Botswana into Northern Namibia... sand dunes & home......

Sorry for keeping you all waiting for another blog update.  We've been out of signal and had quite an adventure in the process.  Wow, where do I start.  There's a lot to tell about the past week and a half....

Our last morning in Maun was spent up in the air in a small 5 seater plane, viewing the stunning Okovango Delta.  I would recommend this trip to most people, but beware to those of you like me who suffer from motion sickness.  Luckily Alex had the video camera and captured the whole thing, with a few glances to the back seat where I sat with my head down missing the whole 1hr trip which felt like 5hrs to me!  The funny thing too was that both the kids fell asleep after 20 minutes from the comforting drone of the engine, so all in all we didn't get great value for money on that one.  Sorry for the lack of mid-flight photo's, I was in charge of photography, and needless to say I was busy with other things.  Nevermind, after a short break at a great coffee shop near the airstrip we headed out of Maun on a good Botswana road towards the Caprivi Strip.  It was a long day of driving, and we wanted to get quite close to the border so the kids and I sat in the back watching DVD's as it got dark and left the driving and campsite searching up to Alex.  I felt him pull of the road and drive through some pretty thick bushes on a dusty dirt track.  He had found us a GREAT campsite.  The best one of the trip!  It's called Drotsky's, and it was near a town called Shakawe.  We scraped our way through some dense bush and low lying trees, only to discover a stunning clean well kept campsite.

The sites are huge, with bushes separating the sites, and most of them are right along the Okovango riverside, which we were told not to go too close to because of crocodiles and hippo's.  They weren't joking either because after parking and setting up for the night, we heard some loud hippo grunts!  It was perfect, really wild, but we felt safe in the Truck.  We made sure to get the most of the place by booking 2 nights.  Campsites in general felt pretty full with all the South Africans travelling, so we were lucky to get the 2 nights.  Both nights we made a huge campfire and sat listening to the sounds of the river & bush.

The kids loved it too because there were great paths interlacing all the campsites, and to all the ablutions as well as to the reception which had a great wooden deck & bar overlooking the river. It was tough to leave this place, but we knew Namibia was calling us with more adventures...
We crossed into Namibia with ease and headed towards Rundu, a big town on the left side of the Caprivi Strip.  Unfortunately we only got the last few kilometers of the Caprivi, we'll have to keep that for another trip - it looks interesting.  We followed a guide book that told us to head towards a great camping spot on the river, lush grass, swimming pool, electricity, bar/restaurant, boat trips, bird walks and even putt putt and volleyball!  We headed straight there ignoring all the other signs to promising campsites & lodges, only to discover that the one we were heading to had recently suffered a major flood and was still recovering. We felt sorry for them and decided to support them anyway as it was only 1 night we were looking for anyway.  We had a quick go on the putt putt course and threw a few tennis balls over the volleyball net, before settling in for the night.

After Rundu we headed west towards Ruacana Falls.  It was quite a distance on some endless straight roads, but luckily it wasn't too remote yet and we did manage to find diesel along the way and some very fresh warm bread from a roadside cafe..... ahhhh, when last have you eaten a handful of fresh white bread broken straight from a full loaf? That and some ice cold Fanta is amazing after a long day driving.  We found a place to sleep - OK, it wasn't quite a campsite like the sign suggested.  It was more of a municipal conference centre parking lot.  But with the huge pile of building sand next to where we decided to park - the kids thought this was the best campsite ever!  Nice to have a shower & toilet in the truck at this point especially.
Northern Namibia - What a spectacular part of God's creation!  Off the beaten track, but unfortunately not far enough off to scare away the rest of the South African's on their long winter holiday.  The road was very quiet, but the camping spots were pretty much full!  Ruacana Falls was a great stop for a picnic lunch.  Hippo Campsite had some great trees that the kids enjoyed climbing, before we headed back on the best road ever (seriously, it was stunning), towards Kunene River Lodge.  It was a long shot we knew, but we had to try anyway.  As we suspected, the camping at the Lodge was full, but they had one challet left for us.  We pulled the kids mattresses out of the truck and onto the floor of the chalet and realised how strange it was that our truck was actually more comfortable and spacious than this chalet.  It was great for a change though, and we were happy to get what we could get.  We enjoyed our time there, on yet another wooden deck overlooking the stunning Kunene River, at the view of Angola on the other side, realising that we've actually made it here!  This was one part of the trip that I was really looking forward to - Northern Namibia, and it was so worth it.  We chatted to a group of motorcyclists from Gauteng, swapped stories and gave them the tour of the truck.  It's great to find people who appreciate Africa and traveling as much as you do.  By 4x4, Truck, citigolf (yes, met an Australian guy, Martin traveling in a cheapie! - shared the 5th seat in Okovange flight trip plane), or Motorbike - we're all the same, love the adventure!

