That morning, Sam, a Zimbabwean from the rental company, had given us instructions. Dressed in a black jacket and with a beautiful slit hat on his shiny head, he explained in a calm voice where we could find everything in this almost new white Toyota pickup. We had tried the use of the jack, both the small and the large one. We had opened all the drawers of the little kitchen in the back and checked off every item on the checklist that came with it. We had checked the fridge, the operation of the gas, the bush shower and the satellite phone provided. We had practised putting up and taking down the tent via an ingenious mechanism on the roof. To our surprise, the mattresses and bedding were in the tent, waiting for us to tuck ourselves in. We were ready for an adventure like we had never experienced before. Off to Botswana. Just a few hundred kilometres away: country 191 was up for grabs. The only thing we didn’t know was that we would never use those kitchen utensils and that we would never sleep in those beds.
