What went ye out into the desert to see?

For some reason it has taken me ages to get this last part of our MacPye blog sorted. We had hoped to do it  as we travelled but there was no internet anywhere along the route for a whole week and for several days not even mobile phone coverage. How did they manage before technology? Anyway, we are back home in Pretoria now. In fact we leave for London tomorrow night hoping to creep under the wire before the threatened strike on Wednesday. We had lunch together today to celebrate Ed's birthday this coming Wednesday and to celebrate a momentous eight weeks together. But enough of that, in no particular order, some images of our final adventure together......

Roads we travelled....... 

Signs we saw.......

Terry making a fashion statement for desert travel?

Ed not only the driver but the barman handing out the drinks from the mobile bar

How Jessica travelled on the better roads!

Bird on a tree

                                                                       Bird behind a tree?

windmill in the Kalahari

wooden telephone poles in the Kalahari

visitors for breakfast

tented camp kitchen

tented camp bedroom

unpacking in the tent

view from tent bedroom

I found our retirement home at last

For days we travelled knowing something was not quite right and Ed knew exactly what the problem was. On our last day when we needed help there was plenty of it,

Broken pieces from the handbrake mechanistm that jammed the back wheel

when you come to the end of a perfect day........

getting them in

Another excellent braai....




We visited the Moffat Mission in Kuruman on the way to the Kalahari ....

Those early pioneers

We followed his footsteps and now we want to read his book

David Livingstone's house at Kuruman

On this printing press the first Bible in Africa was printed in Seswati by Robert Moffat.

Moffat mission ministers past and present?

Calling in for tea with Mary Moffatt

The church at Moffat Mission

She never could resist a pulpit

One of my favourite places even though there was nothing there except a fascinating little hotel. I am coming back to Africa one day just to stay in the hotel!

Vanzylsrus hotel toilet

A cup of tea at the end of a travelling day

Nossob camp at sunset

It ain't half hot here

The ever welcome swimming pool

coffee stop in the desert

Loo stop in the game park. We heard that a lion had been lying across the gate the day before and then someone else told us there had bee a snake in the ladies'loo! But as for us, lizards and mice.

Giraffe - a rare sight in the Kalahari

A beautiful glossy starling. You can still be beautiful even if you are very ordinary!

a bulbul

A nesting tree for the social weaver birds

social weavers' nest

No wonder they are called social wevers

our friend the Bee eater

Bateleur Eagle at a water hole

Steppe Eagle

ostrich - no shortage of them!

Gemsbok locking horns. The Kgalagadi park is famous for gemsbok.

wildebeest another common sight.

Gemsbok

Watching the prey

prowling lion

Four cheetahs under a tree - what a privilege to see them

Tired lion?

thirsty lion

Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun

Springbok. Although we saw many hundreds of them they never failed to delight us.

dawn at the hide waiting for visitors

Jessica in hiding

The reward for waiting - thirsty cheetah

Not at the same time - thirsty springbok

thirsty jackal

The way into the hide at Nossob

Kalahari sunset


Thank you so much for travelling with us. We have been delighted by the comments you have made both on and off the blog. By the time you read this our humble blog will have had over 3000 page views. It has been an amazing time together. We have slept in more beds than we can count and travelled thousands of miles.


There may be a postscript when we are back in Borrowdale but for now 
farewell from the Macs - Ed and Jessica, and the Pyes - Terry and Gay