We decided not to splash out on another night in a chalet, so we left Kunene River Lodge after a buffet breakfast on the deck, and headed towards Epupa Falls another 3 hours further west up the river.  It was really some of the most spectacular road and scenery imaginable,  Dry and dusty for sure, but just so remote and hilly.

The local tribal people of that area made the experience dreamlike.  In the beginning when we first spotted a Himba village along the route, we thought they were all dressed like that for tourists, but after a while I realised that some places in this world have managed to stick so close to their roots that even though these strange noisy pieces of metal on rubber wheels pass them by every now and then they seem not to question life beyond their existance and they just carry on hearding their cattle and caring for their young.

Luckily we found a spot in one of the more built up villages to fill up with fuel.  The guy had to pump the fuel out manually from a big barrel, into a smaller barrel and then into our tank.  It took a while, but we all enjoyed the break from the rough road.
Epupa Falls - another spot to go back to when we've got more time.  For us time was running out, so we only managed to stay one night at the stunning campsite right at the top of the falls.  The campsite was full, but I think the friendly faces from Kaylin & Xan melted the campsite managers heart and they let us park just behind the owners house, but from inside the truck we still got a stunning view! Right next to the campsite there was a great rockpool that was totally safe to swim in.  A lot of the campsite holiday makers were filling up the swimming area, but there was still a bit of space where the local himba ladies came down to do their laundry and let their kids splash around too.

After Epupa falls we pretty much knew we were heading back home, it was just a matter of how many hours we wanted to drive during the night.  When Alex starts heading home, not much stops him.  I didn't want the trip to ever end, so we came to a bit of a compromise.  One last day of adventure in Swakopmund, then we could head home.
We headed straight to the Spur for lunch - typical South African's! We had to carboload before our adventure full afternoon of course!  We then went Quadbiking!!!!  Xan has been looking forward to Quadbiking since the start of our trip, so after convincing him that unfortunately they didn't have any "children's quadbikes", and that he'd have to ride on one with us, we were off to fit our helmets and hit the dunes!  It was spectacular.  Kaylin kept on shouting for Alex to go faster, and Xan loved watching the sandy dust that the tyres made.  It was a perfect family moment for us that I will remember for a very long time - and I'm sure if Xan has his way we'll be quadbiking a lot more together in the future.

After that adventure, we had to add another one, a bit higher and sandier......

We climbed to the top of Dune 7.  The kids were so full of energy that they almost beat us to the top (thanks to the Chico the Clowns).  Kaylin enjoyed running down the dune at top speed, but didn't enjoy the fall she had at the end, where she got sand everywhere!  I got it all on video which will be posted on the blog as soon as I've had a chance to edit it.  Again, it was really great having the shower in the truck. After a good shower and into pyjamas, the kids snuggled into our bed in the back and watched DVD's as we drove into the night towards home.

The roads are pretty good, but nothing can prepare you for the remoteness.  We drove for hours along good dirt road, without seeing another car or person.  No village, farm, Jhb 4x4 - nothing.  Well, except for some surprises of course.... We diced a few wild rabbits, foxes, buck, and even a good few Zebra's.  At one stage during the late night hours of driving, a springbok ran alongside us, going about 60km/h.  We kept him running eventually in front of our car (I think they get confused with their shadow from the headlights or something...?), which lasted a good 5 or 10 minutes.  He was rather tired by the end of that.

