We were hoping for an event free day today. It was a better day but not entirely event free. Going into this trip, we knew that today would be the longest drive of the whole trip. We agreed to leave at 7am and as H & I were packed and ready at 645am we took the 15 mins for a quick walk and some birding. Then we hit the road at 7am. The navigation software (Waze) simply would not accept the lodge’s name as our destination. Not sure why but it simply would not accept it. Google Maps was telling us an 8hour20min drive for just over 600 kms. Seemed excessively long for that distance.

We had to drive through Gaborone and unfortunately it was Monday morning traffic. So that was the first slow bit of the journey as we waited at traffic lights in the morning traffic. We did note that Gaborone is litter free. It was very noticeable versus the litter strewn towns we drove through in SA yesterday. It was impressive to see and clearly achievable if you have functioning municipalities. We drove north east from Gaborone to Francistown and then north west to Nata. We are basically driving up the eastern side of Botswana.

There are a few notable things when driving through. Firstly, multiple stops for Foot & Mouth control. You have to get out of your car, walk into a pad with disinfectant, then press your other shoes on it too then the passenger must walk to the other side carrying the shoes and then the driver has to drive through a trough to disinfect the tyres. They also search the car for any meat. Secondly, there are just random other stops by the police. Some times you get waved through and sometimes you get stopped and asked a few questions. You can’t predict what will happen except now we know how to do the Foot & Mouth protocols. Finally, H and I have remarked on how many of the names start with ‘M’. Must be the most used letter in Tswana. Mokolodi to Mosomane to Mahalapye (where we stopped for a Wimpy coffee – supposedly the best place to get a coffee on our route).

The plan was to go to Francistown for shopping as we think were more likely to find a decent shop in Francistown (2nd biggest city in Botswana) for groceries. They have a Woolworths. We got to Francistown around 1pm and while the gents filled up the cars, the ladies went to start shopping. Turned out the Woolies had one shelf of vegetables and no meat at all. Pick ‘n Pay fortunately had some meat and chicken and a wider array of fruit and vegetables. Nothing easy to get for lunch so H & my staple road trip lunch (done at least once) of KFC it was then. H & I found it and got for everyone and by the time we got the food everyone had joined us and we were back on the road again.

Unfortunately the road from Francistown to Nata is the problem and the reason for the extra hours of traveling today. It is a 179 km and it is under construction. The whole route. Yes you read that correctly all 179 kms of it. Plus it is a heavily used route by trucks heading up into Africa. Apparently it is Botswana’s largest road project on the go at the moment (and I can believe it) and it will finally be a 2-lane road the whole route. However, at the moment it is a single lane road that is hardly wide enough to have two trucks pass each other. Add in potholes, goats, cows, donkeys and stray dogs and you have some interesting road conditions. Not the easiest of drives – slow, multiple trucks to overtake, crumbling road.

Just before we got to our accommodation for next 2 nights, we had another random police stop. B was in front and the guy asked for any meat in the car and he said yes what we bought at Francistown and he said you can’t transport meat over a district line even if you bought it in Botswana and so he confiscated it. Some choice words over the walkie talkie from S. Then same question me and again my steak and wors was sacrificed. Then he just waves A & O through with no question whatsoever.

We arrived at our Nata Lodge at around 5pm. 10 hours on the road today (including stops for coffee & shopping). We checked in and did a quick bird walk (and some people got a lifer – Meyer’s Parrot). Drinks at the bar to celebrate the news of the coming of our 4th grandchild and 2nd grandson and 2nd child to our son (S) and daughter-in-law (K). We were truly thankful and delighted to hear the news and so ordered a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

We had dinner at the Lodge – no other option really as not self-catering.

Until tomorrow …

P, H (because the grandparent news elevated us back up), B, A, O, S (for those choice words after the meat confiscation 🙂 )