Our next national park was the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, 800 kilometres North East of the Kgalagadi. We had planned 3 days to get there.

From Nossob to Name pan

We had spent few days undulating on the road between South Africa and Botswana within the Kgalagadi. But our last day in the KTP was the official start of our journey in  Botswana. We first did a small loop in the south road from Nossob as people had spotted a leopard in the area the night before. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so we gave up quickly to hit the north road. We spotted some wildlife on the way, and especially a brown hyena trotting in the bushes. It was our second of the trip and we were quite happy because they are very rare. Cats did not show up, but we had our share of antelopes with kudus, blue wildebeests, red hartebeests and oryx. They were either solitary or in small groups, as we didn’t encounter any massive herds in the park.

We entered Botswana after lunch from the Kanaguass junction, direction the Kaa gate on the northern border of the park. We crossed the dry, white and blond landscape of the Nossob river to be immersed in a totally new scenery after the bordering dunes. Narrower road with thick red sand and green bushes and no car. It felt so much different in only few minutes! We were excited by this change, symbol of a new country and new adventures. We stopped at Polentswa, one of the campsites on the Botswana side to see what it looked like. We wanted to spend couple of nights there initially but were told it was fully booked. The two camps we stayed at on the South African side were fenced and quite traditional, with good common areas and shady camping spots. But Polentswa was something of another level: unfenced, with unblocked view of the plains, and only few massive camping spots set up far from each other. Each site had a rustic drop toilets, and an outdoor shower being a bucket on a rope that you have to fill up with your own water. It was pure wilderness, and we were even more disappointed to have missed the opportunity. But well, that was the price to pay for planning the trip at the last minute. Lesson learnt, next time will be different!

We saw a bit of wildlife along the way, mainly some tiny steenboks, solitary little fellas which prefer small bushes to the type of plains we had at the Nossob river. The drive was quite intense because of the sand, and Eff mastered his 4×4 driving skills to perfection. We also started to have a taste for the “African massages”. That’s the local name to describe the bumpy roller coaster-like rides on the sandy and corrugated “roads”. It sounds lovely, it is a bit fun the first fifteen minutes, then a bit annoying, and then pure hell.With an average speed of 25km/h, it took us several hours to reach the gate, where the ranger was happy to get a bit of activity. He had seen only one car three days before us. Kaa gate is clearly not the busiest of the area… We were still 100 kilometres away from our target, and continued in twospoor tracks until Name pan inside the Kaa concession managed by the local community. You are supposed to pay first before staying at one of their campsites but the office was further away, and we really wanted to stop. We decided to honour our debt the following morning when exiting the concession.

The scenery changed drastically. We left the red sand dunes for blond sandy tracks and large white dry salt lakes. We were the only ones at the  camp, and we had a spectacular sunset over the salt lake, sipping a glass of wine and enjoying the full bush experience. You are allowed to camp, but there are no facilities at all. Toilets are bushy-bushy style. Depending on your need, you might have to dig a hole with your shovel, do your business, burn your paper and cover everything back once done. It was clearly not on the luxury side, but quite funny for sure, especially when you’re not the one who has to do this…We woke up early and got ready for another long drive to Ghanzi, our stop for supplies. Luckily we were back on tar road after only an hour drive. It was a welcome change to drive at a decent speed and without the African massage. There were many ostriches along the road, even if we were out of a national park, and a big groups of cows walking by themselves in a very disciplined manner. They retreated on the sides when hearing approaching vehicles or waited patiently before crossing the road if needed. Indeed, they were very well-behaved and we realized later on that it was a common trait of all cows in Botswana.

The San community of D’Qar

We arrived at Ghanzi at mid-day and did all the much needed mundane tasks such as fuel refill and grocery shopping to be fully set for the next ten days. The place we camped at was D’Qar, a San community who manages a reserve dedicated to the preservation of their culture. The San are a nomadic people, living in harmony with nature as hunter-gatherers, even in the most unwelcoming areas. As much as I dislike this word, they are part of what we call primitive people. They learn how to survive in nature and seem fulfilled with their lifestyle, probably explaining why they did not experience the same development than in other regions of the world. They are known to be the most peaceful people of the world because there was never any conflict among them, and if one was arising with other groups, they would simply leave. Their traditions are passed from generation to generation, and despite being forced to adapt to the modern world, they quietly continue to protect their identity by sharing it with the new generations and the occasional travelers. Let’s hope that with the kids learning only English and Tswana, their beautiful and amazing language will not disappear.

We settled in the camp in the afternoon, and waited for our evening activity: the story telling. Two members of the community came to our campsite at night and we all sat around a fire to hear the stories they had come to tell us. That was the most incredible cultural experience we had so far. The language, with its 28 clicks, is rhythmic and hypnotic, and the way they tell stories is so full of expressions, emotions and gestures that we could have listened to them forever. One of them was speaking in San and the other was translating in English, but both had a fascinating way of delivering the stories. We had two: one about why hippos and fire are not friend anymore, and the other one about the friendship between a bird and a mouse. We were so into this magical moment that we didn’t even think to take pictures. And maybe that was good after all, as it was exactly as it was supposed to be.

Tips: if you wonder what San look and sound like, watch again the movie “The Gods must be crazy”. That’s exactly the same!!

At the doorstep of CKGR

We headed North on the morning, aiming to arrive at our next stop, Haina Kalahari Lodge, early afternoon. We had almost three hours on unsealed sandy tracks from the main tar road. Eff set up the GPS, I had the map ready, we turned right into the unsealed road at the junction and drove for a while. We were supposed to go East, driving along the border of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but Eff realised we were heading North East. He got a bit nervous because of the fuel consumption. We had no access to fuel for the next six days and had a lot of distance to cover. So any additional kilometre could put us in difficulty. In such case the relations between pilot and co-pilot are quite heated… The pilot asks the co-pilot her opinion on what to do, she says what she thinks or evaluate all options, he disregards everything and grumpily disagrees, and she shuts up, letting him do whatever he wants. Ring a bell anyone?! Anyway, when Eff decided with a high level of confidence that the best option was to take the road that was neither on his GPS nor on my map, I doubtfully remained silent. After all, I was not driving and I have in truth the worse sense of orientation ever. What I have sometimes is logic and I was right, that road led nowhere but to narrower and narrower tracks in the middle of thicker and thicker bushes, so thick that we ruined each side of the car. After a tensed hour of being lost, we finally got back to the road from where we had come, and went back to the tar road. Exactly what we could have done an hour earlier. Not sure it was the most effective to optimise our fuel consumption… It turned out that the GPS did not know the road we had to take, and we had missed it from the start. We were finally back on track, driving on our sandy road bordered by high golden grass, and entered the reserve three hours later. The adventures in the Kalahari could start!

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