Submitted by SafariADV on Tue, 2017-09-26
This morning we got up at 7am, here it gets colder in the morning and so we had breakfast in relax on our table surrounded by baobabs; then we closed the car and went to place ourselves in a better pitch for today, with the view on the Makgadikgadi Pans.
We are located at pitch no. 11, or at least we believe it is the 11th, because many palettes with numbers are no longer there: in front of us it opens the view on the pan, next to our car there is a wonderful tree with the red bark, it is a Sterculia africana, or African star-chestnut, while slightly backward, embossed on granite rocks, there is a giant baobab that seems to dominate the whole island.
We set up the table and chairs, leave the solar panels on the table, so they load up with the sun, and start off with our off-road exploration of the island.
A track runs around the perimeter of the island, that is about a kilometer long; the scenery is spectacular there are millenary baobabs ribbed over the rocky outcrops of granite honed by the wind and probably from the water when the Makgadikgadi Pans was a huge lake.
We go back to our pitch and have lunch in the sun; although it is winter and the temperature is not very high, there could be 25 degrees, and you do not have to be fooled and put on sunscreen, the reverb of the sun on the white pan is not to be underestimated.
After lunch we lay on our armchairs and relax a little, probably this will be one of the few moments of the trip in which we can afford it.
When the sun begins to descend to the horizon, on the salty expanse of the pan, we turn on the fire, prepare the aperitif with a Savannah and enjoy the show; few things in the world can compete with the beauty of the African sky at sunset, when it is painted in warm colors.
After sunset we prepare for dinner, our car has two foies for cooking, one placed in a special counter, the other directly on the gas canister.
Yesterday at the Spar we found chopped meat and tomatoes, pasta and parmesan we brought them from home, so we cooked penne with ragout; it was too fun and with a glass of South African white wine the dinner is perfect.
When we end dinner the sun has already fallen for a long time, but there is still light, it is that of the moon, the reverberation of its light reflected on the white pan illuminates a lot, so much that there are even shadows.
We are there a bit relaxed when we hear a noise of glass bottles and then we see the shadow of an animal running right in front of us; it was a brown hyena that was looking for something to eat in the trash of our neighbors (never leave the waste outdoors and on the ground) and then ran away when they approached her.
The fire is now off, there are only a few braces still on, and it's getting cold, so let's go in and go to sleep.
