Saying goodbye to Botswana and the people at Okavango River Lodge was as emotional as any of our partings. We’d quickly made friends with Caroline, the proprietor’s mom (she’d been in Bots since the 60s) and in the space of a couple of hours we’d formed a fast friendship with an Aussie photographer – I hope he shows up at our doorstep in Idaho one day. We even camped next to a couple we’d met in Kenya. Small world.

Botswana was a joy, from the parched Central Kalahari to the soggy Delta. When people ask us what is our favorite place (and everyone does), Botswana rises to the top – to compete with the other favorites. Botswana has kept the camping wild – many places look much as they did 15 years ago when we first came to Africa. We will return to this marvelous country one day.

Meanwhile, we are high-tailing it back to South Africa. What’s the hurry? Well, we have someone very interested in buying the Toyota. It is time to pass the Beagle on to the next traveler, and to find our way home. Believe it or not, this was always the plan. And somehow our plans have worked out despite most of them being just dreams.

How to manage this final project – find a place to unpack the truck, have it cleaned inside and out, then arrange to meet the buyer’s agent. Without knowing where all these chores are to be done, we just picked the town of Muldersdrift on the west side of Johannesburg. Lucky us – we found the perfect place. Meerkatsplaats is a charming B&B with a free-standing cabin, ideal for our needs. Plus the owners Cynthia and Frans are dreaming of a similar trip to ours. There couldn’t be a better place for us to spend our final week in Africa.

And luck is still holding. The buyer interested in the Beagle is a gentleman from Germany we met back at Twiga Beach where we spent the 2017 holidays. His friend and agent, Hans, is only a few kilometers from Meerkatsplaats, and we drove there in the freshly valeted Beagle – who wouldn’t be impressed? The inspection and test drive were almost perfunctory. Before we could gather our wits and change our minds, the deal was done. If you are wondering are we sad (yes) or do we have sellers remorse (no) . . . well, this was always the plan and the plan worked.