After more than 18 days we got the 1st opportunity to get an Internet connection. So it’s time to give you some details.

We left Johanessburg on August 18th and cross the border with Botswana 2 days later. Close to Point Driff border we spent 2 days in Tuli Game Reserve and went for our first game drives. Lots of birds, gazeles and some elephants welcomed us (specially a young bull.. see photo).

We then drove North to Nxai Pan National Park for our first 2 nights sleeping on the top of the car. We also got stucked in soft and deep sand near Bairnes’ Baobab. Fortunaltely a hour later some Germans guys, also took than road and pulled our car out.

Next stop was in Magkadigkadi pan were we slept full of dust under thousands stars on the edge of the pan.

Last week we stop for 4 days camping into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, looking endlessly for these lions which disturbed all our nights but never shown up during day light.

After a night to Maun (the 2nd largest city in Botswana) we flew to the Guma Lagoon in the upper part of the Okavango where we finally saw our first lions from a 300m distance. A bit far for some nice photos but as we were by foot everyone agreed that this distance was finally quite appreciable.

Some Technics for these interested:

• Having all our cameras and laptops in waterproof bags works fine. We don’t have too many problem with dust so far.
• Cheap Chinese 350W DC/AC power inverter gave up after 2 weeks. It could not stand 1 battery charger + 1 laptop power adapter. Lesson learnt: don’t trust what is written on the sticker.
• Digital fracture is quite present. GSM network is only available near cities and main villages reason why we cannot frequently update these pages, but we’ll keep trying.

That’s all for today as we have to hit the road again and enter Moremi National Park tomorrow morning.

After a bit more than 3 years spent in Thailand, it is now time for new adventures.

Luggage checked-in (65 kg !), airport formalities completed and now ready for boarding.

Next update in 1 or 2 days, most likely from South Africa.

All photo gears are now packed and I wonder if digital cameras Sony Alpha SLR will be up to the challenge of Southern Africa climatic conditions. I’m mostly worried about dust and sand (Kalahari, Etosha, Namib desert) more that about humidity (Okawango delta).

We carry with us the following material:

• 3 Sony Alpha DSLR cameras (A700, A350 and A100)
• 1 Sigma Zoom 50-500mm f/4-6.3
  
• 1 Sony 70-200 f/2.8 HSS
• 1 Sony 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5
• 1 Sony 35mm f/1.4 HSS
• 1 Sigma 30 f/1.4

and plenty of accessories such tripod, batteries, memory cards, cleaning material, charger, bean bag, etc… (not sure yet how I’ll pack my clothes in the suitcase which is already invaded by cables and boxes).

More to come…