I was the only passenger that day, so had the undivided attention of my guide, which was nice. In all honesty, many of them would mean nothing if you just drove down the road on your own, but at each stop on the route your driver/guide will read the appropriate section(s) of the story to make even a railroad crossing come alive. It is a crying shame that so many visitors to Botswana visit only the game parks in the North and never set foot in Gaborone, the capital city and location of Alexander McCall Smith's beloved detective stories about Precious Ramotswe.Īfrica Insight offers both full and half days tours to various sights associated with the stories in the books - and now TV series. And you don't have to be a Mma Ramotswe fan to enjoy this tour. We ended a fascinating and very enjoyable half-day with lunch at Cafe dijo.Ī highly recommended activity when you visit Gaborone. The tour was very interactive too, with Tim asking questions to check our knowledge of the stories and characters in the books. The car yard and workshop that was the model for Speedy Motors.Īt each location Tim brought the characters from the books alive with tales of the real-life people after whom those characters were modelled. The Notwane river, a scene in a case where a man was killed by a crocodile while being baptised. The University of Botswana, where Mma Ramotswe had a number of cases that involved students and staff. The corner house on Zebra Way (Zebra Road in the books), where Mma Ramotswe lived. Rather a fascinating primer on the history of Bechuanaland, renamed Botswana upon independence in 1966.įrom there we toured a variety of places referred to in the No. Our first stop was the Three Dikgosi (Chiefs) Monument. We met him at the Cafe dijo, and with lattes in hand, we boarded his stretch Land Rover. Tim Race of Africa Insight was our guide for this half-day tour. The President Hotel is very much worth a visit we had a snack and a nice pot of red bush tea, which is delicious! Tim would not come with us but he was willing to drop us off there and he asked the doorman to get us a reliable cab when we were finished so we could go back to our hotel. We really wanted to go to the President Hotel where Mma Ramotswe likes to sip coffee on the terrace. We also were not taken to see the set for the TV series, because apparently it is in very poor shape. I was disappointed that we did not see Tlokweng Road but perhaps that is only available on the full-day tour. Our guide, Tim, is acquainted with Alexander McCall Smith, who apparently visits Gaborone every year or so just to keep current on how things are coming along there. :) The tour contained a surprisingly large amount of Botswana history, which my husband loved we did see Zebra Way (the Model for Zebra Road in the books) and the location where Mma Ramotswe's house would be, and we were taken to see a university and hospital that had made appearances in the books. I have read all the books, though the early ones were quite a while ago now my husband had seen the TV series that was made and had heard one or two of the audio books but this was mostly for me. My husband and I had come to Gaborone on business and decided to use our final extra day doing this tour.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |