Camping in the Kalahari Desert

 Because of the riots that happened last week school was canceled from Wednesday to Friday. A lot of the international students left to go traveling and my friend and I decided that we wanted to travel as well. So we went online and found this website called Africa Insight.  They would pick us up from school, bring us to the campsite, provide us with 2 game drives and all the equipment needed for camping. We decided that this would be perfect.  We both wanted to see the desert and to say that we went camping in the Kalahari Desert sounded pretty awesome.  The place where actually stayed was called the Kutse Game preserve in the Kalahari desert. It was about 3-4 hours away from Gaborone. The picture on the left is the vehicle that we drove around in.

These are some pictures of the animals we saw

 The male ostrich is on the left, you know because they're darker in color and have white on their back.

This was our campsite. We really were in the middle of the desert.  The only way to tell that this was an actual campsite was that there was an enclosed area for the bathroom and shower.  My friend and i slept in the bigger tent while the guide slept in the smaller one. The program provided us with everything and we got to sleep on some very comfortable beds.  During the night it got cold.  I have to use the blanket they provided.  The tent is made out of some thick material so that any animal couldn't get into our tent.  The guide did warn us that a lion or leopard may decide to grace our campsite with its presence.

This is a squirrel.  In my opinion it is a whole lot cuter than the ones in the states.

A mother ostrich wouldn't get off the road.  Her babies were too small and they couldn't walk through the tall grass yet.  We ran, not literally, into these guys  a lot. I never realized how tall ostrich's were.  The babies were adorable.

A view of the sunset.  The desert really was beautiful.  When I think of africa it was this place that i imagined.  Although it is all pretty much sand and it is pretty barren it is beautiful.  I really enjoyed it here, and I would love to go back.

Just another view of the desert. As you can see there are trees and stuff, just not a lot of it.

My friend and i enjoying the view.  This program overall was very nice.  It wasn't that expensive and it came with everything we would need.  We did, however, have to provide food for not only us but the guide as well.  Being the college students that we are we bough peanut butter, bread, apples, mangoes, chips, cookies, and drinks. We ate peanut butter sandwiches for 3 meals.  I didn't plan on being able to cook anything but when we got to the camping site it was clear that they provided all the utensils we would need for cooking.  Next time I would love to bring some pasta.  This overall though was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. I am totally considering getting a larger group and doing it again.