Traveling From Francistown To Maun, Botswana

If you’re looking at being in Francistown and then traveling Francistown to Maun, Botswana by BUS then please read on.  If you fancy going by train, unfortunately, you’re out of luck as there isn’t one.

Francistown, Botswana

The BR Express train station in Francistown, Botswana has a couple of waiting rooms, thankfully, because, at 6am in June, it’s freezing cold.  Well, cold enough that the heat pumping out from the aircon unit in the Business class waiting room was very much appreciated.

Accommodation

There is no backpackers accommodation in Francistown, in fact, there’s no cheapish accommodation at all. Thankfully, there is AirBnB however, which allowed me a wonderful stay at the cheapest price I could find, of $55 a night.

I stayed at King Bed BNB which ticked all the boxes including; comfy bed, hot water, breakfast and a chance to watch tv on a big screen. The best part of King Bed BNB however, was the wonderful staff and gave me another indication of how lovely the people in Botswana can be.

Wonderfully Helpful People

Witness, came in a taxi to pick me up from the train station which was pretty impressive considering the early hour of the morning that I’d arrived.  He also allowed me to check in early as well, which was a complete blessing considering how tired I was from lack of sleep on the train and much in need of a hot, hot shower.  One of the staff went out and sourced a SIM card and some airtime for me and best of all, was when another staff member walked me to the bus station the next day when I left.

I loved the way she just took it upon herself to grab one of my packs and head out the door.  I wasn’t really sure what was happening but went with the flow.  It was only a 5 min walk to the bus station but probably would have taken me more like 20 minutes as I took the wrong paths and stopped and asked locals for directions.She also saved me going through the confusion of asking people how I could purchase a ticket, where my bus left from and when did it leave, once we arrived.  She only had to ask one question, where does the bus to Maun leave from and we headed straight that way.  There was a crowd of people getting onboard so my assistant pushed her way onboard with my small pack to score me a seat, while I found some space under the bus to store my backpack.

She also saved me going through the confusion of asking people how I could purchase a ticket, where my bus left from and when did it leave, once we arrived.  She only had to ask one question, where does the bus to Maun leave from and we headed straight that way.  There was a crowd of people getting onboard so my assistant pushed her way onboard with my small pack to score me a seat, while I found some space under the bus to store my backpack.

No Booking and Early Departures

And so I found out, there’s no booking system on Botswana buses and it’s very much a first on, first seated exercise.  Couple that with the fact that the bus scheduled to leave at 1.30pm took off overfull at 12.45pm, 5 minutes after I’d arrived (talk about good timing!) and you get a bit of an understanding of the fun of traveling on buses in Botswana.

Seat Companions

The ticket seller started collecting money after about 10 minutes into the journey.  I paid 105 Pula, there’s no extra charge for luggage in Botswana (unlike Mozambique). If all was fair in love and war, I believe my front-seat companion should have paid at least half of that 105 Pula on top of her own fare as she occupied at least that amount of my seat, her own seat and a fraction of the isle.  In New Zealand there’s a saying something to do with the width of an axe handle, this lovely lady was at least that wide.

I really didn’t mind, after all, I could put my feet up on the “brace-position” hand grips in front of us, which took an inch off each of my butt cheeks in relation to specific seat circumference occupancy.  And, if I pulled my shoulder blades wide enough open, meaning my shoulders gathered closer together in the front, it meant deeper cleavage for anyone with an interest and a bit more upright seat support for my companion.

The sun was warming and the open window provided a lovely, cooling draft, what more could I want?

That aside, when my neighbor and all her bags, drink bottles and boxes got off the bus a couple of hours prior to my final destination, I did have a combination of feelings which included; numbness, exhilaration and a weird feeling along the lines that my body mass had massively reduced over the prior 5 hours.

Animal Traffic And Gear Problems, Francistown To Maun

The Distance from Francistown to Maun is 490 Km and in a car should take about 5.5 hours, our rickety, old bus took 7.5 hours and unlike previous bus trips, a chicken dinner was not to blame.  I’d hazard a guess that the crunching of gears was at least partly to blame. As I was strategically positioned in the front seat and next to the aisle, I was happy to lend a hand the numerous times we had to stop to remove the piece of floor covering that housed the gears below.  The ticket seller, come driver’s assistant had to manually force the gears into  a position.  My simple task was to shine my phones flashlight in the right position to assist with visibility.  I love feeling useful!

The other time snatcher may have been the animals freely moving from one side of the road to the other.  We periodically had to slow down for donkeys, guinea fowls, and goats. Unfortunately, not for any of the “big 5”.  In Australia, you have road signs notifying drivers that kangaroos or koalas “cross here” in Botswana it’s elephants, giraffes, and warthogs.

It was dark when we arrived, not normally a time of the day I like arriving in. But there are taxi drivers circling the bus door when you arrive and I took the first one that was willing to take me to where I wanted to go; Okavango River Lodge.  It was Friday night and a public holiday so the bar was pumping when I arrived.