Day 18: Khumaga Campsite

We decided to drive towards the edges of the Ntwetwe pans today. As we couldn’t spot any game near to the river it also made sense to search them inlands. The destination was the Njuca hils campsite about 40 kms from our campsite. The campsite where we are is privatised, whereas Njuca campsite belonged to the NP. The route to the campsite is supposed to be very sandy. It started raining heavily in the morning. So I thought it should be pretty much ok to drive in the sands. There is one more campsite further 10 km away from the Njuca hills campsite. It is called the Tree Island which sits right on the north western edges of the Ntwetwe pan. The ranger at the gate warned us that it will be impossible to reach there due to the rains.

We reached the Njuca campsite without any trouble. We hardly saw any animals on the way. But the landscape was amazing. 360 degrees of complete emptiness covered with dried grass. It was very quiet. There was nobody else in the campsite.  I even thought of camping there today instead of camping at the noisy neighbourhood in the Khumaga campsite. But the Lady was not so fascinated by the idea.

Later on we drove towards the Tree Island campsite. Surprisingly the roads were good. The campsite was on a small hill on the edges of the pan. Again one more amazing campsite overlooking the pans. It’s a strange feeling when you think that you are standing on the beaches overlooking the bed of superlake Makgadikgadi that existed about 100,000 years ago. To give some idea about how big the pans are, the pans covers an area equivalent to 1/3^rd of the size of Switzerland! Though we were standing on the edge of the pan I could image how it would be to stand in the middle with just the view of the pans all around you till the horizon. I don’t know how many minutes I stood there watching the emptiness. It’s a fascinating view. All I could see was a lonely gemsbok on one edge of the pan. Wonder where the rest of the herd is. I was really happy that we could drive that far today.

By the time we drove back towards the camp the rain has subsided. We stopped many times on the way to take some photos. The Lady was busy with macro shots and me busy with landscape and paparazzi photos of the Lady. We took a break at the campsite till evening. We went out again for game drive trying out new routes in the NP. We had some luck this time. We came across a baby python on the road. We noticed it only because some Gunieafowls were scrambling around it without bothering about the approaching car. Later on we came across a turtle which should be at least 50 years old, some ellie, Kudu, Impala, Steinbok on the drive. At least something is better than nothing!