Camping at Witsand

When I think of the Kalahari, I see red sand and Kameeldorings (camel thorn is just a bad translation 😊). But there are always exceptions, like Witsand where the dunes famously roar. I have lived in the Kalahari most of my life, but for some or other reason have never been to the dunes of roaring white. You are supposed to hear the dunes in months with an ‘R’ in it.  But I am not sure of the tourists who’s languages are ‘r-less’ or have an abundance of rolling R’s. Will the dunes roar any more or less? Any way. I decided that it was now or never, booked a camping spot in maRch, borrowed the brother’s bakkie and charged the camera.

Getting to Witsand and Setting up

I booked a spot for the first long weekend that I could find and arranged to use my brothers 4×4. My car is way too low for that road. You can probably get away with a normal SUV if it has a high clearance from the ground. But it turned out that the weather that came along with the camping trip required 4×4.

And so the day of the ‘great trek ’ arrived….with rain. I should have known. More often than not, when I pitch a tent, rain follows. No jokes, I have pitched my tent in droughts, then only to be smelling of wet dog a few hours into the expedition. Maybe I should pitch my tent in the Western Cape*. Or maybe because I want to show off my uncanny luck to attract rain to my tent, nothing will come of that experiment.

*Edit, when I wrote this post, there was a SEVERE drought in the Western Cape, they would have loved some rain back then.

Back to the trek to Witsand. So, it was raining on the way there. But camping was what the weekend was about, so we pushed through. Luckily, we did not literally have to push the bakkie, although we almost got stuck in the mud a few times.

Finally, we got there and caught a break. It stopped raining long enough for us to set up our camp. And so began our day of camping. Raining. Stopping. Raining. And finally, late afternoon we could see that the sky was indeed blue beyond the clouds and we could venture out. You could say that it was a blue lining because silver would just be too good to be true!

Exploring the sands of white

The nice thing about Witsand is that you can walk everywhere. You are not bound by the campgrounds. The whole reserve is open to explore. We walked through the fields, climbed some dunes and saw some animals. Back at camp, we started our fire and then guess what. Yes, it started to rain again. We called it an early night due to the rain, somewhat of a Duckworth Lewis for camping. We lost. Rain – 1. It was cold and damp in the normal sleeping bag. Is there a thing called ‘rain-chill factor’?

 

And then the sun came out

Day two broke just as cold as the night but the sun was shining! I sat with my coffee and watched the early morning animals walking through camp. This was going to be a great day. After breakfast and a warm shower, we decided to do our geocaching before the day gets too hot. We did the botanical route from which a multi-cache’s coordinates need to be calculated. Here you will find all the local species of plants and an outdoor museum. With all our collected cache info we walked back to camp to try and decipher the coordinates. Armed with our map of Witsand, we set off again. This time in the brothers 4×4, which decides on very odd times if it will start or not. We had to hold our collective breaths each time we needed it to start.

 

Un-roaring dunes

Anyway, this time the bakkie started and off we went in search 4 caches and the roaring dunes.

Even though the name, Witsand, says it all, it was still a surprise as to how white the dunes are. We Kalahari folk only know red sand. Climbing the sea sand white dune is like walking into another world. It is as if you leave the red of the Kalahari and turn up at a white sandy beach, without the water of course. Unfortunately, because of the rain, the dunes did not roar. The sand needs to be dry and warm.

Hereafter we backtracked to the lookout point about halfway back and see the dunes and mountain ranges in the distance. We got lucky and the bakkie started again and we took the road to the other lookout.

Sunsets and noisy neighbours

I love seeing sunsets and rises and since the rain had cleared we decided to climb the nearest dune and await the golden hour. Turns out if you misread your watch, the golden hour becomes 2! So we waited a long time for our sun-downer of little cheeses and crackers.

Back at camp, we encountered new neighbours. They were a few loud families from some or other city. Talking very loudly about everything. One thing I remember them talking about was the milky way. How that night was the first time that they had actually seen it. City slickers! I, on the other hand, grew up sitting outside counting ‘sputniks’ in the night sky. One lucky night we counted 21!

Despite the sunny day, night was yet again freezing and the new neighbours snored. Loudly. And one of them talked in their sleep. A weekend is only so long and the next morning marked the return to the red sands. We collapsed our camp after breakfast and took the still muddied road back to four walls and roofs.

Here is what I like about Witsand. It’s pretty. Nature is all around and you are as unrestricted as a free range chicken. You can walk and climb to your heart’s content. I would have liked to hear the dunes roar, but maybe that is Witsand way of ensuring return visits. Next time then.

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