Our trip to South Africa, was really a road trip to Botswana. Bonnie, Scott, Dan, myself, plus Graham (Bonnie's dad) and Joni (Bonnie's sister) hit the road in Graham's work vehicle, a Mahindra Scorpio (with Bonnie squeezed in the back with bags). We left Jo'berg in the morning, stopping at a bank to change some rand into pula, to be able to pay the vehicle fee at the border and we were off.
We stopped at a gas station in town, where I enjoyed a fabulous latte from Seattle's Coffee Shop (which I found odd in South Africa, but I gather is fairly common), filled up on snacks and kept driving till we got to Beestekraeal Statsie, an eclectic cafe. A lunch of toasted sandwiches and french fries and we were set to go. The sign above "Pipi Plek" points towards the bathroom in Afrikaans.
We arrived at the border and smoothly exited South Africa, got our passports stamped at immigration on the Botswana side and then the power went out before we got the vehicle fee processed. Supposedly that's a fairly common thing in Botswana, so we stood and waited with the growing crowd for almost an hour, before the power finally came back on. Then we all piled into the car and got to customs where the border guards decided that our dinner ingredients were not going to pass the agriculture inspection, the border guards were having a bbq with our steak and tomatoes, but for whatever reasons opted out of taking the papaya. We continued down the road a mere mile to our accommodate at the Kwa Nokeng Lodge, where the reception has a sign that says beware of the hippo and crocs from the Limpopo River. Since we didn't have any ingredients for dinner and the next town was an hour down the road, we dined in the open air restaurant overlooking the river.
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