We left Nokanyana, and made our final drive to Maun, the main tourist hub of Botswana, where many people start their adventures. It was a 2.5 hour drive along sandy (not deep sand) and gravel roads. It struck me again how used to all of this we’ve become. Just 3 weeks ago, driving this same road would have been nerve wracking and somewhat stressful, but now it felt easy and effortless, driving through the tracks and navigating left and right to find the least bumpy parts.
We got to Maun and checked into our hotel. Now it was time to clean out our car since they were going to come pick it up. Gotta say, it felt really sad to be returning the Land Cruiser. It had been our ride, our home, our source of food/drink, our bed, and had gotten us through some crazy times in Africa. In some weird way, it kind of felt like this whole time it was the three of us doing the journey, and now one of us was parting ways. I checked the mileage and we had driven 2,231 miles across Southern Africa. We had crossed deserts, seen the coast, driven the entire Caprivi strip, and navigated some of the hardest roads in Botswana. Our car had survived an insane tire blowout (we have had so many people here including locals that have seen *everything* ask us what the fuck had happened to our tire cause it looked so nuts) and the roof rack breakdown. We cleaned everything out (except for 8 leftover beers that the guy who picked up the car was super great full for) and handed over our turtle.
We had dinner at the hotel (probably the best steak I’ve had in Africa so far), and then briefly checked out a local bar. At night, we slept in… an actual room. This was the first time in weeks that we didn’t have a cold night… until now we had always either slept on the roof of our car, or in tented accommodations which are also open to the outside air. It’s amazing what some walls can do to keep you warm ?.
