Visiting Botswana 2

Made the journey from Gaborone in the far south to Kasane up north, in the Chobe District, by road. Mainly for the chance to see the entire country, limited of course to what was observable from the window of a vehicle moving at high speed on the A1 highway, the main north-south artery. With stopovers in towns like Mahalapye, Tonota and of course Francistown, the country's second largest city. It was a whole day's journey, but well worth it when I caught sight of several herds of elephants as we approached Kazungula, only a few kilometres from Kasane. Our van came to a halt when a huge bull elephant stepped majestically into the middle of the road in what seemed like a show of declaring who the real boss is around here. Our guesthouse was in Kazungula where the bridge across the Zambezi River (constructed in 2014) is located. To walk on this bridge to the Quadripoint where the borders of four countries meet was intended to be one of the highlights of this visit.

The Bridge

In the first photo is the confluence of two rivers. The Chobe River on the left and the Zambezi River on the right. In the middle is the Namibian island of Impalila. On the far bank of the Zambezi is Zambia. I took this photo from the Kazungula Bridge.

The Chobe River

The Chobe begins in the highlands of Angola, where it is known as the Kwando River. After entering Botswana, the Kwando becomes the Linyanti and forms the Linyanti Marshes. Near the Ngoma Bridge, the river emerges from the marshes as the Chobe River and flows east to join the Zambezi River near Kasane.

In Kasane itself the driver took me to some marshy land on the bank of the Chobe River that is rich in salt, which was clearly visible on the ground in its white form. And it was clear from the large hoofprints and the large amounts of dung in the area, that the area was frequently visited by elephants and water bufallo. Elephants and water buffalo are drawn to mineral-rich salt deposits for essential nutrients like sodium, calcium, and phosphorus, which are vital for their health and growth but often scarce in their regular diets of vegetation. (I took some photos of this marshy area and intend to do a different post on this. In this marshland, I saw a bubbling spring of fresh water coming out of the ground and then flowing into the Chobe River. It is clearly one of the many similar sources of the river's water).

The Zambezi River

The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The river starts in Zambia, flows successively through Angola, Zambia again, borders Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, through Mozambique where it enters the ocean. The Zambezi River source is a bubbling spring in a marshy bog located near the town of Ikelenge in the Mwinilunga District of north-western Zambia.

Walking across the Kazungula Bridge from Botswana to Zambia.

And there I was, in person, right on the bridge, walking across the mighty Zambezi River, walking from Botswana to Zambia, across The Quadripoint where the borders of four countries meet. Seeing the four countries all at once was surreal. I had dreamt of this moment for years. First it was the Namibian island of Impalila to the left, then ahead of me was Zambia (the border posts for both Botswana and Zambia are on the Zambian end of the bridge). To the right was Zimbabwe, and behind me was Botswana where I was coming from.

I had not expected to see the amount of pedestrian traffic I saw on this bridge, mostly Zambians who had crossed over to Botswana on foot, and by bicycle, and were returning home. They weren't very many, in truth, but they were more than I had expected. The majority of the vehicular traffic was composed of Heavy Goods Vehicles transporting cargoes across the continent. The Victoria Falls Bridge downriver from here has an 18-tonne axle load limit for vehicles, so the vehicles that come this way are huge, and as they drove past the wind swirled around me in the middle of the bridge. I nearly lost my balance several times and learned for the first time that I perhaps suffer from vertigo. There were also some smaller commercial vehicles, mainly from Botswana, ferrying people across to Zambia and back. I saw a few Zambian taxis too, but it was the individuals whom one said hello to on the bridge as we passed each other in the middle of having a shared experience that was the more memorable aspect.

 

 

Visiting Botswana

I finally arrived in Gaborone after more than the 30 hrs it took to get here. There were delays by Air Botswana that meant I remained in Johannesburg for longer than expected. But I arrived this evening around 7pm Central African Time. My host at the lodgings has gone out of his way to lay on everything almost to excess. What I have seen of this city so far has lived up to my expectations.

Clear blue sky from horizon to horizon with not a hint of a cloud anywhere. I am informed by two reliable sources that no rain has fallen here since March of this year. This, now, is September, 2025, as the southern hemisphere is emerging from its winter.

Daytime temperatures can top 33°C (91.4°F), but night-time temperatures plummet to 10°C - 11°C (50°F - 52°F). This is a difference in temperature similar to what obtains in other arid, or semi arid, regions with low humidity (dry air) and no proximity to large bodies of water to mitigate the heat loss - (water traps heat and cools more slowly than land). The absence of clouds also necessarily implies that the heat of the daytime freely escapes into the atmosphere at night, with no cloud cover acting as a blanket to hold back the heat from escaping.

Overall, it's hot and dry here, but not too harsh; nothing like what we see, for example, in the Sahel regions of West Africa. Here, after all, is outside the tropics; it is south of the Tropic of Capricorn. The Tropic of Capricorn passes near Gaborone, the city is just south of the line, placing it just outside the tropics.

Taking this drive out of town was only one of the items on our itinerary today. We did lots of other things besides, including my first solo adventure into a wineshop to make purchases while trying out a new language. Suffice it to say then that I'm having a lot of new experiences that I hope someday to be able to talk about.

 

AI Summary of my Twitter (now X) Profile

 It does concede though that my engagement on X is modest.

"AI's assessment of my Twitter (now X) account. I asked for a summary of my profile and then I received these answers. Well, to be fair the answers are pretty accurate.

"@anengiyefa

engages deeply with global geopolitics, particularly championing Ukraine's sovereignty against Russian aggression through shared analyses and historical insights. The account critiques institutional failures in African governance, such as the African Union's perceived ineffectiveness, while highlighting the continent's rich ethnic diversity and human rights crises like the Darfur genocide. Lesser-known aspects include pointed commentary on U.S. politics, decrying authoritarian tendencies in MAGA rhetoric and Trump's foreign policy."

Furthermore:

"Anengiyefa focuses on international relations and human rights, frequently highlighting Ukraine's sovereignty amid Russian aggression through shared expert insights and historical references like the 1991 independence referendum. They critique institutional shortcomings, such as the African Union's response to electoral violence in Tanzania and silence on Sudan's Darfur genocide, while questioning leaders on accountability. Posts also address Middle East history, social media's role in division, and U.S. politics, emphasizing factual discourse over partisan rhetoric."

It comes up with a slightly different answer every time I ask, but the basic themes are consistent in all the answers:

"@anengiyefa

maintains an active presence on X centred on global affairs, particularly critiquing authoritarianism in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, US politics under Trump, and institutional failures within African governance like the African Union. Posts often draw on historical context to address issues such as the Israel-Palestine dispute and Sudan's genocide, emphasizing human rights and factual discourse over sensationalism. Despite modest engagement, the account consistently amplifies expert voices on topics ranging from migration myths to Western Africa's rising terrorism threats"

"Anengiyefa actively engages in discussions on global geopolitics, with a focus on supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression through historical references and critiques of misinformation. The user expresses strong dissatisfaction with the African Union's handling of regional issues, advocating for accountability in African leadership. Their commentary often emphasizes democratic principles, factual accuracy, and opposition to authoritarianism in contexts like U.S. politics and Middle Eastern conflicts."