Day 3 – The Kalahari lights

The Kalahari desert is called a desert but is actually a semi-desert because there is significantly more rain than in a real desert. The area has a size of approximately 900,000 km2 and extends from Namibia to parts of Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa and most of Botswana.

After a drive of just over 300 km, we arrive at our lodge in the Kalahari around lunchtime. We take the time to eat something and enjoy the views from our lodge on the Kalahari.

This afternoon we leave for a safari in open jeep. In addition to the red sandy desert (which is caused by oxidation because the sand is highly ferrous, ie we see rusted sand) there are also large pieces of grassy steppe and savannah. There are a variety of animals who live here and .... the Bushmen. The grassy areas with long stubble grass, spiky shrubs and acacias are their ideal living world. Most of the Bushmen live in Botswana, but there are still a lot to be found in Namibia. The hunting Bushmen love the shades of the acacias while they  keep an eye on a juicy springbok that passes by that they shoot with an arrow and bow. The long grass serves to brush their teeth and the spiky bushes help them to cook. They live mainly from hunting and  the steeling of ostrich birds. There are also clear differences between men and women among the Bushmen. Where the women make a fire and put the egg in the warm ground to cook it, the men prefer to have a scrambled egg that they scramble 25 minutes long in the egg on top of the fire.

We see the so-called springbok jump a couple of times. As the name suggests, they jump gracefully through the Kalahari.

The great termite hills catch the eye. One is bigger than the other. These hills are so sturdy that if we crash into it with the jeep, the hill would be unharmed.

Only the aardvark is capable of doing damage. With his tongue, he can get into a small hole and with one roll of this tongue  he can serve a nice evening buffet.

But the Kalahari  has also other animals that we would rather not encounter. Two of the most dangerous snake species have their home here : the yellow cobra and the black mamba. The latter has a deadly poison that can kill you within 7 minutes. All jeeps are therefore equipped with antidote and it is strictly forbidden to have arms or legs out of the jeep.

The nestweaver birds exist in Namibia in all sorts and colors. They also do not like these snakes and build their nests at the end of long branches where the snakes can’t come or on telephone poles that are too slippery for a snake to crawl up. These common nests are huge structures of twigs that are interwoven into a kind of dome at the bottom of the branch.

Some of these nests are over 100 years old. Because they are constantly expanding, some become too large, causing the branch and nest to break, leading to a true work of art on the ground.

Another kind of bird inhabiting the Kalahari is the ostrich. We see them running through the steppe, the men swayed by the females.

A herd of wildebeest stops at our jeep.

They are investigating us. A little further down, zebras hide in the shrub.
Not only the aardvark is the enemy of the termites, but also the little black eared fox. This predator feeds itself with insects and small mammals and birds. It is a night animal and it is very rare to see him around here during the daytime.

And it's even more special if we see the aardvark. This animal is very shy and is never seen in principle. The last time this animal was sighted  nearby dates from February 2, 2016, more than a year ago. We drive higher into  the sand dunes for our sundowner. Now why are you driving in a 4X4 if you do not occasionally get everything out of it? As a rollercoaster, we storm the dunes up and down to end at a beautiful point where we can admire the sunset. In the distance a giraffe walks into the sunset. The sun is setting fast. With a glass of wine, gin tonic or something refreshing, we end our day in the Kalahari in style. We drive back to the lodge under the  Kalahari lights: the red glow of the starry sky. Red, the color of love. Red, the color of my love for Africa.