This time the Africa trip started off in Botswana. I visited the Kalahari with a friend, went to Nxai Pan, visited friends in Khwai and went with another friend to Zutshwa (a rather unknown area South of the Kalagadi). First I’ll tell you about our rather wet visit to the mighty Kalahari.

This year they had again lots of rain, so we got to see a very green and beautiful Kalahari. As you can see it also gave us dreamy and dramatic skies. Although the grass is higher and there was plenty of water (Kalahari standards and as you’ll see later also any standards), but also still plenty of animals to see.

We were fortunate enough to see a group of five cheetahs, a pack of wild dogs (which is always a treat and for sure in the Kalahari) and… mating lions!

And of course the usual suspects: giraffes, springboks, jackals, ostriches (a huge group of them!) and fighting oryxes. As I showed you with the very first picture, the skies got quite dramatic, but it wasn’t anything compared to the dark blue starry skies filled with sudden lightning.

However, the downside of this beautiful forces of nature were the rather ‘wet’ campsites and the muddy roads. Have a look at our campsite right after our morning drive. Only a couple of hours before there were hardly any puddles around…

The serious rains made the Kalahari very special this time and for sure not always easy. Folding up a 2 seconds tent is always a mission, but when it’s soaking wet…

But we enjoyed every little bit of it and I drove on to my next adventure in Nxai Pan!

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