Today is the day I leave Tswalu. Half of me feels devastated at the thought, the other half is longing to be back home with Louise and Jack. And both halves have a hangover.

My flight out isn’t until mid-afternoon so I can take my time over breakfast and packing. When I eventually leave, I’m surprised to see Barry and Josh still waiting to be picked up at the crossroads. Wouter or Richard should have been past an hour ago. It MUST have been a good braai….

We say our last goodbyes then Pat and I make for the kraal. On the way, I drop in at Gus’s for my hat (strangely it was exactly where I looked for it last night) but there’s no sign of Gus.

When we arrive at the kraal it’s quiet. Very quiet. Nobody has seen or heard from Gus, Dylan, Wouter or Richard. I get flashbacks of a concoction they called a Springbok…..

There’s nothing to be done so I catch up with my blogs and it’s not until much later that dispatches start coming in. It turns out that the troops were mobilised last night after a gang of thieves went on the run on Tswalu. Apparently they crashed through the West fence whilst being pursued by the police and, once the Tswalu team had been alerted, they were tracked down by the Scouts et al. They’d covered more than 20km and I felt a little sorry for them- only another 140km and they’d have been home and dry. (At least they’ll have had the ‘dry’ bit.)

To top it all, Gus then informs me that, on his return, he was called straight to the airstrip and ended up shooting a Bat-Eared Fox with suspected Rabies.

All this missed excitement drives home one clear message:- my Kalahari adventure is over! It gives me a strange, hollow feeling.

Before I leave, I’m taken to Motse and am grateful for the opportunity to say goodbye to Nicky Oppenheimer. I try to thank him for an experience that would have been utterly unimaginable to me a year ago but the words fall far, far short.

From Motse, it’s straight to the airfield. I’m getting flown to Upington in the helicopter and, seeing as it’s just Johnny (the pilot) and me, I get a front seat.

It’s a truly awesome way to take my leave of a truly awesome place.