We had to stop a couple of times at the foot and mouth disease control points. Here we had to take all our shoes and press them into a mat soaked with disinfectant and drive through a dip or wait to have our tyres sprayed. This didn't take long and we were on our way again after declaring that we had no raw meat.
There were no real villages to speak of any where near the road but we passed a few places where they were selling reed for thatching houses. This particular community was quite large and the bundles of thatch leant against the wooden fences around their huts which were made of black polythene. They looked really poor and their huts were tied together with pieces of rag. There did not seem to be any kind of settlement or shopping area that we could see so we were not sure if they were a refugee settlement or a temporary workers' camp but there didn't seem to be anything other than small scrubland amongst the reeds for them to work on.
We arrived at the junction town of Nata where Klaus and Constancia were going to continue onto SA and we needed to turn off. Just as we arrived so did a huge 71 seater bus. What luck. The bus waited for passengers from a bus from Gabarone and then we had a quick toilet stop and grabbed a bun from the petrol station and said our goodbyes to Klaus and Constancia and headed for Maun. If the bus had not have arrived at the same time as us, we would have had to hitch a ride with someone going our way. There is not much public transport and not many people seem to know when buses come or go or if they go at all.
When John got out of the 4x4 he noticed that he had cracked the plastic casing on the camera so will have to let the insurance company know.
The bus stopped in Maun near a brand new shopping complex so we were able to stock up on some fresh food and catch a taxi the 10+ kms to Audi Lodge where we read we could get a bus to Namibia from.
For a little bit more than the price of putting up our own small tent we rented one of the camp's 'bedded tents'. It had a light, two single beds with all the bedding and towels and mats on the floor. In the 30+ temperatures the fan was a treat though. The large canvas tents permanently sit on a concrete slab and were pretty comfortable. The people at the camp were not very friendly and made us move a couple of days later as they had booked out all their bedded tents but we never saw anyone use them at all. The 'domed tents' they put us in had a light, a fold up aluminium camp bed and a mattress. We used our silk sleeping sheets and opened up the windows to get some air moving and it was surprisingly cool.
We used the poorly equipped kitchen at the camp and met a French couple on the last leg of their Round the World Trip and were able to get some advice on places ahead of us. There were not many people in the camp and it was very hot, dry and extremely dusty. Although the publicity on the camp said it was a party place it was pretty quiet as there were not many overland trucks in and quite a few older folk in their twin cab 4x4s.
We could have flown over the rivers in the area or gone in a dugout canoe to see animals but we decided to rest up as we had seen so many animals since we started our trip. The camp was a long way from the town centre and a hassle to get in and out so we walked around the neighbour hood talking to the locals we met. We visited a nearby backpackers to see if they had any news of onward transport for us and enjoyed chatting to other travellers there.
We met a group of 4 Chinese men who told us they were working on a site building a college in the local area and had come from Eastern China.
These boys were spending their Sunday catching fish with worms on small hooks. They had a pretty skillful technique where they tossed the line into the shallow pond and as soon as they sensed a bite, which must have been tiny, they yanked the line to ensure they had hooked the fish which was the size of a small sardine in most cases. The larger fish they got were bream but even they were tiny.
We heard singing in the town and went to investigate. There was a group of men in a circle in the yard and they were singing what sounded like the same refrain over and over and when it finished they would jump in the air with both feet and come down with a heavy thump. While this went on and on a circle of women about 50 metres from them sang a different song and they went on and on as well. Being a Sunday we presumed it was a church group but the place where they were looked like some one's house.
After our rest and enough of the heat and dust we caught a taxi into Maun town centre and happened upon a bus heading for Ghanzi, where we thought we would take a break before continuing to the border with Namibia. Ghanzi is the administrative centre for the Kalahari and has nothing of interest to travellers. Once we arrived at the dusty bus terminal in Ghanzi there was a small 18 seater bus waiting to continue to the border. It had 3 seats across and then another fold out seat in the aisle and in no time it was packed with locals and their boxes of shopping.
Typical rural housing.This lady was on the bus with us and she belongs to the Herero tribe. In the 16th and 17th centuries this Bantu group migrated from the Zambezi River Valley to Namibia. The women cover themselves from neck to ankle in a Victorian style dress and a large hat in the shape of a cow's horn. The fashion comes from contact with the German missionaries at that time. The women fasten the elaborate headdress with pins and brooches. One lady we saw had puffy sleeves like Emelda Marcus of The Philippines used to favour. Under the dress is a long lacy petticoat as well. The Herero men with these women wear leather 'cowboy style' hats and vests over their shirts. They look like very proud people.
We arrived at the Botswana-Namibian border at about 4.30pm and crossed over with no problems only to find there were no buses, taxis or any transport further on.
