No blog post yesterday because we didn’t do much (at least the Temples didn’t) and the WiFi was very ‘sketchy’. The other 3 families went on Mokoro’s but we all opted out. Firstly, we have done it before and while enjoyable it wasn’t something needing to be repeated and secondly, it was pretty windy and cold. I haven’t mentioned much about the weather in the blog posts mainly because there has been nothing remarkable about it. It is usually quite chilly in the mornings (between 2-7 degrees) and then it heats up during the day eventually getting to around 24-28 degrees. But at Guma Lagoon it felt much colder. The wind was blowing off the lagoon and straight into our accommodation or the main lodge area which made it feel pretty cold (especially in the morning).

We spent the day at the pool area which was more sheltered and we just read, played Frisbee, watching TV shows and just relaxed. It was just what I felt like and I was glad we did it. At about 3pm the group got back from the mokoro trip and unfortunately young Ben had felt unwell toward the end of the trip and he was pretty unwell the rest of the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, Lara (Stephen’s girlfriend) who also stayed behind to work also developed a similar thing and so she spent the afternoon and evening in her accommodation as well. The end result was that Chloe ended up sleeping in Stephen’s bed last night and Stephen (very generously) slept on the floor. Fortunately both Ben and Lara and slightly better today (though neither is fully recovered).

This morning we left Guma Lagoon and are now starting our long trek back home. We need to do over 2000 km in the next 4 days. Today we went from Guma Lagoon to Ghanzi (about 400 kms). It takes about an hour to get back to Etsha (nearest main road) and we had to follow the process to get out as we did to come in. We then had to re-pump up our tyres and back onto the ‘main’ road. The road was appalling for about 100 kms. Very bumpy and numerous potholes. Not really pleasant driving.

To add to the frustration, when going through one small town two of the four cars in our convoy were pulled off for speeding. Bryan & I were in the front and we were not pulled off. You can figure out who was … we’ll call them the lawbreakers in future. What was quite annoying is that the back car was waved through originally and then he stopped to wait for the 3rd vehicle and ended up getting a fine as well. As you can imagine how annoying that was. Spot fines of Pula420 and Pula320. About 25 minutes of paperwork and then we were on the road again.

There was nothing on route for lunch to be purchased and supplies are running low and so it was pretty much biscuits and Marmite for lunch for everyone. We got to Ghanzi at about 3:30pm and filled up our cars (fortunately multiple fuel stations as the first one was out of diesel) and we purchased some snacks and some lunch for tomorrow.

We are staying at Thakadu Lodge which is about 2-3 kms out of Ghanzi and about 3 kms off the main road. The lodge to get to the lodge was very bumpy and now that we are here we will do dinner here (they do have a restaurant). The accommodation is pretty basic but it has a bed and en-suite bathrooms and there is Wifi in the lodge area.

Until tomorrow …

S (because of his sacrifice of his bed last night), P, H, M & C