Gaborone - Botswana

We arrived at Ponts Drift to find our worse fears had been realised, the river was so high there was no way to get across in a car, yet Dongola Ranch had also been right, the border was open, only not to vehicles!

We had planned to drive into the Tuli Block and stay at one of the few lodges in the area. When we lived in Botswana we never went to the Tuli, its an area of Botswana which probably gets the least visitors and its main claim to fame is it is supposed to have been the hideout for Lord (Lucky) Lucan.

As we drove up to the border gate we saw a huge deluxe coach looking totally out of place in the small car park. Chatting to the driver we found he was waiting to pick up a load of tourists who were in the process of crossing over from Botswana.

They had to leave the coach on the SA side three days before and cross over into Botswana via a tenuous looking cable car. The car looked like it could only hold about four people at a time and only then with minimal luggage. As there is nowhere to stay on the SA side then the driver had gone over too and he was waxing lyrical about the experience, however, this was little use to us as we couldn't leave Rupert behind so there was nothing for it but to find another crossing before they closed for the day.

The nearest two crossings are Baines Drift and the exotically named Zanzibar but both are drifts i.e. you drive through the river (when its low) so the chances are they would also be impassable. The only solution was to go much further South to Martin's Drift which despite its name is actually a large bridge. It would add an extra 250kms to our journey but we had little choice.

The only bright light was this is a major border post so it had a VAT reclaim office where we could process our still outstanding VAT claims. Remembering our experience in Swaziland we took the precaution of calling the VAT main office in Joburg and explained our situation and that we had a claim half completed from Swazi. A very nice lady in charge called Linda confirmed this should not be a problem but she would need to liaise with the Swazi office personally as they had logged the claim so she would call Martins Drift and tell them to send our form onto Joburg for her attention. 

Not crossing the border at Ponts Drift meant we also had to find somewhere else to stay when we reached Botswana. Originally we had planned to spend a couple of nights in a lodge in the Tuli then head down to Gaborone to see some old friends and get the water tank on Rupert re-welded (this was still leaking despite all my attempts to plug it with Pratley Steel). Whilst in the jacked up world of South Africa we could afford to leave it we could not venture into the real bush of Botswana in its current state.

Checking one of our guide books we saw there was supposed to be a lodge with a campsite just over the border. We decided to phone ahead for directions and to confirm they had vacancies. The girl who answered did not have good English but she told us they were easy to find as they were right on the main road leading from the border and there was no problem camping.

With everything sorted we headed South to Martin's Drift. The road is all on good tar so we made good time and reached the border by lunchtime. Our first port of call was the VAT office and this time, thankfully, they proved most helpful, probably as they had been called by Linda and processed our claims with the minimum of fuss.

Feeling rather pleased that at last we seemed to have got rid of the VAT issue we went to immigration and listened as the officer gave a middle aged white guy in front of us a hard time over why he was entering Botswana. He explained he was visiting a friend but despite his pleas he was only granted a 30 day stay. Fearing the same treatment we reverted to our impeccable but limited knowledge of Setswana by greeting the officer with Dumella Ra (Hello Sir) and lo and behold after a few questions he gave us a 45 day visa, happy days again. We were definitely on a roll today, after immigration came customs (nothing to declare except a Landy jam packed with stuff!) which was a formality and then all that remained was to buy our third party car insurance for 60 Pula (~ £7) and head off into Botswana.

We left the border at 2pm which was excellent and as we only had a short way to go we decided to stop off at a local cafe for a burger and chips, our first for quite a while. The only downer was the weather which was still very cloudy and threatening more rain however we were happy to be back in Botswana and looking forward to chilling out at the lodge.

The lodge is described as being on the Limpopo river with lovely chalets and a nice shady campsite, great we thought, bring it on. Finding it was as the girl said very easy as less than five minutes from the border we found it next to a filling station! It was Saturday afternoon so it more resembled the truck stop from hell, with loads of drivers in the bar watching the sport on the telly.

Not wishing to stay more than a few minutes never mind the rest of the day we decided to call Alan, our friend in Gabs, to see if we could come over early. Bear in mind we hadn't seen each other for nearly 20 years, since when Alan has divorced Becky (same Becky we stayed with in Port Alfred) and now has a new partner Alison (Ali) whom we had never met so we were not sure how this would go down with them.  

