Some will argue that one part of a town cannot be called a settlement even though it is so very different from other parts of the town. So if not a settlement, it has to be a location but that won't do either, will it? But as Mooketsi mentioned in his The Monitor article, the fascination of Peleng is to be found in the way that it has changed in the past and is very much changing now. The contrast between the Peleng of 1964 and the Peleng of today is quite remarkable - yet the place remains very much Peleng. Lobatse is so remarkably fortunate - by and large old style locations or semi squatter areas such as Somerset in Francistown, were (I don't know about now), grim, squalid places. Lobatse has one where tourists should go. But it also has so much more. The danger has to be however that those in charge of the town will ruin it simply because they are still unable to recognize its exceptional and varied character. Gaborone has decided to transform itself into a characterless city of roads, cars, combis, articulated vehicles, buses, non-working traffic lights and traffic blockages. And in its desperation to appease the motor vehicle, is busy cutting down every tree it can lay its hands on. The trouble is that the inevitable increase in vehicle traffic will mean that the newly enlarged roads will soon prove inadequate and instead of trees, it will be buildings that will have to be removed. Lobatse is blessed with a by-pass which means that the heavier traffic is kept away from the town centre. It is also blessed by a main street that is unique in this country, a railway line that runs through the middle of town - a feature it shares with Francistown - and on all sides, a background of towering hills. Those who readily shape entire towns around the needs of the motor vehicle are likely, in contrast, to regard the existence of a railway line as a major town planning obstacle. But how greatly the railway line, even without passenger trains, contributes to Lobatse's character and how little does the motor car contribute to Gaborone's. But note the change. Just about everything that Gaborone needed for its spectacular physical growth came, not through its airport, but through its railway station. But who would know that the line still runs through it or indeed that it still has a station? Gaborone has junked the lot. Wonderfully, Lobatse has not. So if you too are fascinated by the sight of trains moving around, that's the place to go. Lobatse Peleng Super Market PIC: COURTESY OF SANDY GRANT
