I told Pete we were an official car as well so I pushed our rental to its limits. I wanted to test the maximum speed of our car and I wanted to get this first stretch of road done as fast as possible since we left later than expected at the camp.
So I did about 180 km/h for about 3 hours. It’s quite demanding driving that fast for a few hours. So after a while, Pete took over for a bit.

We drove all day! I killed a few birds by accident… I couldn’t do anything about it. They just flew up and went for the middle of the road. I was going too fast to start avoiding them or brake so I took 3 full frontal.
I felt sorry for the birds but what the hell are they eating grass near the highway…
We arrived in Jo’burg at around 8 that evening, completely exhausted of the long drive.

It’s cold today. The wind is blowing a very chilly wind… It’s not warming up today.

The packing went fast, we have less and less to pack since our food supply is shrinking
All the way to “Twee Rivieren”, we didn’t see much special… the nature on some parts of the road is awesome. A bit spooky perhaps on occasions: a lot of dead trees just lying there. But it’s nice to see and it reminds oneself a desert is a harsh place…

Back at Twee Rivieren we put up our tents and went back for a quick last game drive. (only 1 hour left before the gates close)
And luckily we did that! At the same place as the first day we saw the leopard with her small cub. But this time they wanted to cross the road. So they were very close to the car. Only one small problem: the sun was going down on the same side as where the leopard was walking. So it was impossible to get good pictures of it. All my picture are overexposed. Nothing I could do about it.
Back at camp we decided not to cook anymore and go to the restaurant they have here at Twee Rivieren. We drunk a bottle of wine, and I finished the bottle of brandy we took for our trip. Pete was starting to get drunk… we went to bed.

Since it was cold today during the day, it will be very cold tonight…

I’m writing all of this down since I’ve got some time before we head off for our afternoon game drive.
Around noon, it’s silly to go drive around. All the animals hide for the sun.
Although today there’s a chilly wind blowing. I just noticed my tent is full of sand on the inside. That’s something to be looking forward to for tonight….

When I speak of dunes, I should point out that here dunes are still covered with little brushes of grass. Dunes here are not completely naked.

The trip took us a few hours to complete. Arriving at Nossob we first thought no more good spots were available for our tents. Later we concluded we had a good spot We recognize some campers from other camps of the previous day. We greet them and ask them about their game drivers to know where we could theoretically go and look for interesting animals.

I decided to enjoy a moment of peace and to go fulfill one of nature’s calling;
Just when I was quietly taking a dump, Pete comes inside the toilets yelling to stop taking a dump because 4 lions are near the camp’s waterhole. So you see even in the wild, you sometimes don’t have these little moments of peace to enjoy a quiet shit (rofl)

Anyway I didn’t complain… Lions… I mean…
I got to see my first Kalahari lions. Althought they were a bit far, I took some puctures using the digital zoom of my camera. (I usually don’t use it because the images aren’t sharp. I’m mostly only use my optical zoom which is equivalent to a 420 mm lens )
But anyhow, the 4 times digital conversion of a 420 mm lens gave me a few relatively satisfying results.

I then went for a shower as I felt really dirty. (Yesterday there was no warm water, so my shower was short)

Dinner today?
Rice with sausages & “makalaka”. We had some fun: read we had a few beers and some brandy…
At 22 the whole camp was yet again sound asleep. We head off for another quick peek at the waterhole hide (which has a light spot at night). But except for a few jackals, nothing to see. Maybe because we were making too much noise: we both were a bit tipsy and laughed ourselves to tears in the hide. So much for being quiet in a hide…

Back at our tents, I drunk another brandy to keep myself warm (yeah right) and we went to bed.
It was my best night sleep of the trip so far. (I wonder why….)

Back at the camping site, we prepared yet another fine meal.
We had a lot of fun during the evening. Everyone was sound asleep but we continued talking at our campfire with the necessary brandy & coffee.

People laughed when they saw us move out tents without disassembling them first. One camper came and asked us if we hadn’t seen a shoe. A jackal took it during the night.  So we didn’t do any driving yet. We enjoyed looking at all the animals here at camp. We took some great macro shots of squirrels.

Now we’re about to eat our lunch and head off for a late afternoon drive…

We made breakfast (eggs and bacon) and packed everything since we were heading for “Mata Mata”, a good 130 kilometers deeper in the park along the Namibian border.

The Drive took a few hours the scenery is stunning but inside the car it was really hot. At around 4 we saw 2 badgers. Something you don’t see often either.

We arrived at “Mata Mata” somewhere around 5. All the good camping spots were already taken. So we put our tents up near a small tree close to 2 older ladies. As it seems, very friendly ladies: They camp here in the Kalahari for about 3 weeks per year.

