Jude Nordhoff received a B.S. from Empire State College in social theory, social structure, and change and later earned an M.A. in adult education from the University of Wyoming. Currently, she works as an assistant area coordinator in the business, management, and economics area of study in the Center for Distance Learning.

Just after completing my Masters degree in 1996, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, Africa. Botswana lies in sub-saharan Africa and is roughly the size of Texas or France. The Kalahari Desert takes up approximately 2/3 of the country, and the majority of the 1.6 million people live along the eastern corridor. Botswana’s boundaries are Zambia to the north, South Africa to the south, Zimbabwe to the east, and Namibia to the west. It has a stable government and is rich in diamonds.

I was assigned to the Department of Wildlife Headquarters in the capitol of Gaborone to work with young adults who were fulfilling their national service obligation at the Department’s various game reserves and national parks, requiring me to travel regularly to observe and assist them in their duties. I couldn’t imagine a better assignment. Botswana is teeming with wildlife, including the Big Five: lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, and hippo. On any given day, I could be driving my 4 wheel drive vehicle along a narrow dusty road and have to stop for a herd of elephant or giraffe crossing the road. I would fall asleep in my tent listening to the night sounds of animals.


2006 – Ten years later, a Peace Corps colleague and I decided it was time to go back to Botswana. Gaborone, or Gabs, as it is commonly known, had developed a great deal in ten years. There were many new shopping centers with food courts and cinemas and retail shops! An immediate challenge was again having to drive on the left side of the road with a left-handed gear shift and reverse directionals and wipers in a city where people drive aggressively and where there are roundabouts about every two kilometers.

We spent the first three nights with our former Peace Corps trainer and her husband, who had retired in Botswana. Their beautiful home that they built themselves is from "Out of Africa." It sits high on a hill in Mokolodi game reserve and involves a half-hour rough drive in from the road over rocks and through a riverbed. The main house has lots of windows and doors and large patios overlooking the bush. On our first night driving in, we encountered two large rhino in the road that were busy eating grass; we had to wait until they were ready to move on.


We had decided to travel the country visiting our old “haunts.” The 700 km road from Gabs to Ghanzi via Kang is now completely tarred, but with the exception of goats, cows, and donkeys in the road, soon became mirage-like as there was nothing to see but straight, undulating road with scrub bush along the side. We spent two nights in Ghanzi along the Namibian border. It is a dusty "wild-west" kind of town which now boasts two actual supermarkets. The Kalahari Arms Hotel had unfortunately been renovated and looked more like a chain restaurant back home. We established camp at Thakabu Lodge and ate at the Rampant Aardvark bar with its resident "wild" cat that walked up and down the bar accepting pets from the patrons, and co-existed with a bat-eared fox named Basil. Delicious kudu stew for dinner. . .

From Ghanzi, we traveled 300 kms north to Maun, gateway to the Okavango Delta and safari camps. Maun was pretty much the same – a sprawling town with shops and takeaways and a small commercial area near the airport. We spent one night at Audi Camp where it poured rain all night and into the following morning when we had to break camp to catch our flight into Oddballs Camp in Moremi game reserve. Our small six-seater plane was arranged via Delta Air, who graciously took our muddied and dripping camping gear and dried it out and stored it for us until our return. Fortunately we were able to fly in as the reserve had been closed due to safari vehicles getting stuck in the muddy roads caused by the worst rainy season Botswana may have ever had. Just our luck--it never rained the entire two years we lived there!


Each day, we took walking safaris ("if you encounter a lion, don't run, stand your ground; watch for holes in the ground--snakes!" etc.) and mokoro (dugout tree bark) rides where our guide stood in the back and poled us through the delta, keeping a sharp eye out for hippo (very aggressive). Because of all the rain, we did not see as many animals as we would have in drier weather, but it was wonderful to walk upon a herd of giraffe and zebra and assorted antelope. In camp, we slept in a tent on a raised platform and in the lounge, two fruit bats hung overhead, coming and going at will.


We spent three nights at Oddballs and a night at Maun "Rest" Camp. Joyce, the owner, told us how her neighbor had frightened off a would-be burglar with three gunshots the night before and that it was now dangerous to sleep in a tent because robbers would slice through them. Immediately after having this conversation, we walked to our tent in the dark (no one else was camping there). Joyce had offered us her huge safari tent with very comfortable twin beds, etc., where I laid awake most of the night, hardly resting at all.


We then went north another 300 or 400 kms up the western panhandle of Botswana where we stopped in the village of Etshe 6 (there is also an Etshe 13) to buy some local baskets. Then through the Mohembo border post into Namibia, where we were met with 12 kms of untarred road, which had also brought 4x4's and semis to a halt because of mud and rain. Our friend, Joyce, had warned us about this too, but had called ahead on her "roger-roger" and gotten word that crews had been out working on and grading the road and thought we had a good chance of getting through. And we did, except that the middle area of the road was high and we heard some scary scraping sounds coming from under the car. I couldn't look!

Arrived at Mahangu Lodge and surprise, again because of the rains and flooded roads, a young man roger-rogered people at the camp to come out to pick us up (we left our car behind). This camp was beautiful with bright yellow chalets and grassy lawns and gorgeous flowers. The dining area was set up outdoors overlooking the Chobe River and amazing sunsets. The food was five stars. Felix arranged a game drive for us the following morning and we spent a second night there. A treat!


We then drove east another 300 kms or so along the Caprivi Strip with elephant warning signs the entire way (the Caprivi is a thin line in Namibia that separates Botswana from Angola), through the Ngoma border post and south into Kasane in Botswana, home of Chobe National Park, another major game reserve. Kasane is basically a one-street town with very high-end game lodges and clusters of thatched huts where the locals live. We found our old friend, Fiona, who works as an accountant at one of the game lodges. Fiona was in our Peace Corps group and never left! She arranged a game drive for us in Chobe, which had great animal viewing on the riverfront, but also tons of safari vehicles from all the lodges. Not good!!

After two nights in Kasane, we had to head back to Gabs, 900 kms south. We broke up the drive by stopping at Nata Lodge. The Nata sanctuary forms a breeding ground for thousands of birds, including pelicans and flamingo, but was unfortunately underwater and we couldn't venture in. A final night in a chalet in another area of Mokolodi that was operated by solar power; however, because of yet more rain, we were in the dark finding our way by torch – getting up during the night, I found toads hopping all over the floor and in the morning, one hopped out of Jane’s purse!

Then, it was a return flight from Gabs to Johannesburg to London to JFK and back to Saratoga. While it is always wonderful to return home, a large piece of my heart will always belong to Africa.

Jude's slide show: Images of Africa