Blog

June 23rd – 30th, 2022

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) is different than many other parks. Enormous. Dry. Hot. And with that deceiving empty feeling characteristic of deserts, yet actually full of life and activity to the careful observer. Jenny and I have often remarked that we wouldn’t recommend a visit to the CKGR to most first time safari goers, for it lacks the immediate drama of a waterhole at Etosha or the wetlands of Moremi. Yet is is so intriguing and expansive and we have loved our two previous visits. Here, when you do get good wildlife sightings they are frequently all yours, accompanied by the feeling of accomplishment that you found them yourself, not just by spotting a group of safari Land Cruisers already huddled around a somewhat harassed lion.

In any case, from the Boteti River Camp we set off to the Kalahari. It’s a quick drive to Rakops, about 45 minutes on good tar, where we topped up fuel. We’d filled the jerry cans in Maun in case Rakops was out of fuel, but this we hear is happening less and less often.

Loaded to the brim for a week in the bush we turned off the tar onto the long sandy approach road to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). In 2018 we drove the same road and I remember it to be slow going, but either the road is now in better shape or our standards had changed, it seemed pretty good this time around.

On the way in we met a vehicle heading out and stopped to ask about their visit. They told us, bragging somewhat, that they had camped right at the Sunday Pan waterhole, which is of course totally illegal. We find it very frustrating that in these wonderful parks where visitors are given a long leash and little oversight that some feel this means it’s okay to break the rules. I fear that the relatively free ranging privilege of unfenced camping in the wilderness areas such as the Central Kalahari are jeopardized by this irresponsible behavior. Not to mention that in the parched Kalahari, making camp next to one of the few water sources, where animals might not approach due to an unusual presence of humans, is also very poor form. And for the love of god if you must break the rules (which you shouldn’t) don’t brag about it, keep your mouth shut and do not encourage others.

At the gate we checked into the park, producing our bookings and prepaid permits we’d obtained in Maun, so no payment was needed here. Our bookings were for two nights in the Passarge Valley (No. 1), two nights at Letihau, and three nights in Deception Valley at the Kori Camps. If we had our druthers we’d juggle this around a bit, but the sites that we wanted were not available, and any sites in the CKGR are good enough for us.

There is also a sightings board at the gate, where people exiting the park put pins to note when and where they saw various predators. I was disappointed to see that it didn’t seem to have been updated in the last week, that or there had been no sightings. Generally it seems people are less good at updating these sightings boards than they used to be. 

The approach road finally dropped us into the scenic Deception Valley, which was happily covered in golden grass and looked lovely. On our last visit, November 2019, at the end of a dry season it had been a parched brown dustbowl. 

Our booking was for Passage No. 1 and we had some distance to make so we didn’t dally too much on our way to camp. Still we saw decent wildlife on the drive, including many bat eared foxes. Their big ears are like ground penetrating radar dishes, specialized at seeking out underground insect meals. Also oryx, springbok, kori bustard, secretary birds, jackals, many a goshawk, batluer eagle, ostrich, and the diminutive Bambi like steenbok. We also saw lion prints in the sandy two spoor track.

Passarge No. 1 is on the eastern end of the Passarge valley, a couple hundred meters up from the pan. There isn’t much view here, but otherwise it is a wonderful camp in the bush, our closest neighbors over ten kilometers away. 

Again we were disappointed by the behavior of our fellow campers, for we found quite a lot of toilet paper scattered in the bush around camp. There is a long drop here, though admittedly rustic. The next day I picked up all the toilet paper (gross) and deposited it in the long drop. On top of this people had been hacking off branches for firewood of a nearby tree, another unsustainable transgression. Particularly an alive tree, which will only yield smokey green wood. C’mon people, let’s get it together!

A note on how to poop in the woods: It is true, sometimes either there is no long drop or the one at a camp is not suitable for humans and you need to use the bush for your business. If this is the case: a) dig a hole, ideally 30 cm, but as deep as you can reasonably get; b) do whatever you need to do; c) burn the toilet paper in the hole. This is a key step. We use a butane lighter stick thing, it is easy. This prevents animals from digging it up later, which I think happens quite a bit; d) bury and leave no trace. See, that wasn’t that hard.

