The next morning we visited Kworarib village where Mike and Linda have established a connection with a woman who looks after many young children while their parents often live and work away from the village. We had all been aware of this visit before we left home and so we all had clothing, craft supplies and other gear brought from home to hand over. As well we stocked up on food such as bags of maize meal, milk powder and fresh fruit for the children. It being Sunday, the whole village was there to greet us - the very small children as well as the bigger ones who go to school in a neighbouring village, their parents and other inhabitants of the village along with a motley collection of dogs. Many were dressed for church in their best clothes; church was a table with a tablecloth decorated with a cross in front of some chairs, all under a tree in the open.

Briefly we hit the main "highway" and turned into Sesfontein, a dusty little town of run-down dwellings. A side road yielded a fuel station where we topped up one by one. Fort Sesfontein, a "resort" built with crenulations to indeed make it fort-like, was a break to get the nearest thing to a real coffee we had had in quite a while.

But our journey for the day was to travel the Hoanib Valley, a mostly dry and very deserted river valley. We wove in and out of the riverbed, through canyons and soft sand and were treated to a wonderful landscape which offered new delights at every corner.

Camp for the night was in a large bowl surrounded by steep, rocky hillsides. We set up tents as the sun set and cast pink shadows around. Later that night I took the tripod and the camera away from the camp lights and spent some time capturing the amazing sky. Only the next day did Mike think to mention about the lions he heard roaring in the distance…