Etosha

Brett: We left later than expected and were rushed getting to Etosha National Park and to our camp before the gates closed. We saw elephants, but couldn't stop for long. We camped at Halali, which was nice (but very full) and had a massive braai. The first day, we explored the park to the west of Halali. We saw black rhino crossing the road right in front of us, which was awesome, and some secretary birds in the morning. We saw very little game in the afternoon and was I starting to feel exhausted from moving so fast and having to continually watch the temperature gauge. Our second night was at Okaukuejo, our last night with the Kerrs as they needed to head for Windhoek to sort out a few things on their car. The Kerrs made us a cake at dinner using their Hobb oven - we took it down to the fantastic water hole, where we saw two black rhinos in a stand off - they were literally singing to other - very strange. In the morning, I heard a lion killing something and rushed down to the waterhole. It was just before sunrise and the lions were just finishing eating by the time I got there, although it was still difficult to see in the low light. We said goodbye to the Kerrs and headed out on our morning game drive. The Kerrs had been desperate to see a male lion with big mane, and as we headed towards a waterhole near Halali we saw two female and one male lion lying under a tree. We texted the Kerrs but weren't sure if our message got through. A few minutes later they turned up anyway, got a perfect spot, and just then the lions all stood up. The male lion seemed to have a horrible taste in his mouth, and was yawning and licking his lips and showing his teeth - the Kerrs were going bananas at the thrill of the perfect massive maney lion doing a series of classic Lion King poses - a first for them!

With 10 minutes to spare before our permit ran out, we spotted Mike and Emma in the car park at Namutoni. We had last seen then in DRC before they headed to Kinshasa for repairs, and they looked a little disheveled  We got a very short version of their hectic two weeks in Kinshasa, getting the car fixed and getting their Angolan visas. They had a very tense argument to avoid a big bribe at Matadi, which sounded terrible and not something Mary would have coped with, and they were then rushed through Angola with a super-fast police escort (even though they had a letter in Portugese to say they didn't need one), and narrowly avoided a massive accident with a truck which probably would have written them off. They had been camping at police stations along the way, where exhausted, and hadn't showered in a week or so. They were really excited to be in the land of plenty and were busy enjoying the magnum ice-creams at the camp shop. We really wanted to change our plans to spend the evening catching up with them, but we couldn't make it work - horrible to be on a schedule.

We drove on to Roys Camp (north east of Grootfontein), which is a great spot with cool decorations. We treated ourselves to the buffet dinner at the campsite - bobotie, sweet potato mash, chicken wings and many different types of salad (for Mary) and mavla pudding. Yum! If you're ever in the area and need enormous portions of delicious food, it's definitely the spot to go. They had the radio on a local station playing Afrikaans "treffers" so we got to listen to a few classics that we recognised (thanks Simon!) as well as some new ones that were actually quite catchy....you know you've been on the road too long when you're bopping along to Kurt Darren's "Grooter as Groot".

Mary: I woke up with a sudden urge to get rid of clutter, so we left our rubbish TentCo awning on a table in the campsite with a note if anyone wanted it - it just took too long to set up, and couldn't cope with any wind. In Rundo, someone decided to help us with the mission by breaking into our car and stealing our kindle, broken laptop, sat phone and all our chargers - not really the stuff we were thinking of getting rid of. We were parked at a busy Engen petrol station, right in front of the door to the shop, and had popped in for less than 5 minutes when it happened. We had locked the car and Brett had checked out the window twice. Someone had broken into our car with a screwdriver and knew exactly what they wanted to take. Brett reacted very quickly when he saw the door was unlocked, but the security guards, staff and other people around pretended they hadn't seen anything. We were able to disable the phone and kindle and the laptop was broken, so they got nothing of value, but it is really irritating, expensive and inconvenient to us. What a welcome back to Southern Africa! For the next trip, we would design a padded charging box for our electronics, with a slam lock.

There was more nothing we could do about it, so we headed for Ngepi Camp ($23) near Divundu on the Okavango River in the Caprivi. It is a proper backpacker place, with funny signs and nice campsites on the river. We made a bonfire and listened to the hippos close by - by this stage of the trip, we got over the loss quickly - it really is just stuff (and Brett has 2 backup copies of the photos hidden in different places).

