Namibia continues to amaze us with how diverse the vegetation, landscapes and cultures are. Quad biking and Sandboarding (Snowboarding on sand) were definate highlights from Swakopmund. We then also did an "off the beaten track" route by going to the North west of the country (almost to the Angolan border), and even purchased some Mopani worms and saw bushman paintings while in the area. En route to the Caprivi, we drove through Khadoum National Park and had to virtually beg borrow and steal petrol after the heavy 4x4 going sucked our petrol tanks dry. No, Brett has not yet "picked-up" any of the local offerings; although there was this German girl who kept "running" into us wherever we went!
Daily GPS co-ordinates:
S 22 40.761 E14 31.538 - Swakop
S - Windhoek
S 21 14.078 E 15 44.444
S 20 26.629 E 14 27.259
S 19 08.421 E 13 49.112 - Ongongo near Sesfontein
S 18 04.692 E 14 26.139
S 18 48.727 E 16 56.322 - Etosha
S 19 14.311 E 17 43.068 – Tsumeb
S 19 17.420 E 19 19.687 – Omataku
S 19 21.387 E 20 36.385
S 19 06.464 E 20 42.339 – Sigareti
S 18 27.136 E 20 43.963 – Khadoum camp
S18 06.979 E 21 40.204 - Ngepi
Average petrol price - R3.80 / litre - Central
- R4.50 / litre - North East
Average accomodation cost (Backpackers) - R50 pppn
Average accomodation cost (camping) - R45 pppn
Average Accomodation (bush camping) - less than 1 beer and a plate of mielie meal
Our next stop, Swakopmund, proved to be great fun! After settling into our backpackers and checking out the town, we promptly set out to book our quadbiking and sandboarding. We waisted no time and were off into the dunes on our quads that very same afternoon (Thanx for the pressie Ma and Rich!). What an adrenalin rush as we pushed our bikes to the limit (yes, even Lou did!). We jumped and spinned and skid and went as high onto the dunes as possible before flooring it back down again. We were covered in sand by the time we got back to the hostel and a shower was very necessary. Our evening was spent at the local bar/club, Rafters, where we drank and "danced the night away".
We were awake again at dawn (as seems to be our pattern) and had a bit of a lie in before we headed to the dunes for...SANDBOARDING!!!!!!! Our vocabulary was greatly reduced to WICKED, WOW AND F*@k!!!! Dune 7 had no control over us as we got the hang of things really quickly. Our first ascent onto the top of Dune 7 felt like the hike we did at Sossusvlei and we were panting in anticipation. After a quick do's and don'ts and this is how to wax your board speech from our quasi RSA/Aus/Himalayan/Nepolese surfing instructor chick, we hit the dune. The only bummer was that once you got down (fun), you had to go all the way back up again (ouch, thighs!) We also had a few attempts at boarding on our bellies at 60 and 80km/h respectively, That was also cool, but the stand boarding beat it all. After a well deserved lunch we headed back to the hostel for a bath... and a sleep!
Our quick stop in Windhoek (gee, it really was on the way north, wasn't it!) was basically an "admin and get cars fixed" stop. We had dinner at the local Joe's Beer House and filled our bellies with good redmeat. We have been missing that, as we are doing some off the beaten track routes where shops are scarce (no, soya mince doesn't count!).
We bush camped outside of Omaruru on our way to Sesfontein. This was a slightly less successful effort. We were camping in a river bed next to the road, but not inside any fences. After dark we heard a car drive past, turn around and then come back. "Goeienaand Meneer, is daar 'n probleem?", the man enquired. Here we go! Luckily Brett could convince him that we were harmless and not involved in cattle poaching.
The next day saw us driving to Brandeberg and Twyfelfontein where we viewed Bushmen paintings approximately 5000years old. Daz managed to convince the caretaker of the Petrified Forests to let us camp on his property for a beer and some pap.
Our drive to the Ongongo Spring community camp was gorgeous and we saw herds of wild gemsbok and springbok all along the way, roaming freely among the cattle and goats. Ongongo had an oasis in the middle of nowhere, with crystal clear water falling into a pool at the top of a gorge. There was even a turtle, sorry terepin, family that enjoyed the coolness of the water with us as be bathed in the heat of the day. Here we hung up the hammocks that Brett's mom had sponsored us for the first time and chilled.
