Follow Me Tour: The famous lady of Botswana

Red marker is at Nata, where we will stay overnight on the journey there and back

As I have recently mentioned I love amateur sleuth mysteries. I have to confess that I have not followed this series as one of those I had mentioned. However, the book I have read (and the two films I had watched) I really liked.
In keeping with Follow Me this week, I would like to introduce you to Mma Precious Ramotswe, a lady who has a passion for getting to the truth. She is the lead character of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, written by Alexander McCall Smith.
The story takes place in Botswana, where Mma Precious has her office in Gaborone, the capitol of the country. While she - and her always ready to help assistant, Grace - are going about their sleuthing, while personal matters always seem to pop up to make life a bit more challenging.
While I might not be travelling in the direction of Gaborone on this occasion, I will be seeing some of the country on my way to the Chobe Nature reserve where we will be staying.

Be on the lookout for more tales and pictures of my adventure in Botswana.

Infographic Thursday: Reward Yourself...you need it!

Source: www.visual.ly

Follow Me Tour: Nata Lodge Overnight

Upon arrival at Nata, I was reminded that we were going to sleep in a tent. With everything going on, I had completely forgotten about that part.

It is a permanent fixture, more so than the usual tent for camping. The tent is erected on a wooden platform. There are two beds with mosquito nets (an essential for sleep) and a nice bathroom. But the best of all? The outdoor shower! Man, did I enjoy that after we had dinner.

Francois took a shower before we had dinner while I was sorting out my stuff and getting this post underway. A few minutes later he waltzed in completely out of sorts.

He was already dressed, and smelled nice and clean, so I wondered what had happened.

He replied with, “if you have a self-image problem don't take that shower outside.”

I went, “Huh?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned, “those birds you heard just now? They were laughing at me while I was stark naked out there.”

I was hysterical. The birds he was referring to are commonly called katlagters in Afrikaans. (Minas in English) They literally sound like cats laughing at you. He just shook his head, but eventually gave out.

Wild animals we saw along the road: springbuck, warthogs, blesbuck and kudu.

Birds we saw along the road: Yellow-billed hornbill, minas, armour falcon

Follow Me Tour: On the Road

Crossing the Limpopo river between SA and Botswana

On our way to our overnight stop we drove behind a small truck with a bull, a cow and a small calf on the back. I don't know where the people went when they turned off, but I couldn't resist a few pictures as the animals moved around and upon occasion faced backwards, right at us.

When I opened my email, Google+ told me there was a Google+ Awesome picture. Curious, I opened the application and burst out laughing. I took several pics with my mobile phone today, but it picked one of the cattle on the back of the small truck! Awesome indeed :)

And boy are there animals to look out for when you driving this way. Goats, cattle and donkeys. Yep, thousands of them, with the number of donkeys only slightly less.

I had fun with Francois' GoPro camera on the road. He told me to put my mobile phone away and use the GoPro. I took about ten video clips starting from the border crossing to Nata Lodge.

We will charge the battery overnight and then I can play some more tomorrow.

Travel tip #4: Unless you are an experienced driver on bad roads (read bad potholes and uneven surfaces) avoid the George's Bridge/Martin's Drift border crossing if you are driving into Botswana from South Africa. Francois has a 4x4 and is a competent driver, and yet it was not easy to drive on this road. I would imagine that sedan type vehicle drivers had a nightmare driving this road today. It can be done, but you need to be extra careful not to cause damage to the tyres or the car when you drive too fast for the road conditions. The bad part is about 92 km from the border crossing to Palapye. Thereafter the road (the A1 main road) is much better, with only the animals and heavy trucks to look out for.

Follow Me Tour: We are on our way!

Today, our first day of travel, was a really long one that started at 3.30am this morning when we woke up. We left home just after 4am and arrived about twelve hours later at our overnight destination, Nata Lodge.

While we were still in South Africa we came across a quaint little place, called Proe-i-Biekie outside Baltimore. I didn't know we had a town by that name!

We decided to stop and have a belated breakfast/brunch. The owner, Ina, was very friendly and the food and coffee very nice too. Imagine our surprise when we saw espresso on the tiny menu. This type of coffee is seldom available in the remote rural areas of the country. And I had a chocolate muffin with my espresso! Francois rolled his eyes at me, but you have to have chocolate for breakfast at least once in your life, right?

Ina also offers overnight accommodation, if you are travelling in the Northwest province. She offered advice on alternative roads to travel to avoid the frustrating road works we had to deal with that resulted in our trip taking an additional 45 minutes.

Travel tip #1: Coming from Johannesburg/Pretoria - if you want to avoid the roadworks on the N11, take the N4 route via Nylstroom, and Melkrivier over Marken to Baltimore. It is 15km longer (about 20 minutes driving time) , but there are no delays on route. Thank you, Ina!

Travel tip #2: Bring a spare roll of toilet paper with you. Yeah, I know you are laughing, but trust me. The restrooms on the way are clean, and there is running water to wash your hands, but alas, the necessary is a bit lacking at most place we stopped. Nad yes, we had spare :)

Travel tip #3: Hand sanitising wipes, or waterless hand cleaner will be helpful, in case there is no soap in the restrooms. Happened at two of the places.