We caught Alan in the supermarket doing the weekend food shopping but in true Africa fashion once he heard our tale of woe he just said come on over. "What about Ali hadn't you better check with her first"? No problem he said she would love to see us (we found out later he didn't tell her until we were nearly at Gabs!) They were due at a friends barby at 7pm but he was sure we would be very welcome to go as well. As with Barry & Yvonne in Nelspruit, Becky & John in Port Alfred and Geoff & Beth in Cape Town friends in Africa are always willing to help at a moments notice.

The only problem was it was a good four hour's drive to Gabs and as it was now nearly 3pm we needed to hustle. The drive down to Gabs was very much like going down memory lane, a lot of the road has been modernised since we lived there and was now a dual carriageway (well sort of) but the section from Malahapye is still the old two lane road which is now in dire need of re-surfacing so it was a bit tricky dodging the massive potholes which suddenly appeared.

It was dark by the time we entered the outskirts of Gabs and the place had changed so much that we needed guiding in by Alan to their place, finally arriving at 7.15pm, not bad at all considering.  It was great to see Alan after all this time and Ali we immediately felt we had known for years so we ended up chatting and drinking around their bar and gave the barby a miss. It was great to be back in Gabs after 20 years and we were very grateful to have avoided the truckers lodge.

Alan & Ali have a lovely house which they share with Laska their husky dog and a tabby cat. They both had jobs to go to each day (Alan owns and runs a solar power company and Ali runs a day nursery which they also own) so most days we didn't see each other till late afternoon, early evening.

No matter, as for the next week we had lots to do and were rushing about re acquainting ourselves with Gabs. Rupert needed a service which was shoe horned in at late notice by the Landy dealer, Leshedi Motors (thanks Ralph). After a couple of days, we found someone who could weld the stainless steel water tank and both of us managed to get much needed haircuts.

Pete spent a whole day with the guys taking the water tank out and watching it be re-wielded then re-fitting it, a swine of a job. Once it was out we could see that one of the seams had not been welded very well in the UK so we were fortunate in a way that it went whilst we were still in an area where we could get it sorted. 

The other major task was to get our campsite bookings for the national parks we wanted to visit. Since our time in Botswana they have introduced a booking system which you have to use if you want to camp in any of the national parks. The two booking offices are in Gabs and Maun, a small town on the edge of the Okavango Delta. The system works after a fashion but it is a nightmare trying to predict where you will be each day and where you want to camp. Also as they don't ask for a deposit  then you find a lot of sites are showing as full but when you get there there is lots of space which is really frustrating if you have altered your plans to fit in.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that nowadays a lot of South Africans (most with GP number plates from Guateng, Joburg, Pretoria etc).) come on safari in Botswana but tend to travel mob handed. It is common for four or more vehicles to pitch up on a site equipped for really no more than two! One convoy we encountered had at least 20 vehicles in it all GP plates. If they can they then put the vehicles in a circle like the old wagon trains and fill any gaps with tents, trailers etc, it seems the Laager mentality still runs strong in the Afrikaner.

Our plan was to visit the Southern Botswana parks (Kutse, Mabuashube & The Botswana side of the Kglagadi Gemsbok Park) then re-enter SA on the SA side of the Gemsbok park and drive through the NW corner of SA before heading into Namibia. It would be about a three week journey travelling mainly in remote bush so we would need to completely stock up with food, water and fuel beforehand.

Gabs has changed drastically since our day and unfortunately not all for the better. On the plus side they now have new shopping centre's at places like Game city where you can get pretty much anything so we were grateful for the shopping there.

The problem is new buildings, housing and industrial estates are springing up all over the place but there doesn't seem to be much cohesion to it all. It reminded us a lot of the Middle East where massive building programs go on but nothing seems to get finished off or cleaned up before starting the next project.  Gabs aspires to being a big city but has not yet make it and in the process has lost a lot of its small town charm.

Alan has his own plane and loves to take people up when he gets the chance so on Sunday he offered to give us a birds eye view of Gabs so we could see some of the changes from the air.

Sue loves flying in small planes at any time so she was like an excited kid at the thought of getting airborne. On my part I kept  remembering tales from John (Becky's new hubby) who told me Alan had terrified him when we took him up buzzing rooftops and purposely stalling the engine so he could demonstrate how to recover the situation! This was compounded by various stories from Alan the night before of friends who had "bought it" over the years in flying accidents!

