Highway Hazards.

Look left, look right. Not just for vehicles.

Somewhere, Botswana – The sun is high, lighting jagged green acacia and bulbous quiver trees along the road to Kasani. Today is our longest drive of the trip, at more than 600 kilometres.

We're paralleling the old single-lane highway, which, washed out at regular intervals by now-empty streams, more closely resembles morse code etched into the soil.

Nearby, large swaths of land have been blackened in an effort to clear them using fire. Remaining trees stand as a macabre reminder of their previous splendour. In the distance, a miles-wide plume of smoke stretches to the single cloud sitting in the sky.

In a field to the east, clumps of trees stand in completely cylindrical mounds of red earth 15-feet high, giving them the appearance of having been planted in massive clay pots. The soil has eroded all around, or a small lake has evaporated, leaving the roots to cling to survival.

Meanwhile, tiny antelope pick at closely cropped yellow grasses along the road. Giraffes barely turn their heads as we pass. A small herd of elephants, though, shrinks behind a roadside tree.

A lay-bye with a concrete table and four stools for picnicking motorists is shaded by a blue sign: "Disclaimer: This is a wildlife area. You are stopping at your own risk."

Bon appétit, but for whom?