Botswana to South Africa

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Journey to the end

So after such an eventful easter weekend we set off again on the big yellow bus heading for Botswana. The heavy rains seen in Malawi had clearly been here because the roads were flooded and the border crossing into Bostwana was so far under water we had to take a boat.
We stopped at a campsite that had been hit hard by the water, the actual campsites were flooded so we camped on the road and they had a temporary bar in place because the other one was out of bounds, there had even been sightings of crocodiles and hippos in the water.

We progressed through to Maun, where we would eventually fly out of to make it to Johannesburg in time. We managed to grab a quick pudding at Nandos in town before setting up our beloved tent number 4 for the last time. We cooked our last group meal and had a massive session of packing our bag in the dark. In the morning the group would leave to visit the Delta and we would go to the Airport. Saying goodbye was hard, we had all made really good friends since March and had been with each other nonstop for 5 weeks straight so it was very strange leaving.

Maun Airport is the tinest airport ive been in, no shops no cafes, just one check-in desk and a very small departure lounge with just a row of chairs. Our flight was meant to leave at 2pm which was soon delayed til 4pm. We had no food with us and had been stamped out of Botswana officially so we couldnt do much apart from sit there. Then we got told that the plane wouldnt land til 6pm and that they would let us out and pay for us to have a meal and drinks at the restaurant over the road. It was a nice suprise but with alot of people ordering food the staff were a bit overwhelmed and when it came to 6pm our food hadnt arrived and we needed to be back in the airport, but luckily they served it to us at the last second in a polystyrene box. We rushed back into the airport not bothering with security and ran straight up the steps onto the plane. And what a plane! It looked like it was still in the 70's with cigarette holders on the arm rest and leather seats that were falling apart. It was quite small and we had a few sets to ourselves but it was only going to be a short journey into J'Burg.

We landed just after 8pm and had already booked a transfer to the hostel but when we looked no one was there and we waited for so long until we found him but he said we had to wait another hour ontop of that before we could go because they had other passengers to take. So we sat patiently in the food court until 2 hours had passed and we were grumpy and tired and just wanted to go. When we found our driver again he said the other passengers hadn't turned up and we could finally drive the 30minutes to our hostel. I just wanted to jump into bed as soon as we got there, it was 11pm and we had been up since 7am and had spent the day waiting around mostly for no reason.

Johannesburg was a shock to the system, it was civilisation again, cars on normal roads and shopping malls with designers. Me and Alli didn't really get up to much, we visited a big shopping mall on the saturday but felt a bit like traps in our safari clothes, well its not like we had jeans or anything!
We bought luxury food in a supermarket and posted some things home because we knew they might not make it through customs. The hostel was nice with a sofa to relax on and satelite tv to watch. I washed all my clothes ready for the next 3months and then started to re-pack it all in my big bag. Soon it was time to leave South Africa and continue in Sydney. Our long 12hour flight was at night and made it a bit easier to cope with, luckily we had personal TV screens infront of us and I watch 3 films in a row.
We were flying into the sun so the darkness only lasted a short time so I didnt sleep and I felt like I was eating breakfast far too early.
Our plane landed at 1.30pm local time, we had arrived in Sydney!

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