03-Jan-2004 -- Continued from 23S 26E.
After spending a very enjoyable night under the African sky, discussing the day's adventures around the campfire, we set of to Serowe in search of ice blocks for the cooler boxes and to refuel. There were another 250 km of driving through thick Kalahari sand lying ahead and we could not afford to take any chances of running out of fuel. We did not want to travel alone as one could be stuck for days without seeing anybody in some of the more remote parts. Going to remote parts of Botswana was exactly why we decided to visit these confluence points.
After refuelling in Serowe, we headed back to Shoshong and turned north to Letlhakane along the veterinary control fence. Cattle farming is one of Botswana's biggest income generators but because of their farming methods, no fences keeping cattle in a specific area only, they could loose all the cattle in the whole country should there be an outbreak of a disease like foot and mouth. In order to combat such an outbreak, the country has been divided into districts with long fences on the district borders. This way it would be possible to control the spread of such a disease, should it become a problem. In practice this means going through several gates in these fences every time you go from one district to another, even on the main roads. These gates can become a nuisance to anybody who does not understand their significance. The officials at the veterinary control gate looked upon us with disbelieve when we told them that we were going to drive to Letlhakane using the road next to the fence while there was a perfectly good tar road going to the same town. We did not explain the whole confluence point principle to them but as mentioned before, they waved us on with big smiles anyway.
Travelling next to the fence, we soon realized that 22S 26E was about 5 km to the East of the fence and not 15 km to the West as shown on the map we were using. I don't blame the compilers of the map, as this is a very remote part without a lot of reasons to visit it. Luckily for us there was a gate in the fence about 8 km from the point and we manage to again follow various tracks to within 600 m of the point. On our way we did pass a small village. The last stretch was done by foot and did not cause any problems. After the visit we had to travel the 8 km back to the gate in order to continue our journey northwards to Letlhakane.