Evening in camp was wonderful. Jenny made a spicy chicken curry for dinner and we sat around the fire savoring the solitary bush experience, with bright glittering stars overhead. In the distance we could hear the yipping wail of black backed jackals heading out on their evening business. 

A few people have asked us what kind of food we eat, so (spoiler alert) this is was the dinner menu for our week in the Kalahari:

Night 1: Spicy chicken curry – cooked in the dutch oven on the stove.

Night 2: Chicken grilled on the fire with baked potatoes cooked in foil on the coals. Potatoes with all the fixins’, green onion, cheese, butter, bacon bits, yogurt in the place of sour cream. Decadent.

Night 3: Chicken fajitas (we need to cook the chicken). Chicken, peppers and onions sauteed on the stove with cilantro, chili, cheese and all wrapped up in a tortilla. We found tortillas!

Night 4: Chicken vegtable soup made from scratch. Amazing, especially in the cold weather. Chop up whatever vegetables that need to get eaten, sautee with chicken, add water, chicken bouillon, herbs, simmer.

Night 5: Cheese quesadillas and popcorn. We cook the popcorn on the stove. Just heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, pop 2 kernels to know the oil is hot, add popcorn, pop and done. Melt butter in the same pan, add salt.

Night 6: Beef fillet on the fire and hobo packs (diced up potatoes and spices with oil, wrapped in foil and cooked on/in the fire). The beef in Botswana is crazy cheap and high quality, it’s hard to pass up.

Night 7: Veggie pasta and sauce, easy.

The next day was spent in relative calm. Given all the time we’d spent in parks over the last months, and that the dry Kalahari doesn’t support the same density of animals as other parks we had decided to let ourselves off the hook for intense pre-dawn game drives and other devoted game viewing, instead taking a more relaxed approach. 

During some midday lounge time in camp the bees discovered us and we were inundated with bees seeking out water. This drove us to decamp to the unoccupied Passage No. 2 for the afternoon. Fortunately the bees knock off for the day at sunset, leaving us the evening to ourselves.  

The Passarge Valley is wonderfully beautiful, but didn’t seem to be where the action was as far as wildlife, though we did see some giraffe and spend some time birding at the Sunday Pan waterhole. 

From Passarge we had two nights at Letihau, an undeveloped bush camp. Here we did make an early morning sally on the wildlife. Just setting out we had hardly settled in our seats when we saw a rare brown hyena. We’d never seen one before, and usually sightings are limited to photos from nighttime game cams some people set up in camp, or in the shadows at dusk near a waterhole. Here was a wonderful brown hyena at daybreak trotting down the road. She (?) paused, took a look at us, and adjusted her route to give us a wide berth, but otherwise continued on her way.

With this victory under our belts we headed to the Letihau waterhole, and what did we find but two more brown hyena. These two we managed to spent a half hour or so with. Brown hyena are totally different than the more common spotted variety. Though they share the sloping back and smaller hindquarters of other hyena, they look less mangy and had very long brown hair that waved loosely as they walked, almost like it had just been blow dried.

Later we narrowly missed a cheetah sighting, reported to us by a guided mobile safari. To our disappointment a self driver and one of the two mobile safari vehicles drove far off road to follow the cheetah. The second mobile safari guide seemed very annoyed that his compatriot was breaking the rules so we did not report them, figuring he was going to get a talking to from the more senior guide. We saw this group again later in the day and their off roading didn’t even get them a sighting, the cheetah had disappeared in the bush. 

This is the third time we’ve personally seen or heard of cheetah being seen in this area of the CKGR, a favorite spot I suppose, and we keep our eyes peeled when passing this spot.

The Letihau campsite is totally undeveloped, just a piece of Africa that is designated by the parks department as a campsite. This clump of trees sits a couple hundred meters south of the good grazing on the pan. There are really two spots to camp here, so in the event of the dreaded (and not uncommon) double booking there is no cause for alarm, the two spots are on opposite sides and out of view of one another. Our closest neighbor here was over 20 kilometers away, what a wonderful spot to camp in the bush. In 2018 we had a male lion walk right through this camp, his roars reverberating in our chests as we hid in the tent. 

