Meet the Bushmen of the Kalahari, Kgalagadi National Park
Awol Tours run a tour that takes you from Cape Town through Ceres and Namaqualand to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park on the border with Botswana to meet members of the native Komani San/ Bushmen tribe. This hunter-gatherer tribe live in many respects in the same way they have for centuries – in perfect harmony with the desert environment of the Kalahari.
The tour takes you to visit the home and gallery of the late bushman artist, Vetkat Regopstaan Kruiper (Fat Gut Stand Up Straight Creaper) where his drawings and painted ostrich eggs are displayed.
Accommodation is with the bushmen in their camp, Imbewu. Days are spent with them “sitting under the camelthorn trees, talking and learning”. You learn about the the lifestyle, cultural practices and beliefs of the Bushmen and are invited to participate in their daily routines – from finding kalahari truffles in the dunes, cooking, building bomas, collecting fire wood and jewellery making from ostrich eggs, leather and wood.
In the evenings sit around the campfire and listen to the stories and wisdom of the elders, their music and enjoy cooking and eating the evening meal with them. Sleep is under the stars, unless it rains, which it probably won’t much, if at all, in which case you will sleep in one of their bomas or in tents.
For more info and to book a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Note: The starting point for full tour is Cape Town. It is also important to note that such tours do not exploit. The Komani are protected by the Kgalagadi National Park, but are also owners of 580ha of the Park, and benefit from tourism as well as the freedom to hunt and live their traditional lives.
| More info on the quaint town of Kuruman | More info on the Kalahari area |
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