Shashe River Shashe is a sand filled channel, with extensive alluvial aquifers in the river channel and below the alluvial plains. These supply water for a number of irrigation schemes including Sibasa and Shashi. More than two million years ago, the Upper Zambezi River used to flow south through what is now the Makgadikgadi Pan (presently a vast seasonal wetland) to the Shashe River and thence the Limpopo River. There is a road bridge and a rail bridge south of Francistown. The lower Shashe River forms the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe and is unbridged. However, at Tuli, both sides of the
R3 road (Zimbabwe) in Zimbabwe connecting Zambia and South Africa. The first is from Lusaka to Beitbridge via Victoria Falls and the other is from Lusaka to Beitbridge via Chirundu, Zimbabwe. The Chirundu Route is shorter but not the fastest. For Trans-African Highway transporters, both Zimbabwean routes are slower and costly. Together with the R5 Highways it forms part of the Beira-Lobito Highway which is the Trans-African Highway Network route number 9. The A1 Highway is currently under rehabilitation together with other regional road corridors in Zimbabwe. Most highways in Zimbabwe are more than 30 years old, outliving their 20-year life span, and