We’ve seen and done so much, it feels impossible to record it all! I’m writing this sat under the enormous orange boulders of ‘Elephant Camp’ in the morning shade, after our first night in the roof top tent.

The silence is incredible. The next humans are some 5km away and all we can hear are birds, baboons and other unidentified animals. There is no phone reception and in the time we’ve been here, we’ve not even seen a plane go overhead. It feels very ‘out there’ and exactly what we came to experience…

Picking up the truck was a smooth experience and after a few kilometres of ‘city traffic’, we joined the much quieter main road north out of town. Within ten minutes, we had to slow right down to let an enormous baboon cross the duel carriageway! 

There was a brief panic when after stopping at a petrol station in a small town, we couldn’t get the vehicle started again. Thankfully, eventually it bust into life and we were off again. 

The final 45km to get to this camp was completely off road! About 40km of a big, wide gravel road, during which we passed by an actual giraffe! Just munching on a tree by the side of the road. We stopped and watched for a few minutes before carrying on. We passed a couple of other cars before arriving at some buildings. then after meeting the owner at her farm, we continued another 5km on a single rough track (thank goodness for our 4×4 training back in Wales!). And now, here we are in what can firmly be referred to as ‘the middle of nowhere’! At the end of the rough track, camped up underneath some wild boulders and cliffs. We have an outdoor toilet and shower, situated between two big boulders, a fire pit and each other…

There was a family of baboons watching us arrive at camp, but they seemed content to watch and left us in peace. Every single bird is new to us. The colours and sounds are all vibrant and there are so many of them! Our current favourite are the colourful ‘lovebirds’.

When the stars came out, all we could do was crane out necks back and stare. More stars than you could ever imagine. Eventually, due mostly to exhaustion rather than wanting to, we climbed up onto the roof of the van and into our little tent. It felt much safer being up there rather than on the ground with who knows what. Initially, baboons hooted and all sorts of strange bird noises filled the air, but once they quietened down, there was no need to sleep on my good ear. It was complete silence outside… The temperature certainly dropped, but thankfully not as low as the freezing levels we’d been warned of.