Heading South

Beginning to head south again now...

From Etosha, we head towards Khorixas to stay at the iGowati Lodge in the centre of the (very) small town...

On the way we take a detour to see an amazing rock that stands alone in a wide valley, once a great river, long since gone. Presumably harder than the surrounding rock so it didn't erode..but it looks like sandatone to me... After getting the motorhomes there we climb to the rock in 37 degree heat....but what a view. Brilliant. Intrepid travellers we are indeed.

We visit a museum and see a piece of farm equipment made in Earls Colne (near to our UK home)...  out here in Africa for goodness sake. Wierd.

We finish the day with another braai with friends...and a bottle.
.........

Moving further south to Uis, our journey becomes a little more taxing as the roads change into sandy, unsurfaced tracks that are periodically scraped to remove the mysterious ridges that always appear. These washboard roads can be traversed at around 60 km/hr unless the ridges suddenly get deeper or change width as so often happens.... then the vibration changes to violent shaking and slowing down rapidly is the only sensible  course of action...it's maximum concentration though.

We travel as a four-van mini convoy for safety today.. and also because we want to see the same things.... like minded and all that.

...So we carefully drive the washboards to see the petrified forest, 6000 year old scrapings on sandstone, basalt columns known as the 'organ pipes'  and  anomolous volcanic remains (Burned Mountain) before we head for fuel and camp, hot and tired, ready for our communal meal. Which was good by the way.

African proverb to explain the restaurant service...

Let's climb that famous landmark..

Magic... mad English people

Very frightened wood..How does that happen?

Spot the 6000 year old drawings

Bobo adventuring...that's Charles in front (without air-con)

I think we got the maximum out of that day...

Etosha National Park

So, it's back to animal spotting again folks...

....but before we get to that, we take a detour to see the largest known meteorite....50 tons of Iron-Nickel alloy. Dated to be around 80,000 years old....that's, er, quite a long time ago. Given my physics background, I get quite a buzz from touching this alien lump of metal. Probably because there's thunder about.

...back to the Park..and animals... This time we're in the Etosha National Park which encompasses a huge salt-pan....(Etosha = 'large white place')....the remains of a lake long evaporated. We stay in two different lodges, each with its own Namibian (slightly off-hand)  character as we animal spot, motoring around the unsufaced corrugated roads, shaking our motorhomes to bits. The wildlife is great though, although we seem to have missed the opportunity to see a leopard in the wild. On the last day we see the awful but fascinating sight of jackals, hyenas and vultures devouring a rotting elephant carcass. We also see two of the rare black rhino at our lodge campsite waterhole. Impressive stuff indeed.

The salt pan is just amazingly odd... a massive totally flat area, baking in the hot, hot sun...

..... talking of hotness, it's got up to 39 degrees C on Charles' dashboard readout, which makes the fact that a cable rubs its way through an air conditioning pipe with a puff of escaping gas more than slightly annoying. This has a drastic effect on the ability of Charles to keep us cool of course. It's kaput, broken... damn. I couldn't even get out to see what happened without being eaten, either. Design fault, Iveco!

....That's not all either; we discover that our amazing Mr Fix-it' s camper burst into flames in the night, slightly burning him, but not too seriously, thank goodness... and he's off sorting a replacement.

........

Anyway, here we are now, camped just outside the park. Mr Fix'-it is back but can't do much for another three days as we need aluminium arc-welding gear. Hey oh.

80,000 years old...

 Rain BoBo

Design fault Mr Iveco!

 Black Rhino!

Hippo luuurve

 Waste nothing....

Interesting terrain and things to see ahead, it seems, and we are to be allowed to travel on a 'D' road, which means rough, I think. This is Good News because we can see some 'not-to-be-missed' sights. Hot stuff.

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...