We reluctantly left Madagascar, but was looking forward to new adventures in Namibia and Botswana. Windhoek was a nice and modern city, a bit like Hamilton according to Dan (not sure if that's exactly selling the place). We arrived on a Monday and started to look into how to get around the next day. To our surprise it seemed like long-distance buses only left on Mondays and Fridays??? A bit annoying since it was now Tuesday! We assumed that there must be other means of getting around (but nowhere to get that kind of information). Everywhere we asked they gave us the same answers and prices, almost as if the information available for tourists was fixed. As it turned out a few days in Windhoek was not necessarily the worst thing that could happen, especially not with our slightly odd dorm mate. He was superfriendly, but he talked in his sleep about "killing them" and slept with his boots on?! This was also the guy who the next day proudly pulled out a 9mm pistol to show us! Understandably I was a bit nervous that he would jump out of bed and start shooting randomly when we had to get up really early and the alarm clock would go off at 4 am. Instead I slept very poorly and turned off the clock before it went off:)
Friday arrived and we were off to Maun in Botswana. (We had decided to go to Botswana first since we had to return to Namibia anyway to fly out.) We were first catching a bus towards Gaborone to cross the border and then apparently we were going to be let out where a connecting bus to Maun would come by. Piece of cake...if everything actually worked out that way. We managed to get on the first bus without any problem and the border was easy. Then all of a sudden we were told to get off. It was a big junction in the middle of nowhere (nearest town was 44 km away), but supposedly the other bus to Maun would come by within 30 minutes. A local guy also got off which was at least a good sign and we felt a bit more reassured since he was also going towards Maun. The guy almost immediately started to hitchhike. Maybe he was in a hurry or impatient and didn't want to wait for the bus?? With only 2 million people in Botswana there are not many cars on the roads, but after only about 20 minutes a truck stopped. We were a bit unsure if the guy meant for us to tag along and we didn't want to take advantage of his hitchhiking skills so we made no attempt to climb into the truck. At this point we were still naive enough to think that maybe the next bus would come. However, the guy told us to get our gear into the truck and come along to the next town Ghanzi since he was sure no bus would come! Shit, better get our asses into that truck or we would be left in the desert/grass lands at the disposal of the wild animals!!!
In the next city we were dropped off at what seemed to be the public hitchhiking spot. Lots of people waiting and therefore also fierce competition. It was not easy to interpret the different handwavings and hand gestures used by the passing cars and I was glad we were in company of our new best friend. By now we were slowly realizing that "public transport" was almost non-existent in Botswana and that hitchhiking was the best option although at times frustrating. However, on this day we were in luck and our next ride eventually arrived after only over an hour of waiting. We arrived late in Maun dirty, tired and hungry, but were pleased to see that the people with huge and over-the-top tents had left at least one shitty spot of the campground for us to pitch our tent, close to the river and any potential crocodiles. No sympathy from the 'wealthy' as they even walked around our tent in the morning giggling. Bastards!!! Even a dog had pissed on our tent!!!! Despite this we had a lovely time in Maun and got to explore the Okavango delta. For the rest of our time in Botswana we continued to hitchhike and also continued to remind ourselves to enlighten the "tourist information person" in Namibia how completely wrong her information had been....no grudge held of course, since hitchhiking turned out to be our favourite way of getting around in southern Africa and was one of the few authentic opportunities to interact with the locals!
Friday arrived and we were off to Maun in Botswana. (We had decided to go to Botswana first since we had to return to Namibia anyway to fly out.) We were first catching a bus towards Gaborone to cross the border and then apparently we were going to be let out where a connecting bus to Maun would come by. Piece of cake...if everything actually worked out that way. We managed to get on the first bus without any problem and the border was easy. Then all of a sudden we were told to get off. It was a big junction in the middle of nowhere (nearest town was 44 km away), but supposedly the other bus to Maun would come by within 30 minutes. A local guy also got off which was at least a good sign and we felt a bit more reassured since he was also going towards Maun. The guy almost immediately started to hitchhike. Maybe he was in a hurry or impatient and didn't want to wait for the bus?? With only 2 million people in Botswana there are not many cars on the roads, but after only about 20 minutes a truck stopped. We were a bit unsure if the guy meant for us to tag along and we didn't want to take advantage of his hitchhiking skills so we made no attempt to climb into the truck. At this point we were still naive enough to think that maybe the next bus would come. However, the guy told us to get our gear into the truck and come along to the next town Ghanzi since he was sure no bus would come! Shit, better get our asses into that truck or we would be left in the desert/grass lands at the disposal of the wild animals!!!
In the next city we were dropped off at what seemed to be the public hitchhiking spot. Lots of people waiting and therefore also fierce competition. It was not easy to interpret the different handwavings and hand gestures used by the passing cars and I was glad we were in company of our new best friend. By now we were slowly realizing that "public transport" was almost non-existent in Botswana and that hitchhiking was the best option although at times frustrating. However, on this day we were in luck and our next ride eventually arrived after only over an hour of waiting. We arrived late in Maun dirty, tired and hungry, but were pleased to see that the people with huge and over-the-top tents had left at least one shitty spot of the campground for us to pitch our tent, close to the river and any potential crocodiles. No sympathy from the 'wealthy' as they even walked around our tent in the morning giggling. Bastards!!! Even a dog had pissed on our tent!!!! Despite this we had a lovely time in Maun and got to explore the Okavango delta. For the rest of our time in Botswana we continued to hitchhike and also continued to remind ourselves to enlighten the "tourist information person" in Namibia how completely wrong her information had been....no grudge held of course, since hitchhiking turned out to be our favourite way of getting around in southern Africa and was one of the few authentic opportunities to interact with the locals!
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