Maun, Botswana A True Frontier Town



The location of Maun, Botswana in southern Africa



Maun, Botswana is a dusty African frontier town referred to as the gateway to Botswana’s world class safari circuit offering the best wildlife viewing you will ever experience. This dusty town has the atmosphere of a village but is actually Botswana’s fifth largest city with over 50,000 inhabitants and contains an eclectic mix of modern buildings and grass huts. Maun is situated at the southern end of the Okavango Delta, sprawling for miles along the wide banks of the Thamalakane River where red lechwe are sometimes seen grazing next to local donkeys, goats, and cattle. The Thamalakane River emanates from the Okavango Delta without a well defined beginning and is commonly dry, but has been flowing since 2009 and was filled with water during our visit. Every night of our stay in Maun we were serenaded to sleep by the chorus of 13 different frog and toad species that make their home within the river’s waters (see video at the bottom of this blog to hear the night chorus of frogs).



Red lechwe at a watering hole outside of Maun

Maun has a reputation as a hard-living 'Wild West' town catering to the local cattle ranching and hunting industries.With the explosion of tourism in tandem with completion of a tar road from southern Botswanan population centers in the early 1990s, Maun has developed swiftly, losing much of its old town character. As the hub of northern Botswana’s tourism industry its raw edge is evident. Grizzled hunters and khaki-clad guides amble from supply stores, big 4X4 trucks grind their way into the bush full of tourists heading out on safari, and the local tribesmen still bring their cattle to market in Maun. Contrast this with the fact that the internet connection speeds at the Maun airport were the fastest we encountered during our African travels.

Aerial photo showing Maun sprawling along the Thamalakane River

Although Maun is growing as a tourist hub and as the business supply center for the mineral extraction industry of northwestern Botswana, there’s still little to do in the city and most travelers find that over-nighting in Maun while waiting to start their safari offers enough time for exploring the city. We, however, spent some time in Maun attending to business and found that our stay overlapped Botswana’s independence holiday. A holiday of much importance to Botswanan’s including those in Maun and celebrated with much partying and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The quaint and interesting camping hostel we stayed in, the Old Bridge Backpackers run by Brits, was packed with expats celebrating the holiday. It was a strange scene of old and young white Botswanans, safari guides, bush pilots, medical technicians, and such in various stages of inebriation. One crusty old bush pilot exclaimed how he wasn’t sure who Botswana had gained independence from since the country had never been occupied as a colony. Rather Botswana was a British protectorate, the Brits having been invited by the Botswana government to protect the county from Boer refugees fleeing South Africa during that country’s Boer Wars of the 1880s and 90s. The Boers were the descendants of the original Dutch colonists of South Africa and at the time were battling Britain for control of South Africa. Our holiday evening at the Old Bridge proved entertaining, and was full of colorful conversation with fascinating strangers.

Maun offers few adventures for visiting tourist, but if you find yourself in Maun with time on your hands consider hiring a guided trip into the Okovango Delta in traditional dugout canoes. It is a quest worth investigating. Visit us next week to read about one such exciting trip into the delta taken by GrassTrack Safaris.

Night Chorus of Frogs & Insects, Maun: