0600 was the time the alarm went off and I jumped in the shower as the next 2 days' showers would be highly salty in the desert. Breakfast started at 0645 and by 0745 we were on the road heading for Uppington, which was the commercial centre for this area. There are large salt mines here and a huge volume of fruit is dry packed here during the season.
We stopped for 1/2 hour at a Pik n Pak mall for lunch supplies, bank Atm's and a bathroom break where there was no toilet paper lol.
Once back on board I jumped up front with Mishek for the short drive to the border stop where we were to enter the Kgalahari Transfontier Park, which is jointly owned by Botswana, Namibia, and S. Africa.
Once they the border we stopped for a picnic with our food supplies at a small camping spot. It was interesting to see some of the different types of RV's in use over here.
After lunch we drove in an old river bed that was quite smooth. A couple of water holes were present and now I started to feel like I was on Safari as we came across small herds of Wildebeast, Springbok, Gemsbok, Steenbok, Ostrich, Orynx, and we also saw a very sick Lion lying in the shade close to the road. He was basically skin and bones and it was a very sad sight but also indicative of what life in the wild is really like.
This was quite exciting as Mishek stopped the vehicle a number of times so we could watch and take photos.
It took about an 2 hours of driving and stopping before we pulled off to meet the Xhaus Lodge safari vehicles which were to transport us to the lodge. These jeeps were open and after we loaded all our gear we took off across the reddish coloured dunes heading for the lodge. These dunes had lots of different grasses, shrubs and small trees everywhere. This journey would cover 29 km one way, over 90 dunes, along a narrow road built for 1 vehicle. I had managed to snag the front seat again which was more comfy than in the back.
Once at the lodge, everyone had a drink and we got a brief talk about snakes (3 types here, all deadly), scorpions (2 types, 1 deadly), and the presence of lions around the lodge at night.
We were shown to our rooms and relaxed for a couple of hours before supper (African style), around a fire burning Acatia tree wood. Supper was an African dinner with lamb, rice and vegetables. It was very good.
After supper we retired to our rooms as we were tired and the generator shut down at 10:30.
There was a half moon with a lot of stars out. Bob and I tried some night photography with varying degrees of success.
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