We drove another scenic route to Opuwo (where we had an ice cold Frostie) and then onto Okahao. The road was littered with goats and cattle and we bushcamped somewhere inbetween.There were many nomads in this area, so we found an obscure little road (off the obscure little road that we were on!) and drove until we felt far enough away from everything that we could see. We heard three lots of jackal litterally metres from our tents during the night. It gave us a sense of security, almost as if they were our watchdogs, and we rested well.
As we were having breakfast, watching the sun smile on a new day, we noticed that the trees looked very dead. Soon we saw a huge, big worm crawling into our campsite.. and then another... and then more! There were millions around us: In trees on the ground, on our tents... We had slept in a goldmine of tourist food: Mopani Worms!!!!! (I have to admit to not harvesting any for the sheer grossness of the act!)
We purchased a few dried ones in Oshakati.. enough said.
While in Oshakati, we saw people selling strips of what we like to believe was beef, in the market. Against all the rules of health we were taught, we opted to purchase some of the braaid meat for N$2-50 (and have not been sick yet!) On we drove to Etosha. The drive seemed more of what I had pictured Africa to be like: Animals on the main roads, small villages and the rural-off-the-beaten-track feel.
We reached Etosha just before dark. Daz and Lou went on ahead as we had to get to reception before they closed. This turned out to be the perfect time to argue with a parks official about the speed that we were going, but eventually got to the office in time. (Never argue with people who can measure their exact speed on GPS!). We mananged to set up camp before dark.
Our day in Etosha was great! We saw a feeding frenzy as black backed jackals went wild about something that they had either killed or found. Later we came across a group of vultures pecking at a zebra carcass. This was, of course, before the spotted hyena came and stole it from under their noses. And so another day came to an end as we settled into a cool new bakcpackers in Tsumeb (been open since March 2002).
Daz and Brett did some more routine maintenance on the cars - the thought is rather prevent than have to cure later. We ended up spending 2 nights at Mousebird Backpackers (in Tsumeb) while we just chilled a little. At this backpackers we met some people who were taking a short holiday, from there normal job of running a bush camp in the Kavango / Caprivi area (Ngepi Camp). They suggested we look them up when we arrive in the area..........
We also at this point decided to do a little "detour" to go and look at a traditional "San" village (Bushmen people for those of you who don't know), which was on the road to Tsumkwe. The Omataku Valley Rest Camp turned out to be really special as we learned more about how these remarkable people lived / still live. Brett (who's starting to look like Kingsly Holgate with his beard) and Darren (looking like a beach bum with his peroxided hair) went on a three hour bush walk and were shown the various plants, bugs, berries etc these people use for their evening meals, traditional remedies and even their own home made love potions.
Lou, in the meanwhile, was taken on a village tour where she was shown how they make fire, what they ate, how to make necklaces, where they live etc.
We again decided to "ammend" our route and decided that instead of heading back to the main road we would head for the Khaudom National Park. The Lonely Planet described it as a rustic, untouristy game park where you can see everything that Etosha has to offer. They however required at least 2 self sufficient 4x4's to travel in convoy with enough food and water for three days. It sounded like a cool adventure and so we headed East, planning to stock up in Tsumkwe for our sojourn into this unchartered territory.
Imagine our surprise when we got to Tsumkwe and there was NO petrol for sale. The local municipality had drums full of the stuff but no amount of bribing and pleading could get them to part with their "liquid gold". Whats more, the terrain in this park was apparently thick beach sand, which would be sure to suck our tanks dry.
Anyway to cut a long story short, after a few hours, we got the guy at the department of water affairs to part with 50 litres for R250 (5 bucks a litre!) and we quickly decided to get "the hell out of Dodge" as soon as we could.
The 50km road to the park was corrugated in places and thick sand in others and we were only averaging about 30 km/h. It was getting dark so we decided to bush camp just next to the road. It was a beautiful evening and we made a monster camp fire and felt quite content and safe. Imagine our shock the next morning when we realised that the big "indentations" in the sand were actually elephant spoor and we found some relatively fresh droppings about 300m away. We had camped right in the middle of an elephant track. Whats more when we started driving again, about 1km from our bush camp site, we came across some very fresh (3 hours), and very large Leopard spoor. In fact when the game ranger overtook us (we now know that the corrugations are formed by these guys driving so fast on these roads), he stopped and GPS'ed the mark because he was so impressed at how fresh the spoor was. Anyway no harm done and it actually feels like quite an adventure now !
Within the Park (the start of the park was no more than a little heap of stones that said "Welcome to Kaudom" - no fence or anything!) we could see the descruction of the obviuosly large number of elephants that were roaming around. In this very thick bush, there were just fallen trees lying everywhere. We even had to get out our car and move one out of the road at one point.
