Cresta Marang And Residency Hotel Francistown

... up the traffic.. i looked arround and bugger me if there was no one there... I gave him a little bit of curry and jumped in the car and said bugger off.<br><br>Now safely in Botswana hopefully only one currency will make life a little simpler.. Zim we used Rand and US independantly and all at once.

... the Botswana border, two of the girls on the truck were still drinking from the night before, which was a good sign for me! We get to the border after 100 foot and mouth checks, which are pointless, we had to hide all the meat on the truck every time! One of the drunk girls nearly wasn't let into the country cos she scribbled on her visa form! We get in and go to the campsite, and set up the tents, and go straight on out game drive, in the ...

DAY TWO We spent the night at the Marang Hotel in Francistown which was, as always, very pleasant. At the campsite, we met some guys from Bulawayo on a shopping trip to Francistown to buy stock for their shops. After enquiring about the security and fuel situations in Zimbabwe, we decided to alter the route we planned to use via Zambia to Chirundu. Instead, we entered ...

I have just had the most fantastic &amp; unforgetable couple of days. We're at Antelope Park, which was set up in 1979 &amp; its main purpose is lion breeding. It's a beautiful campsite set out in the middle of the bush. They have 61 lions, 4 breeding males &amp; 10 breeding females who they use to breed cubs. The hand rear &amp; train them to hunt &amp; survive before releasing them back into the wild. Our first morning we did a lion ...

The second largest city in Botswana was large, but only had one "main drag" that did not light up at night. We camped at a luxury resort and are loving the options that our tent brings us. Camping was like $20 US vs. $450 US for a cottage. Again we love our tent right now.... This was another stopping off point on our way up to see Planet Baobab to see the 5500 yr old baobab tree that is 80 ft in diameter!!

I had intended to take the train on a stretch of what was going to be Rhodes' Cape to Cairo railway. However, there is only one train a day leaving at 9 pm arriving Francistown at 5 am. This did not seem to be a good idea - my new pals in Gabs actively discouraged the route &amp; plied me with sufficient Tulbach cabernet over an extended lunch at George's Google earth reference to be inserted her - so I took the bus the ...

... the top the view over the park was amazing. In the afternoon we went rhino spotting and we got really close, the closest being about 2m away, which was a bit nerve-wracking. It was Tom's birthday in the evening so we ate lots of cake and then watched Dirty Dancing on the TV at the campsite.

... bloody cold! Cold conditions are easily forgotten when Giraffes, Elephants, Steenbok, and Kudu were spotted en route to the camp. No kidding that these animals are on the side of the road as you pass by. The campsite is Elephant Sands and quite charming with hot salt showers and flushing toilets. My guides and tour leader are very efficient and knowledgeable ... should be a great 14 days!

... a 25 litre backpack between us. Not bad. We will be very bored of our clothes at the end of the odyssey! Tree growing through rock - near Francistown I saw my first snake last night on my drive. I stepped over a twig, and then realised what it was. I decided saying '****!' very loudly over and over was a good course of action. I then got the shovel and maimed it, as it was right ...

... tents. The guides had meely meal (not sure about the spelling) which is casava cooked and ground into flour. A little food trading occured, I preferred ours and they could only afford theirs. Even though I'd been in Africa for 2 weeks without a sunburn I got roasted in the open boats. Suffered for several days. next day back at base camp saw the first snake in Africa.