At 5:30am, we were up and getting ourselves organised for our 7:45 departure with Richard and our 13 companions.
Soft bags are required for the journey, so we left our large cases at the hotel and packed our gear into soft bags.
Before long we were on our way out of Zimbabwe. The border control was very simple, with no queue and just a stamp. And a quick trip to the loo. Which was quite reasonable, clean, no seat, cistern lid, or toilet paper. And you had to lift the ball cock to flush the toilet. Oh, and no lock on the door. But clean is good enough for me.
Further up the road we stopped for the health check to enter Botswana. After a spray of sanitizer and a passport check, we had to walk through a shallow basin of chemicals to ward off foot and mouth disease. Then walk down to customs for what we thought was a final check and stamp. No visa is required for us to enter Botswana, so it was very straightforward. Then we had to drive through the last point. Richard had advised us to take a spare pair of shoes so that customs would see that we were washing all of our shoes. But the customs officer was vigilant and made Richard pull out bags from the trailer to check, and consequently, I had to wash another pair that were packed in my bag, as did several others. Lance of course, has the golden customs halo, and his bag was not checked!
Back on the road we stopped at Pandanatenga and bought some snacks for the journey to Nata at Choppies supermarket, which had a currency exchange where we changed US dollars into pula. For those who are interested, 1 USD gets you 12 pula. Junk food was pretty much all that we purchased, as Richard had advised us that any takeaway fresh food may not be that fresh. And that he didn’t want to stop the van all day for us to fertilise the grass.
Along the way we spotted a small herd of giraffes who decided to cross the road right in front of us. Is that a ‘giraffe’ crossing and not a ‘zebra’ crossing? We also saw several groups of elephants meandering along through the trees.
At one point, they were quite close to the road, so Richard stopped and did a U-turn. The elephants turned to us and flapped their ears to warn us off. There were two bull elephants, and they were magnificent.
Along the way, in the middle of nowhere Richard said we would stop at a coffee cart. I was imagining some stall with local filter coffee or something. You just would not believe it, on the side of the road was a coffee cart with a gleaming coffee machine. Card payment only! I had an espresso asI didn’t want a full bladder. Behind the cart was a building with nobody around and toilets out the back, with paper, hand soap, and a seat! But still no lock.
About 45 minutes before reaching Nata Lodge, our destination, we had to make another stop to wash our shoes. But it was a well-run system with trucks slowly driving through a bath and us walking through another.
There are trillions of trucks on the road, all in great condition, and the road today has been very good.
Arriving at Nata Lodge, we dropped our bags and made a quick inspection of our chalet, which was just lovely.
We were whisked off to Makgadigadi Pans in a 4 x 4 safari truck. It was pretty bumpy, but I guess we'd better get used to that!
On the plains we found wildebeest and ostrich, and an 800-year-old baobab tree!
Why you din’t take me you!?? It sounds like the greatest trip ever!!
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