Next (and probably final) stop: The Kalahari!

The campsite is booked and paid, the park fees are paid, today we buy food and diesel, and Monday we head to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR)! The English language cannot convey my excitement.  

I was shocked by how expensive the camping fees are. The campgrounds and parks separate fees into tiers: citizen, resident, foreigner and each person has to pay to camp and enter the park. The increments between the tiers are NOT equal and they make the park fees so much that it’s almost just as cheap to go with a tour operator then by yourself, which is ridiculous. 

People refer to the CKGR as a desert because of the severe dry conditions that it experiences during the winter, the dry season. The CKGR to technically not be a desert, but the land is basically a big sand box, so rain quickly drains through the soil leaving very hostile conditions once the rains have ceased. 

I can’t wait.

Along with Chobe and the Okavango River Delta, the CKGR is one of Botswana’s gems and most famous places. The travel guides warn of difficult conditions and really discourage visitors. It is easy to get suck in sand, run out of water, run out of food, or run out of diesel. There are basically no facilities within the park to aid unprepared visitors. The only water available is at the gates, but that is when it’s available. Currently the water at our house is off and these water-less conditions are typical even within Maun. It’s hard to trust there will be water when we are there, or diesel at any of the petrol stations between Maun and CKGR.

I’ve been to Chobe, Moremi (twice), a private concession (twice), Tsodillo Hills, the Okavango Delta. The CKGR is the last major thing that I wanted to see. Unfortunately, my time is so short that it looks like it will also be the last thing that I see in this beautiful country.