{"id":4009,"date":"2024-03-24T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/?p=4009"},"modified":"2024-03-24T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T19:26:09","slug":"polokwane-24-maart-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/polokwane-24-maart-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Polokwane – 24 March 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have just installed ourselves at the campsite in Nata after a ride of more than 300 km. We started early this morning after a great night’s sleep so we were both well rested. Last night we had dinner at the campsite restaurant and that was fine. The sunset was beautiful. It was nice and cool and we left at half past nine towards Maun to withdraw some groceries and money. The latter is a hassle here because many machines do not pay more than 1000 pula (\u20ac70) and that is not much. With some research I found 1 who wanted to give 2000 pula. We use two passes because you never know if you need diesel and if the credit card doesn’t work (I also have 3 of them by the way) cash is very useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

After filling the tank (140 liter tank) we drove the A3 up to Nata. What an endless road is that it also goes a bit through a natural park (salt plain, Mgadigadi). We saw elephants drinking water along the road and nothing at all for hours. At Nata, the road became bad, just like in those films about Africa where a truck drives over a narrow strip of asphalt, full of deep holes and the passenger cars tear over the sand. Well, that’s how it was!<\/span><\/p>\n

In Nata it was even worse because all the north-south freight traffic goes over it and Rijkswaterstaat just doesn’t do anything about it. The campsite owner already warned me that the road south, which we are taking this weekend, is just dangerous. So be careful.<\/span><\/p>\n

We first looked at another campsite, 2 km away, but quickly drove back to this campsite (Eselbe). The owner built this campsite from waste material and he did that beautifully.<\/span><\/p>\n

We ate with him and talked endlessly about Africa of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow to Kasane<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a quarter to three, Thursday 21 March and we have now arrived at the campsite. The journey was easy, even a bit boring although we saw many elephants. The road was also full of potholes and remnants of folding tires. There was a lot of freight traffic, southward fortunately.<\/span><\/p>\n

This campsite is part of a large hotel and is therefore somewhat stuck there. We sit on the edge against Chobe and look out at huge electric fences behind which the river is located. Lisa is now booking a sunset cruise for tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

It sounds boring but it’s very hot here, 38 degrees with a lot of sun and hardly any wind. That temperature will drop quickly in the evening because there is quite a lot of water in the river.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the stores, the supply of, for example, vegetables decreases enormously. However, there are huge pieces of meat. Lisa makes a good meal every time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cruise for tonight didn’t work out; we’re leaving tomorrow after first driving a ranger through the park for a few hours. We now look at that park and see a large troop of baboons walking about 100 m from our place. Quite apart….<\/span><\/p>\n

At 5 meters away, two deer walk past our tent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Animal sounds could be heard all night. You learn to urinate very quickly! We just had breakfast and are getting ready for our safari ride in an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

I just ordered a new watch strap and won’t wear one in the near future. The watch had already slipped off my arm a few times and it’s a shame to lose it here<\/span><\/p>\n

The safari trip we took this morning was wonderful. We have seen a lot of game such as lions, gazelles and a lot of elephants. The ranger knew how to tell a story and that made you have time to take a good look. There has been much less rain in the catchment area of the rivers here in recent years and that is worrying. However, the elephant population has increased enormously here thanks to good government policy. In addition, it was wonderfully cool to be in an open, moving, car. Really crazy what we all saw with that safari. Sometimes we drove between 200 springboks, then another herd of elephants or a few lazing lions. At 3 o’clock we go on the water. Before that time I’m going to upload some photos because that won’t go that fast here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well those photos will have to wait because that won’t work here. It’s now 7am and we’ve had a really cool cruise with elephants swimming across the river as the highlight. That’s such a beautiful face that you actually have no words for it. And a sunset in Africa is an experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow we will go south and hopefully we will find a campsite with good wifi so that I can upload some photos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another separate story we experienced is that some buildings are being put up next to the campsite for the park management. Yesterday afternoon the burglary alarm went off and that was on all night without anyone doing anything about it. Of course we have warned the reception but ‘this is Africa’. Fortunately it was at a reasonable distance but still…and to think that it is Saturday today.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a long, tiring and sometimes dangerous ride, we are now on a beautiful campsite in Francistown. We slept here earlier in the bungalows in 2016 when we were here with friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

