Day 2

Clearly our trip through Botswana is just a means of getting to Namibia, evidenced by the 2 nights we spend in Botswana compared to the twelve in Namibia. That should have been obvious from the start, but never having traveled to Botswana before, I expected a bit more. Today’s leg is the longest one we’ll do (in excess of 600k’s) and it served to get us within striking distance of the Botswana/Namibia border, which we’ll cross tomorrow. the scenery en route was much the same as yesterday, although some lucky peeps managed to see some elephant about 100k’s outside of Maun. The most exciting thing I saw was a monster truck! I thought of the Durban beachfront when I saw it and had images of what it could be used for flashing through my, at times, over fertile imagination.

There was nowhere to stop for a meal or drinks on this rather sparsely populated route so we had to rely on our snack provisions, ice cold coke, thanks to ice from last night’s hotel and of course Peter V’s amazing rusks. I reckon he could make a business out of selling them! we stopped numerous times for a water break and to empty our bladders. Always interesting to stop on the side of the road because others on the tour generally tend to stop also and chats about all sorts of things take place.

We came across our first Salt pan about 120k’s after Orapo and wondered at it’s extent and the aridness of the area. It was patently obvious that nothing grows on a salt pan! I later heard from a Botswana resident, who is on our trip, that years ago that salt pan was covered with water and he and his brother used to have endless fun boating on the river!

Maun seemed to take forever to reach but we eventually got there. And to my absolute joy, we turned off onto a sand road. It didn’t last long, maybe a kilometre or two, but it was so good to be off the tar and I hope a taste of more to come. Our hotel is great and after an “interesting” dinner – goat curry and a R 600 bottle of red wine – we are headed for bed and an early start tomorrow to allow for time at the border post and arrival in the Caprivi. Maybe I might just catch a Tiger!!