The Road To Hell - Kutu Island

By 8am we were all packed and ready to go. Nothing was caught on the camera traps except ellie’s butt when she went to the toilet, and except for what we passed on the way up hunters road we didn’t see anything, I was gutted as this was the perfect spot.
The plan for today was to head to Nata, do our final shopping trip and then head to Nata Bird Sanctuary campsite, and see the birds on the salt flats.
We reached Nata about midday which was pretty good going and we filled up with fuel, did the shopping and we were supposed to eat at a little restaurant but it was closed and that’s when the day went pear shaped.
There was no back up plan for eating and we started driving again, leaving Nata and heading north before finally turning onto a dirt road and heading out towards the salt pans. I was desperate to see water on the pans because it creates a mirror but we were all also hungry and now didn’t have a clue where we were going.
Another hour went past, and then the trees and bushes got slightly more scarce and Pieter said that it looks like the salt pans are covered in grass. I’m not sure how that happened because nothing grows in salt but we still didn’t say anything. Another hour went past and then it became apparent that Pieter and Hilda were actually looking for the roof of there Land Rover they had to leave behind when they got stuck out on the salt pans 4 years ago. Another 30 mins went by and then they saw the roof about 2 kilometres off to the distance with binoculars on our left and they seemed amused it was still there. Still we carried on driving, at a steady speed of 15kph.We were going nowhere fast but we in the back still didn’t know where we were going anyway. In the end, Ellie piped up and asked and Pieter said we were going to try and get to Kutu island. This was new news to us in the rear seats, so what’s going to be there?
An amazing view, a campsite, and a spectacular view of the salt flats which are apparently covered in grass.
Still we kept on driving. Passing small settlements, tiny farmsteads and another hour in we stopped at a farm to check that we could carry on and to our amazement we could carry on but we also picked up 2 passengers from the farm. One in the front seat and one on the roof, so Hilda squeezed in the back with me and Ellie and off we went with our new passenger giving us directions. We drove on the track, then off the track through long grass and scrubland and onto another track, then left that track cut through some more scrubland and found another track and then we dropped our 2 passengers off with the directions of “when you get to the boabab tree, just go straight “.
Still we kept driving. 90km into the dirt tracks, through gates, passed more tiny houses and finally after 8 hours we arrived at Kutu island.
The campsite is completely abandoned, looking around the disheveled guest lodge it looks like nobody has been here since 2017 but Pieter was super pleased we have the place to ourselves and the campsites are still in place albeit they are on a rocky outcropping, and finally we were at the salt flats which don’t have grass in them because nothing grows in salt but there isn’t any water so no reflections.
It was now 5pm in the afternoon, it had been a very long day of driving for not a lot of gain. We did some exploring and the vastness of the area is impressive but there is nothing here to see, infact from horizon to horizon there is absolutely nothing. I was really disappointed, and a little annoyed that we hadn’t stopped back in Nata.
We lit a fire, the wind started picking up and as we had dinner a storm system developed all around us encircling the rocky outcropping we were camped on and at 9pm just as we went to bed, the wind and the rain started, if there is a hell it can’t be far off this baron landscape.Weiterlesen