Sunday, February 15, 2009

Botswana, are you ready for us?

Posted from Gabarone, Botswana

I suppose I should make a big deal about our first border crossing, but it really wasn't. We lunched 17 km from the border and those 17 km flew by with little wind and much energy, buoyed as we were with excitement.

The border was as simple as could be. Just one question before I could leave South Africa:

"Number?" said Immigration Official T. Wilson.

"Excuse me?"

"Of your car."

"Oh. I'm on a bicycle."

"What is the number of the bicycle?"

"It has no number."

Without another word, he stamped my passport and the surmountable challenge of Botswana immigration didn't so much loom, but rather reared it's friendly head. To avoid including an address of our destination, said the official, we must simply check the "in transit" box. We have 30 days to reach Zambia.

Off we go.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to you all on your first border crossing! I hope you enjoy your time in Botswana. I can't tell you how cool I think it is that you are doing the school programs - good on ya!

Anonymous said...

Hi nate,

Just writing to let you know people are reading this, despite the relative dearth of comments. Its great and I check it everyday to track your progress. Something I've always admired about you is your ability to see through with your plans. I have a few friends who have made similarly large plans, but always seem to back out of all of them. However you always follow through, be it with the crane project, moving to portland, or this africa trip. Although perhaps underrated by others, that ability of yours will definitely take you very far in life!

Hope Bostwana is as interesting as South Africa!

Sykes

Unknown said...

Nate,
This is really fun to read. Sounds like a great time. I love reading your posts. Keep it up. Hope to talk to you about the experience sometime.
Mike