Top Gear: Botswana Special

Top Gear: Botswana Special (2007)

In the ‘Botswana Special’, our intrepid explorers, attempting to reach the Namibian border, have to traverse arduous salt pans, do battle with the Kalahari desert, and see if they can navigate the foaming torrents of the Okavango Delta. This special is part of the Top Gear: The Great Adventures 2.

Date of release
2007-11-04
TMDB
8.3 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 6m
Genres
Documentary, Comedy
Director
James Bryce
Collection
Top Gear Specials Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Botswana

Top Gear: Botswana Special is a full-length, special edition episode for BBC motoring programme Top Gear, and was first broadcast on BBC Two on 4 November 2007, as part of the fourth episode of Series 10. The special sees hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, travelling across to Botswana with a car that each had bought in Africa for less than £1500, to prove that they can be better than SUVs for driving up "leafy country lanes". The Botswana Special was released as part of a 2-disc DVD boxset alongside the Top Gear: Vietnam Special on 23 March 2009.

Production

Filming of the episode included extensive planning of the route that was to be taken across the Makgadikgadi Pan; several weeks were spent trying to ensure that the cars being used did not go anywhere near conservation areas, with the Top Gear crew working with environmental experts on the planning.

Following the end of filming, Hammond decided that, as he loved his car so much, his Opel would be returning home with him, and began procedures for having it restored and shipped back to Britain. It arrived in time to be shown in the studio during the series' final episode.

Both the Lancia and the Mercedes reappear during the final 2024 episode of The Grand Tour, "One for the Road". In Maun, en-route to Kubu Island, Clarkson spots both cars on the side of the road. Both are identified as the originals; the Lancia because of "Lite Bite Cafe" written on the left side of the car and the Mercedes because of the five-speed knob on a four-speed gearbox.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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