That night, our 2nd last night of the trip, gave us another surprise...... After a bit of a turn and a bump in the road, Max the Truck decided it was over!  We heard a huge BangCrashCrunch! And came to a quick stop (did I mention that we were in the middle of NOWHERE!!!)  Luckily the kids slept through it all and we got out to assess the damage.  I'm clueless about this kind of stuff, so check out the photo for yourself, but I thought it looked pretty serious.  

It seems that our big petrol tank that had broken on our last trip in Dec, had somehow broken off, but in the process it took with it some of the exhaust that it was attached too, as well as the outside shower compartment.  There were bits of metal sticking into parts of the axel & springs, that shouldn't be, and the exhaust pipe that was left there looks pretty bent and squashed in places.  Mmmmm, just as Alex was wondering how he was going to get us out of this fix, we heard voices coming towards us from the bushes (Yes, I got a huge fright, and Alex laughed about it lots afterwards).  To our surprise, our brake down happened to be right next to a house with two very helpful local Namibians. I know God was with us that night, protecting us & just reminding us that in every adventure we need to rely on Him.  So after about 20 minutes of a bit of hammering and tying things together with wire and rope, Alex and the helpful angels (disguised as Namibian farm workers of course) got us back on track towards home.

The rest of the drive back home was quiet, apart from endless nursary rhymes sung by Kaylin and Xan asking what every road sign meant and why the 'cats eyes' in the middle of the road change from white to red etc etc.  I can't begin to imagine the amount of knowledge that our kids have gained in their 4 & 5 yr old brains.  We feel completely blessed to have experienced Africa in this way, right from when we left in December and headed up to Nairobi, and then now these past 3 weeks bringing Max back home.

We're home now, with good internet and reliable electricity.  The kids had a 1hr bath, and we're all stocked up with fresh fruit and veggies (no more tinned stuff for a while!).  Max is resting outside in the driveway, before we take him back to Knysna on Friday for some TLC.  I'll edit the video and post it up on the blog soon for those who are interested.

Hope you've enjoyed reading......

Okovango Delta - Maun, Botswana

Tonight we’ll be spending our 3^rd and last night here at Maun (Botswana).  It has been a great time here at Audi Camp, with friendly neighbours, good food, even a chilly swimming pool to enjoy quickly before our sunset jaunt along the Okovango Delta thisevening…..

Wow, what a great experience!  We booked ourselves a 2 hour boat trip on the Delta, with our own private skipper – Bafana.  He was a little late for our 4pm booking, but he definitely made it up to us with a stop shortly after leaving the riverbank to make us some day lily necklaces.  Kaylin loved it, and Xan says he will keep it to show the girls at school…. what a sweatheart!

The boat had a nice fast engine which the kids absolutely loved, but the speedy trip still managed to capture the magic of the Okovango as the sun disappeared and gave us yet another stunning African Sunset.

We’re not sure where we’ll be heading tomorrow, somewhere in the direction of Tsodilo Hills.  A bit more remote, and off the beaten track so we’re not sure what to expect – sounds exciting!  So if we don’t update this blog in the next couple of days, don’t worry, we’re fine – just enjoying the solitude for a bit….

Oh yes…. Huge highlight coming up tomorrow morning – we’ve booked ourselves a flight over the Okovango Delta in a 5 seater Cessna airplane.  I’ll make sure to put some photo’s of the trip in the next blog post.  Looking forward to it!

Into Botswana (and a bit of Zim too!)

Our last day in Zambia was a great one.  Our last evening was spent drifting up a channel of the Zambezi on a luxury boat called the Lady Livingstone.  We were treated to a 3 course snack dinner which included pate on toast, mini pizza and other yummy delights ending off with chocolate brownies & as much to drink as we liked.  I couldn't think of another way to enjoy our last Zambian evening with Alex's parents before they headed off back to Cape Town the next day.  While on the boat, we spotted crocodiles, hippo's, buffalo's, buck and some stunning birds along the river banks.

The next morning we chilled out at the campsite and packed up ready to head down towards Botswana via the airport to bid farewell to Reg & Eirene.  It was so nice to share this part of the trip with them.  Thanks Reg for being with Alex from Nairobi to Livingstone, and thanks Eirene for flying up there with the kids and I - the tents are on the top of the truck if you wish to fly in to meet us sometime in the next couple of weeks again...!

