Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Kubu Island 1 – 5 November

We stayed at the Khumaga Campsite for the first two nights. There was a river close by that we did most of our game viewing at. We saw a variety of animals including hippos, giraffes, elephants and zebras. We had our own camp elephant (we called him Cedric) that came to visit both nights. On the first night he kept its distance and was hanging around eating behind the toilet block. But on the second night Cedric ate his way around our campsite while I was cooking tea and we got to watch him munching on trees, less that 15m away from us, while we ate.

Just another normal day at school


Dinner time Cedric viewing

Kubu Island

The next morning we had a 7 hour trip onto the salt pans to stay at Kubu Island. It isn’t surrounded by water this time of year, it's just a higher group of rocks in the middle of nowhere dotted with baobab trees. We camped in the shade of an enormous baobab tree that was eight meters wide. I climbed the tree with Zane and it has to be said I was a tad worried I wasn’t going to be able to get down. Tana came to the rescue and gave me a hand. I don’t think I’ll be playing that game in the near future (well not until I feel the need to prove I’m not that old again). On our first night we walked to the highest point of the island to watch the full moon come up over the salt pans. It was pretty amazing. Because there is no wild game around Kubu Island we could walk around and explore the island. It was nice to get out and about since we’ve had to stay in the car in most places. This also meant that there would not be any elephant or rhino noises to wake us up (not that I’m complaining, it’s a pretty cool thing to be woken by). We did however have a herd of cows that promptly surrounded us once we were in the tents. They are the loudest peeing noises I’ve ever heard: so much for our quiet night. The second night Tana thought she had it sorted and got up and scared the cows off. As soon as she got back in the tent the rain, gales and thunder started and of course that was joined by my hysterical laughter.

Before I got stuck

Being at one with the pan