Njuca Hills at Last..... by eric

Well, at long last Lindsay and I have camped in the magic circle of Njuca Hills, deep in the savannah plain of the great salt pan. A place we have tried several times to get to from Limpopo, without success. So a very real 'at last'. And it has lived up to our dreams. A small mound rising out of the endless ochre grassland stretching as far as the eye can see for 360 degrees. A few dry thorn trees clinging to life and waiting for the rains to come, a long drop toilet, a DIY shower.( you put water in the bucket, lift it up on a rope, leave it in the sun all day, and bingo, evening comes you release the tap and a hot shower). Its difficult in this crowded largely urban life we all lead, to hear silence. It is an absolute, which with a night sky of black/blue and a zillion stars, it is breathtakingly beautiful. Next day, as the sweep of nothing much was not to all tastes, we set off early to cross the plain on soft sand tracks. Lindsay's turn to drive our vehicle, and she did a star spangled effort of deep sand driving. Then much to all our surprise, we came to a very wide river ( that we expected , the Boteti), to find the crossing was a ferry. Ellen the previous night, taking a look at her map had asked if we knew about it, and we all inspected various maps, all just a wee bit different, and no ferry. No ordinary ferry, you have to think a wooden/steel pontoon, a couple of outboard motors and a guy with a wide smile and a long pole. He chuntered across, got as near as he could to the shore, and gestured us ( L and I were at that point in the lead vehicle) to drive into the river and up onto the pontoon. Ddeep breathes, high fives, and a slow putter across to repeat downwards into the water. Repeat three times! After that, and a long drive on tar/dirt road hunting a mysterious Camping Lodge whose owner had given directions as ''get to the dirt/tar junction and it is two spoor''. We eventually gave up after all our combined technologies, maps and common sense said, ''this ain't going nowhere!'' So we set our sights on Maun, and arrived here at the Okavango River Camp, three days early. So some replanning has taken place, with boat trips for us two on a mokaro up river to camp, whilst the others are heading after game sighting in the Moremi, which we will do as a days drive later. So today we have had R and R in Maun, much expended since our last visit, but still the slightly zany place we remember. A splendid lunch at a new arts complex called Mondsano, took awhile, but really lovely food served in a restfully courtyard. Not long now and we shall turn our vehicles south towards Windhoek and an ending to this terrific safari. eric