The border from Zambia into Botswana was fun!  We had to cross the Zambezi on a ferry.  I don't know why they don't just build a bridge, it really wasn't very far across.  The ferry was quite small, it only fitted us and another truck behind us.  Unlike our ferry crossing in northern Mozambique in December, this one was motorized & very efficient.

Into Botswana we filled up with fuel and after a quick look at the map we headed down towards Chobi (Savuti) - well thats where we thought we were headed until we saw a sign for Nata, which was in another direction.  We shrugged off the mistake and decided that we have a couple of weeks for this trip down so a diversion or two wouldn't hurt.  We spend the night at a dusty campsite near Pandamatenga, and after chatting to a group bikers from Jhb we were convinced to do a little one day trip into Zimbabwe as the border was just oh so close and couldn't be resisted by Alex.  So off we went, across into Zim through a tiny border and onto a 'hunter's' road heading towards Hwange National Park.  We were totally isolated, and rather nervous to get out the truck because in 1996 we had travelled here before and remember the number of wildlife - amazing.  We stopped along the track for lunch (pasta followed by pancakes), and then decided to turn back and find a place to part and sleep for the night.  We drove off the road for a bit and found a piece of veld that had obviously been used once as an elephant clearing.  We couldn't resist.  Unfortunately we didn't spot any Elephants, but we did see a giraffe, some buck and some baboons - all good considering we weren't in the official Park yet.


The next morning we crossed the same little friendly border post (the officials were very surprised to see us so soon), and headed back down the highway in Botswana towards Mgkadikadi Pans (TopGear did an episode driving through & wrecking the place..... it was a good one as always).  We saw Elephants on the side of the highway, that was a surprise!  We did a lot of driving, and got all the way to Maun, on the southern part of the Okovango Delta.  This is where we are now, and I think we'll stay here for a couple of days because this Campsite is Great!  Its got a swimming pool, wifi that reaches our truck, a restaurant where we enjoyed a yummy breakfast thismorning, and lot of activities to enjoy right from our riverside doorstep.  From here we can do a day drive into Savuti (Chobi), or go explore the Okovango Delta by plane/boat if we want.  Right now today we are recovering from our last 2 days of heavy driving.  Xan seems to be down with a bug so I'm managing his high temps with lots of love and panado (and DVD's of course).  Kaylin had the same high temps a few days ago but she's over it now so I'm sure it's nothing serious (so don't worry Eirene & mom....).

tanzam journey...

My dad & I drove around 10 hours per day, aiming to cover about 520 or so kilometres to make the distance necessary. Most of the way the roads were fairly decent – for a 4x4.  A normal sedan would have bumped and scraped, and probably buckled something eventually hitting through a surprise pothole, and a 4x4 would probably be all decent – but you’d definitely wince as you navigated your way through some of the bigger ones. The truck is great, in that its tyres are nearly 4ft high and weigh around 180kg’s, so when you do (and you will) hit an unavoidable pothole, it’s not too much of a worry that you’ll pinch the tube or put out the wheel alignment … but the slowing down to make the trans-pothole navigation a little more comfortable does take a while! And the suspension isn’t meant for carrying 2 passengers and a luxury house on springs of air across rugged terrain – this thing means business, and is meant to carry 11 tonnes of well-packed cargo through anything functionally!

Tanzania wasn’t a problem at all – there were a few police stops, but they all waved us through happily – the world cup is alive and well all over the place here, and it’s a good smile maker to be able to talk about bafana bafana.

Our drive through the Mikumi Game reserve was a lot quicker than last time as well – we didn’t even get a chance to take blurry photos of any wildlife through our windows as they whizzed past at 60 km/hour … and we eventually finished a big day of driving at TanSwiss resort. We had a good dinner there and chatted to another .. hey! Ive written about this already!

So southern Tanzania the roads were good, less and less potholes.  We stayed at Utengule coffee lodge again (Friday night) and man it was perfect! We arrived after a long day’s drive, and sat on the outside verandah eating a good dinner, with exceptionally nice coffee, overlooking the plains below as the sun set! It was seriously good. Also chatted to the guys in the office and it sounded like everything was going really well, so it was a perfect end to a day!

