Botswana Bound

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Driving into Botswana from Namibia is long long and boring. The landscape is unvaried and by and large hardscrabble desert. I listened to an entire book on my ipod during the drive, and I'm going to have 10 of these blog entries written in my notebook before I actually get to post them, as all potential internet connections actually don't work when called upon. Today we arrived in Maun at a reasonable hotel which had an INTERNET CAFE! I was so excited. However, the cafe closed at 4pm, so of course, all safari groups would never get a chance to use it, as everyone gets in around 5 and leaves around 8! ah well. Boy this is Africa. I might have to resort to posting mail too.

The one interesting thing that did happen today was the foot and mouth plague official safety stops. The official, who wasn't in a very good mood and didn't like our tour leader (no surprise there), made us unpack the entire bus and go through the luggage looking for shoes. Once all shoes were acquired, we were all required to go and walk through a little puddle of foot and mouth disease solution, which was barely there, but then we were allowed to step just where are disease ridden selves had just walked to get to the puddle. It didn't seem effective in the slightest! But it made the official happy. An exercise in bureaucratic ridiculousness - which given shoddy controls is more than likely spreading the disease as all shoes with or without the disease are trodding around these pathetic container of solution. My flipflops looked a little queasy this afternoon as a matter of fact. No, seriously I am worried about them.

Maun, self titled the 'adventure capital of Botswana' is an outpost town near the Okavango Delta. Tomorrow we are headed out into the Delta in our mokoro canoes.... I'd like to say that if you don't hear from me its because the hippos got me (or foot and mouth disease)... but more likely its just because I can't text/email/call out of here. We are going to be camping out in pitch tents for the next couple of nights, which will hopefully be a good time 'away from it all.' And I'm also hoping that varied stories of wildlife joining in by the campfire are greatly exaggerated.

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