Botswana! (Lots of pictures)

June 29th, Day 18:

We woke up early this morning, trying to get a bunch of things done before we headed towards the border crossing. On the agenda for the morning was: getting our laundry cleaned, definitely a priority as we had resorted to dirty clothes for a few days now, as well as a lot of deodarant; fixing the video camera attachment for my bicycle to enable us to record as we are cycling; and finally updating our blog with pictures from past days on the road. Because of the distance that needed to be covered and my lack of mobility with my achilles hurting, Aaron had the task of getting the laundry done and fixing the bicycle attachment, while I only had to go around the corner and update the website.

We were supposed to be out of the hotel by 10am, so Aaron woke up at 730am to get the laundry in and go to the hardware store for the bicycle attachment. I slept in until around 9am because I was tired and only had to go to the internet cafe; I'm not sure if Aaron knows this so hopefully he wont read my blog post and be mad. Anyway, Aaron turned out to have quite the eventful and fustrating morning as his pannier rack on the back of his bike broke off while he was biking over to the laundromat, which happened to open thirty minutes late so he had to sit and wait for a while with his broken bicycle. He eventually was able to get the laundry done and and find the right piece for the bicycle attachment, but the bigger problem was his pannier rack that needed immediate attention.

Luckily we were able to find some very strong tape that enabled us to tape the bottom of the rack, which had broken off, onto the frame of the bicycle. This turned out to be very sturdy and would hold on until Gaborone, where we could find a long-term solution to this problem. Unfortunately, because of all the unanticapted problems, we could not leave Mafeking until around 1230pm and would have to push it to make it all the way to Lobatse, about 90 kilometers, before nightfall.

It was a very peaceful bicycle ride to the border, only 25 kilometers left of South Africa for us to cover. There was some nostalgia and sadness in leaving South Africa, but we were also both really excited for Botswana and all it would have to offer us. I was also really proud of what we had accomplished so far, gritting through mountains, rain, wind, sand roads, and the occasional bicycle issue that would leave us stranded on the side of the road for hours. Despite all of these setbacks, we were able to prevail and triumph, and we could not have done it without the assistance and kindness of the South African people.

The border turned out to be pretty uneventful, aside from the issue of Aaron's visa not scanning, but that problem was resolved and we departed South Africa. For about 300 meters or so, we were in no country at all; there is a road that connects South Africa and Botswana, but between the two border posts lies a plot of land that no one controls. We were able to sneak some pictures of both border posts because technically the land we were on was under no one's control. This was our assessment at the time and we very well could be wrong, but it was fun while it lasted.

We were two of only a handful of people that were crossing the border at this time, so there were no lines and it took us only about 20 minutes to be on Botswanan soil. There were a few differences that jumped out to us as we entered Botswana, one being they no longer accepted the South African Rand and we had to get it exchanged for Pula. Another difference was everyone spoke Sestwana, a language Aaron is trying to learn on the go and I picked up a few of the greetings from his studying to be able to interact with local people.

Another difference that we could feel and experience as we progressed towards Lobatse, our destination for the night, was that there are minimal racial tensions in Botswana compared to South Africa, which still has a very young democracy and in many areas, people are segregated but there skin color and struggle to coexist with each other. The main reason for this is obviously the Apartheid era and the colonization of South Africa for hundreds of years under Dutch and British control. Botswana, however, was never colonized by a European nation, and the local people have enjoyed an autonomy over the land for many years, building up the country into one of the most stable and well-off countries in Africa.

Crossing the border proved to be the easiest part of our day, as we were met with a strong head wind as we rode along in Botswana. Determined to reach our destination and thrilled to be in a new country enabled us to push on into the wind and towards Lobatse. We took a break at a gas station about 20 kilometers from Lobatse and met some friendly locals who we chatted with for a while. At this point we realized it was close to 530pm and the sun would be setting very shortly, so we decided to hitch a ride for the last 20 kilometers or so and not stay on the side of the road this night. Fortunately for us, almost every vehicle on the road was a pick-up truck so it was only a matter a time before we hailed down a friendly Botswanan gentleman, who let us put our bikes on the back of the truck and give us a lift to a guesthouse in Lobatse.

After a short drive into the center of Lobatse, our driver took us to a local guesthouse, where he unpacked our things and ventured out on the street to get some dinner. Down the block, we found this takeaway Indian place which was very cheap and had some great choices of foods which he munched down. We were pretty tired from the day's ride so we bathed and got into bed and watched some TV. Unfortunately they only had a double bed for us to share, but we were tired enough that any bed would do and there were no awkward moments during the night. The next day we would be off to Gaborone, capital of Botswana!

-Eric