The Long Road to Kalahari :

What does one conjure up when told you are traveling to the middle of the largest continuous stretch of sand in the world? To my mind comes heat, miles and miles of arid sandveld with no water and little shade! Having visited Sossiesvlei in Namibia when our boys were around 7&9 we knew about spectacular mountains of sand dunes that went on endlessly and desert sunsets to die for . But this was not Namibia - and the animal population have to exist in the toughest and driest conditions in Africa : hopefully the vast flat landscape of the CKGR would live up to its renowned unique appeal!

The Kalahari covers 84% of Botswana extending from the Orange River in SA to the Equator in Gabon. The CKGR is a gigantic 52 800 sq km and is the largest nature reserve in the world, bigger than Holland and was declared a reserve by the British in 1961, then it was still a safe haven for the San as much as for the cattle and game that roamed its plains.

The Bushmen (San) whose ancestors inhabited this arid land thousands of years dating back to Middle Stone Age and whose skills have been passed from older to younger generation, are hunter- gatherer nomadic people and are one of the oldest continuing cultures on Earth. There is not another social/ language group on this planet which has been studied, written about, filmed and researched more than the San . Their history makes for interesting reading! The San have since been ousted due to the Botswana government being embarrassed about keeping the San hemmed within a reserve. There was also an ulterior motive to moving them - the belief and then the discovery of diamonds lying underneath their antediluvian hunting grounds.

This harsh environment is mostly inhabited by cattle, goats, gemsbok, kudu, hyena, impala, cheetah and lions with an amazing variety of birds. To attract tourists to this landscape there is a small airstrip at Rakops where visitors can fly in and stay in private tented lodges, so the likes of my avid blog followers Ingrid & Leish & Jim & Jane can venture out of their comfy cocoons to experience the 'wild' but also experience bush luxury !! Kalahari is known to have the best night skies in the world - come my friends, what are you waiting for? The currency of Pula (meaning rain - believe it or not) is in your favour !

Ghanzi : a town where the boere speak 'boesmantaal' and the San speak Afrikaans .
The road to Ghanzi leads straight to The Kalahari Arms Hotel and In the 'olden days' this hotel was a Wild West saloon filled with farmers drinking 'spook and diesel' aka Brandy and Coke, while the locals lay "passed out" next to the bottle store! In its place today are tarred roads, shopping malls, a Shell garage and The Kalahari Arms now has DSTV and a conference centre!! Blame the Kalahari Highway which links both the CKGR and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park making access to the wilderness much more accessible for the bush loving 4x4 enthusiasts.

On route to Deception Valley was Kalahari Sands Hotel where we should have been for two nights to restock with water, petrol, supplies and a new aux battery for the Prado and shocks for Peter's trailer. Why oh why on arrival did we turn on the TV to witness the last 3 minutes of Japan knocking the wind out of our pumped up Boks' ego/ sails or whatever term you could call this diabolical result?! Best forgotten and to move on which is exactly what we did! Our new 'COP' candidates Peter & Carol lead us off the next day to Maun to look for the proverbial 'needle in the haystack' - aka - Conqueror shock absorbers! Goodbye Ghanzi, hello Maun, the capital of safari country!

We imbibed in the luxury of 3 star Maun Lodge and McGuyver Rod made a 'Bear Grylls' plan and acquired local substitute parts to keep the Conqueror trailer on the bumpy road to Deception pan . TK was sorted with a new substitute battery to maintain our huge consumption of ice and the girls were being spoilt with another night of luxury and a chance to sample the local fare from Maun ! Not to mention the delight of standing under a running shower for longer than 5 minutes!!
How our priorities had changed in such a short time since leaving Knysna!

Maun is now bustling with tourists and safari group operators and you can find almost everything you need from this rough and ready town in Botswana. A small Woolies was our godsend for fresh produce while the men headed to the Liquorama store!

All that was left now was to enjoy our showers, ice cold drinks, a delicious meal of Bream and Goats stew under a thatched gazebo and hopefully a good nights sleep in our twin bedded chalet.

Next stop Deception Pan -.was this a place to see before you die?

Cheers