Into Namibia

Catching up as WiFi permits....
....pics may have to wait for a little while though....

Anyway, here we go:

From Zimbabwe, we drive across the Botswana border into Namibia, not far south of Angola at Ngoma. It's the Zambezi region of Caprivi, which has been (is?)  a narrow corridor of disputed territory. After filling in more forms, more customs and police checks (quite understandably) we visit Katima, the buzzy local  town and pay the vehicle tax before settling down for our stay at the Zambezi river lodge, which is a really nice site, and gaze over the river at Angola.

The next morning at 6.30am, we're off again on a 350km drive, arrow straight again, past well tended settlements of reed-covered circular huts. It's election day and, everywhere, people are walking or being ferried, mostly in trucks, to their local (temporary) polling station. Great to see all this happening and listen on the radio.

Following advice, we're travelling with friends now and, as we travel, we see warning signs for elephants and a strange creature that I recon is a giant mouse but it turns out that it's supposed to be a kind of dog. Forever more this creature will be known as the Mouse-Dog. 

We're staying this time on the river Okavango at Mahangu safari lodge. We take another!! evening river cruise (sounds grander than it is) on the river (wonderful) and eat with friends at the lodge restaurant. We're warned not to walk into a hippo on the way back the the 'van....

And so to today.....

.....Off at 6.30 for a longish drive of some 420km to ( believe it or not) Roys Rest Camp near the town of Grootfontein. Sue and I rotate as we stop with friends for tea/coffee so arrive fresher. A few people are beginning to feel the strain of driving these distances in 30+ degrees though. After a 100km drive into Grootfontein and back We finish the day with a great braai with friends.

Great times...

Cruising....spot the wildlife

That's Charles that is..

Copper mining....the remains...

...onward to see interesting things tomorrow. Stay in touch....

Zimbabwe

We take a coach to the nearby border feeling quite smug that we already have our visa from the Zimbabwe embassy in London...but, of course, it saves no time really as we have to wait for everyone else. At least we don't have to fill in that form....

...after which we have one hour on another straight road to Victorial Falls (the town) in the hands of a competent guide..she gives us a list of possible activities for the following day...which are pretty expensive and all in US dollars, which Zimbabwe needs pretty badly. In two minds about this really. Don't really fancy bungee jumping and the like but spot a cultural tour.

The hotel turns out to be a really nice Moorish styled place and the falls themselves are a fantastic sight, even though this is the dry season.

We take the cultural tour the next morning...to a local village and school. Just six of us, including two ex school Heads and a Principal.....!

The chief of the village gives us an utterly fascinating talk on his village, beliefs, customs and the problematic aid situation; he has lectured in the UK. His village is essentially self sufficient..no electricity ....cooking on wood gathered from the land and generating food from crops, selling surpluses in town.

Our visit to a local school is, as usual for us in these situations, very moving. The children are great and Sue is in her element, of course. When we talk to groups, Sue asks meaningful questions and ends up writing on the blackboard while I play 'lets make a silly movie' games on my phone. Great fun though. The school is badly in need of money and, although we stopped off to buy pencils and paper on the way, we are dragooned onto making a contribution..although we keep it small. Feel slightly odd about this, given it's where it is.

Then it's back to the hotel ...lunch ....coach ...border...and here we are back at our super luxury lodge (!) sweltering in the Botswanian heat.

Great mini holiday experience with memories to carry with us.

Namibia tomorrow....another day, another border crossing....

Botswana: Heading North

After a drive of some 350km or so on arrow straight roads with odd slight kink we arrive at our final lodge in Botswana, close to the Zimbabwe border (and the Zambia and Namibia borders come to that). It's a different kettle of fish to the last one, though, as we inspect the dodgy electrical connections in our (personal) washroom and view the opaque looking pool. At least our intrepid leaders won't be hogging sunbeds around that one, although they tell Sue that it's fine to go in. We beg to differ.

