Day 1 - Johannesburg to Groblers Bridge/Martins Drift Botswana

                               Day 1 - Johannesburg to Groblers Bridge/Martins Drift Botswana

View from our Chalet Overlooking the Green-Grey Greasy Limpopo River
at Kwa Nogend, Martins Drift, Botswana  at Sunset

Can you believe it we got away from Home at 08h14 only 14 minutes later than planned, but I have to add we were up before the sparrow at least I was.

We had an inauspicious start mislaying the car keys before we attempted packing the car, the obvious culprits were Claudia; last in the car the evening before and Sinead; whose love for keys is only surpassed by her love for dogs, however, just my luck detective Denise retraced my steps and found them in the wine cellar don’t ask questions.

We assembled the cases, bags, camera equipment, food boxes and so much more in the garage not to mention boxes and more boxes of disposable nappies 420 some sort of calculation  by Richard, which entailed number of days multiplied by 7 to be exact where he arrives at 7 we do not know but put it down to experience.

We packed an re-packed the car at least 3 times and I was on the verge of leaving all the nappies or the baby carrier behind when brute force and ignorance came to our rescue and we squeezed the last packet of nappies between the tripod and my camera bag being assured as the days went by the nappies would be reduced by 7 a day.

We went against the traffic up to Pretoria and one of our passengers were heard to remark “just look at all those suckers going to work” We made good time with a break at Kranskop of around 45 minutes and finally arriving at the border at 13h15 after a 5 hour trip (426kms) only to find a long queue on the RSA side and only one immigration officer on duty; good practise for future patience we are going to have to demonstrate at another sixteen border posts over the next 2 months. Expecting an even worse situation in Botswana we were pleasantly surprised when we found they out numbered RSA by 10 to 1 and they were most friendly and efficient.

Our first stop at Kwa Nogeng Lodge is just over the border right on the banks of the Limpopo River and situated in the Tuli block nature reserve a more than adequate overnight stop and we checked in at 14h30. I got a fright when the receptionist said she did not have our booking unless we were Michelle Daneel what a relief as Michelle had assisted me with the reservation, mind you I do not know what we were worrying about I think we are the only ones at the lodge.

Eat your hearts out we are sitting on a veranda overlooking the Limpopo with a frosty in hand looking at squirrels, and Arrow-marked Babblers Grey Louries, Burchells Starlings, but have not spotted any crocodiles in the grey-green, greasy Limpopo River so we cannot feed Sinead to them, to be honest she has been good except for a screaming match after Potgietersrus, but Mom’s milk was the perfect pacifier and she had a good two hours sleep, which is what she needed.

 We are off to dinner on this, our first night, of our Africa Safari and the thought of no borders for the next 5 days is a joy to behold.