From Namibia to Botswana

After breakfast we headed off on the Trans Kalahari Highway toward the border between Namibia and Botswana. The road from Windhoek to Gobabis was straight as if drawn with a ruler. The landscape is almost completely flat, small mountains can be seen in the distance. The colors of the countryside are mostly brown, beige, and grey. Shrubs, bushes and small trees.

Wild animals, such as warthogs, and monkeys cross the highway, or roam around on the side. There are fences on the side of the highway, at home that would be so the wild animals would not be able to get onto the road. Here the animals are mostly on the side of the fence where the highway is. There are also numerous farm animals; horses, cows, goats, donkeys.

Before arriving at Buitepos, and the border crossing at Mohembo, we stopped in Gobabis. We wanted to stock up on plenty of water and some snacks for the journey. For lunch, to make it quick, we just got some pepper beef pies at Shop-Rite.

There weren’t many people crossing the border at the time we were there. We filled out our forms and was stamped out of Namibia, then drove through a short no man’s land. On the Botswana side we had to fill out another form. They checked our passports and Alex’s birth certificate. Then we had to sign the car into a ledger, go to another till and pay road tax. After that we were good to go.

The landscape on the Botswana side was pretty similar. A bit more green, and some trees are a bit larger, and a few more in numbers. Still animals on the road. Apart from the ones mentioned above we saw an ostrich family, two adults and two little ones. I wouldn’t say there were rolling hills, but there was a slight change in the road, and also some small curves.

It took us a little short of 7,5 hrs to get to our lodge in Ghanzi. Just over 550 km. The highway is fairly good, two lanes (one in each direction), and not much traffic. Speed limit outside towns is 120 km/h.

Pictures