Botswana here I come.

After a 5 day stop at Livingstone it was time to move on and make my way to the Kazangula border crossing into Botswana. This was my 4th border crossing so I felt a lot more confident with the process, however it didn’t stop me from getting hassled by the local border touts.

This border crossing was a little more interesting as you exit Zambia and then board a small ferry that only takes 2 vehicles at a time, before reaching the Botswana customs on the other side of the river. The crossing only costs 50 Kwacha plus 20 Kwacha in tax but the touts tryed to get me to pay $15 US, which was clearly a lot more than it should have been.

I finally got ushered onto the ferry but not before the ferry staff hassled me for a tip for just doing their job, Including the armed guard standing next to my bike.

After exiting the ferry getting through the Botswana customs was very quick and just involved paying a 165 Pula fee for road tax.

I had completed all the required passport and carnet formalities at the Botswana customs by 10.30am, so pressed on as I wanted to make it to Nata, some 220 miles away before the late afternoon rain started.

The landscape in Botswana was quite different to what I had experienced in the other African countries. At first it was quite un nerving riding on the long straight roads as they were lined on both sides of the road with extremely high grass,. it was like riding through a passage way with the added worry that I was riding through a wild animals zone, so anything could suddenly decide to appear from the long grass into my path.

Even the lay byes had warning signs about the wild animals, which meant that I was on high alert and my rest stops didn’t last for more than 5 mins.

But it wasn’t long before the animals started to appear at the roadside...

When I stoped to photograph the elephant I wasn’t actullay sure if he was going to take a disliking to me and charge across the road, so I took the photo and jumped back on the bike a bit sharpish. As I did so I looked behind me and a Giraffe decided to cross the road. I really was riding through the wild animal zone!

I carried on for another 25 miles and came across these guys...Ostriches

After another 100 +. miles the landscape changed. It was so flat for such a long way that the tree line on the horizon looked like it was floating on water. In fact it was a heat haze as the temperature had soared to 34 degrees.

With only 25 miles to go before reaching Nata I passed the entrance to the Elephant Sands Lodge, This was a place that had been recommended to me as the accommodation built on stilts overlooks a watering hole that the elephants come to during early evening, Although I hadn’t booked I decided to take my chances and turned down the sandy track to the lodge. However the track took me quite a way into the bush and it wasn’t long before I met up with a 4x4 reversing back up the track towards me, quite quickly. I stopped the bike to see what was happening only to see that a herd of elephants were coming up the track towards the 4x4 and myself. I didn’t stop to take a photo as I figured if the 4x4 was getting out of the way I would have no chance on a bike, so turned the bike round and made my way back to the main road. Feeling a little disappointing that I had not been able to make it to the Elephant Sands Lodge, I pressed on to Nata. The clouds by now had started to get very dark, the rain was definitely on its way. It was at around 3pm when I arrived in Nata and with the rain close behind, I booked into the first B + B I passed. Sure enough 20 mins later the heavens opened!