Many money exchange operations have sprung up and the latest dollar, sterling and other major currency rates are on display daily. At the lodges alongside the main road, locals are outnumbered by sunburned overlanders, many of whom sit on top of their vehicles for better game viewing, getting ready for the next leg of whistle-stop expeditions. Francistown, Maun, Moremi, Chobe Game Reserve, Kasane and then Victoria Falls is one of the favourite routes. The sandy roads are showing signs of the heavy traffic. The big trucks push the wheel tracks far apart so smaller vehicles often drive with one wheel in the soft sand ridge in the middle of the road, making driving more difficult.
Locals shake their heads in wonder at the numbers of people.
And the things they get up to. One couple recently crossing the notorious Magwikwe Sand Ridge on their way to Moremi discovered to their horror that their fuel was about to run out and that the nearest available petrol was about 90km away. They forgot that 4x4 low-range vehicles use a great deal more fuel than in normal drive. And the road from Kasane to Moremi has a lot of soft, soft sand. Another couple from Bavaria happily stocked up on fuel, water and food and planned to head straight across the vast waterless central Kalahari by themselves.