We’d taken our time getting to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, stopping over in Cape Town, Sutherland (to visit SALT) and Upington and we’d had lots of adventures along the way … running out of petrol, making a 4 hour detour in the night courtesy of our sat nav and narrowly avoiding a head on collision with a speeding car. By the time we reached the entrance gate of Twee Rivieren our excitement and suspense had reached ridiculous levels and we could not wait to get in and explore the park.
Our excitement was short lived when we realised just how little time we had to make the journey to Nossob. We set off in haste, forgetting to deflate our tyres and proudly apply our yellow ribbon… but a quick detour back to Twee Rivieren remedied this. Through the maze of roadworks and incredibly corrugated roads we saw so many animals which we did not have time to stop and appreciate (bat eared foxes, a cape fox, curious jackals, secretary birds, eagles galore and wildebeest). As we pressed on, the road conditions got worse and worse. The 4×2 rattled and shook until I was convinced it’d fall to pieces. We had to slow to unimaginable speeds to control the vehicle and avoid it tipping, already aware that we had very limited time to make it to camp. The vibrations from the road were so intense that Ali took his wedding ring off to prevent blistering. My bones rattled and shook and I got bruises galore. It’s fair to say that we became more than a little disheartened – this trip was a dream trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and it was not a promising start.
However, as we neared Nossob the roads improved slightly and we were able to stop and take stock of where we were and which roads we have left to travel. We spent a few minutes aside a very friendly black backed jackal who ran alongside the vehicle and regarded us with such curiosity. We felt our spirits lift – these are the encounters we’d travelled so far and so long to experience.
We arrived at camp exhausted but delighted to be there, and immediately grabbed a cold beer, checked out the sighting boards, amused ourselves watching the cheeky ground squirrels, scoured the trees for scops owls and set about lighting the braai. It was magical night – two jackals prowled around our braai – we couldn’t take our eyes off them for a minute otherwise they’d steal our steaks.
After dinner we grabbed an Amarula each and walked across the campsite to a clearing where we could stargaze. What I saw moved me to tears – the night sky was lit with thousands of diamond bright stars, it was simply breath-taking. We spent many an happy hour that night putting to practice identifying the constellations (as taught to us by astronomers in SALT) and spotting shooting stars. This was the Africa I fell in love with 10 years ago on honeymoon and I was thrilled to be back.
More photos from our trip are available in the Taraji Blue Kalahari photo gallery.