Gaberone, BOTSWANA

8 - 10 JUNE 2011
GABERONE
Try one lodge but it’s full and they suggest Boiketlo Lodge which is in a great location near town. I walk out to find the Girl Guides and the South Ring Lodge opposite. The gate is open and there are girls learning how to knit. I introduce myself, help a few girls with their casting on (always the hardest) and look around to find Mrs Matsipari from Lesotho who gives me Mrs Sechelle’s number.

Farewell Bill and Jill, till we meet again

I check out South Ring Lodge opposite the GGs, book for the next few nights and then head on into town to look for the Tourist Information office. I pass a large field filled with striking workers – I’d noticed them up in Maun too, and reading in the papers the actions of both sides have come to an impasse. Tourist Information is VERY helpful – good map, directions to the Mozambique Embassy, Shopping Centres and combis to catch and from where. Then she hands over 3 packets of postcards as a gift – thank you! Wandering through the Main Mall, I notice that most places are closing up and staff standing inside watching =- perhaps the workers are going to march through the mall? I head off to the Musuem at the end of the mall when I hear shooting. A man nearby calls to me “run for your life!” Run? Where to, if you don’t know where the shooting is coming from?
I quickly head into the museum grounds but they have shut up shop “because of the strikers”. Within 5 minutes things seem to settle down - read no more shooting so I walk a wide circle around town and can smell (and feel) tear gas, which accounted for the shooting. Next mornings’ papers reported that a few troublemakers had entered the mall and had taken to smashing windows to cause upset. This impelled the poiice to shoot tear gas to disperse the crowds and order was then quickly returned. The continued presence of riot trucks at all main points around the city for the remainder of my stay were a little disconcerting though.

If you're happy and you know it, learn to knit!

Back at the lodge I telephone Mrs Sechelle and we arrange to meet on Friday morning at the Centre before heading out on a visit to a tourist village. I plan on walking out to Sun City tomorrow to find the Mozambique Embassy – which is NOT opposite, but down a street opposite Sun City. There the chap was very helpful (so I thought) and sold me a double entry 7 day transit visa, which I understood to be good for 3 months. Picking it up 24 hours later, its only good for 2 months meaning I have paid 600 Pula for 7 days when a 30 day visa only costs 300 Pula – bugger… Nothing to be down now other than to suck it up!

No visa required

I find another Mugg & Bean here in Gaberone so more free internet and next day another shopping centre and another wifi café – gotta love development sometimes! I get a new sleeping bag and pass my old one onto the Girl Guides when I meet up with Mrs Sechelle again on my last day. We chat, pose for photos and part ways with promises of sending their details onto Namibia – it would be great if they could form a partnership for mutual benefits. One evening I was a bit late returning into town and it was dark. I still needed to get another combi back to where I was staying so I checked with the driver where I could catch it. He started to tell me I had to pass over the pedestrian bridge so I thanked him and started off when he growled at me, told me to wait until he finished giving me full instructions (including telling me to go to the right whilst indicating with his left hand – so disconcerting)) because he “didn’t want me asking anyone else, but to go straight there because it is dark now.” I tell you I usually meet with such kindness and consideration that it often outweighs the hassles.
My only regret is not getting to The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency film set It was miles out of town and I couldn’t work out a way to get there independently, but when Botswanians talked about it they were a little miffed that McCall has used Botswana to set his scenes (often not complimentary) but that there didn’t seem to be any benefit in it for Botswana!! I silently thought, why there should be, but their beef seemed more with his artistic license. The Intercape office is in town and my ticket to Johannesburg along with another ticket from Jo’burg to Maputo are easily booked.
So with a few more prayers and early start we are on our way to South Africa after a few brief days in Botswana’s capital city.


FACT: Despite being landlocked, Botswana had the largest extremes of environments and diversity in landscapes in all of Africa. This includes three of the world’s richest diamond –bearing formations! It sure ain’t cheap to travel here but everything I did here was well and truly worth every hard saved cent.