Kimberley -> Warrenton -> Vryburg -> Mafekeng -> Ramatlabama -> Gaborone -> Palapye -> Serowe
Distance & Time Taken
870 km
11 1/2 hrs
Accommodation
Khama Rhino Sanctuary (www.khamarhinosanctuary.org.bw)
+/-25kms north of Serowe on the A14 road to Lethlakanye
Trip Notes
We had to use our alarm this morning, hopefully for the last time this trip & awoke to a really cold winters' morning in Kimberley. It was dark when we got up, showered, had breakfast & packed. The night's sleep was disturbed by a noisy compressor of the fridge but, this would be the last time for a while we would be sleeping on a bed - from now on, it would be on top of the vehicle on the inaugural trip of the Wild Earth RTT.
We were en route by 06h45 through Kimberley to the border at Mafekeng. I was surprised at the development that had happened in Kimberley in terms of shopping malls, etc but disappointed at the state of the roads through the city centre. On the N12 just north of town, we passed a large dam - Kamfers Dam - that is home to a few thousand of flamingos. Unfortunately, from the N12, there is no access to the dam so it was difficult to get a close up of all the birds. (http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-kimberleys-flamingos)
Next stop was Vryburg where we again fuelled up at the Caltex. The petrol jockey wasn't paying attention & the fuel pump switched off half way through the fill resulting in a split transaction. This took my attention off the car for a moment (Ang was in the shop buying water) but she noticed some miscreant trying to look through the window on the opposite side to me as to what we had inside but her quick thinking in dashing out of the shop resulted in him fleeing before he could get anything - a wake up call to focus on security at all times. At the Engen across the road (with a Woolies foodshop nogal), a party was on the go in the forecourt with the taxi's refuelling on their way back from the ANC election Manifesto launch in Bloemfontein the previous day.
We took another break in Mafekeng where I needed to purchase a tripod having forgotten mine in Cape Town & Ang needed to do update her Unisa work before we headed across the border & lost wifi. Mafekeng has also had significant development over the last 20 years (I worked there for a year in 1994/5 as store manager for the re-launched Woolies store at Megacity). We left town just before 12 & headed to the Ramatlabama border post with Botswana which lies about 20kms north of the town. The SA side went pretty quickly even though we needed to fill in the SARS declaration for all the goods we were taking with us. The Botswana side was a bit of a challenge firstly with parking & then with the office itself. After squeezing between 2 poorly parked Botswana registered cars, we headed into the office only to find no immigration papers available. First we had to queue for these & then re-queue again to have them processed - queueing was not a strong point for the locals trying to get through so I had a few prize words for the queue jumpers which seemed to spark the officials into action to manage the line. From here, we had to finalise the vehicle import & pay the relevant tax before we could head out. The entire process took over an hour but could have been done with 30 minutes had processes been in place.
The drive through to Gaborone was pretty easy but slow as we had to slow down through every village (there are many). I hadn't been to Gabs since the early 2000's and was surprised at the infrastructural development - looking very first world (bit of a Dubai feel in places). After leaving Gabs, we were on the A1 again heading up to Palapye but the first portion was slow going due to the roadworks. The rest was challenging as there was significant traffic heading back down to Gabs at the end of the weekend. I was getting worried that were not going to make the gate closure at Khama Rhino but couldn't get hold of them telephonically to confirm at what time they do close. We turned off the A1 just before sunset & then drove the A14 into a beautiful setting sun. We eventually got to Khama Rhino at 18h15 very relieved that they don't have a gate closing time & that if you miss the office closing time (19h00), the guard would advise you where to go.
We bought some firewood & a map of the sanctuary before heading out to campsite #4 in the dusk. We quickly set up camp & got the fire going to braai the lamb chops we had bought in Beaufort West the day before. It was a long day but we were now encouraged that we had covered a significant portion of ground in 2 days.
Costs for the day
Accommodation
|
Khama Rhino Sanctuary
|
BWP480,00
|
Border vehicle fee
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Botswana
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BWP150,00
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