The Bamba tram, back to Botswana and on to Nata

I do not know why I did this to myself. The alarm clock at 5am is horrible. We surprisingly didn't sleep so well in this bed. And both Alexis and I are not fresh when we zombie walk to the reception to wait for our pick up.

The pick up is late by 30min, i am quite irritated at this point. Sunrise is definitely missed. Apparently other guests didn't wake up and the driver waited for them , delaying everyone.

A group of grumpy, tired customers is not a good mix to start this Bamba ride. I am not in the best mindset to enjoy this activity. It takes a good 45min before I can get rid of my anger and genuinely start looking around and enjoy the short ride to the iconic Victoria bridge.

The little carriage goes through a wildlife corridor, where we see bushbucks, then the Zambia border and onto the bridge. From this point, we can walk around the bridge for pictures, walk through 3 viewpoints on the Zambia side and a small museum. The guide does provide good historical explanations.  The coffee on the bridge helped remove the remaining brain fog.

On the way back, a beautiful male Kudu walked in from of the carriage, we have not seen many of them with their mighty twisted horns.

We are back at the hotel at 8:30 , and can enjoy the buffet breakfast. We are starving. Our transfer back to Botswana is at 11:30 and we just sleep again in the room for the rest of the morning.

Crossing the border from Zimbabwe to Botswana is much faster. In Zimbabwe, they stamp you out in seconds. In Botswana, you will clean your shoes and then queue a little but within 5min, we were both out. There was a little mix up on the transfers arrangements but the agency fixed it and in no time we were on our way to Chobe Safari lodge to pick up our car.

Our first stop is shop rite for some groceries and then, next to it, is our first Nando's since we arrived in Africa. Alexis was looking at me with stars in his eyes, so of course, we had lunch there. It's now 2:30pm and we start the road to Nata.

On this long stretch of 270km of completely straight road, we see a few elephants, baboons and monkeys. It's 99% good road except for a couple of nasty isolated potholes you need to keep an eye for. Since driving at 120km/h, it's super dangerous to get into one.

There is hardly anyone on the road, just trucks.

About 60km before Nata, there is a veterinary control post. We got asked to clean the sole of our shoes again, they also check the meat that we had bought in the morning and we had to drive through a pool of disinfectant for the tires.

Nata is a small town, there is a Choppies, but I would get most of my groceries done in Kasane. The road through town has areas covered in potholes. You need to get through very carefully.

The lodge is quite nice and we are happy with our camp. We are tired to be honest , so tonight we decide to eat at the restaurant.

And it's 31st December 2024 today, happy new year!