The distance your bed linen treks to be laundered is part and parcel of bushveld logistics says Glynn O’Leary, CEO of Transfrontier Parks Destinations (TFPD), when talking about the peculiarities of a bushveld supply chain.
My heart sinks every time I have to fill in a form. Physical address? Area? Surely these are simple questions for an eco-luxury Game Lodge in a Transfrontier Park?
The answer is a good South Africanism: “Ja-Nee.”
Take !Xaus Lodge (pronounced with a palatal “click” or as “Kaus”). To satisfy supplier databases, we give our address as “Dune 91, off the Auob River Road, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park”. In practice this means that when you come to visit us, you drive into the Kgalagadi, and up the Auob River Road. We’ll meet you at Kamqua Picnic site, and take you over 91 red sand dunes in a 4×4, ‘til we find the lodge at the edge of a large saltpan. Aha, say many ‘clever’ forms: that’s not a proper address. What’s the street name? Oh for goodness sake, this is a wilderness destination.