Traveling to Kasane

Monday, July 19, 2010

At 6:00 AM, we met Tommie and the 8 students at the bus to get ready to leave for the Malaria Campaign. The campaign would be taking place in the Chobe District, in the very northern part of Botswana (the other side of the country). We would be staying in a city called Kasane for the first two nights before traveling to the village of Parakarungu for the actual campaign.

The bus left at around 6:30 and we ate our breakfast on the bus--fried chicken and french fries. We were a little skeptical at first, but it actually tasted really good. Our first stop was 200 kilometers later in a town called Mahalapye, where we got fuel and used the bathroom. The next stop was in Francistown, the halfway point. We got more fuel and our lunch was delivered by a catering company. We had the choice of more chicken with rice, or beef with rice. We chose the beef this time.

The bus ride was fairly comfortable. It was a large bus, with only 11 passengers plus all our suitcases and other cargo. Each person was able to have his or her own seat to stretch out and sleep during the ride. We also had a chance to get to know the students a little better.

After passing through Francistown and getting into the northern part of the country, we started to see many more animals on the side of the road. The entire drive had pretty much the same view--very flat and dry with many low trees and bushes. As we got into the Chobe National Park, we saw baboons, elephants, giraffes, and zebras on the side of the road. This was amazing for us. We had seen some of these animals on our safari game drives earlier in the trip, but now we were seeing them in a completely natural and wild setting.

We saw a beatiful sunset as we passed through the National Park, and we later arrived at our campsight close to 9:00 PM. It was a long ride from Gaborone to Kasane, and we were really looking forward to having some dinner at the campsight. However, the campsight staff was unprepared for our arrival, and they had to drive 30 minutes away to pick up our food, and then come 30 minutes back. When they came back with the food, it was only some small sandwiches and fruit--not very satisfying, but better than nothing. Tommie and the students stayed in tents, which were furnished with beds, pillows and sheets. We were given a chalet, which was like a cabin, with our own beds, shower and toilet. We were expecting to be in tents like everyone else, and we felt these nicer accomodations were unnecessary, but it was also nice to have our own shower and bathroom.

Our Chalet