You probably thought that my
transportation logistics would actually go well for once. Well, you’re wrong,
because TIA. From my Pretoria hostel, I took the Gautrain one stop over to the
bus station and waited for my Intercape. It was only one hour late arriving.
Not bad. I’m so immune to being delayed now, it doesn’t even phase me anymore.
I got some caffeine for my exhausted self with a couple free cokes being handed
out at the station and waited for the bus with the reliable company of my
Kindle. The other waiting passengers and I finally boarded the bus, and as I
sat down, this lady across the aisle from me immediately started complaining
about the lack of air conditioning in this section of the bus, even though it
wasn’t that hot at all. I entertained her for a little while, then couldn’t
take her negativity any longer and stopped responding, letting her keep whining
into the ether.
At the border post
to leave South Africa, we waited in super long lines to get through, and when
we got into no man’s land, thank bob there was a currency exchange booth so I
could get some Botswanan Pula for once, since I had failed to do so in Pretoria. Then at the border post to get into
Botswana, we were held up another hour for seemingly no reason, and Complainer
Lady was at it again, riling up a bunch of other bus patrons who were spreading
rumors that the bus didn’t have the proper paperwork to cross the border. With
my this-is-Africa-lower-your-expectations attitude on lock, I wasn’t phased at
all. I just put my headphones in and popped on a podcast and tried to go back
to sleep in my seat.
We finally arrived
in Gaborone in the pitch dark and three hours later than scheduled, and I was met by Henk, the hostel
owner’s son and his squeaky girlfriend, who drove me to Mokolodi Hostel. It
cost me P120 for them to drive me, an outrageous sum in my opinion, but the
P3.50 bus wasn’t running that late at night. Oh well. At the hostel, I set up
my tent near the pool and crashed. I was kept up by a horde of ducks who decided
that as soon as the people got out of the pool, it was ducky swim time, but
eventually they decided to stop being quacky and splashy and went to bed themselves.
The next day, I was
entertained looking around the hostel grounds for all of their animals,
including an enormous pig named New Year and a peacock. I started to walk down
the road where I could catch a ride or the bus into town, as Mokolodi is a ways
outside of Gaborone itself. As I was walking, a guy driving the other way
stopped me and said that there was a sketchy-looking character lurking on the
road, and he drove me toward the nature reserve where I could find another ride
into town. We found another guy who was going to town, and he drove me and
dropped me off at the mall, where my mission was to get a sim card and some
groceries. I flagged down the P3.50 bus for a fast and cheap ride back to the
hostel.
The next morning, I
woke up at 4:30am for a 5:00 ride to the bus station in town to catch the 5:30
bus to Maun, my next destination.
Peacock vs. Duck
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