Sleeping in a pan
The Lodge has not been very helpful in providing information about the upcoming ‘activity’, but we were told that it would all change when the guide would fill in the gaps. So we waited for the scheduled time of this pre-Pan meeting, but had to check out in the morning.
So we did, and by 10 in the morning we were locked out of our rondavel, and all bags were packed and closed inside our trusty Duster. We didn’t know what to pack the night before, so we made our educated guesses (it’s probably cold in the desert at night, so we better pack extra warm clothes; there probably also is no lighting, so we have to grab a torch, and the like) and waited it out. Then the time came for our guide to introduce himself (Bakos) and say: bring warm clothes, closed shoes. That was it. He almost literally spoke those four words, and off we were.
First we embarked on a safari Jeep which took us (rough estimate!) 40 kilometers from the lodge to the edge of the Ntwetwe Salt Pan, after which our party of 6 had to share a total of 4 quad bikes. That meant that the two couples each had to share a quad, and that the two dudes travelling together had one each. Life just isn’t fair!
Driving the quad bikes on the salt pan is just plain awesome! Screaming through this completely featureless arid landscape with the wind blowing in your hair is insane fun, and we had a blast driving to the camp. This actually consisted of only a few things: folding chairs, a wood fire, one table, a pile of sleeping bags and an outhouse. All surrounded by the vast emptiness of the pan.
In the wise words of Tim: this is the best hotel room we’ve had.