Finally in Africa

My team left Monday from KCI to fly to Detroit, then to Amsterdam and finally to Johannesburg, South Africa. Considering I had only been on a plane once before, I now feel like a pro after approximately 19 hours in the air and many more just waiting in the airports!

Once in South Africa, a van from the backpacker’s lodge that we were staying at for the night picked us up at the airport. So here I was in Jo-burg, as the locals call it, riding in the front passenger seat, which is quite awkward to get used to as it is on the left hand side of course. But, then I suddenly hear sirens, so I looked in the side view mirror, and sure enough, there was a police car, blasting its lights and sirens. However, either our driver honestly did not see and/or hear it or he just wanted to ignore it, because he just kept driving on for what seemed like miles! Ok, maybe just a couple of blocks, but still… Eventually, the police pulled up right beside us in the (empty) lane of oncoming traffic and then the driver pulled over.

The police officer came to the driver’s window and started talking fast in his native language. The driver then stepped outside. They were outside discussing the matter for quite some time. Meanwhile, we just sat in the van, without any knowledge of what was really going on. Eventually, though, the driver got back in the vehicle and drove off. The rest of the ride was quite silent! Later we found out that the driver got pulled over because the trailer that held our luggage didn’t have lights. Whoops…not a major infraction, but quite the first experience of South Africa! Nothing too risky for us, but it was hard to not know what was going on!

We stayed at the backpackers lodge for the night and left around noon for the bus to Gaborone. 8 hours on the bus seemed to go by quickly, as I had the most breath-taking scenery to admire the entire way to Gaborone. Huge hills covered in picture perfect trees with blue cloudless skies overhead. I also saw some fields, even a few with irrigation systems, and cows, horses, goats. I was excited to see bits of the farm here!

After one of the most amazing sunsets, the dark night with its bright clear stars soon fell upon us. It was only 6pm, which seems early, but it is the winter season here, so dark comes much earlier than back at home. Around 8 that night and after having a ‘discussion’ of sorts with the Botswana border control to let us in the country, we finally arrived in Gaborone! After 3 days of traveling, we were finally in Africa!