In the evening we parked near a huge herd of springbok grazing east of the waterhole. They are interesting antelope and it was wonderful to sit in the cab and drink a beer at sunset as the herd slowly worked its way towards us grazing along the pan. Once they arrived at our location they parted slowly around us and we could watch their social interactions and listen to their funny pig like oinking at close quarters.

The morning brought another day for moving camp, heading up to Deception Valley, where Mark and Delia Owens spent seven years living and studying wildlife. Their story is wonderfully told in the excellent book, The Cry of the Kalahari. Their observations of wildlife here revealed unknown secrets of the lives of brown hyena, as well as disproving some previously accepted facts about lion behavior. Most previous lion research had been done in the Serengeti and those lessons had been assumed to apply to all lions, but the Owens’ showed that the different environment has lead Kalahari lions to develop different behaviors and social structures. 

They went on to write two more books about their conservation work in Zambia, of which I preferred the second, The Secrets of the Savannah. Delia has recently returned to writing, winning many awards and staying on the bestseller list for a long time with Where the Crawdad Sings. I confess I couldn’t get into this book, but it seems I’m in the minority. My mother, a much better literary critic than I, thought it excellent. 

We love all the grasses of the Kalahari, such different textures and colors

Remarkably we saw yet another brown hyena this morning, trotting through the golden grass of the pan. It was another great sighting and we began to question whether we had been very unlucky on prior visits, or were very lucky this time.  

It was early and we had “first tracks,” meaning no other vehicles had yet driven the road. This meant the road was full of animal tracks from the night before. Here we deployed our Tracks and Signs field guide, which helps us decode hyena tracks from lion from whatever else. The lesson of the day is that there were lions about, and with the spoor heading in the same direction as us. 

This always puts us on high alert, and a few times we’ve even managed to use this to spot lions. We followed the tracks, for lions are lazy, often using the road, and we scanned the bush as we drove along. This went on for several kilometers. These lions clearly had somewhere to be. Sometimes we’d lose the tracks for a while, and then they’d return to the road, plodding onwards. Finally we lost them in the maze of tracks at the southern end of Deception Valley, but even so it felt good to know that they were around. 

The rest of the day didn’t offer up anything unique in the way of sightings, though we did make a cast out to Sunday Pan, which had good numbers of oryx and wildebeest, as well as a bumper crop of kori bustards, who seemed to have been breeding very well. They were all over the place. 

This was our third visit to the CKGR and by far the busiest, coinciding withSouth African school holidays. We saw about ten private vehicles a day, as well as at least one mobile safari operator.. The park is enormous and these numbers aren’t a burden; it didn’t feel crowded. This is what comes of having 33 campsites (I counted on the T4A map) in a park bigger than the country of Costa Rica.

In spite of seeing lion tracks daily we had so far not seen any lions, nor had anyone else. Our luck changed on the second day at Deception Valley. It had been almost frigidin the mornings and evenings, and after a morning of long underwear and coffee we decided to make a lazy game drive. Out in the middle of the pan we spotted a lioness striding through tall grass, and then a male as well. They were striding and stopping through the grass in a northwesterly direction, away from us. We took a chance and drove the couple kilometers back to the road that flanks the western edge of the pan by the campsites.

Here we took a guess at where the lions were headed and it paid off. The lioness came right at us and walked right in front of the Cruiser. The male also crossed the road, and it was only then that the cars that had been watching from the pan realized we were in the prime spot, racing up to join us. 

The lions waltzed through the Kori No. 4 campsite, marking the trees as they went, and then eventually disappearing into the bush behind the campsites. This was a good reminder to us to not get too lackadaisical about the unfenced camping. Later some campers settled into Kori 4 and we told them that two beautiful lions had been there a couple hours before and might still be behind camp. 

Wonderful camp birds in the CKGR (swallow tailed bee eater, black faced waxbill (?), crimson breasted shrike, violet eared waxbill)

Evenings in the CKGR continued to be crisp and we rationed our firewood to make it last the whole time. The next day we resolved to have a ‘camp day’ and just relax, do some birding and not stress over sighting wildlife. The morning was cool and overcast, to the point where it almost looked like rain. Rain would’ve been extraordinarily unlikely though, for the rainy season was firmly at and end a while ago. 

