Learning history, and more, on a walk with some difficult footpaths

One evening, Jes took us on a history walk to see some remains of Bakwena houses and the drystone walls that had surrounded the setting. These Bakwena were Bantu invaders from South Africa who displaced the  Bakgalagadi and Basarwa people who had been living there. They, in turn were displaced by the Tswana.

We brought one of the dogs with us: it was very happy, as you can imagine. We all added to the tracks in the sand.

The walk began on a wide sandy track. Jes stopped and showed us these leopard tracks. And said with some amusement that one person he'd brought here had immediately wanted to go back to the car when he was shown leopard tracks.

We branched off the wide track, as you can see in the first picture, and walked towards the hill.
So far, so easy. But then the footpath up the hill was quite a different proposition. You had to know it was there in order to find it. 

As you can see from the beginning of it, here at the bottom of the hill. We scrambled up, avoiding the thorny branches of the vegetation and undergrowth. Fun though.

At the top we found the remains of the village. The big wall was very impressive.  Jes was dismayed though, to find all the remains in worse shape than when he was last here. We all wondered who would bother to come all the way up here to take stones.

Here is the remains of the kgotla (the public meeting place for discussion and decision making). Jes thinks that this one was the women's kgotla.

Down again onto the easier, sandy track. And the evidence of sticky undergrowth all over my shoes and trousers. Thank goodness they are old trousers on the way out. I don't think I would ever have been able to pick out all the bits that stuck into me for the rest of the walk.

We were shown some more tracks. This time they were of baboons - overlaid with leopard. Evidently the leopard was stalking the baboons - which leopards like to eat.

The sun was setting and it was time to return to the car. Baga Motsi had been waiting by the car to deter any thieves from taking it or its contents. He was very happy to see us at last. Of course! What a nice man he is.