The road here (500 km) was narrow and bad with holes on the side that forced you to go to the other side where sometimes a truck drove. I was almost pushed off the road when overtaking a truck that had to dodge for such a hole. It went well ok. We saw many near miss accidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

This campsite is fine, nice and cool and with shade<\/span><\/p>\n

We were, Sunday 24\/3, ready early and drove away as early as half past nine. The road between Francistown and Martins Drift was fine but busy with a lot of freight traffic and police checks. I filled the tank and at 12 o’clock we were at the border where on the side of Botswana traffic jam of at least 4 km (both sides of the road) of trucks. It was one-way traffic to get through to the customs buildings that we found only after some help from friendly officials. Then crossing the Limpopo (which Lisa keeps whining about because she learned that at school). What a small river but also what a very bad bridge, again one-way traffic. South Africa customs was also quite fast so that we crossed an African border within half an hour. A record….<\/span><\/p>\n

We now have a campsite in Polokwane and drive to Letaba camp in Kruger tomorrow where we sleep in a safari tent. The campsite was full. The next day to Crocodile Bridge Camp where we have the last camping spot. It’s holiday here!<\/span><\/p>\n

So tomorrow and the day after tomorrow I’m going to take a lot of photos again.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We have just installed ourselves at the campsite in Nata after a ride of more than 300 km. We started early this morning after a great night’s sleep so we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Fwl-12F","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1017,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/29-november-maun\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":0},"title":"29 November – Maun","date":"November 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl]Vandaag is al weer onze laatste avond in Maun (spreek uit Ma Oen) waar we op een prachtige camping staan (Crocodile Camp, Safari & Spa). Hier staan we echt mooi, met ons eigen toiletgebouw. De laatste keer dat ik wat schreef was toen we nog in Kasane zaten, al weer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holiday in South-East Afrika"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3637,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/highlander-camping-3-maart-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":1},"title":"Highlander camping – 3 March 2024","date":"March 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl]We slapen vannacht in onze camper, eindelijk. Vanmorgen hebben we rustig ingepakt nadat we gisteravond Tom en Tamara op het vliegtuig hadden gezet. Het was best stil zonder die twee ontzettende drukspoken en eigenlijk misten we ze best een beetje. Voordat we weg konden moesten we nog een paar dingen\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_5393-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2267,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/kgalagadi-august-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":2},"title":"Kgalagadi – August 1","date":"August 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl] \u00a0 \u00a0 We zitten nu in Kgalagadi nationaal park, bij de ingang op een campeerplek die 'Twee Rivieren' heet. Al het water ontbreekt trouwens maar dit terzijde\u2026 \u00a0 Wij zijn twee nachten in Oranjerus gebleven omdat we het een erg leuke camping vonden waar we prachtig stonden aan de\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 7 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":969,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/25-november-2018-kasane\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":3},"title":"25 November 2018 – Kasane","date":"November 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl]Sinds vrijdag zijn we in Botswana, om precies te zijn in Kasane. We staan hier op een camping, Thebe Safaris Lodge & Camping, direct aan de Chobe rivier. We kwamen vrijdag vroeg aan, veel vroeger dan verwacht omdat de grensovergang gemakkelijk ging, voor Afrikaanse begrippen dan. De weg van Camp\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holiday in South-East Afrika"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3901,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/maun-19-maart-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":4},"title":"Maun – 19 maart 2024","date":"March 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl]Het is n\u00fa maandagmorgen 18 maart, half acht en we hebben ons ontbijt net op en genieten nog wat van de ochtendkoelte en de koffie. Het regende zelfs een beetje gisteravond en gedurende de nacht was het koel (20 graden). Toen wij gistermiddag wat dronken in de bar hier, arriveerde\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 12 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_5516-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4171,"url":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/table-view-11-april-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":4009,"position":5},"title":"Table View – 11 april 2024","date":"April 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"[:nl]Het is al meer dan een week geleden dat ik ons laatste reisverhaal heb gepubliceerd en dat had een reden. Er gebeurde namelijk niet zoveel de afgelopen week! Zo brachten we ruim een week door bij Lisa\u2019s moeder en sliepen we veel. Lisa\u2019s broer, schoonzus en zus bezochten haar moeder\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_5656-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterenlisa.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}