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396kms, 8hrs 15min total travel time

We were late arriving at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). Tracks4Africa (T4A) estimated our travel time at 5 hrs, but for us, naturally, it took us over eight, thought that was including stops. We made a strategic error with not stocking up on fire wood at Khama, hoping for better quality wood at our fuel stop in either at Mopipi or Rakops, and wasted quite a bit of time searching around for it.

We fueled up in Mopipi to full capacity, our 130 liter main tank and two 20 liter jerry cans. This should give us a total range of around a 1000kms, but of course using 4×4 and the deep sand we would encounter in the park would cut into that substantially. We were able to top off at the final town before turning into the park, Rakops, the little we’d used to travel from Mopipi so as to enter the park as full as possible. Rakops is reportedly out of fuel quite often, so we didn’t rely on them having supply. We met others in the park that failed to get fuel there.

We found things are quite different in central Botswana rather than the southern parts we had driven through thus far. Gone were the shopping complexes and SuperSpar groceries. Instead Mopipi and Rakops are dusty towns with few shops and mostly bare shelves. And no firewood. After a lot of hunting one shopkeeper looked at me quizzically and said “Buy firewood? No one buys firewood, you can just go collect it for free. Why would you pay money for something that is free?” He took a moment to complain about the elephants causing damage to his farm, but went on to explain that the elephants have knocked down the trees for us, so dried firewood will be easily available on the road towards the park. “Just watch out for scorpions when collecting wood.” Noted.

Just as we were driving out of Rakops we saw a few bundles of firewood alongside the road. We pulled over and a guy came jogging out to make the sale. Though collection of scorpion infested firewood had a certain attraction, we decided, in the interest of time, to just buy what we needed and be on our way.

Side bar, for the uninitiated, Tracks4Africa is a South African company that makes maps for 4×4 and overland travel in Africa. They have detailed paper maps and digital maps you can load into your gps that are verified by user data submission. This means that travel times are actually based on real travel times, as opposed to google maps more optimistic times, and this helps account for the less than perfect road conditions common across Africa. Our experience is that T4A travel times are pretty accurate, but of course they cannot account for driving style, seasonal road conditions and who knows what else.

The Cruiser was deeply laden and looking a bit low on the waterline, with us now at our maximum load, full of extra fuel, firewood, provisions and beer. We aired down the tires for maximum traction and drove gently to take it easy on the suspension and headed into the park on a sandy dirt road. It was 78 kms to our campsite from where we turned off the tar. Our progress along the road into the park proved that we were unable to maintain the 40 kph T4A was estimating and we watched with some trepidation our ETA on the gps tick later and later.

It would be our first camp that was properly in the bush, no fences and completely on our own and we wanted to make camp with some light left. This park has lions, cheetah and leopards, and in an unfenced campsite you must be prepared to retreat to your vehicle or tent if they decide to inspect your site.

Driving in we could see evidence of the rainy season, there were deeply crusted ruts where drivers had clearly struggled in the mud, but now the roads were dry, with occasional braids in the road where drivers had made their way around the worst of the mud pits. We sailed along, albeit slowly, with no trouble and made our way to Matswere gate.

Matswere gate is not like the big park offices at Etosha or Addo, there are no souvenirs or cold beers or last minute chances to buy a memory card for your camera. The park office is basic, with a courteous staff member in an open room and a desk covered in a couple dusty brochures and some well used ledgers. We showed our reservations and she signed us into the park. We looked at the ledger and for the last few days the park had 3-5 cars entering per day, so not exactly busy at the gate.

About a ½ hr into the park we came upon a broken down car blocking the road. We said hello and asked if there was anything we could do. No he replied, the car had a broken ball joint, the front tires were splayed, but calls had been made and parts should be on the way in a couple days. In the mean time he had set up his tent on the side of the road and he would be camped till support arrived. He said he was headed back into the park with diesel and provisions to resupply a safari deeper into the park, but it looked like for now they would have to wait.

The land cruiser managed to drive off road around him without trouble, but it was a good reminder to us of how easy it is to have your plans changed. In the event of breakdown or other trouble, in addition to spare parts and a first aid kit, we have a satellite phone to call for help, so we feel we’re as prepared as we can be.

As the gps told us we’d be later and later we continued on, through scrub acacia and grassland. With about an hour of daylight left the road dropped us onto the pan in Deception Valley. It was a quite a sight to behold.

The light was low and golden and the pan was dotted with feeding antelope, jackal and ostrich. The grass was highlighted in the sun and game silhouetted. It was really stunning and a absolutely fantastic welcome to the Central Kalahari.

The road turns south and becomes the hard crusted surface of the pan and we drove through small herds of game and a few stands of trees all while being thoroughly impressed. We made it to our campsite, Kori No. 1, with about 10 minutes before sunset, just in time.

We weren’t really sure what to expect from wild camping, so we set up camp in haste, figuring it’d be best to have our eyes available as dusk fell, to look out for predators as opposed to messing with the tent. As advised, we set up the camp with as much natural protection as we could. We formed a U shape with a stand of shrubs on one side, the land cruiser at the bottom of the “U” and our camp table opposite the shrubs. With the cruiser at our backs and the fire in front of us we had at least some assurance that nothing was sneaking up directly behind us, and anything taking a direct approach had a fire between us.

The sun was set and as the stars came out we cooked a dinner of peri-peri (chili) marinated chicken over the fire with hobo pack potatoes (potatoes cooked in foil in the fire) an life was very very good.

We felt a spectacular sense of isolation and remoteness here. The closest camp is maybe ½ a kilometer away. The closest town, 78km. There is no man made noise, no light pollution, no sign of people of any kind. The stars were unbelievable, like those I have only ever seen at sea in the mid ocean, but perhaps better than that even. It was easy to forget the road weariness and the distance we are planning to travel, and we just savored the absolute privilege it was to see the open sky and empty Kalahari like this.

While lying in the tent about to go to sleep that night we heard the guttural grunting call of lions communicating with each other. It is pretty special to hear wild lions calling at night while in your unfenced campsite, and though we didn’t hear them again that night we were excited for the next day for what else the Central Kalahari had in store.

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