Next day (Saturday) we entered into Zambia, got the “beggars for business” to organise some white reflective tape for the front of the car (which is apparently a good reason to get a fine in Zambia) and then we crossed the border – with a leather coat clad helper (not yet contracted!) and a slightly less organise looking guy with a stack of grubby looking notes in his hands. They followed us through the Getting out of Tanzania process (which was very simple) and then we started in Zambia.

I won’t even try to help you understand the process of getting through the border, but in no particular order: (1) customs for the truck, (2) carbon tax for the truck, (3) council levy, (4) road toll, (5) immigration, (6) border clearance, (7) 3^rd party insurance .. and I think that was that – and every place is in a slightly different building in a different part of the complex without any signs, just some queues! Lucky, “Mr Leather Jacket” took us to the front of the queue of every place, and my grubby stacker just handed over the necessary Kwacha to the official  … remembering that we hadn’t even at this stage asked them to help! We had roughly checked the price of the grubby kwacha, so we new they were actually offering us some value.

After around USD $120 and some paperwork we drove through into Zambia, expecting the worst: police blocks fining us in whatever currency we had for offenses that we would never be sure about! We had two red triangles in our front windscreen (which we had seen in the other trucks, and for which the police actually did jump up to look at!), we had the white reflective tape on the front of the truck (and the red bits we put on in Malawi after our fine there) … we had the council tax, the toll fee, the insurance, the driver’s licence, the carnet papers and every other piece of paper we got and hung on to!

And there were no issues at all! There were more road blocks in Tanzania!

Northern Zambia there are not many fuel stations – and its very rural. Our little 325km range was becoming an issue in Southern Tanzania, and in Northern Zambia we had to stop at a tiny little village and pay $100 for 60 liters of fuel from some boys with yellow jerry cans! Well worthwhile though … maybe that was our contribution to sustainable tourism?

The roads got better and better, and on Friday we managed to drive 700km’s to arrive at a nice campsite / resort near Kafue, leaving just 400km to arrive in Livingstone.

Along the way (somewhere in Zambia) we stopped at a town with an ATM and a fairly nice looking food place, my dad ate a pie, and I had a Chicken & Nshima. Its served on two plates (sudsa / pap like Nshima in one, and the chicken and spinach in the other) with instructions: “the tap is round the corner to wash your hands” and of course no cutlery! It was the best meal of the journey … absolutely delicious to break the Nshima into small fingerfulls, dip it into the chicken sauce and bit a piece of chicken!

So after cleaning up some of the truck, and having a good early night and late sleep in at our campsite “the Waterfront” on the Zambezi, about 5km’s from the Victoria Falls, we drove to the Livingstone airport and picked up the family! We settled into the campsite, unpacked too many clothes, and had a good night sleep altogether with the mossies.

Today we went to the falls ($20 each), swam in the campsite pool and generally just had holiday. We have also stocked up from the local kwikspar, and are ready for anything. Tomorrow we’re going to try organise a boat cruise on the river – and hopefully see a real crocodile (because we ate a crocodile bread today from the kwikspar – a baked loaf of sweet bread in the shape of a crocodile – but we want to now see a real one!).

Did I mention that we had debonairres pizza for lunch? This is Africa baby…

Tanzania part 1...

Did i mention that yesterday evening we caught a magnificent sight of kilimanjaro. As the evening clouds lifted? That was very nice - its good to have seen it!

Add a big day of driving to that and we're more than halfway through tanzania! Tonight we're sleeping at TanSwiss resort, just on the close side of the mkumi game reserve. We had a nice dinner (boneless chicken mexicana for me, and calamari rings for my dad - both with too many chips) and spent a bit of time chatting with our neighbours Tony & Marga who are heading up to serengeti...and now bed.

