and the surrounding area, and by 1860s traders and explorers were visiting the river in increasing numbers.


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Usually, they took the road to Bulawayo and then turned northwest at Ramokgwebana to follow the watershed.

In 1870 or 1871 an English trader by the name of George Westbeech began trading with the Lozi in Barotseland (now Western Zambia) and found it convenient to follow the route from Ramokgwebana to the northeast.


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Eventually, he established a residence and trading store at Mpandamatenga, and two more stores at Leshomo and Kazungula.
He also began to improve the wagon trail from the southeast.
The trail was extensively used in the next 20 years or so and became known as the Hunter's Road.


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Hunter's Road (1)

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This is the name given to a wagon road used extensively in the latter half of the 19th century to move supplies and trade goods over the northern part of what is now Botswana - from South Africa's Witwatersrand to the banks of the Zambezi at Kazungula.


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It is part of a network of routes that early explorers and travellers in this part of Africa developed to help them penetrate the hinterland.


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Shoshong, the Ngwato capital, was a major centre, and it was from there that the road to the north departed.

On the way it passed through Tati Town to Marula.


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Chobe: Savute, Mababe & Nogatsha (7)

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Even without water from the Chobe, Savute remains a place of enchantment and singular beauty, and it still boasts one of the greatest concentration of animals in southern Africa.


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It certainly is a place not to be missed.

A portion of Chobe National Park is the area around Nogatsha and Tchinga in the east.


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Visitors are encouraged to visit this area, partly to take pressure off the Chobe River front and partly, as development take place and access improves, because it is a really interesting area of the park that has been largely forgotten.


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In the south are the Chinamba Hills - no development or campsites there - with a number of Stone Age sites, and there are several pans  in the vicinity.


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Around Nogatsha itself, there is much "black-cotton" soil, which is really difficult to drive over when it is wet; at other times of the year, it is an amazing place with a mix of vast grassland and woodland and plenty of game.


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Chobe: Savute, Mababe & Nogatsha (6)

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We know from the accounts of early explorers that the Channel was flowing in the 1850s and until about 1880.


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At that time, the flow ceased and the Channel remained dry until the mid-1950s, when it inexplicably began to flow again.


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Since then, it has "switched" on and off several times.
It is this quixotic pattern that explains the dead trees to be seen in the Channel.


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No convincing reason for this paradoxical flow pattern has been proved.
Maybe, the most likely candidates are tectonic instability, which may be tilting surfaces first in one direction and then in another, and the coincidence of high flood levels in both the Chobe River and the Zambezi  - which backs up along the Chobe.


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You'll find San rock art at several places within the Gubatsha Hills; national park staff will be able to show you where.


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