NEXT STOP BOTSWANA

WEATHER: Hot and 34C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting into a new country is always a highlight

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Border crossings are generally the pits

BUYS OF THE DAY: New sim card for 1.50AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Dumela – hello in Botswanian

CAMP SITE RANKING: Awesome as the camp site is connected to the Chobe Safari Lodge which is a 5 star hotel and we can use all the facilities even though we are campers!  Suckers! 5 out of 5 stars!!!

Today we leave Zimbabwe and the fastest internet I have had in like 5 months.  It may not sound like a big deal, but there is nothing more frustrating than a slow internet connection, which 85% of it has been here in Africa.  Today was also the day I had to make my final decision on whether I was going to go home for a few weeks.  It was really weighing on my mind, and I had found an airfare yesterday for $1700.00, which was an awesome fare and very tempting to take.  I spoke to Dave about it yesterday and he suggested maybe I phone home and speak to the gals, which I did this morning and it was just what the doctor ordered.  It was AWESOME to hear Shelly and my GD’s voices, even if the connection wasn’t that great.  I phoned from my Zim sim and got 10 minutes for 3USD!  If the calls are always that cheap, there is no reason to not be phoning them at least once a week.  I’ve told the guys if it looks like a down day just say the 2 words ‘phone home’ and all will be right again in Bernieland.  I also need to accept that whether I am at home or travelling I am going to have these ‘whatever days’ and as I am travelling, things could be a hell of a lot worse in my world, so I just need to suck it all up and just deal with it.  Toughen up Princess is what they would say back home or harden up Marshmallow.  Yes yes I hear you and I am now back on track.

We had the morning free in Vic Falls, as our travel day was only 120km today.  So it gave us all time to get any last minute things done like getting more money out of the ATM, Schnacks shopping, post office and internet.  Breakfast was at 8am and then we were to have an early lunch at 11.30 before hitting the road at 12 noon.  I also went on a hunt to find some new earphones for my iPod, which was unsuccessful and to also pickup my skirts that were ready.  I only tried on one, but it looks okay, so I am glad I have some more bottoms.  My black shorts I had fixed yesterday ripped again last night, and no it isn’t because I have put on weight, the material has just worn that thin it keeps tearing, so I tossed them in the bin.  It killed me, as I love those shorts, but in the end it will be dead weight in my bag.  I also got on the internet for the last time and loaded another 2 albums of Africa.  I have almost completed loading my first section of the trip, and to see my Rwanda Gorilla pictures on a big screen was amazing and really made me appreciate the experience we had.  Sometimes it takes a few weeks for some things to kick in and make you realize how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing and what we have done.

I finally also got to update my blog through the campsite’s Wi-Fi, and I can’t explain how good it feels to be up to date.  I make notes now every day in a little pad, so I don’t forget to blog about things, but to be able to post it all up is a pretty cool achievement.  There has been days where there has either been too much to write about or I am too tired, but I pull out the laptop and I ‘git t dun’ (according to Davebob) and I do feel better that I haven’t missed a day yet.  I have only cheated twice, by combining 2 travel days together, but then not much happens on these days anyway, so I think it is pretty smart.

12 noon and we are back on the road for the first time in 3 days.  We have only 12 of us on this last section and after coming off the first tour of 22, then the second tour had 19, we are now down to 12.  The upside is that we now have 2 seats each to ourselves; the downside is that it is a lot quieter.  We have 2 ‘older’ couples, one from the UK and one from Canada and then a gentleman from the States has also joined the Georgan Family.  The original crew seemed to have lost our mojo, but after speaking to the family today, I am feeling a million bucks and Bernie is back in town.  I need to make the most of my time left with my buddies, as after this finishes I am pretty much a solo traveller for the next 26 days.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, as I am really going to miss my crew, yeah you know what it is a terrible thing L  We stopped to re-fuel before heading out of town and we put in 381.90L for a total cost of 527.02USD!  Now that is what I call a gas tank!!!