Africat

Brett: In the morning we left via Outjo, which is a really nice town, and then on to Africat / Okonjima, another treat from 2by2 Holidays and the place where my folks had adopted a cheetah for a year for my birthday a few years earlier. It was a really superb place, with good food, an amazing view from our room and a hot indoor shower! We tried our best not to laugh when two Dutch guests jumped into the freezing swimming pool to escape the tame warthog wandering around the property.

Africat have rehabilitated 1000 cheetahs and leopards and reintroduced 900 of those back into the wild. They have an impressive 200 square km and growing. Our first activity was cheetah tracking on foot - these ones were here permanently and had radio collars, which the trackers could use to tell their direction and distance using a hand held receiver. We found the cheetahs sleeping next to the lake and because they were semi-tame were able to quietly creep up really close the them - about 3 meters away. At our sun-downer drive that evening, we stopped for drinks in a wide open plain. Suddenly, the tracker nervously told us to all get back in the game drive vehicle - about 5 minutes later, we could see two cheetah stalking up to us from the direction he had been looking - no idea how he saw the cheetah from so far away! The cheetah came to within about 15 meters of us to investigate.

Mary: After a lovely dinner, we spent an hour at the hide next to the waterhole in the freezing cold. We saw some nervous black-backed jackals that would come closer and then run away. There were also two cute little porcupines (first time we have ever seen them), only a meter or two away. They were eating next to the water and would rattle their bristles every time the jackals came near.

We did the 4x4 leopard tracking the next morning. We picked up a signal from a leopard quite high up on the hill, where we couldn't get to. The second leopard one took quite a while to find as it kept moving around. It was in some thick bushes a few hundred meters off the road, so our cowboy game ranger drove over some massive rocks and smallish trees to get us closer. It started getting more dense so he chopped down a few bigger trees to make a path. While we were still quite far from the leopard we got a puncture, which he changed quickly. We suddenly got a strong signal and changed direction - we were still ducking for thick branches when we started climbing over massive rocks - bigger than anything we had driven over. After a while, we got properly stuck, with all 4 wheels in the air and the land cruiser resting with rocks under a leaf spring, the petrol tank and the prop shaft. Just as our ranger was about to get out, the tracker spotted the leopards legs and tail moving in the bushes literally 5m ahead, and our tough, rugby player sized ranger suddenly got very nervous.The leopard was lying down behind a bush but we could see it's tail flicking every now and then. We were going nowhere and after a bit of revving and trying to get off the rocks he had achieved nothing besides polishing up the prop shaft that was spinning on the rocks. After a while the leopard still hadn't moved, so he got brave and climbed out of the car, shoving rocks under the wheels. We were keeping watch and every time the leopard moved we shouted and he would jump back on the vehicle. The rocks didn't work and our only option was to use a high lift jack. We couldn't get out of the vehicle with a leopard a few meters away, so the ranger started jacking with all of us in the back, standing up to try keep tabs on the twitching leopard. He also had to half scramble under the car to get out a few massive rocks that were in the way, which was incredibly dangerous (for him) with a handful of guests standing very still on the back trying to keep an eye on the leopard a few meters away. About half way through, the leopard moved again and the ranger leapt back into the car. Finally the jacking was done, and he managed to get a big rock under the wheel. Just then, the leopard got up (ranger jumped about a meter vertically and into the car) and she walked right beside us, staring at us with agitated eyes. Once she was gone, we eventually got unstuck, but got a second puncture on the way back. This time our intrepid ranger pushed an acacia thorn into the hole to stop the leaking air and we headed back to the camp. Just as we got there, the thorn came out and the tyre went completely flat with a wheeze. Our exhausted ranger just handed the keys to one of the other staff and headed straight for the bar. Overall, probably the most exciting game drive we have been on, and so much better having these adventures in someone else's vehicle!

Not-Quite-Bush Mechanics and the Kaokoveld

Brett: We have seen quite a lot of Namibia on previous trips and really loved it. This time, we wanted to focus on the North West as we missed it last time. Entering Namibia is a big change - even the tiny Rucana has a shop in the petrol station with everything overlanders need - good steaks, vehicle spares and camping gear. We camped at Sunset Campsite ($6pp) which is was really luxurious, with firewood, hot water, a washing machine, electricity and a pool.

