Thursday 2023/01/05

Palmwag – Palmwag Concession Campsite C6 (Blackridge)

Leisurely start after an actually quiet and yet a little restless night.

At the gate to the Palmwag Concession we ask about the lion, but he was only heard here and not sighted.

Today we're driving the small round trip of the day drive – it's a bit of a 4x4 training course. Nice landscapes and giraffes at a waterhole. Then we continue to the west and later north – great landscapes, again and again. Herds of springbok, a few oryx, birds.

The landscape becomes more and more inhospitable the further north we go. The campsites (without any infrastructure), where you can stay overnight, can hardly be made out and except for #3 (and #7, which we see the next day) without shade and not protected from the wind.

At campground #6 we meet Markus and Karin and decide to stay there, even if a strong wind promises a restless night. It's storming and we feel a bit like we're on Mars.

Nevertheless, the sunset is wonderful, albeit with long pants and down jackets.

We also tighten our tent with a line in the hope that the tie rods will then hold up better. Around 11 the wind dies down a little, from 1 o'clock in the night it's completly quiet.

Note on the Palmwag Concession:
Fees are collected only at the Palmwag Gate and at the entrance from Sesfontein. When driving into the concession, you can easily pay for just one night's stay and, if you overstay, pay for the additional nights when you leave. A Swiss guy who stayed in the Palmwag Concession for over a week also told us that upon entering from Sesfontein he was told that he could stay anywhere in the concession (even though the official rules are different!). Since, apart from one or two campsites, none of them are really marked and, with the exception of Elephant Song, have no infrastructure or are even fenced, it somehow makes sense. You can also exit the Palmwag Concession north towards Puros and there doesn't even seem to be a gate there. However, it wouldn't be nice if this would be used to save the affordable costs of staying in the concession.