May11

To Mata-Mata camp in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We enjoyed a relaxing morning at our farm campsite under the palm trees.  It was a good olace to spread out on the grassy site, catch up with email and do some hand washing.  

We left around noon and drove a few hours further east and south to the border crossing into South Africa and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.  

The drive was uneventful.  There wasn't any traffic.  The gravel roads took us through some lovely desert terrain covered with scrub and grasses.  A few houses dotted the landscape, as well as a few lodges which are not in the guide books.  

Mata-Mata camp seemed dusty and crowded after our clean, grassy site mso Devon drove our vehicle over to the edge of the wire game fence, as far from the other campers as possible.  Another camper I met soon afterwards laughed, saying  we were definitely going to tempt the hungry lions by camping so close to the fence.  We imagined lions roaming on the other side of the fence but slept all night never saw any nocturnal visitors.

As with most NP camps, we were locked in from sunset to sunrise.  A viewing area (blind) gave us a great view over a pan where animals tend to gather, and where nocturnal animals might display some behavior of interest to us.  But, as with most evenings, we went to bed fairly early and  no animals visited before we decided  it was time for bed .

Irene