We woke up to another lovely morning, but we noticed that there was a haze in the sky. The deep blue colour of the previous days was not there. This was going to be difficult light for photography. We popped in at the Sunday Pan waterhole again, but there was still no sign of animals. The dreamy egret had departed! We now headed into Deception Valley. This is the valley where Mark and Delia Owen spent 7 years in the mid-1970s doing research on brown hyenas, lions and jackals. Delia wrote the evocative book “Cry of the Kalahari” describing their personal experiences in what was then a very remote and often very inhospitable environment. It is still very remote and wild, but nowadays many tourists do visit this wonderful place. We went to look at our booked campsite (Deception 1) and had coffee there before heading west along a very slow track. What made it slow were the numerous bypasses necessitated by the recent rains that flooded sections of the road. We noticed a route to a natural waterhole and decided to go and have a look. Sadly the waterhole was dry, but there was still some wet mud and it was clear that there had been water there very recently. Back on the route to Deception Pan, Paul and Petra spotted some bat eared foxes lying in the deep shadow of a bush. There were numerous deep wheel ruts that showed that vehicles had battled through mud, but it was now fortunately dry. We also came across a large group of giraffes. There were the usual gemsbok and springbok grazing on the pans, but it was generally very quiet. We now actually came across a few cars. We decided to explore one of the tracks leading off to the left and we came upon an almost bizarre place. This was a huge grassless dry pan surrounded by a world of tall golden grass. From a distance it looked like water. This must be real Deception Pan. The surface was bleak and grey and there were several animal tracks leading over the pan. In the far distance we could make out some white backed vultures on the pan. We found the only trees for shade next to the pan and enjoyed our lunch there. We took a lot of photographs and explored around the edge. It was very hot. The yellow billed hornbills were very tame and rather cheeky. The track led around the pan and we hoped to get closer to the vultures. They unfortunately moved away, but a huge flock of helmeted guinea fowl stole the show. We also got out to observe more termites busily taking grass and bits of leaves into their tunnels. It had been slow moving to get to this point and we decided that it made no sense to continue. So we turned back and did a short circuit around another small pan without seeing much except springbok. Back on the main track we saw the giraffe again and then stopped to let another vehicle pass. We chatted to the couple, and they told us that bat eared foxes had become very active on the pans and we soon came across these cute little insectivores feverishly moving around in the tall grass enjoying a feast of insects. Our cameras clicked away. Back at our campsite we did the usual – showered and made a fire. This was going to be our last night in the Central Kalahari. We had been looking forward to this part of our trip for so long and the campsite reservations from Botswana Footprints had all worked out and we now knew what the campsites were about. We had not chosen too badly and we had had a wonderful time in this wild and vast reserve.

Geschreven door Leartravels