Makgatigati salt pans: last and final part I swear!

We ATVed off the pans but before we got back to the hotel we made a pitstop to meet some meerkats! They were just as adorable as they look in the pictures. 

I love how prim they are with their tiny little paws poised delicately over their tummies

Yes. I touched a meerkat. In fact, I touched several meerkats.

  We got back to the hotel and were all pretty nervous about our trip home. We needed to flag down a bus before 1pm if we had any hope of being in Francistown before dark. We were told that the buses “usually” come by every hour and would “probably” stop for us. After scarfing down some food (and the term “scarfing” is way more ladylike than what we were doing), we started to settle our bill and discuss our return trip. “Excuse me ladies, do you need a lift?” said a man sitting near us. “That’s very kind of you, but actually there are 6 of us so unless you had a bus, we need to stick together” we explained. “I actually do happen to have an empty bus” he responded. Can you believe our luck? He was a tour operator and a friend of Marya (who was on the pans with us) and he did indeed have an empty passenger van. So we arrived in Francistown in style. 

Our saviors and our chariot.

This time around we were more than prepared to do battle with the bus rank. I led the charge, marching resolutely toward the buses and politely but firmly waving off everyone who tried to “help” us by trying to show us the bus to Gaborone (they generally expect recompense).  I may even have whipped out the tried and true “talk to the hand” sign when trying to shake a particularly persistent gentleman. I hate being rude but in this case all we wanted to do was get ourselves (and our possessions) safely on the bus. We were able to do so without a single incident and we arrived home in Gabs by 8:30pm.

All in all, despite the hassles in Francistown and a total of 32 of hours traveling, I have to say that this was an incredible experience and I would do it again in a second.