When we woke up this morning we knew we had one of the longest days of the trip so far ahead of us. Our goal was to make it to Francistown, Botswana by the end of the day and we only hoped our decision to avoid the infamous Beit Bridge border post was the correct one. Because of our dinner the night before we chose to pack our bags this morning and had the car loaded and ready to leave by 6:45. Heath had recommended stopping in Nelspruit to get the relevant work done on the car (including the flush of the cooling system) but our schedule, coupled with the fact that Nelspruit was in the wrong direction, convinced us to skip the intense car maintenance and head straight for Botswana.
We set off down the road with no option but to include unpaved roads on our route because our road out of the accommodation was unpaved. Our sat nav usually asks you if you would like to include or avoid unpaved roads, but rather annoyingly it glitches on this aspect if you start out on an unpaved road. About 100km into our journey we encountered the first of the gravel roads. Turns out that the unpaved roads on this route were very poorly maintained and they were very slow going. Once we cleared the 30 km or so on these gravel roads we reset the GPS to keep us on paved roads. Once we made this decision the next 200km or so were very swift and mundane. Near lunchtime we naturally decided to break for some food, as well as to pick up some supplies for the car that are required by law before entering Botswana and Zimbabwe. We pulled into a shopping centre in Mokopane, the last major town before Botswana's Martins Drift border post.
Just after getting out of the car we noticed a significant amount of shouting coming from the street and spotted a few men running amongst the traffic. At first it was not clear as to what was happening but it soon became apparent that the man sprinting up front was being chased by a combination of police and car guards. The street was very busy and the pavement was packed with people, a fact that likely aided in the mans capture after 100 metres of frivolous escape efforts. Once the man had been tackled by the guards he was subject to significant physical abuse from the bystanders around him, who were smacking him with their bags and hands for stealing.
After the commotion Jenny and I went into the shopping centre where we found a spar to buy some food supplies and a Game (South African equivalent of a home depot) where we could buy our required car supplies. We bought a 25litre diesel jerry can, a fire extinguisher, a reflective triangle, a bottle of injector cleaner, reflective stickers and a torch. The jerry can and injector cleaner were a necessity for our trip, the rest were all 'required by the government of Botswana and Zimbabwe' mostly to avoid having to pay bribes every time we go through a police checkpoint. Once we finished picking up our supplies we stopped for fuel and to fill up the jerry can, before we got back on the road and headed towards the border with Botswana.
I remember going through this border when I was much younger. Many a time my parents would drop Jess and I off at the door and go to park, so that we could push our way through the chaotic throng of people and save them a spot! You were doomed to hours at the post if a bus, or seven, arrived before you as no one stands in orderly queues! Thankfully when we arrived we had only a handful of people there, so we were able to get through quickly and painlessly. Within 40 minutes we were through the South African and Botswana border's and on the road again. Even though we had made very good time so far we knew it would still be a long push to make it to Francistown before nightfall.
We really wanted to avoid driving at night because of the frequent animals on the road and so Dan put foot to the floor. Unfortunately we were just behind our schedule and it didn't appear as if we were going to make it before dark. We started looking to see if we could find a place to stay shy of Francistown in an effort to get off the road but the accommodation choices are few and far between in Botswana if you are not in one of the towns. Our hand was forced and we had to push on past dark, a very scary experience, and something I do not wish to repeat on this trip.
The road was quite busy in both directions so we couldn't keep the brights on for very long, if at all, and the frequency and number of animals on the side of the road that we only saw at the last minute was petrifying. The pot holes towards Francistown were also quite bad and were difficult to see and avoid. After traveling these last terrifying 90 km we finally arrived in Francistown and pulled into the first hotel on the road we saw and at just R400 for the room we were happy to take it. After 700km and 12 hours on the road we most certainly needed rest and collapsed into bed at 8:00pm after a very very long day.
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