Cry of the Kalahari
The Central Kalahari has been on high up on my bucket list for a long time. But I wanted to see not just the northern parts where the camps are, I wanted to travel through the whole Kalahari, and that’s not something you just do. It’s very remote and a tough environment and unexperienced self-drivers as we are not an option.
We meet Brian in South Africa in October 2019 when we were visiting the kennel that Wildhood Foundation supports with our friends Jonas and Filippa (Filippa is the founder of Wildhood). Brian took us on a safari walk to find rhinos and also a drive in the Timbavati.
We found the rhinos and that was my first rhino sighting in Africa, so special to see the animals that Wildhood protects alive and free! Brian is a very experienced guide and runs his own safari company - Open Skies Wilderness Safaris. We got to talking about self-drives and the Kalahari and Brian told us he did guided self-drives to the Kalahari! I didn’t even know that was a concept! Christian and I started talking about it and got very excited about the idea. Brian had some available spots on his trip in feb 2020, the green season in Kalahari. I have always preferred the green seasons going on safari, the nature is lusher and more beautiful and temperature more suited for us Scandinavians ;)
When we got home from South Africa we talked to Brian and a few weeks later we had booked two weeks in Botswana, we were going to the Kalahari in just 3 months! Sometimes it’s just meant to be right? :)
Our route on the papers was a little bit different than the one we actually did but that’s the beauty of traveling to remote places, you have to be prepared to change the plan if necessary. This is the route we took:
Cresta Lodge Gaborone - 1 night
Khutse game reserve - 3 nights
Xaka campsite, Central Kalahari game reserve - 1 night
Xade campsite, Central Kalahari game reserve - 1 night
Piper pan campsite, Central Kalahari game reserve - 1 night
Deception valley, Central Kalahari game reserve - Deception campsite- 3 nights
Makadikgadi Pan, Kubu Island - 1 night
Khama Rhino Sanctuary - 1 night
Cresta Lodge Gaborone - 2 nights
I’m going to dive this trip report in to the places we stayed, and of course a big part of a self-drive is of course the driving itself. Already at home preparing for the trip we know we were going on a big adventure not just a safari :) Christian focused on learning as much as possible about off-road driving and a we found a new friend on YouTube, Andrew St. Pierre White - 4xoverland. Very entertaining and a good way to keep up the excitement before the trip. As a birthday present, I gave Christian an off-road driving lesson in Sweden, muddy and lovely, haha. We probably didn’t need to this as Brian planed everything in detail and known exactly what to do in every situation, but it was fun and as we love to read up and learn thing before a trip this was perfect!
To kick of here are some of my highlights from the trip!
