Livingstone , Zambia to Kasane , Botswana - Tuesday 16th Feb

Did the daily oil and water check on Steph and then the travel briefing by Jan as usual. We are heading for Kasane which  is about 100kms however we have 2 boarder crossings and a ferry which can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours so expect to be there maybe mid afternoon.

Got  away just after 7.30 and entered Mosi-on-Tunya National Park about 5 kms up the road however didn't see any game as we drove through the park.

Had a police check about half way where they wanted to check the car insurance plus carbon tax and road toll payment slips which was all in order so quickly got to the Zambian border and as usual a long line of trucks awaiting to clear customs and board the ferry to Botswana .

Hit the border so out with car papers and passports to go through the formalities while dogging the money exchangers , people haggling you to mind your car and ones who want to take you through customs

A big wad of money in this blokes hand- probably amounts to about 10 bucks

All went extremely smoothly so through the boarder gates

Then sneaking past all the trucks to be first in line to get on the next ferry. As with most things in Africa either 1 or 5 ferries maybe working so along with the paperwork and the amount of  people waiting to get on aboard is why it can take such  a long time to get to the Botswana side.

In  no time we were on our way for the US$30 ride across 500metres of river and onto the Botswana customs area to get passports and car papers done. The Kazangula Ferry is where the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers meet as well as where the four countries of Botswana,Zambia , Zimbabwe and Namibia meet.

View over to the landing side in Botswana 

The Botswana Government must of figured out that you can save time and money by not having anyone fill out those stupid exit and entry forms so all up both customs and ferry took 40 minutes ,another PB- glad it's not very busy on the tourist front. Out of the customs office then in the car to stop and dip your feet into a solution for foot and mouth disease and exit the area.

Landlocked Botswana has an area of 582,000 sq km and extends more than 1100km from north to south and 90km from east to west. The Kalahari Desert covers up to 85% of the country, in the central and southwestern areas.Because the Okavango Delta and Chobe River provides an incongruous water supply , nearly all south Africian manual species including the Africian Wild Dog are found within the parks. Botswana has also got the most elephants of any country.

Botswana has used their resources wealth from diamonds very well and invested it wisely into education, infrastructure ,health( especially AIDS) unlike other Africian countries. I has been ruled by the Boers and Britian with Cecil Rhodes also trying to control it over its history since the 1800's and gained independence in 1966 and was shortly transformed by the discovery of diamonds in 1967 with the mining consession being given to De Beers with Botswana taking 75% of the profits.From 1966 to 2005 Botswana's ecomony grew faster than any other in the world.

We only had 10 kms to drive to reach Kasane so arrived at into Thebe River Safaris campground in record time at noon post a quick visit to the money changer and supermarket.Very nice camp grounds with allocated spots and only 1 other camper here by the looks of it. Unfortunately the bar and restaurant burnt down last week so the pool is also out of action which is a shame as we were looking forward to a nice warm to cool us down.

 Kasane is the stepping stone to Chobe Natural Park which has the most and biggest elephants in any Africian game park so looking forward to our game drive safari early in the morning and boat cruise in the afternoon.

Given we had arrived in such good time allowed me to catch up on charging my devices and getting up to date on the blog.. Here's spaghetti junction