We arrived at the Zimbabwe border at 1.15pm, and were through there within 10 minutes.  I got them to stamp my Globetrotters book which was cool, but he had to go and check with a senior officer before he would do it.  The truck was taking a little longer in clearance, so George suggested we walk to the Botswana formalities.  They are a lot more strict and we had to take all of our shoes off with us and halfway through no-man’s land there was a big pit of disinfectant that the truck had to drive through and a smaller one on the side that we had to dip the soles of our shoes we were carrying and then to walk in with our shoes to also disinfect them.  Not sure what purpose this serves, as they don’t do this for the tents, or the tables or the chairs that have also touched the dirt as well so the point seems a little moot.  Once we got to the Botswana formalities, we were processed again quite fast, and once again I got my stamp for my Globetrotters book.  This lady needed a little more persuasion though, and I had to show that I had other immigration stamps in there, not just post office ones and she begrudgingly popped a stamp in there.  Thank-you.

At this point we are still waiting for the truck.  You are not permitted to bring in fresh food or meat into the country, so they check the eskies and all the outer lockers.  When the truck finally arrived, we then had to take off our main backpacks and they had to be individually searched.  I was first off the rank and the lady went through my bag with a fine tooth comb.  I had to take everything out of my bag, literally, unroll anything and when it was all done I had to shove it all back in so she could check the others.  Thank-god I didn’t have anything to hide, imagine pulling out like a sex toy, or if you were a bloke some ladies underwear or something!  Now that could have been embarrassing, not only for the checking lady, but all the others lined up behind me could also see everything.  There was a second person checking the guys, and he waved a few of them through without even checking anything of theirs.  Once again not sure what purpose this serves as we didn’t have to bring all our things off the truck, so if you were going to carry something illegal through wouldn’t you leave it on the truck?  I don’t know I’m just putting it out there.  So after 1 hour and 20 minutes of a potentially moot exercise we were on our way again to Kusane, which was a 20 minute drive, for Simon to stop and re-stock the larder and the fridge.  He got some of his vegetables taken off him and Manu lost her oranges.  The customs guys were going to have a nice meal tonight!

Kusane was a small town located not far from our camp site.  We got an hour here, and I was quite surprised on how western it was.  It even had a Kentucky Fried Chicken here, which is the first western take-away I have seen since arriving into Africa.  I happen to LOVE KFC, so I wasn’t about to let a chip run pass me by.  For the record they were delicious, they didn’t have the same seasoning salt but it was a chilli salt which was hot but a nice change.  I have also now purchased a Botswana sim card here.  It is a little annoying I have to keep swapping then for each country, but we have a total of 5 days in Bots, so for me it is worth it.  I guess the main problem would be that once I get a new sim, there could be messages being sent to the old numbers that I am no longer using or work.  Oh well as long as I am sending out the love, it doesn’t matter too much if I don’t get it back – liar!!!!

After leaving Kasane at 4.20pm we only had to drive 5 minutes to Chobe Safari Lodge.  Just to clarify, we aren’t staying at the 5 star section, we are camping at the back of the hotel, but we can use the facilities which is pretty cool.  There is no carpet at the camp, it is dry dust, but the toilets and showers are pretty awesome and we have some shade over the seating area, so I think we are going to enjoy our 2 night stay here.  After setting up camp, we went and had a look at the ‘camper’ bar that overlooks the channel and it was a pretty magic view, but we were so hot, the weather has really heated up, it was 34C today, we decided to make use of the hotel’s facilities and cool down in the pool.  So we tried over the hotel, de robed and dipped the toe, and OMG, the pool was FREEZING.  Not cold, not cold but FLIPPIN FREEZING, like ICE cold, not fridge cold. So you know what we did?  We jumped in any way!!!  It was like taking a sharp breath it was that cold.  We stayed in for about 10 minutes, felt our bodies get numb and decided to get out before our heart rate slowed and we died.  No exaggeration it was that cold.  Seriously, it was FREEZING.

A few drinks with and after dinner and then an early bed, as we have an early game drive tomorrow morning into Chobe National Park.  The night time temperature is quite mild to what we have been having in Zimbabwe, so we only have our sleeping bags in the tent tonight and our tent windows open. 

This is Botswana and we welcome you.