Celtic Rover
Today we headed south from the Okavango delta into the Central Kalahari of Botswana. The trees gradually gave way to the open pans and desert as we droves south and east, scrawny cattle, goats and donkeys line the road and occasionally cross in front of us. We take a little diversion onto the side roads to get a better impression of the desert.
We arrive at a surreal place for the evening, the little town of Orapa, this town is owned by Debeers the diamond people as it is the site of a massive diamond mine. Even to get into the town, which is well endowed with hospital, school etc we need to get a special permit and pass strict security. Only folks who live and work there are allowed into the town and the perimeter of the town and the mine are patrolled by soliders.
This has a happy consequence, the areas of the concession which are not being mined are a massive wildlife park, totally free of poachers thanks to the strictly enforced security, hence Rhino otherwise endangered are free to live here and do so in considerable numbers, once we clear the security we are free to roam the reserve and are the only visitors…
Diamonds, it turns out, are a Rhinos best friend.
