After gassing up and a quick lunch in Solitaire we completed the rest of the (very bumpy) drive to our accommodations for the next two nights — Desert Camp. We were assigned the last unit on the end, #228, which suited us fine. All the chalets include an outdoor kitchen area with a fridge and braai, and were also fairly private. We never heard any noise except chirping lizards and some occasional wild animal calls.
We unpacked our bags, washed a few clothing items and relaxed in the shade near the pool reading for about two hours. The pool area was the only spot with wifi, and it was very spotty during our stay – often we would get a ‘no IP addresses available’ error due to too many people connected – especially when a bus load of people were dropped off at the restaurant on our second afternoon.
We split a Savannah Dry Cider (with lemon of course), took some photos of the sunset, then drove ourselves to an extensive buffet dinner at the Sossusvlei Lodge about 4km up the road.
We had booked the full room and board, so we had an automatic dinner reservation and a set table when we arrived. The buffet was massive. A ton of sides, salads, desserts and (my personal favorite) the game meat station! Eric went with Kudu (still our favorite) while I got Impala (very mild) and Ostrich (just okay). We split bottle of dry rose – 1/3 of which we brought back to the room with us.
Breakfast was great, buffet style as well with lots of choices and an egg station where you could order omelets and fried eggs.
For our second night at dinner, Eric had Blesbok (great, tender with lots of flavor) and warthog (like white pork, mild), while I tried Oryx (tasty) and Hartebeest (also really good but like oryx better). We split a bottle of Chenin Blanc this time and liked it better than the rose. We still took 1/3 back to the room so I could drive us home.
On Tuesday, there were tons of tours leaving at 7am, so the restaurant was empty by 7:05am and although the omelet station was abandoned, our waiter got someone over to cook us up some eggs. For both breakfast and dinner we were able to eat on the outdoor terrace.
After breakfast we checked out and started the drive north to our next adventure, but not before snapping a few photos of the wildebeest hanging out around our camp.
