Traveling While Plant Based and Gluten-Free in Botswana and Zimbabwe

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I captured this butterfly drinking some nectar as we walked out of the park.
The view from the restaurant where we ate before heading back to Botswana.
Beautiful prints in the restaurant.
Zimbabwe was much more expensive than Botswana and Namibia, at least the part of Zimbabwe we visited. There were also a lot more tourists, and the menu prices were in US dollars.
This restaurant had two plant based options: a lasagna and a bean burger with salad and fries. I had never been so bummed to have a gluten allergy. I ordered the burger, took it off the bun, and transferred it to the salad. There were yummy mushrooms and onions on top of my burger.
Such a gorgeous view.

After our Zimbabwe adventure, we headed back to Kasane in Botswana.

When we got back to the lodge in Kasane, we ordered food from the same Indian restaurant. Turns out they had Chinese selections, too. I ordered fried rice and had avocado and carrot on the side from my stash. It was too salty, unfortunately, and I could not finish it, but I did finish the avocado and carrot!
I bought papaya at the grocery store and happily ate it the next morning.
There were baboons everywhere in the town of Kasane! They were like stray dogs or feral cats. Big families of them just climbing and walking all over the place!
There were also warthogs EVERYWHERE! This was outside of the hospital on the main road. When we went to the grocery store, we even saw them on the sidewalk! There is a peaceful co-existence between people and wild animals across the three countries we visited. It was lovely.
Early morning sunrise. We got up super early to go on a safari. Getting up early is a drag, but it’s ALWAYS worth an adventure!
On our way to Chobe National Park as the sun comes up.
We were greeted by many animals.
Coffee and tea in the bush. We stopped in an area deemed safe by our safari guide.
I wasn’t convinced a lion wasn’t going to join our tea party, especially when I had to walk a way to find a spot to pee under a tree without anyone seeing me. Luckily it all worked out.
Early morning in Botswana, looking out to Zimbabwe.
This is when you stop driving and just look on in awe. These lions were hanging out right in the middle of the road and were majestically beautiful.
Happy cats, wild and free.

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2 Comments

  1. Debra Chan on May 28, 2022 at 7:02 pm

    I was so lucky on my trip to Africa. We stayed in 3 different lodges and each one provided vegan meals for me! I had brought some items for snacks but rarely needed them. There was always cooked veggies, hot cereal and fruit for breakfast and all kinds of beans and lentils and all kinds of curry. Did you ever pee behind termite mounds? That was our go to hehe

    • Team Dirty - Brittany on May 28, 2022 at 7:19 pm

      Sounds like an amazing trip, Debra. Molly said they did not pee on any (lol!) but they saw thousands of them! The mounds changed colors as they drove through different regions of the countries. They also saw mounds that were 20 feet tall!

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