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Kalahari Sunset Safaris

The Hardbattles in Ghanzi, a short History

Andrea Hardbattles father was policeman from Yorkshire; in fact the Hardbattles are still in Yorkshire and Lancashire today. He came out to Africa in 1899 and after he was destined to return to England he decided he had not seen enough of Africa and became Policeman for Ngamiland, based in Tsau. Here he built a police station, and patrolled the entire area on donkey, by 1920 he was already starting to speculate with cattle and bought a farm in Ghanzi to the south.

He moved there soon after and after twenty years took a Bushmen wife, Andrea was the first born, closely followed by two brothers and a sister.

Andreas grandmother was a full bushman, and from what Andrea remembers of her "very short, but taught me everything I know today about the bush veldt here in Ghanzi on our farmland."

" We would be out all day and sometimes over night gathering veldt foods, my father always worried but I never came to any harm. It was always traumatic having to leave my grandmother to have to go to school in Oeliefantskloof."

At 15 Andrea was sent to England to finish school, and this brought a whole new set of challenges, not least of which was suddenly having to look after her younger siblings. But the lessons of the bush were never far from her mind, nor was her grandmother. Returning after almost twenty years with a family of her own, she now had the opportunity to share with her children the things she had only told them about as bedtime stories.

Now Andrea wishes to invite you to her farm to share in a few of the exciting facets of day to day bushmen life, an experience that all people living on the farm contribute towards in some small way whether with knowledge or dancing skills, singing, tracking, or craft making.

Kalahari Sunset Safaris Ltd. © 2007. All rights reserved.
P.O Box 651 Ghanzi, Botswana, Southern Africa.
00 267 721 55 259.