We all take the inclusive safari around the nearby game reserve which is good..with a great guide.. but the journey along the road to get there is an adventure in itself; being driven in the open safari Toyota at reasonably high speed, sitting in the front, is akin to driving a car with no windscreen. Not surprised when our fellow traveller gets a high speed flying beetle about 3cm across in her face...she still bears the scar of that  encounter!

The following day we are told is a rest day with suggested activities of shopping at a local Spar and filling up with diesel. But its bloody hot, so we (and a number of others) sort out an afternoon and twilight cruise on the Chobe river which turns out to be one of those unexpectedly magic moments, especially as Foster, our  jovial guide/ captain edges to within metres of a very, very big croc sitting on her eggs. So, as ever, we make the most of what could have been a disappointing stop.

After a shockingly early shower the next day (literally....luckily it's only enough to give Sue a slight jolt)  we're off to Zimbabwe for a couple of days. Could do with a nice hotel after this stop.

Botswana

Catching up....

We have no 3G card here so an update will arrive if there's WiFi at the campsite. Today there is so here it is...

The border crossing, always approached with a little aprehension , proved to be a piece of cake (gluten free). Interesting that we we charged a range of fees for the crossing. When questioned, from the manner of the reply, it was clear that the prudent approach was to pay up. Actually, our bill was quite low compared to some...and it's peanuts anyway (190 Rand).

So we drove and drove and stopped at Camp Itumela in Palapye, behind a scrapyard...but it turned out to be a wierdly wonderful place with open air toilets....pity the electricity was more off than on, but that couldn't spoil our enjoyment of a great buffet meal.

.............

Next day, with fellow adventurers,  we visit a rhino breeding park (brilliant) but the consequence is that we arrive too late to visit the museum at the next site (Mupungubwe Hill) where artifacts from a far-developed African civilisation are shown, including a replica of the famous gold rhino....oh well...

On Friday, we head further north to Francistown, Botswana's second largest, bustling city, although time doesn't permit anything but a brief look.

Today, a short drive, at last, to here, the Nata Lodge (near the village/town of Nata, surprisingly). Nata has three fuel stations, a Wimpy and a Barclays....but not as we know them, Jim. Interesting chats...including one with a Zimbabwean who chooses to live here in Botswana. 

Finish the day with a safari into Sowa Pan, one of Botswana's vast flat areas of ancient sea which are drying to form salt pans and sustain varied bird and animal life. It's an strangely silent, etherial place...all the more so as we watch the sun go down...the horizon flat in every direction. Magic place. 

Sowa Pan Flamingos at Sunset

Sowa Pan Magic

Flamingos Again

Onward  towards Zimbabwe tomorrow...

Goodbye Kruger

Sad to leave the Kruger for the last time as we head off to the most northern gate. We almost certainly will never return so we feel compelled keep stopping for our farewells to the various Kruger animals, including a heard of elephants. It's been a tremendous privilege to be here with them.

The journey to Parfun gate and our exit takes longer than expected for the above reasons. We collect other Bobo friends en route as we head west towards the Mapungubwe National Park and our last campsite in South Africa for some time. Like many others we try an abortive trip to  Nwanedi National Park en route, as suggested in the day book...but we all give up on the rough washboard road..simply running out of time on the 350km journey. A visit to the Spar shop in Musina and a fuel top-up  set us up for a braai tonight and the journey tomorrow.

Finding the campsite is a challenge for us all, most getting lost on route. The directions are poor but our trusty Garmin gets us there with friends in tow over the unsurfaced road. Some of the group a little frustrated but there's nothing like a beer/glass of plonk and a flaming braai with fellow adventurers to sort things out; a good end to a long day.

Botswana and the border tomorrow.

Goodbye Kruger.....

Kruger Again

Back here again in the Kruger National Park for three nights in seperate rest camps as we work our way North towards Botswana, leaving the three days overlap with the first leg after Satara Rest Camp.

