Intercape Mainliner / इंटर-कापे Mainliner

I am not eaten by Werewolves and survive my encounter with the hostile world beyond the bus-station.I observe closely what Jo'burg looks like as we pull out of the bus station on the Intercape Mainliner bound for Gaborone, 6 hours away.

We pass through streets lined with smart, low-rise, 1950's style office buildings and more modern standard concrete buildings. The streets are wide low valleys and have a nice mountainous feel to them, one side of the street in freezing shade, one side in bright sunlight. The place has a sunday feel to it, very few people on the streets. There's a lazy mellow atmosphere. I nod off for about three hours and when I wake up we're out in the country in the magical 2 hours before sunset.

The green, red and yellow landscape becomes more subtly coloured and reflects the delicate sunset colours in the sky. Along the way are scrubby spiny kops which smoulder in misty smokey reds, oranges and purple. I really want to be out there, just for an hour or so, to take a walk into the mysterious scrub and over to one of the kops, that would be a nice introduction to the country. Brew up some tea on a tiny wood fire and enjoy the smell of dusty earth, saps and woodsmoke as night falls. Resolved: I will do this as soon as I can when I reach Maun.