Nata

The road from Maun to Nata is 310K. I left with about 50K on the clock but that was ok as I was reliably told there was a fuel stop midway. There wasn't. Luckily my trusty plan B oil can with fuel in saved the day.

Today's roadside game is predicting what ostriches will do next.Cattle, goats, donkeys, dogs & even elephants are broadly predicable & slow. Ostriches are neither. In a comical if it were not life limiting way they react to oncoming traffic by outrunning it. Getting ahead they then attempt to cross. Three ostriches appeared to my right. I slowed to 40K, they overtook me & crossed the road. I started to speed up. They crossed again but this time the last one fell. A big ball of feathers rolled down the road in front of ongoing lorry. In a nerve racking, "man on floor trying to get up with arms tied behind his back move" the ostrich got up, brushed itself off & disappeared into the bush.

Nata is one entry point into the Makgadikgadi salt pan - a large area previously under water but now dried out to one central lake as rivers have been diverted & waterfall is much more erratic. It is now a haven for birds & being protected a safe place for wildebeest & birdlike in general to roam.

I tagged along with Herman & his family who had organised a drive onto the reserve. Ostriches were for once on home ground. So were korhanns, storks (saddle billed) & surprisingly pelicans in large numbers. 

Herman ran a huge farmstead in northern SA (near Kruger)." What do you farm? We run hunting expeditions. What do you hunt ? Everything". Herman has a business selling hunting packages to tourists. "You're not one of those greens are you, David ? No, no" I  lied. "You know the only thing you need in South Africa? Money ? No, MEAT. You cant eat money, David".