I have always had a very special love for the Kalahari with it's beautiful red sand dunes and vast open spaces. My wish was to celebrate my 50th birthday in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Maggie and I planned a trip to include a two night stay in Mabuasehube in Botswana. We were joined by our friends, Waldemar and Val, André and Karen, Craig and Amanda, Lester and Caroline, Duncan Angus, Flip, Gavin and our two sons Jayson and Duncan.

We met our friends from East London at the Mountain Zebra National Park for our first night. Duncan Angus joined us in Prieska the following day. The family from Alberton joined us in Upington where all 15 of us piled into the Wimpy for a breakfast. After some last minute shopping (Maggie,Caroline and Val had to go to Woolworths first), we were on our way to Twee Rivieren for our first night in the park. The campsite was crowded and we were all happy to leave for Nossob the following morning. The Kalahari had a lot of summer rain with most of the dunes covered with grass. Not to many red sand dunes to photograph. We stayed at Nossob for three nights before we embarked on the Mabuasehube wilderness trial. This is what I was looking forward to. I was going to spend my birthday at Mabuasehube! We left early with five Toyota's and Craig and Amanda's Discovery. We had not travelled very far when the Landie decided that it no longer needed a suspension!   It was going to be a long day.
We arrived at our campsite, Lesholoago Pan late afternoon and set up camp. Having left the caravans at Nossob we were all pitching tents.
What a fantastic place to be!



All the bush mechanics got stuck in and some serious work was done on the Landie the next morning but nobody could get the suspension to work. Lester came to the rescue and offered to tow the Discovery to the next campsite. It was going to be another long day. Frequent stops to clear grass and digging the Landie out of the thick sand. We spend the next night at Mosemane Camp in Botswana before returning to Nossob with the Landy still in tow.
On ariving at Nossob, Lester decided to put the Landie on a "drip" waiting for Land Rover to send a recovery vehicle.

We all had a wonderful time and way to soon was it time to pack up and head back home. Thanks to all that made this trip special and memorable.
We look forward to our trip to the Delta in September 2008