For the President's Day long weekend (July 14 - 17), my house-mate Erin and I joined our friends and colleagues, Alison, and her two daughters, and Blair, and his son, for a camping trip in the Nxai Pans. Nxai Pan National Park is part of the Makgadikgadi Pans network of parched dry lakes interspersed with savannah, which comprises the largest salt pan network in the world.
Alison, Thandi, Becka, Erin and I set out from Gaborone Friday afternoon to meet up with Blair and Willis, who were travelling from Maun. We stayed overnight at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary near Serowe. We did a quick drive through the Rhino sanctuary (seeing no rhinos) before continuing our journey on Saturday.
We met Blair and Willis at the park gate, and set off to our campsite -- or so we thought ! One of our vehicles quickly got stuck in the deep sand, and we wisely decided to camp near the gate as night was falling.
The next morning, we opted to continue with only one vehicle. After paring down our gear, the 7 of us piled into the car and plowed through the sand tracks to our campsite.
We spent a relaxing weekend hanging out at the campsite, playing games with the kids (very creative and entertaining kids!), and going on game drives.
The final day was an active one for game -- both during the day and night.
In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the loud purr/growl of a lion ! This was followed by the sound of scratching at our tent. I lay motionless, wondering at what point I should make a noise to scare the perpetrator away, at the risk of causing a commotion and waking everyone else up. Fortunately, whatever it was (a jackal, by the looks of the tracks the next morning) lost interest. Of course, I didn't get back to sleep, and was cognizant of other sounds of life around us -- an elephant passing through the campsite, the grunts of lions mating, and the yips of jackals. It was a thrilling night, to say the very least !
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