THE KALAHARI’S GREEN HEART

Lightening flashed through peach and lavender clouds as we arrived at Khutse Game Reserve on the tail end of a storm. Flights of yellow-green butterflies billowed over the puddles which slopped thick, red mud up the sides of our 4x4s. This was our first night on a two-and-a-half-week trip in Botswana, with a nine-strong group of family and friends. The happy mix included visitors from Cyprus and Ireland, and I’d briefed everyone to expect some mud and rain. No one, me included, had been to Botswana in the rainy season so mid-February was a gamble, but I was looking for something new.

Someone once