24th August

Most Africans are very religious and at this end of the continent most are Christian. That didn’t bode well for trying to travel about 600km to a different country (Zambia) on a Sunday.

We’d asked about buses and minivans plying the route but when we arrived in town we were still relieved that it was business as usual. We took a minivan about half the way to a place called Nata. In typical laid back African style it left when it was full (something I’d rather it didn’t since we were trying to make the border before it closed at 6pm). At Nata we had a bigger problem, it was a smaller town with no organised transport to the border at that time of day. If we wanted to go anywhere we’d have to hitch. The problem with that was on a Sunday there’s less traffic. After a 20 minute wait we managed to get a lift from a truck driver.

Humphrey was a Zambian travelling with mining equipment from South Africa to the Congo. Picking up hitchhikers is a common and safe (especially in Botswana) way for people to get around and for the drivers to make some extra money. Withing 20 minutes of getting into the truck Humphrey had broken about 5 laws that would apply in the UK including having a beer at the wheel (he had 3 in total whilst driving the first segment to the border).

A mixture of the appalling state of the roads (enormous pot holes) and a truck limited to 80kph meant we weren’t going to make the border before it closed. The other problem we soon became aware of was that trucks in Botswana aren’t allowed to drive on the roads between 6pm (about sunset) and Midnight. We made it to a place called Panda which is about 100km south of the border, so it was the Panda truck stop where we had to spend much of the night.

With maybe 50 other large 40 tonne trucks already parked up it was unlikely there would be much food left. It wasn’t much of a problem as it allowed us to have our first African Braii (BBQ).

Making truck drivers parkup, eat and rest isn’t a bad idea but it turns out that that isn’t what they get up too, at least they do the first 2 they just replace the the rest with drinking and perhaps one of the prostitutes that roamed about.

There are 2 bars at the truck stop, one on either side of the road and are places tourists will rarely venture. It was a good opportunity to meet lots of nationalities and hear what they thought about the world. One person we met was a guide in a local game park. He was particularly fond of Americans on account of them making up the majority of his clients. Apparently it’s only 20,000 Pula (£1,668) to shoot an elephant, we weren’t tempted.

After some drunken dancing (by Craig and Bhav) and about 5 hours of waiting we were back on the road. Humphrey had drank a further 5 beers and wasn’t exactly at his best. In between the gaps in my slumber I can remember him weaving from side to side in a bid to avoid imaginary potholes. We just decided to close our eyes and try not to worry. He later told us we’d passed an overturned lorry, no doubt another driver who’d taken the opportunity to get drunk.