The Eastcott Family Blog: Microlight Flight, Booze Cruise & Botswana

The day after white water rafting Trish had scheduled our microlight flights which were absolutely amazing!!

We got picked up bright and early again from the hostel as we had the first flights that morning. After a short drive we were at the landing strip, checked in, got our flight suits on and were getting strapped in to the planes. Dave went first and Lisa took off a few minutes later and we were both back on the ground in twenty minutes. Seeing the falls from above was amazing site to see and was breathtaking. There isn’t much more to say about the flight but it is something neither of us will ever forget.

After getting back from the flight we went back to the hostel, showered and headed to the café where we were meeting Kate and Lucy to plan our booze cruise for that evening. After a disastrous time of trying to book it we decided just to book it through Kate and Lucy’s hostel and get picked up there. They came for us around 3:30pm and the boat took off around 4:30pm. The cruise was a sunset cruise with free booze and free food. After a few hours on the boat and seeing some hippos and the sunset we headed back to land and back to our hostel. The next morning we were meeting at the bus stop at 4:30am in order to catch the bus to the Zambia-Botswana border.

Zambia – Botswana Border

Supposedly this is the shortest border crossing which is separated by a small river that they haven’t built a bridge across yet so you have to take a ferry across. We knew the border opened at 6am so by getting there around 5:30am we would be first in line. After arriving there on the first bus we took from Livingstone we saw another bus that was actually going across the border and then would continue on to the next place we needed to be, Nata. We went and talked to the bus driver and were able to get seats from there to the next town. Shortly later the customs office opened, we exited Zambia, changed some money and were on the ferry across the water. After getting to the Botswana side people starting running to the customs office to be first through (we walked quickly). We got through customs, got some snacks and got our bags off the bus to be checked.

Botswana is definitely a different country from the others we’d been in. They are really cautious of diseases (specifically foot and mouth disease) so they make everyone wash all their shoes on antiseptic pads as well as not allowing any animal products across the border – this continued all the way through Botswana at random check points. They are also very proactive about littering, smoking and stopping the spread of HIV so the signs are plentiful starting in the customs office.

After getting through and getting the okay to continue on we were on our way to Nata. We got to Nata around noon and were fortunate enough to get on a bus that was leaving to Maun shortly (which is where we would stop for the night). We got into Maun around 4pm, went to the grocery store and then got a taxi to the Old Bridge backpackers. Turns out they had no space when we got there, but having awesome hospitality they pitched some tents for us and made room so we could stay. After getting settled in we cooked some dinner, watched the sunset and planned our next few days. We decided we should use the next day as an admin day to book and get our stuff prepared for an Okavango Delta tour. After sleeping in, eating some breakfast and getting ready for the day we took the bus into town, did some more food shopping (it was a self catered trip), bought some sleeping bags and decided to splurge and buy ourselves a three man tent to save money. After getting back to the hostel we booked our overnight Delta tour, pitched our new real estate and spent the rest of the night relaxing at the hostel as our tour was leaving the hostel at 8am the next morning.