In between

On the 8th August, I slept in my tent at Khankhe Pan.
On the 9th August, I slept in a chalet at Mokolodi.
On the 10th August, I am not getting much sleep, but when I do, it’ll be in my bed at home in Johannesburg.
On the 11th August, I will be sleeping (or not) on a plane to Abu Dhabi and then to Dublin.
On the 12th August, I will be sleeping at Castle Grace in Ireland.

That’ll do ;)

Khutse Stats

Sand
0 injuries
0 degrees Celsius on our first night camping
1 new power steering pump
1 Brown Hyena in campsite
1 bottle Patron
Sand
1 session of bush yoga
1 damn awesome lamb knuckle potjie
2 campsites (Moreswe Pan #2, Khankhe Pan #3)
2 games of Scrabble (one win, one loss)
2 Black Backed Jackal
Sand
2 bottles of champagne
2 bush showers 2 pairs of Ugg boots
3 tents
4 crossings of the Tropic of Capricorn
5 people

5 Shakespearean sonnet recitals
7 nights
9 Oryx
18 items of clothing (including 2 blankets and 2 sleeping bags) I wore to bed to keep warm
20 litres of wine
Did I mention the sand?
42 species of bird
140 litres of water
Sand
100 000 000 impala

…and googolplex grains of sand

Botswana is calling

I am beside myself with excitement at the moment. For the last two weeks, I have been full time planning a 4x4 camping trip to Khutse Game Reserve in Botswana. Khutse Game Reserve just to the south of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (check out the map courtesy of botswanatourism.us. Khutse is the little bit sticking out the bottom of the big green section in the centre of Botswana).
The amount of work that goes into planning a trip to the middle of nowhere is mind-numbing. I have been doing cool things like going to 7 hardware stores in one day to find a two meter long piece of clear plastic tubing for the water tank (small but very necessary) only to discover that it is no longer manufactured in that size. But all the planning is worth it.

The itinerary is as follows:

Night 1: Camping in Mokolodi Nature Reserve which is just outside Gaborone
Night 2-6: Khutse Game Reserve. We will be camping at two spots. One is on a pan in the south of the reserve. The other is near a pan in the north. When I say “spot” I really do mean it. It’s not a camp “site” by any means. There will be nothing there! The only way to tell you are at the right place is by using GPS coordinates or finding something that looks like a clearing in the savannah or an old rusty sign. No toilet and no shower. We’ll have a spade and a canvas sack with some holes in strung to a tree instead.
Night 7: Chalet at Mokolodi (because by then I think we are all going to be dirty and fed up with camping).

Departure date: Wednesday 3rd August