The (long) road to Kubu Island
Sunday 5th September, 2004Knowing we had a long and potentially difficult
drive to Kubu, we set off just after sunrise, passing a few scattered villages
along the way. By now we had left tar roads well behind, and the
real Botswana was beginning to emerge. Botswana
means 'The Land of the Tswana' who are the majority ethnic group living
here.
We stopped for some provisions, and this vendor graciously agreed to me photographing him behind what turned out to be the most delicious oranges. The traditional head-scarves behind him were very understated, compared to those that we would be seeing in Maun later on.
We now turned our backs on this last vestige of civilization before heading for the Makgadigadi Pans and this sight below greeted us a few hours later. The faint shimmer on the horizon that looks like water, is the sun reflecting off the salt pans many miles away still.
At last we reached the salt pans, only to be overawed by the sheer immensity of them. For as far as the eye can see in any direction, there is nothing. Just flat, dry, salt encrusted powder. In the rainy season, this turns into glutinous mud and inches deep water from horizon to horizon, but now, it was our speedway. I would have given my eye teeth for a land yacht, or windsurfer on wheels, here. The speeds one could reach with these winds would have been incredible.
Slowly the island emerged from the barren salt pan, and within minutes we were ogling at the extra-terrestrial apparitions that grew on this isolated island in a sea of salt dust. The baobab trees, not one, but literally hundreds that crowded onto this little haven.
But more about the mystical Baobab tomorrow.
[Complete Safari and wildlife photo index]
We stopped for some provisions, and this vendor graciously agreed to me photographing him behind what turned out to be the most delicious oranges. The traditional head-scarves behind him were very understated, compared to those that we would be seeing in Maun later on.
We now turned our backs on this last vestige of civilization before heading for the Makgadigadi Pans and this sight below greeted us a few hours later. The faint shimmer on the horizon that looks like water, is the sun reflecting off the salt pans many miles away still.
At last we reached the salt pans, only to be overawed by the sheer immensity of them. For as far as the eye can see in any direction, there is nothing. Just flat, dry, salt encrusted powder. In the rainy season, this turns into glutinous mud and inches deep water from horizon to horizon, but now, it was our speedway. I would have given my eye teeth for a land yacht, or windsurfer on wheels, here. The speeds one could reach with these winds would have been incredible.
Slowly the island emerged from the barren salt pan, and within minutes we were ogling at the extra-terrestrial apparitions that grew on this isolated island in a sea of salt dust. The baobab trees, not one, but literally hundreds that crowded onto this little haven.
But more about the mystical Baobab tomorrow.
[Complete Safari and wildlife photo index]
