We started the day with a detour back to Francistown for diesel at 8am. The 9km’s of sand road from Woodlands to the tar road was slow going. Yesterday Francistown was gridlocked due to roadworks so we elected to drive through without stopping yesterday. We found a shell garage outside town, easy and friendly – we were on our way to Elephant Sands by 8:45.
Approximately 20km’s from Nata oncoming trucks started flashing lights to warn of a badly potholed section of the road with a bypass graded to the side in really bad sections. A bakkie towing a bakkie were jack knifed in the middle of the road stopping traffic in both directions. A miraculous near miss as a huge truck and trailer took to the side slope to avoid a collision. We found that the best policy for negotiating the deteriorating road surface was to ‘adopt a truck’. They travel between 80 and 90 km’s/hr which gives you plenty of warning to avoid road hazards such as potholes, donkeys or goats. Intriguing ‘twee spoor paitjies’ disappear into the bush. We passed an invisible ecological line near the small village of Dukwe and baobab trees started lining the roads offering perfect picnic stopovers.
Potholes, especially on the left hand side made driving at 20km’s advisable. A quick grocery shop (the Rand/Pula exchange rate has risen from 1.40 to 1.65) and we were on our way to Elephant Sands 50km’s north of Nata. There is a markedly different smell to the air – some type of vegetation?
Itchy Feet! 