I loved Botswana – I plan to go back and spend a month exploring it in depth, some day. It’s the size of Texas and only has about two million people, so it’s one of the least densely populated countries on earth – a vast piece of unsettled, almost pristine Africa.

Seventy percent of it is covered by the Kalahari desert – the rest is thick with elephants.

When it gained its independence from the UK, Boswana was one of the poorest nations on earth, but now it’s one of the richest, safest and best-governed countries in Africa. A real success story.

See its northern tip there on the map? Four countries come together in the middle of the mighty Zambezi River there – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia.

The “four corners” spot is just a little ways upstream from the legendary Victoria Falls. If you go see it, prepare to be completely soaked, even if you’re viewing it from 500 yards away.

We stayed near the falls, on the Zambia side – few people venture across the river into Zimbabwe these days – it’s unsafe.

Zebras wander the hotel grounds. They’re certainly charming, though horses smell better.

Victoria Falls is a bit like Niagara, except yellow, four time wider, and teeming with crocs and hippos.

We took a day-trip across the river into Botswana’s Chobe National Park, stopping for a few minutes to enjoy the sensation of having our butts in four countries at once. It’s certainly an efficient way to grow your “countries I’ve visited” list, though it’s cheating, of course.

At the Botswana-Zambia border we encountered a line of trucks several miles long, waiting to cross the river into Zambia. The slow ferry could only take two trucks at a time, so the wait was months long. As a result, a community of sorts has sprung up to service the truckers. The trucking companies will not operate in Zimbabwe – too much hijacking, so they are willing to pay their truckers salaries while they wait. And wait.

We came across the remains of a dead elephant. Our guide told us a story about it.

“The elephant got sick, and found a small island on which to die.”

“The lions could smell it, so two of them swam across the swamp and feasted. They happily hollowed out the elephant from the inside, until there was nothing left but the skin. They were there for several days.”

“Of course, when they tried to leave the island, the crocs ate the lions.”

He grinned. “Circle of life, yes?”