A 480km drive and a border crossing brought us to Ghanzi, Botswana, where we stayed in a peaceful campsite surrounded by the Kalahari Desert. Most of us opted to upgrade from our tents to tiny straw huts for a more local experience.
The campsite supports a number of bushmen people who are expert hunters and live off the land. In Namibia bushmen used to be regarded as animals and it was legal to shoot them. Their way of life may not exist in 50 years, so it was a privilege to have a small group of bushmen lead us on a desert walk. Dressed in animal skins and carrying sticks and arrows, they demonstrated amazing knowledge of desert survival. As we walked they would start digging in the desert grasses and uproot medicinal or edible plants. We watched them build a fire from scratch and saw how they carry water in ostrich eggs to keep it fresh in the heat.
Our evening drew to a close with Michael, Leteloi, Satoshi and I relaxing around the campfire enjoying the quiet of a desert night.
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