July 31, 2019
At our departure, after being treated to several local African songs sung by the staff of Wildtrack, we continued a further 170 km to Livingstone, Zambia.
It is about a 70 km drive to the Kazungula border crossing, where you cross the Zambezi River to either Zambia or Zimbabwe. The customs process at this crossing has got to be the most inefficient, time-consuming process in the world.
Clearing Botswana immigration was a snap. A simple departure form, a stamp and you are on your way to the car ferry—one truck, two pickups capacity.
You drive onto the ferry, pay 200 pula and cross the river. You then drive off to the point of no return: the Zambian side of the river and the awaiting quagmire of trucks, dust, fumes and “agents” swarming to offer their services for the customs chaos that awaits!
After two hours of filling in ledgers asking for engine serial numbers, chassis serial numbers, make, model, colour, engine size, registration information, police clearance papers—which we didn’t have—and passport information for the toll fee, you repeat the same process for Interpol and then again for the road tax. You then proceed to pay the associated fees at several different offices.
Total insanity. When we last crossed this border, it was on foot, so the process was simple.
Below is the first step of many more!
