34. A couple of days in Botswana

A ferry of 5 minutes and 30 dollars brings us to Botswana’s territory. The head of the bull is off the car as we can’t enter with any animal products. Hidden in our roof box we cross the border with it. The car needs to drive through a little pool of whatever product that is to ensure you are not bringing I don’t know what kind of bacteria in the country. Than we need to walk on a disinfectant as well, and off we go. As we knew you can’t take food into the country we ate it all and stop at the first supermarket to get us some fresh Botswana approved veggies. And so our journey to the South African border starts. We are not just going to cross quickly in a day, we have a couple of plans. First we will drive to the salt pans, than we do a day of driving in the salt pans and towards the rhino sanctuary and then it it will be border crossing  time again.

Loads of elephants along the road, not interested in us. And yes, Kosta is actually out of the car to take a picture. Tourists… LOL

But first things first, driving towards Nata. As we are enjoying the good tarmac (and the elephants) we arrive at a veterinary check point. They want to inspect the car for food. Tomatoes and cucumber have to be thrown away or eaten before we pass. And although we try to tell them we just bought that at a local supermarket, we still have to eat it as ‘we come from the infected area’. So this is how we find ourselves enjoying a fresh made tomato with cucumber and onion salad at 4 in the afternoon at a veterinary stop.  Nicely seasoned and with fresh bread eaten in the shade behind the inspectors, what else do you want more to enjoy a nice break. LOL

Next day we have a superb drive in the salt pans.  And for the first time in our lives we see a cobra in the wild (which we almost ran over with the car)! We of course stay at a safe distance, thank goodness for the zoom.

And then we arrive at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, a private park where about 30 rhinos, the last ones of Botswana life in peace. We are super enthusiastic as we haven’t seen these endangered animals so far. The rhino is an endangered species as it is unfortunately still very popular for its horn. The park also has a super nice campground. Yes people, we camp in the park where the campground is not behind a fence. But no predators have approached the car (and we are guessing there are none), only the birds are big fans of the mirrors. : )

Squirrel, one of what we call a MAG - Minor Attention Game - aka underappreciated wildlife LOL

In total we have seen about 15 rhinos. We each take our turn sitting on top of the car. It is such a great way to enjoy the park! Probably not possible in wildlife reserves with predators but here in this private sanctuary for rhinos we have not been told to get off the roof.  : )