You flip through the TV channels in the restaurant, Granny’s Kitchen, next to the Tapiwa Shell fuel station in Letlhakane. There are hundreds, but the only one that works is a programme where a teacher is presenting a biology lesson. We take a seat and concede to learning about enzymes. At least there is air-conditioning here, because outside Botswana’s heat wraps around you like a wool blanket.
It is one of the less-exciting moments for a traveller, like waiting at an airport or border post. A kind of travel limbo. At least we know it won’t last long, since we’re here waiting for the rest of the tour group. One by one the rest of our fellow travellers start to arrive.
While our tour leader, Petri Cronje, greets everyone, a neatly dressed man approaches us. “Are you the guys from the magazine?” he asks and introduces him-self as Tipson Mahube. His business card reads Chairman, and it seems like he owns this place. “Tell your readers we have 50 ppm diesel here, the only one in town,” he says. Tipson points to the vehicles in the parking lot and tells us which ones he has driven, mostly on trips to South Africa. Now he helps other travellers, especially those on their way to Kubu Island, with accommodation and a place to eat at Granny’s, next to the fuel station.
We say goodbye to Tipson as the rest of the group is ready to depart and we’re eager to get started and to leave civilisation
