Part 1: THE JOURNEY TO KHWAI COMMUNITY CAMPSITE
Home again
Five and a half thousand kilometres later, and our Botswana trip is done. It’s almost hard to believe as I sit here at home, in a sunny spot, the last of the holiday laundry flapping on the line, and type this with fingers that are warm and nimble. How different, to a week ago, when I struggled to help my family dissemble camp, as my fingers were so numb from the inexplicable post- dawn drop in temperature, in a desert environment.
Road tripping through Botswana
Three weeks ago, a group of eleven of my family, and friends, set off on an epic road trip through Botswana. It was a bespoke trip, organised and executed by the fabulous husband and wife owned company of Ultimate Adventures, who guided us, and our overloaded vehicles, from the Khama Rhino Sanctuary near Serowe (our rendezvous point), across the Makgadikgadi Pans, to Khwai Community campsite on the tip of the Delta, our home for three days. From here another long two day journey took us to Mahbuasahube in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on the Botswana side. Here we set up camp for four days.
Different ways to enjoy the country
Southern Africa has so much to offer the tourist, and yet so many people assume it is a destination of upmarket safari tours, with stays in five star lodges, available only to the wealthy. The opposite are those who feel it is a continent that can only be appreciated from behind the wheel of a tough overland vehicle, where you carry everything, and fend for yourselves. Sometimes that seems to accompany an unfortunate attitude of entitlement and an excuse for selfish behaviour.
Responsibilities of being a tourist
I’m not in favour of one over the other, as both bring a certain richness to the exploration of all that makes up the magic of this continent I’m lucky enough to call home. I’m privileged enough to say I have experienced both, and love both. What I do feel is that however we choose to visit, we have a responsibility to remember we are visitors in that country, and need to behave with courtesy and a respect for the rules that are in place, even if some areas are not visibly policed.
Why a guided tour?
An adventure of this kind, broken down into its basic elements, can be daunting. If you are a first timer, with no experience of camping and driving in the African landscape, I would most definitely advocate going with an experienced company.
It is very reassuring to have the expert advise getting yourself,and vehicles through border crossings, knowing where to fuel up and fill water tanks, make the bookings in the reserves and having dinner and breakfast prepared for you thanks to their lovely chef, Master P. Not to mention the expert help you get with the finer technical aspects of driving a vehicle in the bush, like when to lower the pressure in your tyres for traveling on sand, or how to do a water crossing.
The sensory delight of driving slowly in a foreign country
There is something special in taking a road trip across Botswana. As you slowly make your way over some challenging roads, either bone rattling with corrugations, or hazardous with deep drifts of sand, you get to see, and better understand, the country that lies beneath the talcum fine dust that coats and clings to everything.
Unlike South Africa, where wild life tends to be more contained within our huge national parks, in Botswana, people, and animals both wild, and domestic, seem to live side by side. It’s not an uncommon sight to see elephants and giraffe grazing alongside the national road, and then have to slow down for a herd of goats, who decide the grazing is far more attractive on the other side.
The different faces of Botswana
The Khwai Community reserve, and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, are vastly different and I will make each area a focus for its own individual post over the next two weeks. Today I will focus on the delights of our two- day experience on the Makgadikgadi Pans on our way to Khwai.
The Makgadikgadi Pans
The area known as the Makgadikgadi Pans, are all that remain of a vast inland lake that dried up between ten and twenty thousand years ago. All that was left was a series of huge salt pans, interlinked by stretches of dry grassland. Nothing survives on these salt pans themselves, but the grasslands do support a fair bit of wildlife, especially if there have been good rains.
Being winter the pans are dry, and it is easy to traverse them, following a clear track left by other vehicles.
Kubu Island
In the middle of the pans is a granite island of sculptoral rocks, known as Kubu island. This is fascinating area, sacred to the local community, and home to a collection of my favourite African tree, the Baobab. An enormous, three- stemmed Baobab is the first thing that greets us as we drive onto the island.
An archaeological treasure trove
The tiny ‘island’, managed by the Gaing O Community Trust, has a rich archaeological history of hunter- gatherers and iron-age tribes, as well as remnants of a stone wall that dates back to Great Zimbabwe in the thirteenth century.
It’s really worth doing a cultural walk with a local guide around the island. Our guide was a wealth of knowledge about local plants on the island, as well as the early occupants of the island and the significance of a sacred cave.
Sun and Stars
Sunrise and sunset viewed from the island are incredible. I was content to simply enjoy a sundowne, and watch the light display, but the photographers, with us, were in sensory overload.
Could there be anything more beautiful than a baobab, arms spread akimbo, under an arch of endless stars?
Insignificant in our insignificance
We spent a second night wild camping on Ntewtwe Pan itself. It was just us, on this vast saucer of dazzling white salt, no evidence of other humans anywhere. A humbling experience, it felt as though if we walked to the rim of our shallow dish, we would simply fall over into nothingness. Scary how tempting it was, especially when I thoroughly enjoyed the sensory snap of the brittle salt meringue under my feet.
A celestial ceiling
As it was a mild evening, we opted to sleep under the canopy of stars. I simply do not have adequate words to describe the celestial performance that dazzled high above our sleeping bags, fanned around the campfire, until the moon rose late in the evening and stole the show with her own silver light. In the morning, I simply swung my sleeping bag around, to watch the sun come up over the other side of our pan, and paint the sky in a flood of pinks and mauves. As insidious as the dust is, it makes for a spectacular setting and rising of the sun.
At home with the Meerkats
Still reeling from our surreal night, we made our way to Gweta Lodge for our next night. This overnight stop was most welcome and we enjoyed the simple pleasures of solid walls, hot showers, and flushing toilets. A special treat was a drive into the bush for an interactive experience with one of my absolute favourites, the meerkats (suricates). We settled ourselves on the spiky grass near their den, G and T in hand, and gave ourselves over to the pleasure of observing these intriguing little creatures. Once they accepted we meant no harm, they went about their comical business, heads constantly twisting to the sky, on high alert for raptors.
After another great dinner, we all headed off to bed, eager to make an early on the long road to Khwai.
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