Martin's Drift | Customs and Immigration

South Africa

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Verified:
6 months ago
Altitude:
895.0 masl
Contributor:
tomenansschaap

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Description

Strait forward border crossing.
We crossed from Botswana to South-Africa and it took us 20 minutes in total.
But.....it was not busy :-)
Open from 06.00 - 22.00.

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Very easy border. Ex RSA to Bots ride around the trucks and go straight to immigration. No customs. Cross the river, go through the chemdip then stamp passport, didn't even remove helmets, pay road tax and insurance P280 per bike and go. 20 minutes total both sides.

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This is an advisory for onward travel.
if you're going east to Kruger national park......
I highly recommend NOT going all the way on the R37, if you do its really slow as its like going through a very long town and lots of stop go.
Go down to Lephale and on through Mobile but caution on road as it can get verybumpy
then hit the highway going to Pretoria then head east via Middleburg on the motorway, yes its not that scenic but atleast you can travel at your own pace and its safer.
On the R36 there are lots of police and speed traps.

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First time through this crossing, all went smoothly, took about 45mins.
Coming from SA to Bots, procedure was:
Overtake all the trucks parked on left to get to SA immigration building. Obtain exit chop in passport.
Cross bridge, it’s single lane so need to take turns with southbound traffic.
Park at Bots immigration building.
First go to health building on right to get vac certified.
Bring a pen and face mask and enter immigration building. Fill out entry form before getting to counter. After a few questions on travel plans they will give you a small form.
Take form to customs counter. First pay road tax at cashier and then get form stamped.
Drive to exit gate and give them the form. You’re in!

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They check vaccine and booster, it’s a bit confusing as you need to go to a different building to verify your vaccine before going to the immigration building. Officers gave us hell, kept demanding a full itinerary and day by day breakdown of OUR entire trip printed out. We had to stand aside and write down ALL the locations in botswana we were staying at. Expect rudeness and feeling pretty unwelcome.

They Did check for dairy and eggs

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Went through the border around 13:00 on Easter Friday. Not too busy, only took long to pay the road duties because everyone had to stand in the same line as the truckers. All in all took just over an hour to get from SA into Botswana

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Very easy border crossing. We had a PCR test of 10 days old, and let us in. No rapid test needed :)

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Be careful! Bots does not allow you to leave without a PCR test if you are not South African! Silly.

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Botswana to SA where we found chaos at the border...trucks coming from SA blocked the single lane bridge and were all more concerned with their entry and covid testing to get into Botswana so after an hour playing the traffic officer we could finally pass. Nobody official seems to care. The paperwork is easy enough and takes 30 min in total but nobody is concerned about the long line of trucks who just park it in the middle of the road and leave it there...on both sides the staff just laughed and did nothing, welcome back to SA!!

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We crossed from SA to BW the border was busy with trucks but you just pass the line, once in customs everything was fast, people were friendly besides the custom woman form BW. We did the whole crossing in 35 min.
We paid 152 pula for our South African registered car.
There is a gas station in the next town (or just outside the border) in the town price is now 9,54 pula per litre. You can also change money there or use their “ATM” which is basically cash back from a card machine but it depends on them having cash.
The next ATMs are in Palapye.

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For Botswana if you have temporary passport you need visa(500P)..For EU citizens

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Crossing from Bots to SA, on a Saturday morning.

Exiting Bots super quick, 5 minutes wait.

Entering SA was a different story. 200 people in line to get to immigration, took us about 1,5 hour wait in the sun. Stamp took 2 seconds, unfriendly guy. No clue why the line was so long....

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Crossing ZA to Bots on 2 motorbikes: took us 1.5 hours for both borders as the system was down a bit in Bots. In ZA they did not stamp out our Carnets. They told us that we will get the stamps when leaving Bots to Zim. Payed 512 Pula for the two bikes together.

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Easy border crossing and very quickly. We didn’t stamp out the carner at Botswana side (coming from Botswana) as customs told us that we only have to stamp out once we leave South Africa.

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Normally quick and easy border crossing on both sides

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Easy border crossing; Just pass the big line of trucks awaiting on SA side.

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It also took us about 20 minutes to cross the boarder.
Stamped out in ZA very quickly but unfriendly.
Stamped in in Botswana without problems for 90 days. Immigration very friendly.
Payed totally 321 for Road Tax and insurance. Payable with Pula or VISA. There are also exchange bureaus there.
No controls of fruits or vegs or anything else.
Filling station few meters after the border. Much cheaper than in ZA (8 Pula/Diesel).

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Strait forward border crossing.
We crossed from Botswana to South-Africa and it took us 20 minutes in total.
But.....it was not busy :-)
Open from 06.00 - 22.00.

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