Botyburps

Went for a quiet sunset drive around the camel park (about 10sq km in size)looking for zebras which apparently live there, but they were hiding. But what were not hiding was a skulk of 4 African foxes which we were able to photograph. Staff at the park were not aware that these foxes were around! (Nominations for an Attenborough have been posted).

Saturday we drove back to Tsabong and pumped the tyres back to highway pressure then drove 350km to Kang. Took a short cut through a rough gravel and sand back road on local advice that ran alongside an unfenced game reserve. Large amounts of animal dung hinted at elephants but never saw any, but the driving was challenging- bottomed out a few times. In Kang we stayed in a stone house which resembled a dungeon, complete with heavy wooden doors and wrought iron fittings.

.Sunday saw more driving to Ghanzi. An interesting village with Afrikaans origins that our guide book gives a lot of history about -particularly of note were the ‘Jerusalemgangers’. This was a group of about 600 Afrikaan religious zealots who in 1874 believed that they could take ox drawn carts across the Kalahari and reach Jerusalem in about 6 weeks. They did not believe in education other than learning to read the Bible. Unfortunately their version had a small and inaccurate map in the back and most of them died before getting across the desert.Ghanzi also boasts an international airport, still functional although the last scheduled flight was1946. We are now in a more modern motel and enjoying a quiet restful morning.

We visited a Kalahari bushman village in the afternoon and the two of us were treated to an authentic bushwalking experience, complete with hunting gathering and fire lighting demonstrations- all in their click language, but with an interpreter. They were delightful people and had a fire going in just over a minute!

Tomorrow is a 450km drive to the Okavango Delta where we will begin to see the animals at the top of the food chain, so no blog for a couple of days.