Won't bore you with loads more animal pics, as wonderful as they are...so how about our sunset safari? ... We arrive Satara just in time to throw on warm, waterproof clothing (looks like rain) and dash for the Safari truck. The driver/guide is brilliant; he drives us off into the bush to stop about 3m from a group of young male lions, who don't seem too bothered by us but do look us in the eye in a disdainful kind of way. Very few of us have been this close to a wild lion and it's a very special moment.

...Then it starts to rain steadily as darkness falls...and it's an open truck with a canvas roof that takes to periodically dumping the water collected on the roof onto my (non-waterproof) trousers...at least my top half is dry and warm under the waterproof and fleece. Sue sits on the inside and gets slightly less damp...

...But all is forgotten as a 'coalition' of four male lions on the hunt appear in the headlights as they plod very purposefully down the road, seemingly not at all bothered as our spot-lamps are trained on them. We track them for a while and even see them walking right alongside the truck. Magic. Pity the poor Impala we've seen earlier.

Soon, its time to thank our guide and plod back to our motorhomes for a hot drink and dry clothes....Charles has never looked so good.

OK...can't resist a couple of LION pics...

This one is looking at ME...luckily the camera's got anti-shake...

Adopt a pose

Apparantly, lions respect man and won't attack unless they have cubs or are mating...but these two look hungry to me

Whoops!

For the first two or three days we're more-or-less retracing the last three days of the first leg, so there's no point in repeating info about these places...

....so, apart from managing to see wonderful views from the 'God's Window' viewpoint, which was deep in cloud last time, we were actually having quite a laid back time...

....until, descending from this heady mountain, doing about 75km/h there was a bloody great bang as Charles' water tank half drops off, scrapes along the road and releases 80 litres of water behind us. Quite dramatic stuff when you're not expecting it...which we weren't...obviously. Stop near a quite dodgy bend (fast right hander...bit like Copse for F1 enthusiasts)

So, to cut a long story short...we call up our intrepit leader, Nelson who contacts our riding Bobo mechanic/Mr fix-it who is with us in 30min....and, after numerous offers of help from fellow campers and locals, we're on our way again. We do without the tank (and water) for a day while it's patched up and properly secured this time with great big bolts through the floor while we cook on a flaming braai. All sorted.

Charles's nameplate...Google him

The warning triangle slows the cars exiting fast right-hander...a bit.

Something wrong there Mutley..

The Mac Mac Falls

 The Pinnacle

Off to the Kruger tomorrow. More great big animals (and little dung beatles)...and we can flush the loo again...which is more important than it might seen when you can't get out of the van without being eaten.

The Second Leg...

So it's up early for a trip to Bobo Campers in Joberg to get the paperwork all sorted  before our (new) fellow adventurers arrive, bleary-eyed off the Virgin flight from London Heathrow.

All processed and sorted...but wait....our motorhome-with-no-name is no more...he's now called Charles. Clearly this is a bit of a crisis in our life...but one we have to come to terms with. Just one of life's little challenges....

...Anyway, it's really good to meet up with friends as the rest arrive. Also good to meet new people, as ever. We all stock up at the local Pick and Pay supermarket before heading off to the first campsite where we start up our braai with our neighbours (from the last tour). 

Our new tour leaders hold their first meeting, which seems to go down quite well, while our braai readies itself for action, as friends old and new load it up with various cuts of meat. We set up our tables and eat and drink together, while the insects eat us.

Not a bad start. Not bad at all.

That's Charles, 3rd from left..

Durban

We fly by South African Airways to our hotel on the Golden Mile - Durban's holiday atmosphere beachfront. We're on holiday! The plan is to chill out here before the next leg of our adventure.

But this is Africa!... so there are plenty of surprises.

Durban's population has a large ex-Indian contingent so there are Hindus, Christians, Muslims and our hotel reflects the local population plus holidaymakers; just what we were looking for. We're on the 16th floor with a beach view...so all's great. Thank you, Booking.com.

On the first day we do the holidaying things as we walk the seafront, visiting snack bars with live music, browsing shopping malls, seeing brilliant Zulu street dancing, paddling in the Indian Ocean. The Sunday locals are having a fantastic time in the sea...it's clear that there are self-selecting areas on the beach as we walk along - some wholly black. Really great relaxing holiday type day but interesting nontheless.