We woke up and left before sunrise to reach Oshakati by 7:30am where we had booked the car in at the mechanics. Oshakati is the biggest town in the area, with dozens of car places and plenty of proper shops (including Mr Price, where we stocked up on a few clean t-shirts to impress Mike & Louise when we meet them in Botswana). The Kerrs went off to get a hole in their diesel tank welded (scary stuff) as we tried to get the overheating issue sorted out.

The mechanic laughed out loud at my suggestion that it might be the head gasket, saying "On the 4Y Hilux? Impossible!". They did a pressure test and fixed 2 tiny leaks in the radiator hose that we couldn't see, replaced the radiator cap with a better quality one and filled up the system with coolant. They also replaced the spark plug tubes to prevent a slow oil leak making a mess on the engine and steam cleaned the engine, making it look shiny and new. They also managed to fit 1.5 liters of oil in the 4x4 transfer case (one of the bolts I wasn't able to loosen myself), which was weird, because there were no signs of leaks, no noise and no problems using it. We spent about 1.5 days with the mechanics and the car was still losing water - the next step would be to replace the head gasket, which would take a few days, but we were running out of time to get to Botswana and didn't want to hang around. We decided to push on and and get it fixed later - the car was still driving fine as long as we didn't push it too hard and checked the water level daily.

The campsite in Oshakati was closed (unusual in Namibia) so we drove a short way out of town and free camped on the outskirts of a massive sand dig surrounded by palm trees (S17 46.874 E15 33.239). We had a few visitors after sunset, but they all politely greeted us and then left. The area is fairly flat and the main roads are all lined with cheap bars and drinking holes - probably in a ratio of about 2 bars to each house, which was fairly depressing. The Kerrs left early and headed for the Kakaoveld, while we headed back to the mechanic for the another day.

Mary: We did some planning for the last few weeks as we were entering a completely different phase of the trip. For the first time in over a year, we had to book campsites and stick to a schedule. It was a very strange concept and was difficult to get used to not being able to stay or move on at a whim.

We headed back to the mechanics for Day 2 of the repairs and I was somewhat confused when one of the mechanics mumbled something about God and me doing a Bible reading for the staff. I didn't really know what he was talking about so just nodded and smiled. Ten minutes later the manager's wife came out and mentioned that I'd be reading Psalm 103 during the morning prayer session, but even then somehow it didn't really sink in. Suddenly all the staff got up and headed into the workshop and we all formed a circle with heads bowed. I was handed a Bible and had a quick flick through to see if I could even find the Psalms section - no luck. I flipped to the front desperately looking for a contents page but couldn't find anything useful. Eventually I had to ask the manager's wife where to find the Psalms and she got me to the right page. I was still a bit confused but looked on as the staff sang a hymn and said a prayer. Then the manager's wife announced (to a few satisfied murmurs from the staff) that they were going to be treated to a reading by one of the customers...yours truly. She pointed out which verses of Psalm 103 were required and stepped back. I was quite flustered and skimmed over the verses very quickly - fortunately there weren't any big words and it looked relatively straightforward, so I cleared my throat and dived in. I just went for it, projecting my voice to fill the big workshop. I got to the section which goes "The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed" and I did that bit with emphasis, looking a few members of the audience in the eyes. I have to say, I think I was pretty good. I got a round of applause from the staff and a pat on the back from the manager's wife who obviously cared about her employees a lot.

After a test run, and some more tinkering, the mechanics declared us fine to go on. At this point we were tired and needed to catch up on washing, so we headed back to Ruacana for another night at Sunset Campsite, where I washed everything that could be washed and we even managed to get most of it dry. 

Brett: we headed for Opuwo on roads that were so good, they had speed limits! (120km/h on tar and 100kmh on dirt). We just kept to our usual speed of 80/90 km/h  and enjoyed the magic carpet ride (yes, even in a Hilux). Opuwo is a great place for people watching. The Herero women have full, very formal dresses with triangular hats. The Himba women wear very little and are covered in a red mud. They look absolutely awesome walking through the town. 

