Flamingos & cattle posts

The whole camp rose before 5.00 am, packed their bags, rolled up sleeping mats, breakfasted and were on the game-viewing jeeps before 6.00.

We headed south down the main road for about 10 kms before turning off through the Nata Sanctuary gate, passing into dry grasslands.

On the way to the Makgadikgadi Salt pans we stopped to look at herds of wildebeest and zebra. Then we drove across dry pans before emerging on the water’s edge - and hundreds of flamingos. We worked our way closer to them - Lochlan and Jamie even wading knee-deep - but they remained elusively out of reach. After a while we returned to the jeeps for coffee and rusks.

From there, we moved along the shoreline and up on to a promontory and there in front of us was a huge body of water - and pelicans, ducks and more flamingos. Apparently a cyclone in the Mozambique Channel dumped a lot of water on Zimbabwe and Botswana last year: which had reached the pans via the Nata River.

On the way back to Nata Lodge we saw coran (the helicopter bird) and several ostriches.

The truck was packed and ready to and soon we were heading westwards out of Nata. After an hour’s drive, just before Gweta, we had reached our destination, Planet Baobab. This is aptly named as there are several huge baobabs on the property and when at night, as they are, there is an element of interplanetary travel.

Their guides were waiting for us and soon, in 3 jeeps, we were taken on a tour, which included Gweta Primary School (into a couple of classrooms), the village pond, and a sorghum beer maker (just a taste). From there we visited a cattle post before returning to Planet Baobab for a traditional local lunch. This consisted of sadza (a thick maize mash), wild spinach, fried mapani worms, tripe, beans, smashed beef and polenta.

It was a hot afternoon which we spent in and around the pool., waiting for the heat of the day to abate. When it did, up went our tents and we moved our bags in.

Munya prepared another filling meal with dessert, and we sat around talking until the evening debriefing.

It had been another good day with several saying that they had enjoyed it the most so far .Read more