What would we need and how much?
By Thursday, Marius knew he needed to get back to Pretoria to oversee the repairs of the Land Cruiser. He left the three of us to enjoy the preserve and then went to make sure we could go on the next phase of the journey. Meanwhile, Dani was very busy getting the trip rearranged to fit our new dates. For a while, it wasn’t clear if we would even get the new campsites before we left for Botswana! This was a big issues since our cell phones would not work once we entered the parks. Dani pulled out the stops and working with our tour agent got it done! Now we could prepare for the Border Crossing South Africa Botswana.
On Saturday, Marius returned with the supposedly fully functional Land Cruiser and the rented 4×4 trailer. Time to pack and prepare! We have to take EVERYTHING with us because there is nothing for sale in the parks. That is so wonderful because the animals are truly in their homes and we are just visitors. Marius figured out how much diesel and how many Jerry cans are required for the trip.
Food was another issue. Botswana is a primary beef producer and as such they have strict hoof and mouth check points and rules to insure that nothing disrupts their economy. For us, that means that Botswana will not allow any fresh veg or raw meat to be brought into the country. Yikes! So we made a plan to have multiple stops at multiple shops to get what we needed for the journey.
Cheri took on the calculations for water, much to the chagrin of the du Preez. Cheri regularly drinks a lot of water and knew they would need more than people were thinking. Each time we stopped for food shopping or diesel, we picked up more 5 gallon water containers.
The plan was to have John & Cheri sleep on the tent on top of the trailer and for Dani & Marius to sleep on their tent on the ground. It would make for a good campsite arrangement.
Border Crossing South Africa Botswana
Border formalities turned out to be relatively easy, once we read all the signs! Leaving South Africa was a breeze. We stood in line, got passports stamped and headed to the Botswana queue. All vehicles had to roll over a liquid for hoof and mouth prevention and all passengers had to alight the vehicle and walk through the same liquid to remove anything that could be harmful from their shoes.
When we got to the Botswana border, we missed one of the first signs. So after standing in line, we were told to go first to the COVID checkpoint and show our vaccination cards. We did that quickly and got back in line. The truckers helped us know which line we needed to queue in at which time. Soon we had paid for the trailer, had our passports stamped and we were on our way!
The week before we arrived, Botswana had lifted the outdoor mask mandate, but was still quite serious about the spread of COVID and still required masks indoors and proof of vaccination at the border.
Arriving at Kwa Nokeng
The Kwa Nokeng resort (http://www.kwanokeng.com/) is literally across the border. You turn at the first gas station you see and wind back into the bush along the Limpopo River. They offer guesthouses, luxury tents, and camping areas. Their restaurant is outdoors right along the river and is an oasis for hungry travelers.
John and I enjoyed two boat cruises at Kwa Nokeng!
The second boat cruise was the next morning before dawn (https://cherylawarren.com/boat-ride-in-botswana/)