However rain it did. Little pattering drops and a cool breeze at first, and then it came down harder. We huddled under our awning in denial, but eventually conceded, deciding to head out for a game drive instead of being cold and damp. The rain left watery pools here and there in the pan and large numbers of oryx and springbok came out to drink under the dramatic skies.

Several other campers confirmed our thoughts that this weatherwas very unseasonable, but no doubt welcome to the animals of the Kalahari. When the water does dry up here, many of the animals manage to get all their moisture from their food, surviving without water. Even Kalahari lions are unique in being able to survive periods without water, getting water by eating wild melons that grow here. 

After seven nights in the very special Central Kalahari we had to take our leave. Originally we had wanted to camp at Piper Pan, but it had been booked. Instead on this last day we decided to make an epic all day drive to Ghanzi, in the west, via Piper. 

To make the big drive we set out at dawn and the winter sun cast low golden light on all the flaxen yellow grass, everything was aglow as we rolled westward through Deception and later along the dry pans of the dormant Letihau river bed. All our earnest scanning for predators had beenunnecessary. We came upon two beautiful lionesses sitting in the road ahead. After a while they meandered into the grass and began cavorting and wrestling in perfect light as I fumbled with my camera. What a great way to finish our time here.

The rest of the drive was pleasant and scenic though fairly uneventful. Mercifully the road to Piper Pan was in far better shape than when we’d driven it a few years ago. At Piper we chatted with some campers who had huge lion tracks right through their camp, and they’d heard their roaring and calling in the night. 

After checking out of the park at the Xade gate we still had to drive 140 kilometers before hitting tar, half of which is very deep sand. By the end of the day we were exhausted, I’m not sure our “exit via Piper” plan was a good one. We camped that night at the Palm Afrique Lodge and Campsite. 

They offer a buffet dinner that turned out to be delicious. Dinner was well attended by the other guests and to retain some warmth the doors and windows were kept firmly shut, to also better contain the covid. On the surface Botswana takes covid more seriously than any other country we’ve recently visited, but in reality the precautions are all just window dressing. Masks are more often worn below noses, doors and windows kept closed to keep out the dust and retain the air conditioning, and to compensate for all this, hand sanitizer is assiduously applied.

To Namibia 

That night with the tent zipped up we stayed toasty warm despite the near freezing temperatures overnight. The friendly manager told us that the next week was forecast to be even more frosty, so we were getting out just in time. 

In the morning we made our departure, anxious to make tracks towards our long awaited visit to remote Kaokoland in Namibia’s far northwest. It’s a long haul, over 1200 kilometers, just to get to Opuwo, which would be our jumping off point to head to the Marienfluss valley. 

Botswana’s A2 took us to the Buitepos border post. Even though this border is a thoroughfare between the two countries it is a relatively easy crossing point that we’ve used before. Well, usually it is. After clearing out of Botswana in under 10 minutes we entered the Namibia side. Here an official made a vague hand gesture at us, which we took to be waving us onward to the parking outside immigration.

When we started filling out our arrival cards he stormed in and lectured us sternly that we must follow direction, that we were meant to stop past the gate. Taken aback we tried to apologize, but before we’d hardly opened our mouths he rattled off stern instructions to return to the gate, where we were to have our covid vaccination records checked. 

Jenny was first and he threatened to detain us for an hour for disobeying the “instructions” (a casually waved hand) of an official. We called his bluff, paying homage to his superiority and accepting our “detainment.” This mollified him enough to let us proceed to the health check. It was nothing really, but still it was the first time we’d really ever had any trouble with any Namibian official and it left a bad taste, though it was soon forgotten. We were back in marvelous Namibia.

The Nitty Gritty

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Boteti River Camp to Passarge No. 2 via Rakops – 211km, 5h 47m 

Campsites – We haven’t camped or been to all the campsites in the CKGR, but of the ones we have been to, here are our thoughts: We like Kori No. 1, Passarge No. 2, Letihau and Piper No 1. I’m not sure which Sunday site is the best, but I’d take any of them with pleasure.