Still it was a lovely morning to die so good as his word bright and early Alan took us to the airfield where he keeps his plane. He was brought up in Botswana growing up with people like Ian Kharma, son of Sir Seretse Kharma Botswana's first President who is now Botswana's current VP so he has lots of connections. His Dad started the Gabs flying club and Alan is a past President.

After checking the plane out we were soon airborne and it was interesting to see the changes to Gabs, especially around the Dam which in our day was always low but is now full even flooding out the surrounding homes at times, the old yacht club is now virtually an island in its middle.

We flew over the new golf club where Barry & Yvonne have a house and it was incredible to see how green it was as we still think of Botswana in shades of brown. Afterwards we spent the afternoon at the Bull & Bush one of our old watering holes where we had a nice lunch and one or six beers and then on the way home we stopped in at Alan & Ali's local the Boulevard where we met up with Barry & Yvonne who were up from Nelspruit for a while. All in all a lovely day, thanks guys.

One of the things we thought long and hard about was whether or not to re-visit our old house in Kolobeng Crescent. In the 80s we lived in an old government bungalow in a lovely quiet neighbourhood. The house was basic but comfortable and being a corner plot it had a very large garden with Acacia trees, flowering shrubs, various succulents and cactus and it looked out onto a large village type green flanked by various other houses.

At the time Botswana was in the midst of a 10 year drought so we had no grass but we liked the brown desert look which seemed more in keeping. The company provide the house fully furnished, free of charge and hence you are not supposed to modify it in anyway but we built a large patio, a bbq area and a low wall in which we grew desert flowering plants covering the lot in shade netting. It was a lovely place to chill especially with a sun downer and we had some great parties there over the years.

It was also where Ben & Beauty, who became such a fixture in our lives for the next 14 years, entered our lives. For eight years, living in various countries, we had avoided having pets as we knew we would become too attached, however, as soon as we arrived in Gabs everyone kept advising us to get dogs, as a deterrent against petty thieving. As Sue was on her own most days then I thought it maybe a good idea, especially as there would be occasions when I would be away up country on business.

Our intention was to keep them whilst we were in Botswana and then give them away when we left to someone in the company following in our footsteps. In those days good big dogs were in such high demand that over 60 people went to look at them and we effectively had to be interviewed by their previous owners who had had them from pups (they were now two) to see if we were suitable!

Inevitable once we got them we knew we could never give them up, this was not a light decision as effectively it meant an end to our travelling around the world so its not too trite to say their arrival had a big impact on our lives.

We had a colony of weaver birds nesting each year in the trees and lovely blue headed lizards would run up and down the outside walls which Beauty would spend hours watching in the hope she could catch one.  At the back of the garden we had a maids quarters, except we never had a maid so it was used for storage. The local in the house backing onto us did have a maid though and we were constantly having to apologise as Ben used to frequently nip through the fence to steal her cooking pots!

Our neighbours were a mix of locals, Indians and white expat's mainly from South Africa or Zimbabwe and our friends were a mix of people we met from the Hash (Hash House Harriers) and people from within the company.  All in all we had three very happy years in that house so it was with some trepidation when Alan & Ali suggested we visit it on the Sunday before we headed off into the bush.

They say never go back and in our case it was almost true as we all struggled to remember how to find the house, the area had changed a lot.  Eventually though we found the village green, it was much more overgrown than in our day as the rains have been good and it now had a thatched Lapa and some children's swings on it but essentially it was the same.

We drove around towards where we had lived excitement mounting at the thought of seeing the old place again. We stopped, did we have the right spot? Yes there was the plot number up saying 4837, our old number, but taking up virtually the whole space was an absolutely enormous villa which was still only half built. Virtually all the land was taken up by the building so most of the trees and all the shrubs, cactus etc had gone.

There didn't seem anyone around so we wandered in to have a better look, we couldn't believe how crass it was and how out of place it looked. It was very sad to see how the garden had been completely obliterated, even more so when our old neighbours houses still looked basically the same as when we lived here, it was unbelievable that only ours had gone.

One of the builders heard us and came out to check out why we were there. He told us the plot had been bought by a wealthy Indian and they had been building the house for two years, with the likelihood it would go on for another two at least. He remembered our old house and confirmed they had been instructed to just completely clear the site, trees and all. 

It was very sad to see how it had ended up and it just confirmed our view that money does not always go along with good taste, we probably should have let sleeping dogs lie but it was also a good reminder that time moves on, we needed to do the same and get out into the bush which we love so much. The next day we left for Kutse.