6. Ladybrand to Upington, South Africa - 22 July to 28 July 2009

Ladybrand is a great town very close to the Maseru Bridge border crossing between Lesotho and South Africa. We spent some time stocking up with groceries, and sorting internet connections for our computer. Wednesday 22 July we camped at Little Rock Holiday Resort just out of town with little ponies grazing around us.

On Thursday a long but interesting drive past Bloemfontein, turning off at Petrusburg to Jacobsdal and then on to Mokala National Park, situated south of Kimberley, South Africa. It's a relatively new national park, initially a game hunting park, but now home to animals that were moved from a national park north of Kimberley which was closed. Our campsite at Haak en Steek was situated on a watering hole, so a very relaxing stop for three nights, especially as we had wonderful company with three South African couples, and one grandson. We were able to watch Zebra, Tsessebe and Warthogs come in to water while we relaxed at our camp.

The second day we went for a game drive and were thrilled to see a White Rhinoceros not too far away. We also had three Bat-eared Foxes chasing each other on the road in front of us. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and on our last night our South African friends invited us over to their campsite for dinner which was very hospitable of them. We really enjoyed chatting with them all and had a delicious meal of Sosaties (meat marinated on skewers), and Boervurss sausage cooked on the braii (barbecue) with mixed vegetables cooked in olive oil and rosemary. The best campsite meal I've tasted. A wonderful night.

On Sunday 26 July, left Mokala NP and drove to Kimberley, a town known for its 'Big Hole'. The discovery of diamonds 150 years ago led to the largest hand-dug excavation in the world and the start of the De Beers diamond venture. By the time mining ended in 1914 the mine yielded 2722 kg of diamonds from 22.5 million tons of excavated earth. The Big Hole today is a massive crater 214m deep in the middle of Kimberley. Strangely, we left without any diamond souvenirs!

We then started the long drive to Upington, through semi-arid sheep and cattle country, but only got as far as a little place called Griquatown, where 20km down a gravel road we found Wildebeest Guest Farm. We received a lovely welcome from the owner's son who couldn't do enough to make us feel at home. The house was surrounded by the most beautiful and interesting garden with little grassed enclaves for camping, with stone tables and chairs, and interesting artefacts placed throughout the garden.

On our way to Upington the next day, we pulled in to an Orange River wine cellar, only to hear the dreaded hissing sound of a progressively flattening tyre. So some time later left with a changed tyre and half a dozen bottles of Orange River wine. Let's hope the wine was worth it!

Upington is quite a large centre amongst quite remote grazing country. We stocked up on everything we needed for five nights booked in the Kalaghadi Transfrontier Park, which stretches across the border into Botswana. Then drove a short distance out of Upington to camp at Spitskop Nature Reserve for Monday night 27 July.

Looking forward to the Kalaghadi experience!