The day of Sand. As Cross put so well, a day when emotions were all over the shop.

Got another early start (seeing a trend?) and headed for Botswana-still mapless. Crossed the Zambezi river on a ferry. Some lovely photography and monkey swimming ensued. We decided after 1200km it might be a novel idea to get a map of this huge wilderness we were about to enter-in The Rav…

Thoroughly impressed with the Botswana border crossing, roads and generally organization, lovely people. AND FREE. No visa. Great news.Photo's are not in the right order.  The ferry is obvious, the other two are from near Kasane.

Hit Kasane which was bonkers. A tiny town but KFC, SPAR, Barclays. Who’d have thought. 10 am chicken was obviously a disgrace but good all the same.  With a map, we were fearless, time in hand, bellies full, Monkey having a right old time. Should have got a clue from the guy at the first park gate. “I would say you should not stay in Sivuti”. “is that a 4*4?”
What does he know Bray says. Confidence in Ravlon we all had. Still, headed for the easy road just to be sure. Then the tarmack ended and we found the beach. Ok, not the beach, but the Sandridge Road and we learned very quickly how to dig out the Rav. Emotion downer. Looks of concern. Stuck after 500M on the first hill. Many KM to go. Hmmm.

Still, we nailed it. Dug the Rav out 5 times, even the suspension and undercarriage were getting buried. We realised at this point that a shovel (was on the list) would have been good and the when a car drives over big sticks they can be dangerous. Ciara still harbours Bray anger for that one me thinks. 
Bray indulged in some serious rally off driving and offroading. Don’t fret, we apologised to Botswana for mowing down the plant life and don’t think we hit any animals.

We saw some massive elephants, they kept appearing out of nowhere. We made the gate at 4:45pm. Left it 5pm. Still 35 km to go. At this point one of the cool things about travelling like this happened (not for the first or last time). We were lucky that some SA guys were driving out at the same time. They had a) knowledge and b) equipment. So with our tyres down by a full 1 bar more and 45 ish minutes till dark, We hit the pedal to the metal.

“Can’t say enough how cool my travel companions are. I was definitely feeling like I might lose the plot at times but whenever we hit trouble, everyone just piled out and got stuck in. It was a definite thought of mine that after travelling so far we simply had no choice but to continue on. The banter and positive chat meant it was still a heck of a lot of fun. What we are travelling for. 

the Ravlon. beached.

At times driving the Rav was just ridiculous. Sliding and smashing through Sand in 1^st and 2^nd gear all day. 70 odd KM took all day but we made it. Made it to one of the most immense places I’ve seen in Africa.” John ‘cheesy’ Braychild.

Our first Botswana beer. St Louis. Tasted awesome. A huge elephant came through camp at about 7pm. COD and Cross made it into the car just before  it walked past. The footprints were no more than a metre from the Rav.

Stars, a fire, our first camp meal. We really were winning.