We reached Okangwati and decided to deviate from our plan and head for Epupa Falls (we still couldn't get our head around the idea that we had deadlines). We expected no water after seeing the Cunene River at Rucana, but the falls were strong and brilliant. We squeezed into the last remaining spot at the Epupa Campsite ($22pp) with lots of other overlanders. The campsite is very posh, with a restaurant / bar hanging over the river next to the head of the falls. We had quite a few overlanders come and chat, fascinated by the number of flags on the car - our car was 10+ years older than anything else there.

We headed back to Okangwati then on the 4x4 tracks into Kaokoveld through fantastic scenery. It felt very remote, but we did meet a number of others out making the most of the school holidays. We took the Otjihaa Pass instead of the Van Zyl's pass because we weren't totally confident with the car having just come back from the mechanics. There were still some proper 4x4 sections on the route to keep it interesting, as well as the most awesome scenery. We did see someone heading for the Van Zyls pass with a Mitsubishi SUV and venter trailer - good luck! We free camped with a great view over the plains below in an extremely peaceful and remote spot (S17 51.948 E12 49.451).

We drove down to the grassy Otjiha Plains in the morning and along the Khumib and Hoarusib 4x4 trails, sometimes in the dry river bed and sometimes on the hills. It was cool to see giraffe, ostrich and buck in the wild without the fences (or fees) or game parks. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the famous desert elephants. In the afternoon, the wind picked up and created a massive dust storm. From a distance it looked like heavy rain which would have been bad, because this area is known for flash floods. We ended up camping at the Puros Community Campsite ($7pp), which is quite nice and set on an island in the river bed. The place was full of SA overlanders and of course, we hadn't booked, so we shared a spot in the staff parking with a cool Swiss/German couple, Stephan and Ulla in their almost identical car. It turned out they had bumped into Luke and Shell earlier. 

The roads back to civilization were well used and badly corrugated, with some soft sand sections. We met up with a family from Epupa Falls at the Sesfontein petrol station, which seems to be quite the meeting point being the only one in the area (although they didn't have much fuel and the ATM was empty). The Kerrs spent some time investigating an oil leak from the hub seal. We crossed the Red Line (veterinary fence) and free camped somewhere near Palmwag (S19 56.468 E13 58.853). We made a bonfire and shared out our last 4 marshmallows, talking late into the night. We heard some hoofed animals walk past in the night, but it was too cold to go out and check.

In the morning, we drove to Khorixas to stock up for the next few weeks. We booked our camping for Etosha National Park, which was surprisingly difficult and painful - we kept getting different stories about whether or not there was availability for the dates we wanted. There was a nice little lunch spot in town where we filled up on fried chicken & chips. We camped at Bambatsi Guest Farm, which was fine, but expensive at $25 - we couldn't find any places to free camp with all the fences.

Namibia

Namibia is one of the most photographic places we have been to. Our previous trip was 5 weeks with Karen and included 4 days of canoeing on the Orange River, Fish River Canyon, Richtersveld, Luderitz, Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Sossusvlei, Namib Naukluft Park, Swakopmund, Twyfelfontein, Etosha National Park and Hoba Meteorite. Pictures below.

- Oshikango - Border with Angola

- Oshakati

- Ruacana - waterfalls, hydro electric dam

- canoeing was definitely a highlight, so we would like to do that again - this time on the Kunene river

- Epupa Falls - on the Kunene river

- Kaokoland - Himbe people

- Van Zyl's Pass - 4x4 track

- Skeleton Coast National Park - deserts, shipwrecks, seals, leopards

- Cape Cross Seal Colony

- Swakopmund - relaxed coastal town with adventure sports and cafes

- Sossusvlei - petrified forest
- Namib Naukluft Park - hiking
- Sesriem
- HESS Gamma Ray Telescope

- Okonjima - Cheetah Conservation (my adopted Cheetah)

- Caprivi Strip - Ngoma Bridge border post, then to one of the many game parks (Bwabwata or Mamili or Muduma , whichever sounds nicest)

There is a long list of extras.

These are our pictures from a previous Namibia trip...