Leaving Kasane towards Gweta

We are at Kazungula, near Kasane, Botswana, yesterday we finished our mobile safari, our friends left yesterday to go home and today we leave to continue our journey, but first we have to do some errands.

We get up early, pack our bags and load our Dr. Livingstone and then go to Kasane; we have to say hi to the mobile safari guys and we have to do the shopping because tonight we will be at the Planet Baobab in Gweta, but from tomorrow, for five nights, we will be at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and so we have to bring everything we need, because in and around there is nothing.

First we drop by the Hunter's Pubto drink something and then we go shopping, being careful not to forget anything; we buy everything but there is no more sparkling water, only two bottles, and now? Coming towards Kasane we saw another supermarket, we must stop there too before we proceed.

Many years ago we had been to Kazungula and we had crossed the border between Botswana and Zambia aboard a small barge ferry, where a lorry at a time rose and crossed the river; we are curious to see how the ferry has now become, also because they are building a bridge to replace it, so it is one of the last opportunities to see it.

We try to get to where the ferry is but, apart from the unbelievable still queue of lorries waiting for their turn, we can't get any closer as there is now a "more serious" border, the other time there was a tin house where the procedures to get out of Botswana were done, but now it looks like the border of Martin's Drift.

Unfortunately we cannot enter and therefore we cannot see the ferry, we will keep the memory of what it was in 2008 and maybe the next time we come to Kasane the bridge will be finished.

It is time to leave, tonight we sleep at Gweta, at our Planet Baobab, so we have a little way to go and we certainly don't want to arrive in the dark; we fill up on diesel and then we go.

We leave and head South, the road runs along the border with Zimbabwe and crosses farms and natural areas and, depending on where we are, we see donkeys, cows, warthogs and elephants on the roadside. Ostriches, kudus and steenboks.

We stop near the Pandamatenga border crossing, that allows access to Zimbabwe, we go to buy something cool to drink at the shop and we sit at the wooden table that is not far away and we have lunch.

We like to stop along the road when we travel, especially in places like this where foreign travelers are very few.

After lunch we leave and continue our journey and we no longer stop until Nata where we make a brief stop to refuel, from here onwards there is no longer any gas station up to Rakops, the town that is 40 km from the gate of the Central Kalahari, but will it have fuel? Better not to trust and add a little now as there is more than one pump here in Nata.

Nata is located at the intersection of Kasane - Francistown and Nata - Gweta - Maun roads; a crucial point in the viability of Botswana; furthermore there is the Nata Bird Sanctuary that, during the rainy season, hosts one of the largest colonies of African flamingos that come here to nest, in this period instead there is very little water and therefore there is very little to see, we will have to return during the Southern summer.

So we just have to continue our journey, turn and take the road that heads West towards Gweta.

Along the Nata - Gweta road there is nothing and we do not meet other vehicles, for miles we see only a semi-arid territory and the sun that begins to descend towards the horizon, that is right in front of us.

We want to arrive, we would like to avoid traveling in the dark because if some animal crosses the road we risk not seeing it, as we would not see the very nice holes that are along the roadand that could easily damage our car.

We wonder why they don't even try to fix them properly, yet there is no shortage of money to fix the streets in Botswana; the same is true for road signs, some bear obvious signs of aging, they have faded to the point that you no longer even read the indications.

Finally we arrive at the detour to the Planet Baobab, that is located just before Gweta, when there is not much time left before sunset; we take the classic photos of the giant aardvark and the various signs that indicate it, although tomorrow morning we will retake them with a better light, and then we take the dirt road and finally we arrive at our Planet Baobab!