The first day was a long and moderately uninteresting drive on the bitumen heading east into Botswana. The occasional township punctuated the trip with farms, including game farms lining the road. The occasional hazard cropped up: a warthog suddenly leapt out of the scrub by the road and ran a suicide mission right in front of the car. Lucky for him, we missed, but only just. A short time later, a similarly intentioned ground squirrel made a kamikaze run in front of us, also to escape death but only by centimetres!

Once at the border it was check out of Namibia and check into Botswana. For Africa this was a fairly smooth process though not a speedy one. No surprises there then…

Our goal for the day was a town, Ghanzi, where we would fill up our tanks for the remote journeying ahead and also to buy firewood to see us through the Great Kalahari Desert national Park where firewood collection is prohibited.

Our first night in the bush was at Thakadu Camp just outside Ghanzi where we learnt how to erect and dismantle our tents and generally use the gear we have been supplied with. An unexpected bonus was a hot shower - never miss taking advantage of one when it's on offer; you don't know when the next one will be!

Here we were joined by Chris, our guide for Botswana, with his safari truck who will be with us until we cross into Zimbabwe then re-join us when we re-enter Botswana further north.