Crossing the huge dunes at Aar Pan with a cart was a fair criterion of what we should be able to do, and by the following evening, so well had the oxen pulled, that we stood at the big krantz at Koichie Ka pan, where van Reenen and I had had such a rough time a few weeks previously. There was no mud in the pan now, however, much less water, but John, who took the oxen farther east to feed, brought back some t’samma and said there was plenty in that direction. So our minds were at ease and we had quite a jolly evening under the krantz, where the leopards still resided, for traces of fresh “kills” were everywhere. However, we had a roaring fire, and I slept like a top by it till Gert woke me at daybreak to witness a sight I would not have missed for anything. The whole pan was covered with gemsbok, many hundreds of them, straggling at first, but eventually bunching into a herd that suddenly thundered across the pan like a regiment of charging cavalry, and disappeared over the dunes westward. I was delighted at the spectacle, but both Gert and the Bastard looked anxious. “If the t’samma east is not a very big patch,” said Du Toit, “we shall find that what they have not eaten they have trampled to bits!” The oxen had been brought in and had slept in their yokes all night, to prevent their straying, and we lost no time in getting underway. Unfortunately, Gert’s prognostications had been correct, for we found the whole width of the t’samma zone trampled for miles, and most of the few remaining t’samma smashed and spoiled. However, the oxen were able to get a feed that would keep them for a day or so, and as we expected to find more, we pushed on. During the three days that followed we had a most anxious and wearying time, reaching several pans where excellent Kimberlite was obtained within a foot or so of the surface, but being constantly worried and baffled by the absence of water to wash it, or t’samma for ourselves and the oxen. We were now in the heart of the desert, three long days’ trek from our waggon and t’samma patch, and simply living from hand to mouth on the few t’samma we found here and there; and, realising that we were risking rather too much, we made up our minds to return before the oxen had begun to suffer from thirst. There was a small portion of the big t’samma patch that the gemsbok had spoiled which had escaped with slighter damage, and as the little melon grows rapidly, we hoped to find refreshment at this spot; but our bad luck held, for a troop of big baboons cleared out of it as we drew near, and we found that the destructive brutes had torn up and smashed most of those they had not eaten, and so both man and beast had to be content with very short commons.