The Richtersveld Conservancy is a community based tourism project. We visited Eksteenfontein last year and met Volenti, who's in charge of their little tourism bureau. She is absolutely passionate about children and nature and therefore very keen to help me with the logistics, as she did last year when 2 boys of the local school took us into the veld to teach us about bush food. This time round, we visit a 'veepos' or place in the mountains where shepherds live, and meet Koos and Sarah. We also meet Hennie in town who is passionate about bush food and bush medicine and a group of children performs the 'Nama Stap' for us. It's a dance which is part of a coming of age ritual for young girls.

After a restful night under the stars, we visit the school with Enya and James to talk about Kids of Nature. The intention is to establish a first contact with the learners and teachers and to collaborate to find ways of brining nature into the school, but also the homes of the children. At first the learners look rather uneasy, but when James simulates a chasing cheetah, the whole classroom stands up to cheer him. The children surround him and some even stand on their desks! I'm not quite sure if the teacher was impressed with my tactics though...

Enya and James love the campsite with its matjieshuise. There are no mats yet, but Enya pretends it's her home and in the evening, they light a campfire and watch the starts above them.

We love camping and have a fantastic set-up, but everything takes so much more time. At home, I just put the dishes in the dishwasher, the laundry in the washing machine and everything is readily available as I open cupboards or wardrobes. At the camp, everything is done by hand and every pot and pan is neatly organised or it doesn't fit into the allocated spaces anymore. Not to mention the time that goes into setting-up and breaking down the camp... Also, we usually camp in places where there are no facilities, so our water consumption is monitored very closely and all electronic equipment must be recharged during the day through our solar panels. Today it's our last night at Eksteenfontein and the water levels in the tank show that it's time to go. We have a capacity of 120L in the trailer and 40L in the car. For 5 people during 5 days, this means 6.4L per person per day for all drinking, cooking, washing (including laundry and dishes)... It's a very effective course in resource management!