A fairly disturbed night with plenty of animal noises throughout the night. Ian and I had cold showers which was a treat for his birthday and following breakfast we set off to cross the Limpopo River representing the border between South Africa and Botswana. At the border crossing Paul, to our horror and disbelief, was overheard declaring that the truck was a 'Mercedes Benz bus', after correcting Tracey the night before! Obviously there is some official benefit in driving a bus and not a truck between countries. The riverbed was completely dry. This was a huge benefit to us as otherwise we would have had to travel 120 kilometres to find a bridge suitable for the truck to cross. The border crossings were quick and trouble free and I acquired a further two stamps in my passport. Already today we have sighted impala, stonebuck, baboon and a giraffe! The giraffe was fantastic, the best sight yet. He stopped eating and watched the truck as everyone inside grabbed their cameras. I think perhaps he was more surprised to see us as Paul almost locked the brakes stopping the truck so we could see him! The impala and stonebok are plentiful in Botswana as are more zebra and lots of baobab trees. The roads have definately changed into bumpy, potholed tracks, somewhat like The Ridgeway in Chesham!
As the journey continued we had sightings of ostrich, guinea foul and elephant! A whole breeding herd of elephants, mostly adult females, some young and one male roamed across the road. I had a couple of photographs, finished my first film and my Nikon camera threw an error. That was it, the only indication was ERR displayed on the screen. It refused to load two films and the tears began to flow... My worst nightmare come true! I can only hope that I have more opportunities to see such marvellous creatures. But, it is only day two after all...
We reached a junction in the road and turned. Stood on one side of the road was a grove of donkeys, a very pretty sight. More sightings of cattle, impala, goats and donkeys strolling across the road. I managed to improvise with the camera and in doing so lost a film and a half. We've driven through a village called Babonong. Children in royal blue school uniform came running towards the road, waving and smiling. It was a beautiful sight and I found the instant reaction was to wave frantically back at them! We saw and photographed yellow bill stork, cattle and goats from the roadside too.
After lunch by the side of the road we continued our journey through Botswana. Unfortunately we were stopped some time later by the policeman for speeding. Oops! Paul was charged a 'fine' which is a posh name for a bribe.
An hour or so later we were stopped again, for speeding! Paul! This time our guide argued with the police and Paul, having suggested to the policeman that his speed camera wasn't working properly, walked away without a 'fine', the policeman having accepted Paul's suggestion. We stopped along the roadside to buy some firewood from a couple of ladies. Our boys loaded the wood onto the truck while the ladies inspected the money. They didn't seem to understand it, but they accepted it anyway and we left with their wood.
A little bit further down the road and we have been stopped again. This time at a veterinary cordon fence. The man here wants to confiscate all of our meat produce for fear of it being contaminated. Paul argues with the guard. The guard insists that he confiscates the meat and eight big packs of meat have been take from our truck freezer. The fire has been lit to dispose of the food and Paul has had to place the food on the fire. We are left with little meat, if any. It is such a horrific waste, no better than theft. And the guard's dog looks remarkably well fed...
Unbelievably we reached another veterinary cordon fence. As we approached this one Paul instructed us to hide the remaining meat. I couldn't believe how much we had left in the truck freezer! We all formed a conveyer belt and as I stood on the logs we had acquired for firewood the meat was passed from person to person and I stashed it into a couple of lockers out of sight. Assuring the lockers were closed I sat down to await the impending inspection. Would you believe that we weren't even stopped at the gate!?! Like a performed act we all hurriedly reformed the conveyer belt and transferred the meat back into the freezer while some of the group took photographs of this hysterical scene! There was plenty of laughter heard throughout the truck, particularly when Markus found five further big packs of meat that I had failed to retrieve from his locker moments later! Teamwork extraordinaire!
We travelled 600 kilometres today and it was a fairly gruelling journey all said. We camp at Nata Lodge tonight which is a very well facilitated camp with hot water tiled showers! I hadn't forgotten it was Ian's birthday but the best I could do for the occasion was to ask Rich to assist with presenting a slightly chilled beer to Ian with a candle blagged from the toilets while I asked everyone to join me in wishing Ian a happy birthday...
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.