It’s really amazing to see the equipment some people have. One often wonders if you take that much, why still camp. If I had to take that much with me I’d rather sleep in one of the provided bungalows.
Since Pete snored too hard we decided to sleep in separate tents.

What’s on the menu tonight: Chicken sweet & sour with noodles.

Anyway after the visit we headed for “Twee Rivieren”: the entrance gate for the Kalahari national park (still a good 140 kilometers of dirt road ahead of us). The road on some places is really bad especially for a normal sedan. We lost one of our hubcaps… Hopefully we can buy a replacement on our way back to Jo’burg along the road. (Yes some guys resell old hubcaps on the side of the road here!)

Anyway after a few hours of driving we arrived at “Twee Rivieren”. We paid our entrance fee for the following 8 days (a mere R720, which is less than €80! In Kenya and Tanzania it’s about that per day!)
We then put up camp: 2 tents, chairs, bbq stuff and so on…The camping site is well equipped with showers, toilets, electricity, and light near the bbq helping you grill your meat.

It was now time for our first safari. We heard a leopard with a small cub sat close to the entrance. We drove off in that direction.
And YES, the first animal we spot is the leopard with her young cub under a ridge about 50 meters from the road.

Later that afternoon we also saw the usual: springbok, oryx ( called gemsbok in South Africa), gnoe’s (or wildebeest), hartebeest, jackal,…

Back at camp we started making dinner plans: hamburgers and potatoes on the bbq.

At night in the Kalahari it cools down a lot. (actually it freezes) During the day it warms up (in winter) to 30°C easily.

But freezing… in our little tents, this is going to be interesting…( to be continued I guess…)

It was now time for our first safari. We heard a leopard with a small cub sat close to the entrance. We drove off in that direction.
And YES, the first animal we spot is the leopard with her young cub under a ridge about 50 meters from the road.

Later that afternoon we also saw the usual: springbok, oryx ( called gemsbok in South Africa), gnoe’s (or wildebeest), hartebeest, jackal,…

Back at camp we started making dinner plans: hamburgers and potatoes on the bbq.

At night in the Kalahari it cools down a lot. (actually it freezes) During the day it warms up (in winter) to 30°C easily.
But freezing… in our little tents, this is going to be interesting…( to be continued I guess…)

Van Zylsrus… Can I call it a town? No I guess not. It’s about 200 kilometers from the nearest form of civilization, a few houses along a dirt road that stretches for miles & miles. It’s located near the Botswana border.

We found a farm in the middle of nowhere. It has a few rooms at the back of the garden where guests can obtain a room. Since the ride from Jo’burg was long (about 800 kilometers) and it is already dark to put up our tents, we decided to head for this bed & breakfast.!

A last night in a real bed is a really welcoming thought since the next 8 nights we’ll be sleeping on the floor in tents

Anyway I just looked up and all I can see is a southern hemisphere sky full of bright stars.  At this point I should clarify that if you live in the northern hemisphere and have enjoyed bright skies full of stars, I’m sorry to disappoint you that it’s nothing compared to what I’m seeing right now. I don’t want to rag but it’s simply the plain and honest truth.

Our day started early this morning since we had to pick up our rental at the airport we were curious as to what car we’d finally get. It turned out to be a Nissan. The name of the model escapes me now but all I know is that it doesn’t exists in Europe. It’s a white sedan you could compare to a VW Jetta: a spacious car to put our stuff. (Which is a lot, believe me!)

We then drove from Jo’burg heading South in the direction of Kimberly on the N12 (which we will then leave to take the N14 in the direction of Upington). I was fast remembered how well South African roads are maintained! Speeding is not a problem on these roads although we’ll try to keep ourselves to the speed limit. These roads are really heaven compared to the roads of Kenya & Tanzania I had to take the last couple of years. (read potholes!!!)

I took over from Pete around Delareyville. I had (and still am) getting used to a right steering wheel …

Anyway my meat is on the grill right now so I’m off before it’s completely burnt.

Well I’m in south africa right now.
After a very very exhausting journey and 25 hours later I’m finally back in SA after 9 years.  I first had to take the high speed train from brussels to Paris. after 90 mins I arrived at Charle de Gaulle where I had to get the bad news the flight was overbooked and that I won’t be flying that same night.

After trying to get me on a flight without any luck, Air France offered me a hotel room and a voucher worth 800 euro’s.

So that was it… my first piece of bad luck.

anyway, they put me on the next flight to south africa early the next morning. After 10 hours of flight I finally arrived in Jo’burg.

Now I’m currently in Pretoria at the university in the lab of agricultural research where pete is working. He’s packing while I browse the net.
we’re heading back for joburg and going out tonight
anyway

I’ve got to run…

cheers