WORDS AND IMAGES: On the road
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2005
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12
26
Trip End
Feb 20, 2006
Orapa/Letlhakane,
Botswana
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
When road-tripping in Botswana, there are always not only a few close calls with species of livestock but also with the human variety.
We are on our way to Letlhakane and Orapa, two adjacent mining communities largely based around the country's most precious resource-diamonds. Tomorrow marks World AIDS Day and this year's national commemoration is to be held in the former.
Christine, the director of the NGO centred on HIV and human rights that I work at, is at the helm. My colleague Minkie has had bestowed upon her the illustrious position of "cattle watcher" in return for occupying the front passenger seat
01-Window
. We leave Gaborone by mid-afternoon, settling into our seats for the 650 km or so to our destination in Central Botswana.One of the country's points of pride, the road infrastructure has greatly improved over the years. In so many ways, the smooth paved ride feels far better than many stretches of the 401 super highway along which I've taken many road trips when back home in Canada.
In fact, the biggest bumps en route are not potholes but encounters with cattle and other animals.
Beef is one of Botswana's largest industries and cows roam quite freely almost everywhere outside city areas (but even in some part of urban sites, it isn't that unusual to spot them nor goats or donkeys).
But their freedom comes with a price for drivers. Wandering livestock is a major cause of road accidents here.
It's why the cattle police have been deployed in some parts of Botswana into an effort to keep the animals off the road by clipping the grasses growing alongside the shoulder
02-Abnormal
. These officers also enforce a 6 p.m. curfew, the time at which livestock must not be on the roadway as daylight fades into night. All this is monitored from the well-marked cattle police vehicles."They drive up and down all night to chase cattle behind the fence and keep the gates closed," explains Christine.
I pay attention to how she handles the car when animals are scattered on the road. It will come in handy later when I have to drive a stretch of the way back.
When faced with cattle, goats or donkeys, flick on your hazards before slowing down, then honk the car's horn several times. Cows and goats usually disperse, moving quickly out of the way to allow you to pass. Donkeys, the dumbest of the lot, don't budge except perhaps to chew their cud-you'd be lucky if they blink. This means you often have to go around the stubborn creatures.
The other risky business is drivers. With both humans and animals on the road, I have heard repeatedly that road accidents cause the most number of deaths in Botswana after HIV/AIDS
03-En route
.The morbid fascination with traffic accidents seems to be the conversation topic of choice for a while.
"At Christmas, it's really bad," says Christine, who continues with an endless supply of stories about fatal crashes. We are almost halfway there and even without a radio in the car, the steady stream of chitchat keeps us from boredom.
Our own close calls are limited to a little white goat abruptedly running out in front of the car and manoeuvring around a large T. Motlhogelwa's Express bus parked on the shoulder but jutting out into the road. It forces us to drive into the lane for oncoming traffic. Two women-in colourful skirts and head wraps-are foolishly trying to open the doors to luggage storage on the side of the bus while traffic swerve to avoid them.
We drive by vehicles marked "ABNORMAL"-the Canadian equivalent being ones marked "wide" or "slow-moving."
There's also a non-descript green sign with white lettering but it catches my eye
04-Run off
. "Tropic of Capricon 275 m," it reads. Someone, clearly irritated by the typo, has with a black marker written in the missing "r" and an arrow.In some parts, the land turns dry and barren-short trees growing in the red dirt are dwarfed by long lines of utility poles. It's a stark contrast to the tuffs of green that have sprung up a couple of weeks ago when Botswana received its first rains since April.
Similar to the way Canadians often talk about snow and cold, people in Botswana often talk about rain and heat.
But today the digital display on the dashboard indicates the overcast afternoon mercury sits at 22 degrees.
"It's cold!" exclaims Christine. I have to stifle my Canadian sensibilities.
As pink and orange colour the sky, like a sprinkling of raindrops, large flying ant-like insects smash against our windshield and threaten our visibility. After virtually every rain fall, masses of these insects come out at sunset
05-Mine
. They are short-lived-gone by morning with only translucent wings fluttering around on the ground and in the wind as their legacy.It's dark now. We're closing in on Orapa, where we will be staying tonight. Around the lights of the entry gates to the community is a wall of these winged bugs so thick we can barely see through.
"It's like a horror movie," says Christine.
We have to sign in at the office at the gate having already arranged security clearance. This is the territory of Debswana, the conglomerate of diamond giant DeBeers and the government of Botswana, and entering here requires bypassing extra measures.
Minkie, Christine and I are all a bit skiddish about the insect-flooded sky. But we manage to get to and from the small fluorescent-lit office and safely into our car without any major incidents.
We continue on-almost at the end of our road trip. We are driven by our empty stomachs and fatigue and are dreading a little bit the early wake-up we'll have to endure for the World AIDS Day march, which begins at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning.
