We are in Botswana and this morning we left the Planet Baobab near Gweta and we traveled to Rakops from where we took the dirt road that led us to the Maswere entrance of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

We checked in at the CKGR gate around 11.30 am, the ranger gave us some info but as we told her that we were already here two years ago, she overlooked a lot of information that we luckily know but that would be always useful to repeat to anyone who enters a natural area like this.

The areas of the Central Kalahari where camping is allowed are spartan and have nothing but a bucket shower that needs to be filled with water and a toilet that consists of little more than a hole in the ground; so it is essential that those who come here have everything they need for the duration of their stay at the CKGR, in particular food and water supplies are needed, both for drinking and for washing, you must also be self-sufficient with electricity and fuel.

Furthermore, the areas for camping are not fenced so it is essential to pay the utmost attention to live the experience safely; the animals are in fact free to move where they wish, we are the guests in the territory and therefore we must behave accordingly.

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After checking in at the Maswere Gate, asking for some info about the condition of the roads and consulting the table of sightings, we enter the Central Kalahari Game Reserve but, before starting our safari, we decide to stop nearby the gate and to have lunch in the shade of an oval thatched roof that houses a very spartan table made of wooden trunks.

After lunch we finally start exploring the CKGR!

We drive the 40 km that lead to the Deception Valley, this first stretch of road is more sandy than the other tracks that we will cover in these days; in theory we could spot animals here too, but it is more difficult because there are several bushes that close the view a little.

When we finally arrive at Deception Valley the landscape drastically changes: here there are no bushes, only a few solitary trees, the sand is no longer soft but it is hard and compact, it is much easier and more pleasant to drive on this type of terrain, if it does not rain.

From this point there are several tracks: on the left is the one that runs longitudinally along the Deception Valley, in front of us is the service track that crosses the Northern part of the CKGR from East to West, while on the right is the track leading to the Passarge Valley; we take the latter, our campsite tonight is in that direction.

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The first part of the track is not beautiful, it is a bit sandy and there are several bushes, in fact this acts as a conjunction between the Deception Valley and the Passarge Valley; there are not many animals here.

When we arrive at the Passarge Valley the landscape changes again, the bushes disappear again and there is greater visibility; this valley is very beautiful, today we do not have much time, but tomorrow we will explore it all.

Along the Deception Valley there are 3 campsites and ours is the CKPAS02, all camping areas in Botswana national parks and nature reserves are identified by an abbreviation that indicates their position: the first two letters, CK, identify the park or reserve, Central Kalahari in this case, the next three letters identify the area of ​​the park or reserve where the campsite is located, in this case Passarge, finally the number simply serves as numbering of the camps of a certain area.
 

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As we slowly head towards our campsite we look around, animals can be anywhere; we see so many oryxes, that in the CKGR are present in abundance, springboks, ostriches, some giraffes and several birds, in particular the Northern goshawks that here in the CKGR are sighted quite easily.

We arrive at camp CKPAS02 around 4:00pm, we prefer to do things calmly and prepare our Dr. Livingstone for the night and the camp for the evening.

We park, we look around and when we have made sure that there are no animals, we get down and start pulling down what we need from the car; but in reality we soon realize that we are not really alone.

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There is a yellow mongoose that goes around the campsite and looks at us very suspicious, every time we put something on the ground, it arrives, observes, sniffs and leaves; it is checking every little detail, probably its den is not far from here and therefore it makes sure that we are not a threat to it.

When it is satisfied with its checks, it disappears and we no longer see it for our entire stay here.

The sun is setting behind some choreographed dead trees, we prepare our Spritz and toast the day today and the safaris that await us here in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

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When the sun goes down we light the fire and prepare the charcoal to cook, while we enjoy its warmth and its hypnotic charm.

We cook and then have dinner, unlike two years ago we feel safer to stay here alone, we got used to it a little, but we still keep checking the surroundings with the torch because we never know, moreover, at one point I started feeling like someone was staring at myself.

At some point while we have dinner, aiming the torch in the distance, we see an eye between red and orange, it is far away so we continue to eat but we keep it controlled because we cannot understand what animal it can be; we can only say that it has a medium height but we cannot understand the distance between the two eyes because we always see only one.

At some point we see that it begins to move in our direction, at that moment, in doubt, we prefer to enter our Dr Livingstone and finish dinner in our living room.

From inside our car we still try to identify the mysterious creature but we no longer see its eye, who knows where it went; we will never know what animal it was but surely it made us escape that, with hindsight, made us laugh a lot.

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Data di inserimento: 
Saturday, November 23, 2019