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Boundless Southern African Expedition 23

Boundless Southern African Expedition 23

Author: Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2018-04-20

Meeting the delightful San people

We deflate the Landies tyres, leave the park's tourist routes behind to take the switchback 91 red dune ride to !Xaus Lodge, a small thatched lodge run by aprivate concessionaire on the Ae Hai Kalahari Heritage Park, which has been returned to the Mier and Khomani San communities.

We're in for a treat, last night was -6°C and we froze in our tents - tonight it's duvets and hot water bottles. !Xaus in Nama means 'heart'. It refers to the heart shaped indentations of the remote Kalahari pan below the lodge - symbolically the lodge is also regarded as the heart of the Mier and Khomani San communities.

At sunset we walk across the pan to meet these delightful San people, like early hunter gatherers we squat around the coals of a small fire on the Kalahari sand where amongst rudimentary grass and stick shelters, we watch the light golden brown complexioned women with smiling wrinkles and twinkling laughing eyes, using their tiny hands to fashion ostrich shell necklaces and bangles.

Mashozi, who's been sitting with an old man, hands me a necklace made from a piece of gemsbok bone decorated with a burnt etching of a naked hunter with a bow. Later, back at the lodge, there's a feast prepared by the Mier community and traditional dancing by the Knomani San.

Tonight it's Sprinkbok and lamb potjie in black cast iron pots, roosterbrood, moskonfyt and malva pudding - Tannie Gertruida Bott's speciality. The night is bitterly cold so Johan Louw places shovelfuls of warming coals from the campfire under our canvas camp chairs to keep our much-travelled 'boude' warm. It's an old campfire trick of his.

Next day Christine du Plessis, the Sanparks 'People and Conservation' officer, has arranged a Kgalagadi district art competition. As always at these community events Mashozi heads upthe Rite to Sight Campaign, distributing reading glasses to the mostly elderly poor sighted people. Will keep you posted.