On Monday we book a walking tour of the town....but we didn't know how good this was going to be.  Of course, there are areas where tourists shouldn't venture alone but with our Zulu guide, Kululawe, and two female back-packers we visit the Southern Hemishere's largest mosque... then we venture into back streets, walk into hairdressers, bridal shops, supermarkets, all the time learning about the traditional/western culture clash and development....absolutely fascinating. But  our cultural learning curve is challenged as we are led through a local market; we see stall after stall selling 'medicines' for all manner of things, including potions to ensure that husbands are faithful, DIY enema kits with which to take many of the potions, snake skins to protect against snake bites, skinned monkeys......I'll stop there I think. Another brilliant top 'learning day'...and we're supposed to be on holiday...

Our last day in Durban, ...we spend as holidaymakers again, dodging the showers and visiting the great aquarium on the golden mile. The collection of marine animals, found of the east coast is second to none, all viewed from the interiorof an old ship. Wonderful. Also see a dolphin show and a sea-lion show - but the less said about that the better.

Finish off with a Durban curry before catching our flight to Joberg the next morning. Then its, sadly, or our last night in our Melville guest house before the second leg begins...

Evening Beach

Kululawe and snake-skin shop

 Market medicines

I had a go at pounding this tree bark....goodness knows what it's for.

With apologies to those of a sensitive nature

The Jumma Mosque

Joberg

Well....some people couldn't understand why we wanted to go to Joberg...some people said Soweto was off limits and, while we get that, this has got to be very high on our list of  'we are SO glad we did that' ventures.  A bit k******ed though. We've been out for ten hours and just got back to our homely Melville guest house. I just need to drive 200km in a motorhome to wind down.

So, what's to say? After a chat with staff at the guest house we understand that 7.30pm is when we should be back safely behind the security doors of our temporary home. Observing our normal inner city no jewellery etc. routine (not really my thing anyway..) and being basically sensible we've felt fine. As has previously been pointed out, no-one would want my watch anyway.

Yesterday we ventured out around the arty Melville area; it's got a great vibe, so we treated ourselves to some well cooked local dishes and a craft beer at a local restaurant from Lonely Planet. Excellent! Still not sure about Ostrich though.

Today we got a taxi to the Hop On-Hop Off bus, sorting the number with the informatively chatty taxi  driver in order to SMS him to get us back. SMSing is what they do a lot here. Then we Hopped on and Hopped off. The great thing about this bus is that it only lets you out where it's safe or, if it's best done with a guide, that's what you get. You also get that great commentary while on the bus (and free pink plastic earphones...not my ideal colour choice but hey..)

SO...

We dropped off at Ghandi Square  and took in the atmosphere, went up the tallest building in Africa and also spent a long time at the Apartheid museum, which is certainly very moving and currently has a special Nelson Mandella exhibition which I wouldn't have missed for the world. The greatest leader of all time in my book...I spent my professional career stealing his brilliant quotations.

We also took the Soweto tour plus an optional walk, including a visit to Nelson Mandella's house and a look at the plaque identifying Archbishop Desmond Tutu's old place. It's sobering to see memorials in the street to the events occuring as the apartheid conflicts escalated. Also saw the written constitution set out in a circular building - which I should have photographed - but got too involved in discussing some of the issues with the guide. At one restaurant here, a pick up for tour buses, we saw more white faces than the rest of the day. It was interesting to see the new housing developments and high quality community centres. A fascinating and worthwhile visit.

Could do with another day here...although we return briefly next week.

Now we're writing up the day, emailing and getting our minds around the trip to Durban tomorrow....

Ghandi Square

View from the top

 In Soweto...Orlando Stadium

Soweto..the stones represent the only weapons the rebelling schoolchildren had against the white guns..

