Day One - Palapye, Botswana

There was an abundance of optimism and hope in my decision to go directly from the Avicii concert that ended at 4 am to the airport for a flight that would be leaving at 6 am. However, I did get to experience the concert and I did make that flight, the only side note is that it was a very difficult 2 hour stretch through which I managed to stay awake without sleeping through my flight, take naps on the floor of the airport and get through security without them noticing I had enjoyed a number of drinks at the Avicii concert. But soon enough I was on the plane and by the time the plane had left from the gate, I was deep in slumber.

enjoying a 5:30 am cat nap before the flight

The flight to Johannesburg was short, or so it seemed, thanks to my instantaneous pass out on board the plane. I was awoken by the stuartist as we were about to land in Jo'burg. After getting off the plane into the Johannesburg airport, 3 tour leaders in greeted us and brought us to the truck. There were 10 kids on the trip. I only knew two of them going into it, Sarah and Alix who were in the same program as me. Sarah is from California and goes to Tufts and Alix is from New York and goes to Tufts. Thoiugh i didn't know anyone else on the trip, I had briefly encountered a few others around UCT. 

The first night in Palapye, setting up camp around the truck

We drove for about 7 hours from Joburg to cross the border into Botswana. The drive was bumpy, it was clear that Cape Town enjoyed better infrastructure and public roads than other parts of South Africa and particularly Botswana. We were leaving the comfort zone we had developed in Cape Town and were venturing into a much more indicative area of Africa. For all of Cape Town's attributes, it is far more European/Western than most of Africa. 

Botswanan Skies above

It was nice to have the time just to sit and relax after all of the craze that surrounded Avicii and getting to Jo'burg.  Due to the small size of our trip, we had tons of space, since our bus was built to fit 26.  Low and behold, After a long day of travel, we arrived at our first campsite in Palapye, Botswana by dinner time. We pitched our tents, ate dinner, which was provided for us at the campsite and I passed out by 10:30.