Today we were waved through most of the police blocks, except for three. 1. "ok, give me 10 shillings" ... So we gave him a tiny bit of malawi money & moved on, then 2. A speed cop trapping with a lazer through a small town in a 50 zone, he said i was doing 65 which was too fast ...but the gun said 56 so he said it was close enough i could go (whew), and then 3. At a broken weigh bridge the coppers were checking out the trucks and i was fined 2000 shillings for a cracked mirror (from a close call with a truck from the other direction in December). Now i genuinely didnt have any shillings so i asked how much in dollars ... He was 'very nice' and he agreed on a very very favourable exchange rate that it was equivalent to around $5. That was the only fault he found with us... So i guess you win some & you lose some. Overall its been fine driving, the roads are getting better & better as we get more south so we're making more and more ground.

Tomorrow we'll get to mbeye (nearly 600km) do some shopping for food, and then into zambia for the final stretch.

Its going to be nice having the family with, and specially nice to have a lady's touch in the truck. Its also going to be great to be off he deadline of getting somewhere far in little time!

Into Tanzania...

We woke up dry & warm in max - what a relief! After paying our bills and looking at the batteries which were still dead, we headed into town for some grocery shopping. Actually just before this Chris (jungle junction) said we should definately head into tanzania via arusha rather than mombassa.

After a delicious breakfast at Junction Java Coffee House we started south toward the border. 6 months ago the road was being built by chinese contractors and it took us a painful 7 hours or more to do the 275kms between nairobi & arusha... This time we got to drive on a lot of the newly built road with much fewer and shorter detours, so we managed to get past Arusha and to Moshi (Honey Badger Campsite) just after dark ... A measly 350km in around 7 hours, but a lot of that was bad road and included a border crossing.

This evening we fiddled with the electrics a bit (after charging the house batteries on the truck alternator for the whole day) and on one combination of the charger & inverter on we suddenly got full power! So we have lights - which is great, and so we have mossies too (not that great!).

Our poor new / old coffee machine exploded again in the shower (not literally, but all in pieces). Actually there were a few more pieces than normal this time .. I managed to put everything together (except two interesting looking pieces) and when i made a cup of coffee it spat the dry gound coffee into the waste section, and poured hot water into the overflow tray...

So i took off the side cover again and fitted one small piece back again - which really had nothing to do with the water, just a clear plastic cover over some wires, and tried again! This time it worked! Weak, luke warm coffee ... But it did work!!

So when we take it back to the dealer with its cracks, smashes and bashes, i can say: "it doesnt sound like its working properly - could you please check it out and give it a bit of a service?"

Tomorrow we're going to try drive 700km past dar es salaam and to a campsite there at a place called something like iyaki (?). Thats going to be a loooooong day!

My biggest worry is not really being insured for this section ... We cldnt find someone to by a comesa from (3rd party) for which we'll probably be fined, and i think my normal insurance only kicks back in in zambia ... Or maybe only namibia! So we'll be driving carefully.

back on the road...

Today my dad and I arrived in Nairobi in the pouring rain, and caught a cab to Jungle Junction. Max was already parked neatly for us where we could get in easily enough. Apart from being really dusty inside, and with absolutely no power remaining in the battery pack, everything looks ready!

My worst fear was that the rainy season would have come inside the truck and that we'd be met with mould and damp, but thankfully its just quite dirty! We've plugged him in to the mains, and filled up the water tank - but there's still no lights or power in the back after 3 hours of charging ... so hopefully hopefully the huge mega reliable batteries are just going to take a while to get some charge in them! Worst case is we'll be using torches for the rest of our holiday!

We were planning on leaving early tomorrow morning to head to Mombassa, but we will need to settle our bills here before we leave, so we're probably only going to get going mid morning - I also have to tie the kids bikes and the surfboard onto the roof still - I didn't feel like doing that in the pouring rain.

So the temporary fixes we need to do are: (1) get the lights working! (2) get the geyser fixed (3) get the cupboard doors strapped down.

Its going to be great when the power starts working again, and fantastic to get driving tomorrow.

Our plans are for a hard week of driving ( 3 200 kms) through Mombassa, Tanzania, and into Zambia to pick up my mom and my family at Vic Falls next Sunday, then we have 3 days of rest there with my parents, and then we'll mozy on down through Namibia and Botswana, and possibly Swaziland.