Author: Michael

Parent, husband and civil engineer born and raised in Britain before emigrating to Botswana. Interests in construction, information technology, fitness, mechanics and mapping, among others.

Foreign Traffic On Botswana Rails

Some time before Easter I was proceeding along the A1 between Gaborone and Francistown when I saw a train being hauled north by non-Botswana Railways locomotives, did a bit of research based on the “AR&TS” livery and found they belong to a railway service company, African Rail and Traction Services.

Couple of weeks later, heading back to Gaborone after Easter and we found the same train heading south from Mahalapye.  Having time on our hands we put some distance between us and the train, and then found a convenient gate out of the road reserve with a dirt track up to the railway line and took a few pictures.

Ex-Queensland Railways class 2600, units 2609 and 2606, owned by African Rail & Traction Services passing through Botswana with grain wagons.

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Book – A Short History Of Nearly Everything

Still working on the writing habit, so what better excuse for a post than to review a book.

My mum introduced me to Bill Bryson books and I read some of his travel/cultural writings way back before my emigration (and also his slots on Radio 4, if I remember correctly. I picked this one up from Exclusive Books in Gaborone Sandton City (according to the price label, it’s dated 2011 so probably from when I went on a Civil Designer training course).

A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

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Forging An Iron Croptop (1 hour workout)

Just discovered a cracking combination from darebee.com that can be done in about an hour (assuming a certain basic level of fitness/competency).

  1. Crop Top Workout (2:30-3:00 per set and 2:00 rest – 15 minutes or so to complete)
  2. Upperbody Forge (as long as it takes, use kettlebells in unbalanced positions for extra credit)
  3. Iron Maiden (5:30-7:00 per set and 2:00 rest – 27 minutes or so for 3 sets)

Mine looked something like this:

Heart rate during Darebee circuits comprising Croptop Workout, Upperbody Forge and Iron Maiden.
Heart rate during Darebee circuits comprising Croptop Workout, Upperbody Forge and Iron Maiden.

The Iron Maiden is tough, try visualising any problems in your life while doing the punches and knee to the groin movements…