Botswana – Namibia – Botswana

August 20, 2024

We left early today – we have an eight hour drive ahead of us. We did our first “stretch and flex” which is how many construction sites start their days to avoid injuries. Michael and I both work in construction so we thought it would be fun. almost everyone joined.We leave Botswana, enter Namibia and go back into Botswana for the next two days. Namibia has this panhandle that cuts of HOURS off your drive so thats why we have to go in and out in order to make it to camp without wasting time. With all this border crossing though we have to fill out lots of paperwork. You have to fill out a form to get out of Botswana and then a new form to get into Namibia. Then another form to get back into Botswana.

We stopped a few times on our drive today – first stop was the exit stamp for Botswana and then Namibia entrance stamp. We then stopped for lunch/grocery/bathroom break. Sounds like we will be stopping every day or every other day for food for the group so we will have an opportunity to get snacks (life). Noel warned us that the roads in Namibia would be bumpy. I think he was being kind.

The roads in Namibia were ROUGH!! The tar (paved) roads just end randomly and off you are on dirt roads – FOR HOURS. These are highways. We got pulled over for speeding and Noel said it cost about $20 – thats when I realized I forgot to pay my HOV lane ticket – thankfully Kristi was able to log in and pay it for me, but I was late by a week so Im sure my insurance will go up now.

We got to camp at 430 after all our border stops. We had an evening boat ride scheduled at 515 so we had to grab our bags and toss them in our tents before we left so we could get long pants and shirts.

The boat ride was pretty much bird watching. We got back and had dinner and found out that tomorrow is a multiple even day.

When we got back dinner was almost ready. I decided I would just relax tonight and take my time with everything. I think the heat of the day wore on me a bit. I decided to shower at 830pm. That is when I learned that the little fires that are used to heat the shower are not fed at 745pm. So I had luke warm (at best) water. Since that is more my normal it wasnt that big of a deal to me. The loo is outdoors, only 3 sides. You have the most beautiful view of the water/marsh.