The border and Nata

We have been without any contact with the outside world for a number of day, no radio, no internet, no TV and mostly no cell reception…….hmmmmm, never realized I am quite the addict!!

We are now in the delta in Botswana and will be back in Maun tonight where we will try our best to get connected! We had lots of time to think and thought that we will get fancy and try and give a little bit of stats on each country for those of you that are interested!!

Here goes, Botswana is the size of about France or if you want Texas, but there are only 1,7 million people!!! The country only has 2 “cities” , Gabarone the Capital and Francistown (I think it is stretching the meaning of city a bit, but hey, who cares!) Maun is the only other big town and is seen as a “village town” by the locals. There are apparently at least 14 different tribes, but the whole country speaks Tswana as their main language. Enough of that for now!!

We left Magoebaskloof early on the 14^th and what stunning scenery, we were traveling at times at 1500m above sea level with morning mist, green green and green plantations, forests etc through Polokwane to the border. Botswana is not our 22^nd country as we have been there before, but the 3^rd on this trip , if it makes sense! To be honest, both of us approached Botswana with trepidation as we had bad experiences here before, every time we have been here…..true to form, the shit started at the border where the lady at the exchange place would not take my dollars( sounds familiar!!) as she claimed it had a stain!! (TIP TIP, if you EVER travel through Africa, check every note the bank give you in fore with a microscope!)

That sorted, we finally crossed the border with no further hiccups and looking at the countryside, everything came flooding back, all the same as before, I remember Botswana as a country filled with anthills, donkeys, 60km p h zones every 20 kms and roadblocks for no apparent reason……..that was exactly what it was like, again!! All I could think of was “bland”…. Even the roads are bland and boring……could it be that we missed the bad roads in Moz???

      A typical village

We drove to Nata and spend the night at Nata Lodge, a stunning place and we both decided to give the country another chance as it was so great to swim in the pool and their permanent tents are stunning and very well furnished with all the essentials. Only bad thing was that it was time for budget and calculating expenses! We realized that we were totally overspending , so from now on, no restaurants and fancy places to stay.

Arriving at Nata Lodge Our home at Nata Lodge

The pics will follow as will the rest of the story, we just want you all to know we are still alive and well .

Ok back to the time at Nata lodge, if you are planning to stay here, remember that you are allowed to braai and do your own food, we HAD to due to previous overspending, just get some wood from the guard. We had a nice evening, even had some rain…..also bland compared to the hail, thunder and pouring rain of the night before in SA. But ..before Botswana faithfuls get upset with me,” bland” is also good, it is peaceful and slows you down to allow you to appreciate the little beauties in life, it soothes your soul and calms you down which is maybe what we both needed.