Northwest into the Central Kalahari and to Rakops
It was a long drive up to Rakops which is on the edge of a river running out of the Okavango Delta and draining into the salt pans in the centre of Botswana. We stayed in a "Lodge" that had no mains electricity. Everything was on solar power, although a generator supplied power when they needed to use the kitchen. There were only two of these lodges in town. They were basic, but for us the main reson for staying there was access to the Central kalahari Game Reserve. The gate to this was 40km from Rakops along a dirt road. It was another 40km into the first main game site of Deception Valley. We targetted two days here.
David's car had a flat tyre when we woke up the first day and he was foced to drive 200km to Maun to get it replaced. You do not head into the game reserves without a spare! We took our car in a bit late and I had to chnge the tyre when we had a puncture 60km into the game reserve. That got repared that evening when we got back. We made it into the reserve much earlier i=on the second day, leaving the hotel at 7:15. We spent the whole day there, only just getting to the gate before it cloesed at 6:30. There was a lioness with two cubs settling down next to the car park when we got there. We had already seen a leopard walking along the rode in front of us as we drove out. We saw lots else and the photos below will show some of them.