We head toward our flight - a 206 that seats 4 people. Our pilot is the cutest pilot I've ever seen. And bubbly too. We have an hour flight to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and Jack's Camp.
Our guide (Dabe) from Jacks Camp is at the airstrip to pick us up. The Makgadikgadi was once a huge inland lake, created by the Zambezi as it flowed south to the Limpopo Basin. The lake covered 80k square kilometers and was populated with hippos, crocs etc. Then, cataclysmic tectonic forces caused the Zambezi to be diverted eastward to spill over the lip of a great sill of basalt, creating a feature which the local tribes would describe as "The smoke that thunders", Victoria Falls (more on that later). The lake eventually dried up and left a flat gray surface over a hundred kilometers north to south and the same wide - divided by a low island of rock. The winds have deposited seeds from hundreds of grasses and plants here and so grass, flat-topped thorn trees and palms fill the landscape.
Jack's Camp is a permanent tented camp decorated with Persian carpets, old period furniture etc. The bathroom's toilet is a wooden armchair - and the leather covered seat lifts up to reveal that it's a toilet. A "throne".
As soon as we arrive, we sit down to afternoon tea. The main "mess tent" has one of only a few museums in Botswana - old photographs, bushmen artifacts, a slew of animal skulls, a stuffed aardvark.... There is no electricity here - but there is running water - and it's drinkable.
Before dinner the assistant manager - 28 and tiny - comes to "escort" me to dinner. She tells me she just heard lions. I ask her, "and what are you me and our flashlights going to do to save me from them?!". All the meals here are served family style - all the guests, management and the guides dine together. The first night here there is a cranky old british couple - when we say hello - they don't even respond. Harumph. We have a delicious meal - the best food we've had so far. Off to bed early - we're exhausted.
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