The adventure begins

I know, I know! I haven't written anything for ages but really nothing great of note has happened until recently (and now I'm also doing some serious backdating - it's actually Friday the 13th - eeeek! - but I figured that a few backdated entries would be infinately preferable to one huge monster of an entry that would take three years to read, so - anyway).

01 Me in My Street

O arrived on Friday and it was lovely to finally have him here. There was a mild panic for me when he didn't arrive on the flight that he was supposed to be on and the people at the check-in desk would tell me nothing!, but he arrived on the flight afterwards (thankfully, because that was only an hour later and the one after that was a good 3 hours later!) but without his bags - hmmmmm, not so good. No worries though because we went back to Gabs and then called them after the next flight landed and they were there - all intact and everything!

02 On our way!

We bummed around for a couple of days and then on Monday spent the morning sorting out our little adventure around Botswana. Phoning car rental places and hotels etc and by the afternoon we were set... sort of, mostly. On Saturday I showed O the joys of the Bull and Bush pub, which actually wasn't nearly as offensive as the first time I went and consequently swore "never, never again!" which trying to cleanse myself in holy-water, and he quite liked it. Mind you, it was very very quiet! So quiet that we went to the News Cafe in the Syringa hotel which is near to my place and got qutie trollied on cocktails and shots, marvellous.

This morning saw us trudging out to the airport (again) to collect our, rediculously expensive, hire car, then to the Main Mall for me to check my post before we headed off, to River Walk for supplies in case the car dies and we get stranded for 10 years in the Kalahari (unlikely since we aren't actually going to the Kalahari), back home to load up the car and then we hit the road!

03 Nothing but clear roads head of us...

The drive up through Bots to Francistown was lovely. The road is pretty much dead straight and there is just the bush and more bush on either side. We saw donkeys, cows and goats all the way. We also passed tiny little vilages by the side of the road and also further into the bush with these really nice little round traditional Botswana houses. It was nice, though not anything particularly astounding to see. For me the thrill was more to do with what we were actually doing - road tripping around Botswana! Nuts!

So we checked in to our place in Francistown and are going to head to one of the big hotels around about for some supper, for the sake of ease and because I've made the decision to hang the expence for this trip and just go for it. It's costing so much anyway there is no point in scrimping now.

04 ... and behind us.

I'm also really glad we are doing it this way. We could have flown to Kasane (destination for tomorrow) but then we wouldn't have had the chance to check out Francistown and we wouldn't have had the joy of driving across the country. It makes such a difference to be seeing it by road over a day rather than by air in an hour.

So, yes, hang the expense! Don't know if O agrees with me though, he he he.

05 Hard Rock in Francistown!