Botswana

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Day 493
55,155 km since the beginning of the journey
Maun.

After a longer period - a border-crossing again. This time - from Namibia to Botswana. This border- crossing is the twenty-ninth one of this trip. It is not just a special birthday or something. But still unique - as Botswana is one of the three mainland African states where Estonians can enter visa - free, the other two countries being Morocco and Swaziland.


Muhembo border crossing point. It is somehow surprisingly very quiet here. I stop at the stop sign, but do not see anybody. In front of the next building there is only one car.

I enter the building, there is no queue and the formalities took very little time. One more stamp in my passport, the usual registration of my name and data of the car and that`s that. And that`s all the procedure of leaving Namibia




Thank you for visiting Namibia! In short I can say that Namibia is a very positive, hospitable and welcoming country. And those 86 days were sufficient to visit most of the main attractions.

The crossing point of Botswana is a few hundred meters away and the same silence there. Inside it appears that the story - Botswana is visa free for Estonians – is true and soon there is the red stamp in my passport now which allows to stay in the country for 30 days.


Since Namibia and Botswana (and also in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho) belong to the same customs union, there is no customs control. Botswana money is called Pula, which is higher rate, the South African Rand. 100 pula =108 rand = 10.27 euro.


And 1 Pula = 100 Thebed. Thebed is metal currency or coin. And "Pula" has come from the Setswana language and means "Let There Be Rain", by the way.

Road taxes should be calculated and paid in Pula,


At the office having pointed out that the flag colors of Estonia and Botswana are the same, only in different order form, we have a nice discussion about the meaning of the colors.


Here, in Botswana, blue means water or to be more exact, rain, and black and white stripes mean racial harmony and are the colors of their national animal – Zebra. So the only countries in the world - with flag colors blue, black and white – are Estonia and Botswana.


So - Welcome to Botswana.

A bit more info about Botswana on wikipedia. Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa, the neighboring countries are Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The population of Botswana (as of March 2011) is approximately 2 million and the area is 600.370km2 (as large as France, or two countries of Poland put together).

The country became independent in 1966, and was at that time among to the world's 20 poorest countries. In 1967 diamonds were found in Botswana and now the state is considered to be the world's largest diamond mining country.


Map of Botswana


Sunset on the river Okavango.