Day 23: Katimo Mulilo to Francistown, Botswana
We woke up early and sipped coffee on the deck as life on the river began to stir. It was so peaceful.
We caught the ferry back along the Zambezi to our car. Boats were out fishing and mokoros crossing over. We had a wire tailed swallow catch a lift with us.
It was a 70km drive to the Ngoma Bridge Border Post. We always try and find small, out of the way, border posts to avoid waiting in long lines. The border post was empty and we got our admin done with ease but the officials were grumpy, unfriendly and unwelcoming, so unlike our entry in Namibia at Alexander Bay.
The first stretch was the main road through Chobe National Park, we saw no animals, except warthogs crossing the road in the border town of Kazangula, bringing traffic to a stop.
The line of trucks at Kazangula lined up, waiting to be processed, to enter into Zambia was insane. The poor truck drivers can wait for weeks at these border posts.
Travelling through the next area of Pandamatenga a police car waved us down. Apparently we had been speeding and had to follow him back about 10km to where they had a speed trap. We had seen no signs of the speed being reduced to 80km from 120km. Likewise the poor tourists in front of us were protesting and they had been going a lot faster than us. It was a lengthy stop in the heat of the day. It turned out the tourists were Polish and with a grumpy police official the situation became laughable, the language barrier of filling out forms was near impossible, especially with the policeman thinking Poland was in France. Besides the speeding fine, they wanted to charge us with fleeing the scene, laughable as they were sitting 15m back in the bush when we were apparently waved down. Realising that they weren’t going to win that one, we all compromised and paid the fine on the spot, or we were threatened with jail time. Throughout all this Gray was friendly and composed, me not so much.
Our next town was Nata, with a Pep store and stalls. Here the traffic started and the next stretch of the journey into Francistown was slow, with a bad potholed road, trucks, bad driving and livestock in the road.
Omg, then we had my other pet peeve the whole day, stopping at vet control areas. I do appreciate that they are trying to avoid foot and mouth in their cattle industry, but having to stop 6 times today to have our tyres sprayed or drive through a dip and step onto a disgusting wet trough, that thousands of feet before you have gone is revolting.
I remember on one trip to Botswana the ‘pest’ control guy demanded that I dip my slippers, I’m a bare foot gal, I wouldn’t pack slippers if I was invited for a sleepover at Buckingham Palace. Yet there we were unpacking a whole car and trailer to prove I had no slippers.
Francistown was hectic with Friday afternoon traffic and lots of people.
It was a long, hard 690km drive, through hot and dry countryside, on busy roads. We were relieved to arrive at Tantebane Resort around 4:30. It was nothing fancy but very pleasant, with super friendly staff, a pleasant change from the government officials of Botswana. It was a 20km detour to stay there but the alternative was a hotel in Francistown that offered rooms with communal bathrooms, I’m not a princess but I do have my limits.
We were the only guests and had a nice dinner overlooking the game waterhole. At 8pm it was still 35 degrees, so hot our air con struggled to keep us cool. I covered myself with a wet sarong to try and cool down.
Pandas in Africa 