Today did not develop as planned. Well it seems so far days 1 to 3 have actually not developed as planned. Day 1 flat tyre, day 2 I booked the wrong date for Mokala NP and day 3 unfortunately got worse for trip. It started off fine in that we were packed and ready to head out when the gates opened at 7am this morning. A quick stop at the bird hide (quick because it was very cold) and then continuing in the park and exit out the Lilydale gate (further east than the gate we entered). Then we were on the road through Kimberly and north towards the Botswana border.

The road goes from Kimberly to Warrenton (one of the places my Dad grew up in), Hartswater (one of biggest irrigation schemes in South Africa), Taung, Vryberg, Stella, Setlagole and Mahikeng (in South Africa). We stopped in Vryberg to refuel at the Engen. It was chaotic and after refueling and getting some coffees etc we were on the road again. We stopped about an hour later on the side of the road to eat lunch. For whatever reason, R had a “feeling” and went to check for his moon bag with their passports and couldn’t find them. A hunt ensued and after checking everywhere it became clear the moon bag with the passports was missing. R remembers having it strapped over his shoulder this morning when he took stuff up to the car. J called Mosu Lodge to see if someone had handed it in but no one had. R said he always puts in behind his drivers seat and he can’t think he did anything else with it besides doing that again today. After the extensive search and phone calls the only thing for R & J to do was to turn back and retrace their steps and see if somehow they could find the missing moon bag and passports.

My feeling is that they were stolen when we filled up in Vryberg somehow. It was pretty chaotic and so I could see that someone in the chaos it was possible for a distraction to have occurred and someone to have stolen it thinking it must contain something valuable. Unfortunately so far they have had no success in recovering their passports. They made it back tonight to Mosu Lodge and are staying there overnight after having checked back at the Engen in Vryberg. We are obviously gutted for them and feel really terrible about the how ordeal. It is one of those things you don’t wish on anyone. We are obviously gutted for R & J.

The other 3 cars continued on to Botswana. The road was generally pretty good (N18) but I was gobsmacked by the amount of litter just strewn on the sides of the road in the towns we went through particularly Kimberly and Mahikeng. Mahikeng might just be one of the worst litter strewn places I have ever been too. It is hard to describe how much litter there was all over the places. I would be ashamed if I was involved in the municipality.

On an entirely different note, it was amazing to see the farming on the route. Pecan nut farming is one of the major activities in the area. The whole area is very well planned out and irrigated and apparently (or so said ChatGPT) the weather conditions are ideal for Pecan Nut farming. Vryberg is also the heartland of SA’s cattle farming. We also learnt about the Republic of Stellaland and the United States of Stellaland which neither H or I had heard of. This area declared independence in 1882/3 but eventually was reincorporated back into the Cape of Good Hope (after also briefly forming part of the Transvaal under Paul Kruger). Seems the area has quite a colourful past.

We got to the border post at 14:10 and it took us about 45 minutes to do all the border formalities. The SA side was a breeze but more formalities at the Botswana side. Health check, immigration, temporary import permit for the car, customs. Then a vehicle search for meat or fruit and then dip your shoes in the disinfectant and then into Botswana. They are doing health checks because of Ebola they say. Fortunately we all passed those with a temperature of 36.4 or 36.5. Everything else relatively painless.

Then we had supposedly only just over an hour to our accommodation for tonight. That however turned into a much longer drive. Firstly, shortly after the border, B gets pulled over at a random stop. We have learnt from previous experience that the rest of us should just keep driving. This wasn’t the first time that B was pulled over today because in the day on the SA he was also pulled over. The traffic cop then just let him go when he realised that they were traveling with all of us. B told him that he would now need to speed to catch up to us. This time in Botswana they did want to see his license and had a conversation with him but nothing more. Then about 20 kms short of Gaborone there was a road block and they searched the cars and made us walk through disinfectant again. That took 30 minutes.

We eventually arrived at Mokolodi Nature Reserve just before 5pm. We checked in and headed to our chalets which is a 3.5 km across very rocky dirt road to get to the chalets. It does feel like you are in the middle of nowhere in the bush. No civilization close by. Our chalet is overlooking a dam. Since we arrived we can hear baboons arguing and then the odd hippo grunt as well. The security guard who is here until 6am told us to lock the doors because the baboons might try come in early morning. I wasn’t really hoping for an early morning wake-up from a baboon so I will definitely lock the door

Until tomorrow … (hopefully with less drama) …

R, J (because I feel very bad for them), P, B (because I feel bad he keeps being pulled over), H (she cooked our pasta for dinner and it was very nice), S, O (those potatoes from last night are still lingering in my mind) & A