Botswana Here We Come

This morning we were all up bright and early at 6am. First we had a coffee and just after 7am we jumped into the car and headed off on a game drive.
This mornings sighting’s were amazing, first we saw 2 black back Jackal sleeping on the plain and one got up and walked off, then we saw 2 more walking down the road and we were right next to them in the car to get pictures, then we saw a pack of 5 walking across the plains hunting.
From there we saw a male and female ostrich with 5 babies, and to top it off we saw 4 cheetah’s on a ridge sunbathing and then they took off hunting.
From there we turned Caren around, who had now developed a squeak, and headed back for camp for a small breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit, before packing up camp.
Today is moving day and we’re not just moving camp we’re moving country, this will be our first ever land border crossing and all fruit and fresh produce has to be used or disposed of.
Finally at 12pm we set off heading for Botswana. We passed through tiny little villages while the sun got up to it’s full strength of 37°c today and then Caren the car through a wobbly and decided to stop the air conditioning, luckily just as it became swelteringly hot the air con would kick back in and that happened for the rest of the journey, hot for a while, cold for a while.
Just after 2 we arrived at the Botswana Border, and after completing our covid checks with a dyslexic nurse we were on our way, out of South Africa and into Botswana.
Almost immediately you could see the difference in the countries driving down the road that on the border separating the 2 countries. South Africa was Lush and green after a good wet season and in the other side was orange sand and hardly any vegetation, just like someone had turned the tap off when they got to the border.
We were heading for a small wild encampment owned by friends of Hilda, it’s not yet open to the public and is a conservation project but there’s hundreds of animals all roaming free.
At 4:30pm we came to a turn off on the tarmac road that took us down a dirt sandy track, went straight across the Kalahari for 45 mins and then came to a fence and turned left and then right for another hour, it was a really crazy track. Eventually we came to some huge steel gates with an animal skull on and let ourselves in. Then we drove for another 25 minutes until eventually we came to house. We were greeted be a female lion called Sergei in a huge 20,000 acre enclose and a black man cutting a wilderbeast in half with a saw, and the owner of the ranch and his wife named Val and Sue.
We were shown where to park the car and pitch camp and then given the rules. Don’t leave the tent at night, don’t go anywhere on our own, don’t go to see the lion on our own, leopards and hyenas will be outside our tents tonight so when we get in then stay in them.
Then we went up to the ranch house and we’re greeted by a Caracol, Sue & Val had rescued. This was turning into a stranger day than yesterday.
We had a very late dinner with Val and Sue and got to know more about them and there conservation projects, I was told I could set up a camera trap where the wilderbeast had just been cut up and that’s what I’ve done and then we all sat around a fire pit and had dinner of Pork and vegetables cooked on an open fire, then as were leaving a porcupine came in to the ranch garden. A truly amazing sight.
We were there until 11:30pm and then in the pitch black, myself, Ellie and Becky all walked back to our tents which are now out in the open, next to the long grass where the predators are roaming free. We are all nervous about sleeping but excited at the same time.
Hopefully in the morning the camera traps will show how close we came to an encounter.
If we survive the encounter in the first place.Read more