The Border

This is getting to be a habit now… we got up at 6:30 am to pack and load the truck. We ate breakfast in the bar – tea and crepes with cinnamon and sugar. How decadent! We hit the road around 7:30. We’re driving the Trans Kalahari Highway… just the name of it is impressive. There is lots of land, bush, trees, hills and the occasional warthog.

We stopped in a small town to pick up a few supplies and buy meat for dinner. The variety of people and tribes in the towns are fascinating. There were ladies in large full length gowns with full crinolines and headpieces. The dresses are a descendent of the Victorian era but they have been adapted and adopted by this particular tribe. They are very bright and colourful but don’t look all that cool or comfortable. These ladies are in strange contrast to the semi-nude Himba tribe with their red clay and then all the people just walking around in very western dress.

We are crossing the border into Botswana today. We stopped at a rest stop just before the border to eat lunch. It was pretty nice for a rest stop. It has small cabins, clean toilets, and a laundry area. I guess they get a lot of long distance truckers that use this on their way through. The border crossing was fairly uneventful… stamp to exit one country, drive through no man’s land, stamp to enter the next country and poof… you’re in!

We drove and drove and drove until we reached the Ghanzi Trail Blazers. It was a 10 minute drive from the highway into the camp itself. I guess they want you to feel like you’re in the bush instead of by the side of the highway. There was an option to “upgrade” from your regular tent into one of the thatch huts that were permanently onsite. The huts had cement floors and some had plug points but the idea of staying in a thatch hut with a thatch door versus a nice tent with a door I could zip closed just didn’t appeal to me… cot instead of sleep pad or not.

There was also an option to pay $10US to participate in a campfire with the Bushmen where you could watch them sing and dance. This seemed a bit too contrived for my liking and I wasn’t sure if we would actually get the cultural experience we hoped for or the Disney version. Tomorrow we go for a bush walk with members of the tribe so I didn’t feel like we’d miss out on anything.

It will be yet another early morning tomorrow. I’m starting to wonder if we’re actually on vacation! Guided tours are definitely a different pace than self tours. You don’t get to set your own agenda but you get to sit around the campfire until bedtime telling stories and having a laugh with your new found friends.