Sometimes I forget how amazing life is.
Last week:
Excursion to the Kalahari, Nxai Pan, and Makgadikgadi Reserves. There was a LOT of riding around and looking out of the sideless safari truck at the scenery passing by. Herds of gemsbok. Lions under a bush. Endless savanna.
Fact:
Most of the Kalahari isn't desert, but a semi-arid savanna covered in shrubs and a few sparse trees.
One of the most unbelievable days of my life:
Driving for hours, the same savanna we've seen for the past few days streched endlessly in all directions. Suddenly, there was a break in the scenery. Some combination of geochemical forces had created these depressed clay pans in the earth that fill with water when the rains come. The ouside of the pan is ringed with salty crusty crunchy whitewhite sand and the inside was covered with a rust-red rubbery peaked skin that you could peel away to reveal gray oozing mud underneath. Elephant tracks marched across the surface.
Confined to a vehicle for hours upon hours every day (If we left the car, something could've potentially hunt and eat us...), we were finallyl allowed to get out and feel and breathe what we were seeing. I stretched and ran and licked the salty crust. I stood in the elepant's prints and was dwarfed. I ran across the prickly peaks where rubery skin had hardened and it HURT but it was so nice to feel something other than the seats of the safari car.
And just on the other side of the pan was this island of vegetation dominated by huge ancient baobabs. We spent hours there in the shade eating lunch, climbing, resting, contemplating the enormity of the trees. The trees were out of a dream, the salt pans from another universe. It's hard to believe I live on the same earth as that spot. It's hard to believe that place is real.
So much more to say, but as always, time is short.
I miss home. Can you believe it?
<3
Excursion to the Kalahari, Nxai Pan, and Makgadikgadi Reserves. There was a LOT of riding around and looking out of the sideless safari truck at the scenery passing by. Herds of gemsbok. Lions under a bush. Endless savanna.
Fact:
Most of the Kalahari isn't desert, but a semi-arid savanna covered in shrubs and a few sparse trees.
One of the most unbelievable days of my life:
Driving for hours, the same savanna we've seen for the past few days streched endlessly in all directions. Suddenly, there was a break in the scenery. Some combination of geochemical forces had created these depressed clay pans in the earth that fill with water when the rains come. The ouside of the pan is ringed with salty crusty crunchy whitewhite sand and the inside was covered with a rust-red rubbery peaked skin that you could peel away to reveal gray oozing mud underneath. Elephant tracks marched across the surface.
Confined to a vehicle for hours upon hours every day (If we left the car, something could've potentially hunt and eat us...), we were finallyl allowed to get out and feel and breathe what we were seeing. I stretched and ran and licked the salty crust. I stood in the elepant's prints and was dwarfed. I ran across the prickly peaks where rubery skin had hardened and it HURT but it was so nice to feel something other than the seats of the safari car.
And just on the other side of the pan was this island of vegetation dominated by huge ancient baobabs. We spent hours there in the shade eating lunch, climbing, resting, contemplating the enormity of the trees. The trees were out of a dream, the salt pans from another universe. It's hard to believe I live on the same earth as that spot. It's hard to believe that place is real.
So much more to say, but as always, time is short.
I miss home. Can you believe it?
<3