Although rainy season should already be at its end, we had seen rain every day, including the last day at Elephant Sands. The last storm did have a silver lining. During our chat with the Dutch family, they mentioned a campsite with a very interesting trip, one that we would definitely love.
After spending time at Elephant Sands, close to Nata, we were planning to go further south, into the Makgadikgadi salt pans. The rains were still coming, and the road to 'Kubu island', where we wanted to go, was supposedly not good. With no connection in the salt pans, no fridge in the car, and possibly a rat inside that prevented us from buying a lot of food to store in the car, we felt less inclined to go all the way there. The road of 90 km should definitely be doable for a steady girl like Gigi, but with a lot of sand, the risk of overheating (as we still remembered Namibia), and the possibility of getting stuck on a road that is not visited every day, didn't feel safe enough. Had we been on the road for a few weeks, we probably would have made the gamble (and ensured that gamble still would be safe enough), but now it didn't feel right.
This left us with the option to go to Planet Baobab, a place we were thinking of visiting. The Dutch family had spent some nights here and were super positive. But the thing that pulled us over the edge, was something they didn't even do. Planet Baobab provides an excursion into the salt pans. This would mean we would still get to at least visit the pans, just not drive there ourselves and we couldn't spend the night. The highlight of this trip would not be the salt pans for us, but another encounter with one of Emma's favourite animals, the meerkat!
Planet Baobab had enough room for us and we got arguably the best and the worst spot. It was the last one, located next to the reception. Not ideal, as there was 24/7 movement (at night this meant the guards fortunately) and the staff was quite loud. One HUUUUUGE plus, the enormous Baobab tree next to which we parked our beloved Gigi. It was like a dream location for us and we accepted all the movement around our car as part of the deal. We had dreamt of staying right next to or under a Baobab tree for some time.
The campsite we got was very spacious, with a large lapa, a braai and a big table. We felt right at home and the ablutions were clean and good. We will probably see several campsites a lot less sophisticated than this one, so we just enjoyed it. We dived into the pool and booked our dinner.
The lodges compound has a lot of huge, beautiful Baobab trees, many of which are lit during the nights. Just being at the compound is already breathtaking. The largest Baobab of all is at the center of the compound. A bar (functioning as restaurant since the actual restaurant is being restored) is built right next to it, so you can have a meal and drink right under an enormous Baobab. The place is stunning.
The next day was perfect for being a new highlight. With our alarm at 4:45, it was earlier than we are used to, even when doing Game drives. We had a coffee at the Baobab restaurant and went out towards the salt pans. The drive was about 2 hours, on dirt roads and through sand. It was just lovely to be out in the bush again and we enjoyed the ride. As the sun slowly rose, it lit up the grass beautifully.
After the 2 hour drive, during which we saw several animals (mostly squirrels and mongooses), our hearts skipped a beat when saw the first meerkats. We were slightly unlucky, as the family of 12 meerkats our tracker was following, got split up by a buffalo stampede and only 3 remained.
The 3 meerkats were clearly on the lookout for their friends and family, as they moved a lot and kept trying to find a point as high as possible to get a good look. This meant that they would climb on top of us, to use us as a mount to stand on. They are habituated to the presence of humans and therefore did not run away. This was Emma's dream and she was happy to serve as a mount to the cute little animals multiple times.
After breakfast it was time to leave the little ones alone. We were off to go to the salt pan. Jeroen tried to get everyone to go back to the meerkats one more time, as he suddenly realised he didn't have his cell phone on him. He had put it down on the grass when photographing Emma with the meerkats and completely forgot he left it there. He slightly panicked as he did not remember where exactly he had put it. Fortunately, everyone in the car helped with the search and within 5 minutes, the phone was found. We could breathe again.
The salt pans were immense and impressive. We got a geography lesson out in the pans and used the rest of the time to take some typical 'salt pan style' pictures. It was nice to be out in such a huge salt pan again, despite the scorching heat. We were still wondering whether we should have just tried the route to Kubu Island. We took the safest option, but we definitely wanted to know what adventure we had just skipped and whether we could have done it without issues.
We arrived back at the lodge in the afternoon. We were exhausted, but thrilled because of the wonderful experience. We were happy we didn't skip this trip. During the afternoon Emma did some laundry and Jeroen performed our rat-ritual. Another day and night of no droppings or rat pee in the cabin, at least as far as we can find. We had decided to book an extra night here. The campsite was lovely, it was amazing to sleep under the giant Baobab, the food was delicious and we wanted some time to do admin. We were miles behind with our blogs and budgeting. The extra day was spent performing the rat-ritual again, twice, doing some laundry by Emma, and doing some admin work. Emma even had some ACTUAL work to do. In the meantime, we booked a wonderful experience, which had gotten us both extremely excited. All seemed very well.
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