Next up: Botswana and Namibia…

Hennie and Emmerentia, who had to postpone their retirement trip for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, finally toured the Kruger National Park last year. At various stops, they were joined by friends and old acquaintances. We left them in Marekele in the previous issue, just as they were getting ready to cross the border into Botswana. Hennie continues the story…

“It was still pitch dark, but we were ready to go. On Thursday, 3 June 2021, our brand-new passports, which had been patiently waiting in the safe for a year, were due to get new stamps. We were to cross the border at Groblersbrug and then enter Botswana through the Martin’s Drift border post.

We headed for Lephalale and turned towards the border. We got there sooner than expected and saw the trucks already in the queue. Luckily, friends had told us we simply needed to drive past all the trucks to the front of the line.

The service here was pretty unfriendly, but we got through without any issues. Then, off to Martin’s Drift. Shortly before the border post, there was a cattle stop, where they tested for foot-and-mouth disease, but staff didn’t seem very interested in finding out whether we were transporting any meat. We drove through a trough with liquid to disinfect our tyres and then got out to step onto some damp material for the same purpose.

Here, too, kindness wasn’t abundant in the office, but we were helped quickly. Then,