By Grace O’Leary
ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE, BOTSWANA, NAMIBIA
This is the story of how our we saw four countries in one day. The day started like any other on our Africa trip, we woke up, got dressed, got cheated for more money and headed out to catch our bus taking us to the next chapter on our great African adventure.
We booked our bus tickets online with Intercape, smooth transaction. The bus was only running a little late so without having a Intercape representative at the bus station, we were sweatin’ a little. After debating if we should ditch our booked seats, they pulled into the station a fashionable 25 minutes late.
We walked onto the bus and were instantly taken back with the luxury this coach bus had to offer, reclinable seats, window curtains and so much air conditioning it could have been mistaken for a deep freezer but that was short lived. Just as we took our seats they asked us for passports and visa numbers. Um, visa numbers? We are Canadians, we don’t need tourist visas to enter Namibia. At this point in time we were extremely confused, here is why, Zambia and Namibia border each other, we were in Zambia planning to go to Namibia meaning one border crossing.
After a few minutes of very confusing conversation, we were informed that we need tourist visas for Botswana as we will be driving through it before entering Namibia. Rob ran to the nearest bank to exchange local currency for American dollars so we could purchase our visas. We were back to sweating but back on the bus on route to Namibia. Laughing with the gentleman beside us, we were happy to have it behind us, happy to be back on the road but once again, that was short lived upon arriving at the Zimbabwe border.
That’s right. Apparently they had to drive through Zimbabwe first before entering Botswana. So here we are yet again running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get American cash so we can buy another tourist visa.
The bus driver said this was the final crossing before we enter Namibia but we learned our lesson and didn’t want to take our chances so we doubled down. This is a great travel tip to ensure you have enough cash for multiple border crossings. It is also a good idea to research the route before you depart for the bus station. I believe they misunderstand the saying “ don’t ask, don’t tell”.
From Livingston, Zambia to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to Chobe National Park, Botswana to finally end up in Namibia… our next chapter. Just like that we saw 4 countries in 1 day.
