Our African Journal. Entry #4. Poverty? Heat?

One of the most frequent questions that we have gotten about our safari experience (besides the question about what we saw) is what the conditions were like. Were the accommodations okay? Was the weather really hot and dry? Was there a lot of poverty?

To many people in the western world, Africa conjures images of desert, heat, violence and poverty. And yes, there is probably plenty of that in many places in Africa. But Africa is a pretty big continent. And while we saw some of the desert and heat, we did not see the violence and poverty firsthand.  

(Pic from www.solarnavigator.net - Map of the world showing poverty as a % of the population)

Surprising, since so many in the region are poor. But the lack of poverty that we saw is probably due to the fact that we stayed mostly in tourist areas where there is more security and many of the facilities were up to western standards - complete with toilet paper. And I think with the exception of the recent situation in Zimbabwe, the southern countries have very little violence. 

Perhaps if we had gone to rural areas, we might have seen poverty even in Botswana, which I have found is the richest country in Africa with one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world. And thanks to its cattle and diamond industry, along with the booming tourism industry, they are now a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $16,450 in 2007 (according to Wiki).

Interestingly, we did see the stark differences between the three countries in the limited area we traveled to in the little time that we had there. Homes in Botswana were mostly built of concrete and modern building materials whereas many homes in Zambia and Zimbabwe were built out of sand from termite mounds with grass roofs. Furthermore, what caught my attention was that in Botswana, there were street lights lining the roads.   

But when it comes to accommodations in these countries, the poverty of the rest of the nation kinda doesn't come into the equation. No matter where you are staying, the accommodations are impeccable, when you pay western prices. It brings to mind, the hotels in Southeast Asia where the decor and service are nicer than in developed nations. For instance, the Sheraton in Bangkok was so much nicer than the Sheraton in Frankfurt. Maybe it's tied to the low wage, so that Sheraton Bangkok can employ more people than the Sheraton Frankfurt?  Similar to our experience in Southeast Asia, the decor and service of the places that we stayed at (especially in Botswana) were top notch. The service particularly was the the best bar none. 

Here's a picture of the common area at Kwetsani, our last camp. A couple posts down you can see a picture of our room at Duma Tau. Rustic, but pretty nice, eh?

As for the other question, was it really hot?

We went in the start of what is their winter. The days were pretty dry and hot with temperatures reaching up to 85 degrees or so. But the nights turned pretty chilly, going down to maybe 45 degrees at the coldest. Kinda like desert weather, although it's not completely a desert out there as you can see from the picture of Kwetsani, which is totally flooded.