The road north to Kasane beyond Nata eventually becomes a monotonous blur. The bush seems endless on both sides of the car. Then, quite unexpectedly, you drive across a cattle grid south of Pandamatenga and the landscape changes. Fields of sorghum, sunflowers and other crops like soya beans stretch out like colourful, regimented carpets all the way to the pancake-flat horizon.
Who are the people who farm here? I'm sure you've also asked yourself this question, but you probably kept going without stopping in the not-very-tidy town of Pandamatenga itself, which has very few calling cards beyond a fuel station.
In 2022, I met Pandamatenga farmers Johan and Rentia Otto while they were on holiday along the Okavango Panhandle, and in May 2023 I paid them a visit at home. They hosted me for a long weekend, invited friends, and we braaied and chatted while their grandkids played on the lawn. (Johan and Rentia's daughters, Hermien and Emari, both live on the same homestead with their families.)
As I drove between farms the following days, I came to realise just how special and unusual this community is. As crop farmers, they work hard in what is a tough agricultural sector. But their lifestyle is very different to crop farmers in South Africa.
Their younger children are almost all home-schooled, while the older ones are sent off to boarding school in distant South Africa. The closest town is Kasane, 110 km away. Pandamatenga, or Panda for short, doesn't have a doctor or even a hairdresser. (They do, however, have a traffic cop. Keep to the speed limit!)
Everyone I spoke to had grown to love Pandamatenga and the life it offers. They live close to nature. One afternoon, I joined Tracey Mulder from Wildtrack Safaris Eco Lodge and some of her family on a visit to a secret local spot called Gary's Pan. At sunset we sat in camping chairs and watched as a small herd of elephant trundled up for a drink.
Pandamatenga is a place where families live and work
