On the National Geographic Channel, there used to be an entertaining documentary about the lives and stories of Meerkats, called Meerkat Manor. On this tour, Carina felt like they had walked straight into Meerkat Manor when they went to meet the Meerkat families at the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
We awoke frighteningly early on that cold Kalahari morning and nearly froze to our seats on the way to the den sites. We wanted to reach their homes before they woke up, so that we could see them warming up (like us) and getting ready for another day’s foraging and entertaining tourists.

We arrived about 5 minutes before the first one emerged from his hole, shivering. He was the alpha male who had come out first to look around for predators, and decide if the sun was warm enough to warrant leaving the den. He quickly scurried back into the den and we could only wonder what he was telling the rest of the group, probably, “There are some very blue looking Australians outside.”

Not long after he had scurried back into the den the whole gang emerged. There were 11 of them, and they stood around in that famous Meerkat way, sizing us up. They quickly decided that we were not a threat, and allowed us to go sit next to them. But it became apparent that they only let us do this so that they could rifle through our pockets. Alas, they were disappointed to find that we had nothing worth taking. The 2nd gang of Meerkats allowed us to lay down next to them so that they could stand on our heads and have a higher vantage point to search for danger.
After our enjoyable time at the Meerkat Manor and much laughter, we went for a necessary warm bush breakfast and visited the vast, white Makgadikgadi salt pans. The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans is the best place to play around with perspective and reflections in order to take some funny and creative photographs. We were sad to leave the lovely place behind, but excited to see what was waiting for us in the rest of Africa.