"It's like driving inside a landscape painting" - SW Burger's week trip from North to South

I left Nelspruit in the morning on Saturday, 19 June, and headed for the Groblersbrug/Martin's Drift border post at Botswana via Polokwane. Traffic officials stopped me for speeding near Tom Burke and tried for a bribe, but I stressed that they were not there for the sake of road safety, and left off with a fine which I never paid. The border went smooth and I took the quicker route via Selebi Pikwe. I arrived at Nata Lodge at about 8pm, pitched the rooftop tent and spent the evening at the pool bar watching bush babies entertaining the guests with their antics in a nearby tree. I got a devastating message on my cell phone from my wife Pietro back at home, informing me of a horrible road accident near Sabie in which friends of us were involved. One got killed and one which I know since primary school 40 years ago, got paralised.

The next morning I travelled north towards Kasane. Long stretch of good tarred road, but dangerous as elephant roam the area freely and can appear from nowhere out of the dense bush along the road. I wanted to cross the ferry at Kazungula border post into Zambia to visit the town of Livingstone, but the ferry was standing out of order for a few days on the opposite side, so I headed for the Ngoma border post to enter Namibia. I camped right next to the Zambezi River at Kalizo Lodge. Quite a wet and sandy road to get there, but that's part of the adventure.

Nata Lodge Reception S20.22410_E26.26755 700 X 469 93 KB	Pool at Nata Lodge 700 X 469 108 KB	Nata Lodge ablution facilities 700 X 432 94 KB
Shop at Kazungula border post S17.79866_E25.25776 700 X 469 85 KB	Zambezi River at Kazungula Ferry 896 X 600 71 KB	Ngoma border post S17.79866_E24.72055 700 X 469 68 KB
Kalizo Lodge campsite S17.57024_E24.56643 700 X 437 96 KB	Zambezi River 700 X 469 49 KB	Old mokoro utilised as flower box 700 X 469 81 KB