Part 2 of Trip to South Africa

The border crossing to enter Botswana was not quite as complicated, requiring only an hour for the official paperwork, stamping, and waiting. Then we headed north through desolate flatlands. Our original plan was to arrive at Nata and spend the night, but the delay at the border made that impossible. Just after dark we drove into Francistown. At the restaurant where we ate our meal, the manager discouraged us from traveling farther at night. “There are too many animals in the road,” he said.

So we spent the night in Francistown and headed out at 6 a.m. the following morning. We drove through miles and miles of commercial farming areas. At one point the fields on both sides of the road were waves of black as far as I could see. The fields were planted with sunflowers! Later we passed miles and miles of cotton fields. The cotton had been harvested and was piled in huge mountains that looked just like snow. Since this was the dry season, the cotton could be left in piles until transport vehicles arrived to take it in for ginning.

We understood what the restaurant manager meant about animals when we had to stop for six ostriches to cross the road in front of us. Another time a donkey stood right in the middle of the road like a statue and watched us with mournful eyes as we carefully maneuvered around him. Cows seemed more willing to get off the roadway when they saw us coming.

At noon we were near the Zambian border. We had eaten only snack food for breakfast, so we opted to stop for lunch at a restaurant. There is no such thing as fast food in our part of Africa, so the meal took almost two hours to complete. That slowed us down in getting to the border crossing. Since the border is the Zambezi River, we had to cross on the Kazangula ferry. The line of trucks and cars waiting for the ferry was long, so there was more sitting and waiting. A clearing agent approached the bus and offered to go on across to Zambia and get the paperwork started, so we sent him on ahead. We finally got our turn on the ferry and had a short and uneventful trip across the water. Just a few years ago a huge trailer rig drove off the edge of the ferry and caused it to capsize. Almost all the passengers drowned because they could not swim and there were no life jackets. On this new ferry there were plenty of life jackets and we made sure we wore them!

We noticed two huge groups of children in school uniforms who were crossing into Botswana, and we wondered what they were doing there at 4:00 in the afternoon. When we stepped off into Zambia we were surprised to see Mr. Sikute, a member of the Zambian Board. He informed us that he was there as part of a greeting committee for the arrival of the president of Madagascar, and that the school children were there to sing for the president. The clearing agent grabbed us and told us that there was not enough time to complete the paperwork on the bus, so it was to be impounded in Livingstone for the night and we had to get it there by 6:00. We rushed through immigration and made our way through the crowds of people waiting for the presidential motorcade. The clearing agent rode with us into Livingstone and allowed us to find a lodge before taking the vehicle to the impounding yard.

The next day we endured another six hours of waiting for official inspections and paperwork. The impounding yard closed at 1:00, so there was a flurry of activity from noon on, and we were finally cleared to leave around 2:00. The trip back to Namwianga was blissfully uncomplicated, and we were able to say with enthusiasm, “It’s good to be home!”