On the last Monday morning of May, I meet guide Thys Burger and two other tourists, Gert and Petro Visser, at Nossob rest camp. The Nossob 4x4 Eco Trail can be booked by a maximum of five tourist vehicles and a minimum of two, so I’m grateful for the company of the Vissers.
Our guide Thys is dressed in the olive-green uniform of the park, with a bush hat on his head and a relaxed smile nestled in his neat grey beard. He looks completely at home here, and later I’ll find out why… Although he was born in Usakos in Namibia, his forefathers were borehole guards along the Auob River. Thanks to his exposure to this pioneer stock, plus regular childhood visits to the family farm near Askham, the Kalahari is part of his being. In short, Thys is exactly the kind of person you want as a guide when you head into a great, wide, unknown wilderness.
We start with a brief talk: Thys outlines what lies ahead. There’s a safety protocol – he carries a gun and will always check the area before giving us the signal to leave our vehicles. We’ll be in constant contact thanks to two-way radios. Do we have enough food, water and wood? We do. I’ve stocked up at the Nossob shop – the next “civilization” is days away, at Twee Rivieren.
What I don’t have is a net to protect my Mahindra’s radiator from grass seeds, but luckily Thys has brought an extra one.
We set off, heading north along the regular tourist route from Nossob, past the Cubitje Quap, Kwang and Bedinkt waterholes. At the latter we pause, and Thys tells us what we’re looking at: gemsbok in the riverbed displaying
