708km, 10hrs 15min total transit time, all tar via Mafikeng border crossing into Botswana
We started on rural roads, “R” roads in South Africa on the map, and made our way north. The R roads, in our limited experience, are great, as there is minimal traffic and the roads are of reasonable condition. There are less trucks to get stuck behind, as the trucks can only drive 80 kph, but the speed limit is often 120 kph. However, there is no shoulder, and the roads are narrow, so overtaking or meeting large trucks can be somewhat harrowing.
Eventually we passed through Kimberly, famous for it’s diamond mining history, and onto Vryburg where we managed to fill our cooking gas bottles and grab some snacks, and also importantly stock up on biltong, the South African version of beef jerky.
Biltong is a big deal in South Africa (religion?) and comes in many different forms, a sort of Oberto style meat stick, sort of flat beef jerky type, chili, spiced, beef, kudu, and also finely shredded, for putting on breakfast cereal, among other things. There are many other forms, resulting in the need for specialty biltong stores, found at nearly every shopping complex. We’re partial to chili biltong ourselves.
The day before leaving Hendrick was concerned about the security situation at our chosen border crossing. Mafikeng (actually Ramatlabama is the border, but Mafikeng is the town before the border) was the most direct, and it is not a main border crossing and thus we hoped would be less busy. However, Mafikeng had experienced rioting very recently, and the border had been closed.
Wisely Hendrick made some calls and got ahold of a security company that had experience in the area. For now they said it is quiet and the coast was clear. He gave us the phone number to call and verify all was well once we were closer, but we were advised that it would probably be obvious if there was trouble, as there would be police, roadblocks and the like. We had an alternate border crossing that wasn’t too much of a diversion picked out if need be.
As we made our way further north South Africa became a little more like the Africa some at home might picture in their minds. The shopping malls and car dealers and chain restaurants thinned out and the small towns started looking a little scrappier. Occasionally we’d see a donkey cart along side the road, and the traffic through towns became less organized. But all was very civil, and the long drive proceeded smoothly.
Approaching Mafikeng we started to see odd piles of wire by the side of the road, and then we passed by a petrol station and garage that had obviously been the site of rioting and looting. Smashed out windows, bare shelves inside, damage to the building, debris everywhere.
This sort of snuck up on us, as we thought we had a little further to go before reaching town.
After that we put together that the strange piles of wire by the side of the road were the remnants of burning tires, with just the steel reinforcement left after all the rubber had burned. We were on high alert, but the few police we saw seemed at ease and we sailed through town without trouble.
The best part of town was when we saw a butcher with a huge sign advertising “WE ARE LISTERIOSIS FREE!”, but as business usually don’t need to clarify to their customers which diseases they aren’t at risk for when shopping at your establishment, it was a little unconvincing.
We arrived at the border. African border crossings conjure up all kinds of images. The chaos of delays, bribes, pushy border officials claiming you have the wrong paperwork, unanticipated fees, touts and fixers promising a smooth transit across, prostitutes and hawkers and lines of trucks waiting for who knows what.
However we will disappoint you. Even in our uncertainty of the exact procedures, and that we didn’t have the right currency for the one very modest fee, we were across, complete with bathroom stop, in 30 minutes. I’ve had to wait longer at customs to get back into the United States.
All the border officials were courteous and patient, and really I got the impression that maybe we weren’t fast enough for them, opposite of the usual complaint one reads about border crossings.
The last hour to Mokolodi was a pretty easy drive, but it had been a long day on the road and we were ready to be done. If we had been more prepared (with lunch, not needing to hunt around to fill gas bottles) we could have shaved an hour or two from the journey. Regardless, in the final stretch we got stuck behind a long string of cars all patiently driving 60 kph on a 120 kph road behind one solitary car taking its time, with 20+ cars behind it.
We have found this is a peculiarity of driving in South Africa and Botswana, that a car that looks to be relatively new will proceed at serene and gentle pace down the road, resulting in a long line of cars performing daring overtaking maneuvers trying to get around it, threatening the safety of all. But patience usually wins out and you can find an easy stretch to pass on to continue on your way.
We arrived at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve just south of Gaborone at about 1800, sundown. Late, as usual. After checking in and a minor mix up at the reservations counter we were off into the park to camp for our first night properly on our journey. After such a long day on the road I was tired and ready to get out of the car, so the first sip of beer around the fire was spectacular, we had made it.
Logistical Notes:
Border crossing procedure for Mafikeng
1. Park on the left.
2. Building on the right, make any declarations to South African customs, such as electronics. I had read about this, that one should bring a typed list of all electronics and corresponding serial numbers for customs to stamp, but I had not taken it seriously when running out of time to prepare for the trip. Turns out this is a thing! The customs officer patiently typed up a list on their computer using their form, with me reading off serial numbers. I confess that in our haste (we were late) we did not declare every last item, so hopefully this will not come back to bite us.
3. Stamp out of SA customs. All in the same building.
4. Get waved through final check point.
5. Drive no mans land, maybe 1km? I don’t remember
6. Park on the left.
7. Enter Botswana customs and immigration building, fill out the form provided, get stamped in. Proceed to the next window to show vehicle paperwork (which they didn’t really look at, just to see that we had some). The fee was just over 150 pula (152, 156? Something like that). We went to the exchange booth around the corner and got a terrible exchange rate, so we only changed a little more than we needed.
8. Use the near spotless bathrooms if need be.
9. Drive through the last checkpoint, with a short “where are you headed” and we were done. Easy.
