Day 1 - the drive to the park

Well, needless to say our plans to depart at 4am came to nothing. Louise and Tish had sat up all night playing Monopoly with some friends. But they didn't wake me and most unusually I overslept. We eventually departed (for the first time) at 5:30. Then, 30km into the journey, I realised that I had left our booking receipt on my desk! I thought that it probably wouldn't matter - surely in this computerised age the camp would have evidence of my booking? Nevertheless I decided to return home to collect it anyway - just in case.

So, at 6:15 we departed for the second time.

We did the first 400km to Upington and were sitting having breakfast by 9:15. This, like any Downs trip, had to incorporate a Wimpy breakfast, otherwise I sulk for the rest of the journey. We left Upington around 10:30 and eventually arrived at Twee Rivieren (Two Rivers) just on 13:00 - with the temperature hovering around the 40 mark. The road up to the park is much better than it used to be - all but the last 50km is now tarred. And even the untarred stretch is not too bad - 80kph can be maintained without too much effort.

The journey, as always, is fairly long and hot, but not unbearably so. As in the past we saw numerous trees (and telephone poles) full of the enormous nests created by the sociable weaver birds - some of them appear to be the size of a car.

For the last part of the journey the road follows the dry bed of the Nossop river. Once when I was here in 1988 (when we had some pretty bad flooding all around South Africa), the Nossop was actually flowing for the first time in many years - and I witnessed the unusual sight of Springbok standing in a foot of running water and all looking somewhat perplexed. But not this year - no sign of any water anywhere.

When I went to check in at reception I discovered that indeed it wouldn't have mattered if I'd left my receipts behind - they're actually pretty well jacked up. Not only did they have all my details on their system, but they even had indemnity forms printed out ready for me to sign. All in all, a very pleasant surprise to find such efficiency in a government department in our "new" South Africa.