August 19th: The last stage: Kuruman to Kgalagadi

A new lesson every day? No problem. Ever had problems with a GPS leading you into some dead end? Same here. The only difference being: over here you might be...basically...what's the right word again? Fucked? In the middle of neverland. :) Well, listening to what my stomach told has saved me approx. 50km of driving because the GPS and I had quite an argument when it wanted to guide me on a gravel road earlier than expected. But anyway. Nevertheless the real adventure began approx 90 kms after I left Denise's "Guest house on Main" in Kuruman. Out of a sudden the tar road ended and I was in the middle of a construction site for the soon to be comfortable driving to the park. I have to stress soon-to-be here, because driving over this kind of dirt and rocks is a real shaker. But after a while I remembered once more that is's not always a good idea to listen to other peoples advice. Like keeping a speed of 60km/h on gravel roads. Just fuck that. Seriously. It's much better at 100-110km/h because then you (and the car) don't feel the horrible bumps as much as you rather float above it all. :) A thought that came to my mind was that at this speed the only thing that might overtake you are your own wheels. No, not so funny. ;) I therefore reached my intermediate stop Van Zylsrus an hour earlier than anyone incl. my GPS had told me.

Prof. Clutton-Brock from Cambridge University has a huge research project on meerkats going on over there but when I arrived I didn't bother to ask anyone about it since the place with its 5 buildings was dead and a bit creepy plus I still had a bit of time pressure in my neck. So I continued my journey rather quickly. When I was halfway through the last part in between Van Zylsrus and the park I decided to have lunch in the shade of a huge camelthorn tree and the birds in it would almost be mocking me. "What are you doing here, white-nosed guy? You should be out on the tar road just like the other tourists!" What do they know? Or maybe they ignored me completely. What do I know? You just try to interact with something when you travel alone. Maybe I'll start talking to bushes 3 days from now... :D

Back to the driving. I had talked to my mum and told her that the countryside is not much of a difference to what I had seen before. But that changed out of a sudden when the dunes and the red sand became visible. I seriously can't think of any appropriate superlatives for this part of the country. It's terrific, heart-stopping, wonderful, breath-taking...all of that times 1001. Don't you ever lokk at books only! Come here! It's a-ma-zing!!! Have a look at the sunset and the other pictures.

But before I arrived at the Kgalagadi Twee Rivieren camp at 16:45h (over an hour earlier than my GPS had told me initially in Kuruman) I made a short stop at a supposed B&B called Kalahari Trails which is more of a lil paradise in the middle of the desert. Anne Rasa, a former Professor from the university in Bonn runs the place and it seems to be really beautiful plus it offers cheap accomodation. I might spend a couple of nights there too.

Alright. So I was at the camp. Had booked for one night only. Now it's 5 nights. I spent the last one in a beautiful family cottage, the next is gonna be in an unfenced wilderness camp out in the wild. The second will be...I can't believe that I could actually get my hands on it...a cottage in the Nossob rest camp, the place that is booked out all year because of it being the hub into all other remote camps and its spectacular sighting opportunities. Yie-ha! The following two nights will be in Twee Rivieren again and if I am lucky I will participate in the guided 4days/3nights eco 4x4 trail through the wild. We'll see soon.

Well, what do you do when you're in a national park like this one? Right! You participate in a guided drive. Which is what I did after my arrival. We started at 6pm and went until 8:45pm. Pretty cool, because we were only 4 people including the guide. And we saw a huge herd of springboks (approx. 600 animals), a gemsbok, an aardwolf (VERY rare!), lots of cape and bat-eared foxes, a large-spotted genet, a spotted owl, jackals, two porcupines and...an african wild cat! My third one in 5 years!!! Very cool.

After the drive I was cold and exhausted but really happy to be here in this beautiful place. Finally! And of course happy that I'll stay in the Nossob camp for at least one night!

Will post more in three days as there is no cell phone signal in any other camp than Twee Rivieren! :)

Cheers and kind regards to everyone!

Stefan

P.S.: I have updated the "on the road" pictures and for those of you who can't wait to get the news from here there's also a RSS feed available. Subscribe in the menu on the right. :)