Welsh bus spotted… in Botswana

Stephen Price

An abandoned Welsh bus has been spotted over 5,000 miles away from Wales in Botswana.

The bus once belonged to Swansea-based Cymru Coaches, an award winning coach company operating over 40 vehicles from 8-75 seater executive mini buses and coaches.

But there has been some mystery over how one of their coaches ended up to be so far away. Until now, that is…

Lynda McAdam contacted Nation Cymru after spotting the bus while on the trip of a lifetime with a group of friends.

She shared: “Myself and a few friends were on holiday in Zimbabwe; we live in Berkshire.

“We crossed the border to Botswana last week to join a six hour road safari and a then a three hour boat safari, having seen all of the Big Four in Botswana (buffalo, elephant, lion and leopard) as there are no rhinos in Botswana.

“At the border crossing between Zimbabwe and Botswana the Cymru coach was spotted.”

“I noticed the Cymru bus and just had to share it with Nation Cymru.”

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with approximately 70% of its territory being a part of the Kalahari Desert.

It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast.

With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people, who constitute nearly 80% of the population.

What happened next…

A representative from Cymru Coaches shared: “We’ve had a fair few emails regarding this exported old coach of ours, and please see attached a picture of when it was in our fleet as PX07 EAA.

“We’ve had emails asking if it has been stolen, and an email from a member of the public who lives in Swansea, who saw it in person and was so shocked to see a coach from their local coach company when on Safari..

“We sold the coach for export many years ago to a company who was purchasing it to export to Africa, but this was around 2020, and we all know what happened then..!

“The company that first bought it unfortunately went bust due to the pandemic, so the coach was parked in a UK Port for about 2 years, but luckily for us, they had already paid for it.

“Then the coach was bought at an auction from another person who also intended to export it to Africa (as all paperwork was already in place). They had it exported, and we were receiving emails and pictures from sites all over Africa!

“The coach has now ended up on the Zimbabwe/Botswana border, and has been there for a good year now.

“This was one of our first ever PSVAR (wheelchair accessible coaches) – we have made the huge investment in accessible travel, and now have 36 PSVARs!”