 In Soweto...no explanation needed

Disused Soweto power station as recreation centre...note bungee jump

Apartheid architecture of government buildings that represented harsh power, we are told.

Our brilliantly homely Ginnegaap Guest House

End of the First Leg

Well, all good things must come to an end...

....and the end is, somehow, here before we're ready for it.

Leaving Kruger, we head south again taking a great scenic route around the Blydeport canyon, said to be the third largest in the world. Sue drives up the canyon as we pass the awful sight of a lorry being recovered after driving over the edge.

We stay at a campsite with a great view of the three Rondavels..enormous rock outcrops with grassy tops...and we walk up to a great viewpoint on the opposite side of the canyon.

After an evening meal with some fellow adventurers we head off the next day for a spectacular drive, unfortunately in low cloud/thick fog which slightly takes the edge off it...
....anyway we do manage to see the famous Bourke's Luck Potholes....very lucky, I say, given the weather. We stop at Graskop where, at Harries Pankes, I find enormous Gluten Free Pankakes..ah, wonderful.

After more spectacular views, we camp and start the process of clearing the van and repacking for the next stage. The farewell dinner and large amounts of South African plonk go down well.

The next day, we drive over the Long Tom pass and stop at Dullstroom...a green street of tourist shops but with the saving grace of a micro brewery. We finish off the day with communal red wine and a bonfire/BBQ (braai in SA speak)....it's the 5th of November. Ring a bell?

Which brings us up to date. We drop off the motorhomes in Jo'berg, facilitated by the extremely pleasant Bobo Staff who confirm that we can take our motorhome-with-no-name on the next leg. That's Very Good News Indeed. After saying farewells to our wonderful travelling companions and  tour leaders, we're off by taxi to our guest house in the Melville area of Jo'berg...more on that in the next post.

The South African Art of Braaing...

Bourkes Luck Potholes..

The Three Rondavels..

Kruger

We're spending three nights here at two campsites. The park is vast. It's telling that, as we have close encounters with White Rhino, Blue Wilderbeast, loads of Impalas that we still really really want to see a big cat.

I'm writing this blog parked next to the Sabie river, where we had breakfast in the motorhome-with-no-name. We were up at 5.00am this morning and STILL NO BIG CATS! 

So, obviously only to pass the time, I'm.....

...following the practice for the US grand prix though. Let me say - if McLaren Honda let Jenson go after his efforts with the development of that awful car, I'll never buy a Honda. Never, Ever. Not that I would. Not now. So there.  I digress. ...oh and well done Lewis H. Great drive.  And now, back to the point of this blog..

Update:

.....and next day we see LIONS...and buffalo...and white rhino...and giraffes...and wilderbeast...and elephants and more. Kruger has been all that we hoped it might be. We'll be back here on our next tour in a couple of weeks before we head on up to Botswana. Just impossible to post all the images.

Here's a flavour of Kruger...

Journey to Swaziland

Firstly a quick catch-up

We expected our night in Shakaland, an ex movie set, now a sort of hotel come village, to be a totally artificial experience. To some extent it was, of course,  but the Zulu host and certainly the brilliant Zulu dancing were authentic and we did learn a lot from it.  Great night in our 'Zulu hut', too. Very interesting journey through KwaZulu-Natal, though.

Theatrical, yes, but brilliant authentic Zulu dance...

Travelling on to Hluhluwe we spent two nights in the area visiting St Lucia in the wetlands including a river safari to see many hippos, crocs and birds. We took a day safari in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park with a really amusing but skilled Zulu guide...encountering a bull elephant feet away....scary but good.

We'll be in touch, Thembi...

Onward into Swaziland....the only remaining true kingdom?? The country is certainly quite poor but also friendly. We stay in a wildlife park for just one night but we prefer to get out and meet people. We buy some locally made stuff at a craft market and, after the usual 'look who I bought this from' photo with one stall-holder, we sort out a 'whatsapp' contact to send her the photo. We visit a re-cycling glass works and stop at a little town before we head back across the border into South Africa. Into the Kruger Wildlife Park.....