Traveling is a journalist’s breather
Travelling is considered to be therapeutic and at the same time helps humanity to appreciate what this universe is made of.
As a great lover of Lifestyle, I always select those quiet and exceptional places to visit, and just relax while observing the structures and culture of that particular place. Just recently, I have observed that there is more to nature than the luxurious places.
My travel to Oliphant’s Drift village has been full of experiences. This time around, I never bothered to check how far the place was nor research about it because all I wanted was a surprise, and guess what, I was totally surprised. I then experienced what I never thought would happen to me as a cautious traveler who always checks before visiting a new place. All I knew was that Oliphant’s Drift village is a few kilometres away from Mochudi in Kgatleng region.
Before unfolding my story, I would like to emphasize the need of checking out the type of road a place is when travelling. Finding out the location of the nearest filling station is also very critical than packing meals and getting along a spare wheel.
I have learnt a lesson from all this, and they say, to travel is to see, while I say, to travel is to learn. On that Friday morning, we left Gaborone to Oliphant’s Drift and I must admit that we were super excited for travelling, especially in this Covid- 19 era where movement is restricted. We were of course travelling for a good cause, and I was the only journalist invited to cover that philanthropy work by Neo Kerebotswe in partnership with the comedian of note, Troy April, as they collaborated with Papanyana Foundation and the legendary Gospel musician, Simon Makgatholela both from South Africa.
All we cared about was reaching our destination. None of us knew the way and we had pre- assumed that it was a tarred road all the way, little did we know that it was just a gravel road all the way to our destination.
Well, Oliphant’s Drift is situated 85Km away and North East of Mochudi. That means we had to travel that long on gravel; my travel team and I never checked these facts. We used a city car while the SA team used a 4x4 car and a Quantum. While we rushed to reach Oliphant’s Drift on time, we became even more negligent and only focused on arriving. We passed a filling station in Mochudi, and expected to fuel our car at the next filling station, which we were not even sure existed. Our fate got exhausted as we realized there was no other fueling station, after we had to travel an extra 60 Km to reach Oliphant’s Drift. At this point in time, I felt like a failure, I wanted to be surprised but the surprise was an unpleasant one. Our car wasn’t meant to travel in that kind of a road, and on the other hand, our fuel wasn’t enough to reach the destination.
Instead of being frustrated, we laughed, made fun of the situation and sought for Plan B to get to Oliphant’s Drift. We did somehow reach our destination and most importantly viewed this beautiful place of Oliphant’s Drift.
On our way, I appreciated Batswana’s hard work as I spotted big fields along the way, of different crops, including sunflower. Now, that was an attractive site, away from the everyday city structures for me. I breathed new fresh air, and just the sight of the forests took me back home to Maun, where I would go with my family to the outskirts of the town, just to view nature in the midst of those greenery Mophane trees at Sedie back then, before the space was transformed.
From this trip, I have just developed a good relationship with forests and wish to plan other similar trips to review my country. What enthused me the most is the fact that the place is also closer to the border with South Africa. We had a chance for a long chat with the chief of the village, Modise Mohutsiwa, something that is considered special in Botswana, as such leaders always have that unique wisdom.
He told me a lot about the history of the place, which I found very interesting. Travelling soothes my soul in that regard, I find it as a healing power as a journalist and often gather stories from my travel opportunities. But this particular one has just taught me to be particular all the time. Imagine if one gets stuck in the middle of the bush and they do not find help, just because they couldn’t research about a particular place before visiting it. Indeed, to travel is to learn.