Mini Road Trip - Part 1

We took a 6 day break for a mini road trip last week, having decided we needed to do something to commemorate our 26th wedding anniversary, The quarter century milestone last year was a non event due to the looming lockdown! So with an official reason(excuse) in place, we hit the road for our mini holiday a little in advance of the actual date.

Day one was a 300km hop to our overnight campsite - Nata Bird Sanctuary. This special part of the world is memory lane material for us, being where we first met and spent the early years of our lives together! 

Typical tranquil scene - Nata Bird Sanctuary

Not even an hour into the journey, we were saved from an incipient tyre drama by an alert from the tyre pressure monitoring system, just a few kilometres from our friends' lodge - thank you Universe!! For once, repairs could be done in the shade under a tree with an ice cold drink nearby, and not in the blazing sun on the side of the road!

Roadside repairs luxury style, at Touch of Africa, with Troy the dog in attendance!

Not being able to carry a spare wheel opens up major vulnerability to Tyre Dramas, and over the years the onboard anti tyre drama arsenal has been gradually perfected, after some costly experiences! A valve was replaced, and with the bike back on two good as new wheels, we hit the road with no time to lose, and made it to our campsite in time to hastily throw up the tent...

.. then jumped straight back on the bike to ride to the lookout tower on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. Having never done this section of terrain by bike before,  I was extremely apprehensive about these scary off road conditions, but had no choice other than hold on and trust, or miss out on the highlight of the trip!

Some of the water obstacles we had to go around

These mini lakes of water had me worried, and I have to say the Biker Boy humoured me by allowing me to get off when I felt uncomfortable (not because he needed me to!)  I still need to get my head around the fact that momentum/speed is what keeps the machine upright, so when I feel we should be crawling cautiously for obstacles, we speed up for them! However, I know my responsibility to stay still and not create reactions that could throw the bike off balance, so I have managed to perfect this skill - despite whatever inner turmoil might be going on!!

Bike and fun terrain, one of the times I was humoured, and permitted to get off!

While I was freaking out/sitting quietly/learning how to adapt to this latest outrageous mode of covering ground, I randomly heard the word "Gnu" floating into my head over the intercom, which was a bit surreal. I looked over right next to me, and saw a beautiful scene - a small herd of wildebeest of various sizes/heights peering quizzically at us out of a sea of tall savannah grass.  I could only see the tops of their heads and their bizarre horns in semi silhouette. They were not fussed about the bike, unlike other wild animals, but just stood statue-still and stared, as if they were analysing us and scratching their heads about this strange thing whizzing along past them in momentum fuelled bursts! I could almost see question mark thought bubbles hovering. These chilled gnus made me laugh out loud, and for some reason reminded me of a scene out of Gary Larson's "Far Side"! Unable to take a photo for obvious reasons, I decided to sketch them later in case my word picture is not good enough. They looked something like this, only cuter:

It was totally worth the panicking pillion ride, to get to the shoreline of the salt pan, currently a gigantic lake due to abundant rainfall this season. We had our pre-sundowner glass of wine up on the platform overlooking the water, with not another person or vehicle in sight - very special. In later months, flocks of flamingos will move in here, but the water is still too deep right now.

Me in my element!

So much water!

Unfortunately we couldn't stick around for a spectacular Makgadikgadi sunset, as the prospect of flying through the off road section in the dark seemed a bit foolhardy, so we skimmed back to camp through mini salt pans and lakes in the fading light. To my delight, we underwent some more sessions of Gnu scrutiny by a couple of groups of my new favourite antelope hanging around alongside the track!  I had to admit I actually enjoyed the flying ride this time, and didn't even offer to get off!

Our evening was magical, in the white sand campsite, under the tall mopane and leadwood trees. Only one other campsite had occupants so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The stars here are spectacular due to the lack of light pollution, and despite the looming thunderstorms, we had a break in the cloud cover most of the evening, for a gorgeous view of the heavens.  After this day one, so thoroughly removed from sitting at my office desk, I already felt I had been away for a week and could probably go back home happy...

However we were still on holiday so after attending to my emails and messages the following morning, we set off on a further 290km to the west, destination Boteti River!

To be continued in Part 2...