Day 5 - More Safari Action

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Up early again, but this time by our choice. Fantastic sunrise to bookend last nights sunset. Opened the canvas walls,up and had a bedside view of the rising sun. Pretty special. Aah, the serenity.......

Down for brekky then straight into the truck for our morning Safari. This time we weren’t hunting animals, more so the little bugs and flora and fauna.

Along the way, however, a truck load of Oryx were again spotted. We were shown little beetles that were called Tikka Tikkas (or something like that - might have got a bit lost in the translation...). They scurry around the sand, the male chasing the female - hmm....

Also in the mix were dung beetles and the elusive trapdoor spider (still to see that one). We also learnt that Oryx poo is hard and in little pellets. They can go days without water (hence the dry pellets) and that the male picks a tree and stakes that as his ground by piling his pellets under that tree.

Lots of other good stuff, including very rocky ground that supports trees and a prickly bush that has poisonous stems that will kill a person if either ingested or scratched into your skin.

Back for lunch and going on another sundowner that arvo. We were given the option of a tour of the base camp were all the staff live and lots of other stuff happens. Yes please so off we go a bit earlier.

Fascinating place. It has 2 airstrips (not big enough for our plane), a fully equipped mechanics workshop, carpentry shop, fresh veggie garden, laundry, staff quarters, training facilities for their hospitality courses, stables for 10 horses used in riding safaris, 3 water bores and a pump station that pushes water up to our lodge area, a souvenir shop, food store (both dry and refrigerated) and a grog store. Quite a community.

Then off to our sundowner. New spot tonight. We stop and are asked to walk up a dune to the spot. Wow.... a deck built into the hill, bench seats and our guide sets up the food and drinks for us. Nice.... And the sun doesn’t disappoint either.

Back for tea, singing again and another 5 course dinner. Off to bed as we are being picked up at 0700 for our drive to the airfield tomorrow morning. Need to pack the bags and up for an early brekky.....

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