Day 5 This was a rest day for us, we spent the day catching up, with our blog and Facebook and emails…some times it’s important to put an extra day in your trip so as not to get so tired that you can’t appreciate the activities you’ve planned.  The laundry got done and the WhatsApp home to family was made. We drove around the village/town of Gweta a bit and took some pictures of its quirkiness…In the evening we said farewell to Cynthia and Jooste they were moving on, their trip was in its final stages as they returned to Windhoek, Namibia. There was singing and dancing by the staff after supper…their harmonisation is always a wonderful sound. An early night was required due to the next days early start.

Day 6. I don’t know how to start the days description, apart from wow, wow and wow…..

We knew we had  a 73 Km drive to Makgadikgadi Pans National Parks gate…so wrapped up with double fleeces a headscarf around my ears and a mask across my nose…( finally found a use for a covid mask!! ) looking more like a bandit than a Safari goer, we set off at 6.20am with the Chief driving us ….( yes!!  I was awake but only just).

It was cold on the open vehicle and we both had trouble with running eyes and noses from the wind….I put it down my bleary eyesight that I thought I saw a man squatting low in the grass just next to the main A3 road….my first thought was ‘shame he must have been caught short’ but as he started to stand up, he still didn’t seem to pull his trousers up I thought ‘dirty devil he could have gone behind a bush’’…”As we got closer and our eyesight could focus  I realised it wasn’t a man at all  but a huge black maned lion. It crossed the road and walked down the other side of the road, turned around and came back…we spent an enjoyable 10 minutes watching him parade up and back before he disappeared into the bush.  What a great start to the day… 

Arriving at the gate The Chief got us a far more acceptable breakfast which replenished us ready for the next part of the day….nothing could have prepared us for the state of the road…if Tuesday in Ntwetwe Pans, was bad this was horrendous..we shake rattled and rolled along for an hour seeing jackals, steenbok, ostrich, a few zebra, an odd wildebeest, and a ground squirrel. Then suddenly we caught sight of the Boteti River and it’s surrounding plains. It was literally heaving with zebra, as far as the eye could see.

What an amazing sight….There were a few pockets of wildebeest’s and a large pod of hippos in the water. A couple of elephants parted the zebra as they headed to the water…The noise was wonderful snorting,farting and braying. Chief was an expert about getting us within a few feet of the herds and driving us through them…they didn’t seem to even notice us..they stared, snorted and continued doing what they do. After about an hour we followed the river which was dry all apart from some pockets of small lake like oasis. We saw kudu, a pair of blue cranes, more ostrich and finally asked a friendly wildebeest if we could share the shade of his tree to have lunch…he agreed by moving off but his chum stayed put less than 10 feet away. 
After a very pleasant lunch we drove back to the original larger expanse of water. The herds had amassed even more, we would guess well over 1000 head of Zebra. There was a medium sized herd of elephant which continued to be joined by other small herds. They delighted us with their ‘meet and greet’ antics.

The hippos we’re basking in the sun, having vacated the water for the Elephants, their young were wandering around. The wildebeest and their young entertained us by skipping around chasing each other and the zebra continued to snort and bray…..all too soon it was time to head back to the lodge some 2 hours away. On the way out of the park we saw a pair of giraffe, another jackal, a slender mongoose and we visited a solar powered watering hole which was also swarming with zebra and a huge elephant throwing mud around. 

Back on the tarred road we mused over the spectacular scenes we had just witnessed. We came to see the zebra migration and wow did we see it. 

The Chief, had turned out to be a fantastic guide and driver, very friendly and extremely talented, a real asset to Gweta Lodge….Thanks Chief for a totally awesome time.