We awoke to the sound of Hadeda's ibis flying over the river at the front of Le Must guest house - our overnight b&b stop. Le Must was excellent in every respect, hospitality, decor, price,location and of course breakfast - with the added plus of tea available whenever you wanted it. John returned with a tea tray when he ventured downstairs at 6.30am having been assisted by Mandy,one of the helpful staff,to make it.
Hein our, Kalahari safari guide, arrived well before our 0830 meet time,which meant we left on time.
First stop was the supermarket to enable us to get water, juice and a small supply of sweets to keep us going until we return to Upington later in the week. We then headed off to Witsand nature reserve - a 4 hour drive on tarmac then dirt road. Along the way we passed lots of cattle and goat farms; the goats were a big, stocky breed - white with red heads - which we had not seen before. The landscape became increasingly dry and scrubby as we headed east. I found out that the thatch on the telegraph poles was sociable weavers nests; they seemed to get bigger the closer we got to Witsand- the 'piece de resistance' being one in a tree on the reserve which was the size of a small house!(Today's photo.)
Just before turning onto the dirt road we refuelled - as I got out of the vehicle for a leg stretch all my stuff fell out with me! When I later looked at my camera the lens was cracked - imagine my relief when I removed the filter to find the lens itself was ok - and a few clicks proved all was in working order - phew I only need a new filter!
We arrived at Witsand at lunch time so Hein made us a salad while we watched the wildlife in and around our well built chalet...... a yellow mongoose, shy steinbok, a vervet monkey exploring the well sealed bin and several birds.
After lunch we went for a walk along the botanical trail - we saw lots of evidence of aardvarks - poo, prints, possible dens and holes made to extract termites...but, as they are nocturnal, no aardvarks. We also saw springbok, common duiker, melba finch, common waxbill and a gabor goshawk swooped past but didn't stop. There was also a small interesting display of equipment used when Witsand was a farm.
Next stop was 'the roaring dunes' - so called because when its dry and sunny the dunes roar when you run up them and make small avalanches! Today we couldn't make them roar as it was cold and overcast. Just climbing the dune to start with was not easy - the moving sand did not give you any grip - but we made it to the top and the views were great - there were also footprints of animals that had been there not long before us - oryx, springbok, a small cat and a bird- none to be seen now though.
We then went to a viewpoint to view the dunes where we had just been and understand more about the topography of the area - the soil holds over 1000 million gallons of water - which makes this an important and viable area.
Next was a hide to see what was about - only a pair of laughing doves preening in a tree - finally we went to watch the sunset - it had just gone down when we arrived but the skies were amazing - red/yellow/orange colours and clouds mixed.
It was now getting chilly so we returned to the chalet which was warm thanks to the air conditioning being left on 24c warm mode while we were out. We ventured into the cool of the shower room to have a lovely hot shower while Hein cooked supper / fish, peas and mash - yum I had to have seconds of the mash as it was so good!