Maun life

I have decided to put up a couple of posts with pictures of my moments in Maun, Botswana and then another post later on of life in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

It is my feeble attempt for curious readers to try and picture what life is like for ex-patriots/pilots living at these two African destinations.

The above shot is from the cafe Bon Arrivee in Maun looking across to the airport main entrance.

Believe it or not this hippopotamus is near the centre of Maun in the Thamalakane river.

My view and a lot of other ex-patriots would agree with me is that Maun is a dusty frontier like town that is over run by donkeys with absolutely no road sense (you can't say you have lived in Maun until you have been in a car accident involving a donkey).
Over on the right is the main Bus station in Maun if you can call it that.

Speaking of donkeys the residents of this house is a family of donkeys near the Sedia Hotel.

On the right there is about to be a boat race (I won't go into detail) between two operators. I also won't mention names. This is taken at Sitataunga camp, pilots are no longer welcome at this establishment...it's too far out of town anyway.

I know my pictures in this post don't really show it but Maun is basically a desert 8 months of the year. But when it finally gets around to raining it bloody rains. This is the Delta Air office underwater in one afternoon downpour.

On the right is the typical uncoordinated lay out of Maun seen from above.

The evening sun setting through the horrendous dust/smoke haze that is present a good half of the year.

Yes on the right that is town supply tap water....hmmm good for cleaning out ones bowels.

As you can see with this really early model Land rover it isn't rated in the standard 'horse power' but this is rated in 'Donkey power'.

It's good to see 2 donkey's actually working instead of standing around on the roadsides trying to commit suicide.

Christmas dinner got a little out of control especially when the Zebras started dancing.

An earlier Christmas was even more primitive. Ignore the date it was Christmas day. Trying to cook Christmas dinner on a fire whilst raining...hence the half of canoe substituting as a fire cover.

The standard way that food is cooked all over the continent of Africa on a charcoal or wood fueled bbq (Braai if you lean towards South Africa. They are mostly constructed from scrap steel...but in times of desperation anything can be substituted as long as it doesn't burn. Great excuse to invite mates around to drink beer.

These 4 New Zealanders/fellow kiwis stayed at our place in Maun for about 4 days as they rode motorbikes up the length of Africa. They made the whole trip into a documentary called 'African odyssey'

And when boredom kicks in all of us boys are still boys underneath especially when it comes to entertainment.
Ok I know it was brief but they were some of my relatively PC (politically correct) pictures from my days in Maun.

Also check out:

www.africanbushpilot.com