The cars used more petrol than expected and when we got to the Northern camp in the park, we once again found ourselves begging for petrol. This time it was a lot easier and they lent us the petrol which we had to return to the Mahango Game park at the Botswana border (which was on our way)
In the end the park was a little dissapointing becasue of how thick the bush was. There is however definately lots of wildlife around and another trip to Khaudom in the future is on all our itineries.
We headed for Caprivi and looked up Ngepi camp, which was pretty close to Poppa falls. We arrived to a stunning river frontage lodge (on the Okavango River) and a camp site full of overlanding trucks. It was quite fun to mingle with other young people again and we were entertained by their various drinking and bar games. We enjoyed the place so much that we ended up spending 5 days at Ngepi. The best way to describe our time here would be to quote from the book that Darren is reading at the moment (The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien):
"Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have, and days that are good to spend , are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway"
We had a really relaxing time and met some interesting people and thoroughly enjoyed being so close to nature (we were woken every morning to the sound of the fish eagles cry and the grunt of Hippo in the water just in front of our river side campsite).
For the first time our little group decided to split up. Brett was very keen on driving through the Caprivi strip (with the army convoy) while Daz and Lou wanted to head South into Botswana to do a Mokoro trip through the delta (a canoe trip in one of those old wooden "dug-out" canoes). The plan was to meet 5 days later in Maun, Botswana.............
Brett’s Nam Tale
I left Daz and Lou, and Ngepi, to join the convoy across the Caprivi Strip which is something I've always wanted to do. Initially I was about 7th in the convoy but that wasn't going to last long because I'd decided to reserve any speed Mr Jiggles had, in case someone from Boksburg turned up wanting to dice.
The drive was pretty uneventful except for the army-coloured Hilux, machine gun-mounted Caprivi escort, trying to get me to go faster because after 45 mins of driving I was already stone last. The 200km's took about 3 hrs but it meant I didn't have to wait at the police cordon on the other side while they searched vehicles, they just waved me through and said 'Long drive, sir!'. Cheeky buggers.
I needed to ask a local how to get to my planned campsite because the municipality had removed all signs that were not registered with them. That meant I drove up and down a dusty road for about 30km's. The local I asked hopped in the car and showed me the way to Nambwa. He ended up taking me to the Shangali Mission Station on the Kwando River. After chatting to the missionary guy, Helmut Berg, for about 15min he offered to let me stay the night. I got lunch and dinner and a evening rubber duck ride down the Kwando looking out for crocs, hippo and elephant. All free of charge! And he turned out to be someone with a wealth of knowledge about most of southern Africa as he'd been travelling since the age of 12. The mission station had literally been carved into the bush, with hippos about 200m downstream and elephants walking in the crop fields just behind the place. The evening was filled with sounds of elephants gorging on the crops and locals chasing them with whips cracking and fiery torches burning.
He took me to the reserve across the river early the next morning. The place is very wild and not very well visited by tourists because of the Caprivi's violent past. It was awesome. We saw a few hippo and elephant, impalas and interesting birds. Chatted to some Free State farmers camping on Nambwa Island who were telling us about 6 elephant in their camp that night, baboons being chased by a leopard about 40m from the campfire. Wild place. Beautiful.
Helmut spotted 6 young male elephants about 30m into the bush as we were leaving the area. We couldn't get a decent view from thc car so we walked a bit closer only to get scared off by a lone bull elephant grazing away from the others. That race to the car is one I would not have wanted to lose (we were closer to the elephant than the car)! But the elly had been just as startled when he spotted us and gapped it in the direction of his group rather than us. It was a close one. I seem to be developing a habit of being chased by elephant, hey Jonty!
I ended up staying another night with Helmut and his family because the day had gotten late with all the excitement. They spoilt me rotten in those 2 days. I got a contact name of a friend of theirs in Katimu Mulilo to see if they could accomodate me. I met them at the Hippo Lodge where they were renting a bungalow and they welcomed me with a massif t-bone steak and cold beer. I pitched my tent on their lawn and after talking to Jacque about his 30 yrs in the Caprivi, chasing and shooting, farming with, and living with elephants around him, I got to bed really late.
The Caprivi is still very wild, and it's an untouched piece of the Africa that a few still dream of. The game roams free and it made my heart very glad to have found the Africa that I'd fallen in love with. I will be back.