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Wed Jun 04 2003 (Gaborone to Ghanzi)

Up around 8.30. Few people there to make breakfast. Grab shower and pack, then breakfast - sausage, bread & jam and tea. Strange but does the trick. Catch taxi with Jason to drop key off, then to bus station. Head out of town, ask how far to bus station. 5 minutes. Want to catch 10am bus, might be last of day. Arrive at Riverside Lodge. Why are we here? Head back into town, hope that bus station is small. Arrive there around 2 mins past 10. Huge, around 30 buses and twice as many mini-buses, market stalls, loads of people. Driver takes us straight to where Ghanzi bus should be. Just leaving. Get driver to open door, ask him to wait one min while I get pack, shrugs shoulders. Run, fetch pack, banging on door to let me in. Eventually get door open and struggle on board. Journey cost P48 (£6.50), 8 hours, 800km. Sit near front with lady with kids (baby plus young boy and girl). Mpho behind, signs shirt in Setswana, talk about footy. Reading article about SA bloke that was first black person to scale Everest. Bloke pissing at side of road. Lady trying to fix me up with a Botswana woman. Will Smith. Botswana is really cool, nice to be only white person at last. Botswana music on bus Stop at Jwaneng, where world's largest diamond deposit was found in 1978. Have ten minutes, dash in to have a piss, English sounding lady takes me to manager's office, then send me to staf bathroom. Grab water, sausage roll, cornish pasty and some choclate snacks. Last one back on bus, hooting. Four checkpoints, first check passport on bus, then search as side of bus (looking for weapons of mass destruction). Then major check on other side of road (when Ilose my seat on bus), then get through without any check. Stop a few more times. Animals blocking road: cattle, goats, horses, sheep, donkeys, ostrich. Talking to Kefirwe. Family from near Martin's drift, brothers and sisters in Gaborone, she works at chalk factory in Francistown. SA company, moving back to SA in one month so needs to find new job (been there 5 years). Going to place near Ghanzi, will see cousin tonight. Kalahari full of trees and scrub, expected just sand. Termite mounds every few hundred metres, some 6 feet high. Arrive Ghanzi, tiny, crossroads with petrol station, spar and a hotel. Go to Kalahari Arms hotel. Get round chalet with double and twins, share with Kefirwe. Really nice place. Air con and TV. Cousin and Samson visits. Plays for Ghanzi in second divison (Super league plus div 1 to 6). Funny bloke, booming voice, wants to come to England, said I'd take him to a footy game if he does. Goes on about not going to church but god being with him all the time. Cousin eventually drags him out door. Watch TV but basically rubbish, BTV has the crappest looking US exports I've ever seen. Photos from today