kleine serengeti

This feels like Botswana, I said to Kanti as we slowly drove north-east on the tarred main road. He in the back seat, me behind the wheel, windows open, guarding against the lurking Covid-19. Cutting through the Dinokeng Game Reserve, about 50km north of Pretoria, with unfenced bush on either side, the road was like that out from the Chobe reserve in Botswana. Big game like elephant were just as likely to step out from the bush, though at about 21 000 hectares, the carrying capacity of the reserve requires their active management. Impala and zebra however made their crossings with familiarity. I wondered if the lions of the reserve ever lolled on the edges of the road or crossed it. There is an incongruity of tarred main road and wild animal that at first is confusing, then seamless – like that in northern Botswana.