Uncle Louwtjie and Auntie Nancy Nel are almost just as part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park as the gemsbok and camel-thorn trees. Not to mention their Ford bakkie with more than a million miles on the clock. Karlien Roos dropped in.

People who go camping at Mata-Mata in the Kgalagadi probably know Louwtjie and Nancy Nel. Octogenarians both, they have been camping on the same stand beneath the same old camel-thorn tree for yonks.

Once they’ve settled in, they are in no hurry.

“You see,” says Louwtjie, “we’ve been coming here for twenty years and we camp for more than a month at a time, as long as it is out of season.

“Sometimes we are all on our own, with only nature as company.” 

Louwtjie, who occupies himself with research about unusual episodes in the Boer history, says there is nowhere else he can think more clearly than right here in the open spaces of the Kgalagadi; here where sand dunes and camel-thorn trees speak to you and reveal their deepest secrets.

Yes, the silence here is sometimes so absolute, you can almost hear God breathe, Nancy muses.

They are people who refuse to grow too old for their lifestyle. Furthermore, they are grateful that they can still enjoy nature’s goodness daily.

Nancy walks with difficulty, but that doesn’t complicate their camping life, because the personnel of Mata-Mata have become so attached to “Grandpa and Grandma Nel” that they pitch camp and come in daily to help with the washing, cooking and tidying.

“We have come to know and care for each other over the years,” Louwtjie remarks.