Shaun, Nilay and I left Kasane in order to make our way south through Botswana. While our original plan had been to get all the way down to Maun (pronounced Mao-ooon), Shaun and Nilay had heard about a place to stay called Elephant Sands that was about halfway between Kasane and Maun. They asked if I was up for a detour, and I gamely replied “yes”.

We took a taxi to the bus stop and popped into a Choppee’s for provisions (their list was much longer than mine since they were camping and cooking). Choppee’s is a chain of grocery stores in Botswana that are generally very clean and very well-stocked. Being a marketer, it was fascinating to walk the aisles looking at all the unique brands and ways they merchandise their goods.

After checking out, we made our way to the bus stop and waited quite a while in the hot Botswanan sun for the bus going to Nata. Eventually one arrived. We paid our 70 Pula each (about $6.00) and settled in for the two-and-a-half hour ride.

We got to the Elephant Sands stop, but the bus would not leave us at the stop alone, as it was out in the middle of nowhere and extremely hot. They did not want us to have an unfortunate encounter with lions or other animals.

The bus driver called Elephant Sands and the bus waited until a safari truck came to fetch us. Once our ride arrived, the bus went on its way and we were driven the mile into the bush where the compound was.