Road Trip, Day Two Botswana!

We agreed that we would not push ourselves to wake up early and hit the road. It's one thing to say it, another to follow through especially when the sun had risen around five a.m. and our camping neighbors were dishing breakfast and good mornings like they had been up for HOURS. I woke up completely refreshed, ahhhhhhh, my air mattress was a real blessing. Unfortunately, for Phil, his had gone flat after about five minutes into the night. Aw, shame, Phil, welcome to my Kruger National Park nightmare!

Coffee. First things first, then we showered, packed up and hit the road.

So, let me go back to my tire story from Day One. About a month or so ago, we were in South Africa and we needed a tire patched. So, the service station guy put the spare tire on to replace the now-patched tire. He told us, "Look, neither tire is in good shape, but the spare, it's only patched to last about 30 miles if you're lucky." A month later, we were still carrying on with said tire and spare. 

After we left Nata, the road to Kasane was due north, or one can turn west and head for Maun (been there, done that, remember our Maun Mishaps?!). We were definitely northbound. Our first known town was Pandamatenga, about two and a half hours away. There is not a lot of human activity between Nata and Pandamatenga. This is pretty much why:

Here, I have attempted to make a movie again. Which may or may not work. If it doesn't, I'm terribly sorry, it was about elephants.

All fun and games until someone gets hurt, right Mom?!! Not this time...plenty of elephant dung around where we had a flat tire, but luckily, I did not see any while standing in the sweltering heat watching Phil change the tire. Bless his heart. 

Forgot to mention, right before we pulled over to change the tire, we heard a noise...a hiss. Phil said, "Look out the window at the tire." Which I did. At 120 k's per hour, it's always a good idea to remove your sunglasses first. The ones you see me wearing while smiling under the disclaimer sign? They now sport one lens. Which, I can assure you, does not work well in the Kalahari sun. 

Now, this is when we got a bit worried. Remember, the dude at the service station said, "...lucky to go thirty miles with this spare tire..." and we had just about that to get to Pandamatenga. Nothing to do but drive. 

Once we hit Pandamatenga, we realized that it wasn't really a town per se. It was like a general store, a military camp, a bar, and some farms. Phil asked a policeman if he knew where we could get a tire, he said there was someone in the village, but that would probably be the same scenario, wait an hour for the wrong-sized tire. We decided to keep going to Kazungula. 

Welcome!

Ground Horned Bill

A few Zebras meandering from the road. We are only now coming out of winter here, the trees look extra stark sometimes because of fire, and elephants can cause damage, too. 

This is an upside down something or other, maybe a kombi van? Not sure... there were many burned out vehicles on the side of the road that had just been abandoned. I don't know if they had been torched due to an accident, or succumbed from a bush fire.

  

Only 90 miles to go to Kazungula. On a bad tire. Nonetheless, we made it! It is the border town between Botswana and Zambia, where most tourists cross to visit Victoria Falls. It's a ferry crossing, and sometimes these big trucks can wait a couple of days before gaining access, however small cars are allowed to cross immediately. We have yet to visit Zambia - but will one of these days! 

Meanwhile, we found a tire guy immediately. He was positioned under a tree at a small shopping center with what looked like a glittered-up tire, that's what caught my eye. And, lucky us! He had not one tire, but four! He hopped in the truck and directed us to his "shop". Why yes, yes we are extremely trusting individuals...

Neighborhood warthog. We actually saw quite a few in town, assumed they must be eating the garbage.

Also had the dude at the tire shop patch the air mattress...

WHAT?! hee hee

We ended up getting three practically brand new tires for a grand total of about eighty dollars. That's practically new tires and labor. Score! This meant no more worries for any type of off-roading, or just plain old bad roads. On to Kasane!

We arrived - without a reservation - but we weren't worried. We drove around town a bit to check it out. With a population of about 8,000, Kasane is a location where four countries almost meet: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana. It's the gateway to the Chobe District, and, fun fact - apparently Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor got married here in 1975. Sorry, that's remarried. Anyway - lots of lodges that offer safaris into Chobe National Park, and boat rides along the river. Some lodges will even arrange for day trips to Victoria Falls. The priciest place to stay is the Chobe Marina Lodge, a mere $900 USD will accommodate you for one night. We were looking for a place to just set up the tent, thank you very much! We stopped a couple of places, no luck, carried on to the Chobe National Park, thinking we would just camp there. 

So, here's the thing about Botswana National Parks: any type of camping reservation has to be made via a third party, private organization. You cannot just show up to a park and say, "I would like a campsite." No. You must make a reservation with this agency, which just happened to be closed. Even though it was only 15:00 hours, on a Sunday. I said to the lady at reception, because I'm an American, man!, why does Botswana allow for another company to profit off their park lands? Mainly I said it because I was mad that I was now going to have to keep looking for a place to set up the stupid tent.

So, we didn't have a lot of options, and even less daylight. I had noticed a location for a campsite and quickly made a "Safari Now" reservation. We turned around for Kasane. But...when we saw the place, the location, we thought no way. It was immediately off the road, there was no view - no nothing. It would be like camping at the KOA site next to the Cove Restaurant at the Tipton Exit off Interstate 80. Why? What for! So, I looked again on "Safari Now" and there was a place called Mwandi View located about 80 miles outside of Kasane. This time I called and asked if they had an available campsite, and they did, and so we went. 

We keep seeing these disclaimers...
And yet, they want us to sit down and have lunch?!

This is a giant Baobab tree. See me sitting at the table where it says I shouldn't? Disclaimer!

 Progress?

I look so tiny! Disclaimer!

And we have arrived!

So, we arrived at Mwandi View, a lovely lodge with tented chalets, restaurant, and campground. We decided to stay in the tented chalets. Mainly because the campsites were just a piece of grass, shared ablutions, and a blocked view of the Chobe - sort of unappealing. Plus, by the time we arrived, neither of us felt like setting up the tent and / or pumping up the air mattress, which may or may not have worked. So, we (I) poured a glass of wine, and promptly sat down with a ham sandwich and Doritos to watch the sun set over Namibia and the Chobe River here in Botswana. Magnificent! 

We slept with the tent wide open all night long. I have to say, though, that my conversation with the nice owner, Adelaide, before we retired for the evening, was about the lions that they had been hearing for the past three nights. She said they were coming down from the hills to follow the zebras. Afterward, I couldn't get it out of my head that we had dumped our cooler water, which had become red from a package of liver that seeped open, over the side of our chalet. Do lions like that kind of stuff? Would they smell liver? Would they know what liver smelled like? Was the electric fence enough to prohibit them from jumping up ten feet onto our chalet deck to eat me? Do they prefer white or dark meat? Toss. Turn. Listen. Repeat.

Next up: Day Three, Namibia and the Zambezi Province, formerly known as the Caprivi Strip. Happy Trails!