Passarge No 1 and 3 are at the east and west end of the Passarge Valley, respectively, and a bit too far from the pan. No. 2 is ideally situated and has a decent view of the pan. 

All the Kori sites are good, though No. 4 is a bit close to the road and smaller, No. 2 a little close to the road (not too bad) and No. 3 has no view of the pan. No. 1 strikes the best balance in our opinion, but we would happily take any of them. 

There is an unmarked site at Kori, I suspect a staff site or old Kori camp. Another couple had a double booking at No. 2 and we recommended they either join us at the very large Kori No. 3 or use this unmarked site, which they did. A good backup option in a pinch.

The Deception sites are all in the bush, but I suspect that you could always get a spot there if the rest of the campsites were booked. They’re still managed by the DWNP, meaning they are less expensive. We noticed no difference in campsite quality/maintenance in sites managed by Bigfoot vs DWNP. 

Letihau has no facilities at all, but is bigger and better situated than Lekhubu, which is quite small. 

T4A has incorrectly mapped two sites, “New Kori Camp 2” and “New Kori Camp 3.” These are the turns for those sites, not the sites themselves, and in any case these sites are for mobile operators, not for self drivers.

There is an unmapped road running along the eastern flank of Deception Valley which makes for a nice drive. It runs south from the Matswere road and joins the main road opposite Kori No. 3. 

Another unmapped road runs north and then northwest from Letihau, I suspect all the way to Tau Pan. It had been driven recently and perhaps is used by the lodge there. We drove part of it and it was in good condition. 

The Sunday Pan, Piper Pan, Letihau and Passarge waterholes were all functional on our visit.

Deception Valley (Kori No. 3) to Ghanzi (Palm Afrique) was 349 kilometers, 12h 6m. All but maybe 10 km of this is dirt or sand. We did have a lovely morning and good animal sightings doing this, but I probably wouldn’t do this again. Either I’d head out via another gate or camp at the Xade gate campsite, though that looked like nothing special. 

Ghanzi – We stayed at the Palm Afrique, which also has chalets, a buffet dinner, a bar and conference facilities. Standard issue slow Wi-Fi. The campsite is not atmospheric, but it was a great stopover spot and the manger and staff were really friendly. 

Border Crossing:

Border procedures are wont to change, so all border crossing procedures for all the countries on our journey can be distilled into two steps. 

Step 1: Bring all your documents, a good attitude, and follow the instructions of the officials while ignoring all runners, touts or “agents”. 

Step 2: Bring your own pen. (this may be the most important step)

For this particular border:

Botswana side – Fill out a departure card, say good morning to the immigration officer and slide your passports across. They’ll stamp you out and hand you a gate pass, stamping the immigration box. Ask customs what they need to clear your vehicle. For us without a word they stamped the gate pass and waved us out. Done.

Namibia side – 

Step 1 – Health: Don’t forget to stop at the health inspection, lest you face the wroth of annoyed border guards. Our US covid vaccination cards were accepted here, we did not need the Panbios/Trusted Travel QR code. 

Step 2 – Immigration: Fill out a passenger arrival card. In all countries we just pick the name of a place we know we’re going to stay (even if we don’t have a reservation) and put that down as the address, though we never provide the full street number, etc. Just “Urban Camp, Windhoek” will do it. When we’re really on top of it we take a few extra forms when entering a country, so that when we leave we can have them already filled out (they’re the same form).

Step 3 – Customs: Fill out their register. They may ask you if you have anything to declare, and if you don’t just say “no” and they’ll usually wave you on. 

Step 4 – Walk out of the building and go to the roads authority next-door to pay the road tax, something a bit over 300 Namibian dollars ($337 comes to mind?). Cash only, but change is given. Don’t forget that rand (ZAR) is 1:1 with the Namibian dollar (NAD) and is accepted throughout Namibia. 

Insurance in Namibia is paid in the fuel tax, so no 3rd party insurance needs to brought. That insurance only provides the legal bare minimum of coverage. Any additional coverage, if desired, has to be arranged separately, it cannot be bought at the border.