Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Victoria falls

After an overnight stop in Windhoek we flew to Jo'burg where we had a morning which we used to visit the excellent Apartheid Museum before flying to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

Rather damp......!

The colonial elegance of this famous hotel and it's liveried staff was rather a culture shock after Namibia!

We spent our first day of the trip vegging out by it's beautiful pool but the real highlight was the Victoria Falls.At this time of year,going into their summer,the water flow is not as great as in the rainy season but this means there's less spray so you can see more.We spent most of the day there being as overwhelmed as everyone else.

 

Yes, pulled pork was on the menu!

Spot the mad angler!

Huge blood lillies!

 

Namibia: A very belated Part 2!

Swapkomund

The Namibians' coastal resort, but with a distinctly German flavour! We stayed a few miles outside in Eco friendly chalets with a panoramic view over the dunes. A different climate too with mist there most mornings rolling in off the sea though fortunately it cleared for our "Ocean Adventure" cruise which was  great fun albeit not politically correct with seals, pelicans and seagulls coming on board to be fed by hand. But they also gave us oysters ( there are vast expanses of oyster beds there ) and fizz and there were dolphins and mala mala (sunfish) to entertain us. Most impressive were the seal colonies, there are an estimated two million seals along the coastline and they certainly generate an odd and very distinctive growling noise and a rather distasteful odour!

Spot the seagull stealing lunch straight from the pelican's bill!

We ate well here, first at the Tug Restaurant, built around a beached decommissioned tugboat and a real institution with a lengthy waiting list followed by a supper at The Jetty, built at the end of the long former loading jetty: you feel as if you are out at sea!

ON FROM SWAPKOMUND to Sossusuvei National Park

Back on the road for the last long drive. Decided that Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road " was the song of the trip to date.

We stopped for lunch in Solitaire, a truly remote bakery and petrol station. Despite the absence of traffic on the roads the liitle cafe was actually busy as anybody anywhere in the area goes there. We were surprised to find a dozen Porsche Cayennes, apparently the Porsche International Driving Club, with support guides and mechanics in positively gleaming white T shirts. We had to suffer their dust clouds later; after you are overtaken there are about 5 seconds when you can't see a thing!


Sossusuvlei

This national park is famous for its surreal desert dune landscape. It is best seen at dawn so once again up before the sun to pack up the tent and kit. Irritatingly the walk we had planned in the park was so poorly signposted we had to abandon it and then we ran out of time in the  best light to try an alternate. The driving in the dunes was also hairy!

 Buellesport

Our final night's camping and the wildest, most remote spot yet, literally nobody around for miles apart from some very loud nocturnal animals but at least the baboons which we had been warned about did not visit.

Eningu

 

A taste of R&R after the camping, in a lovely clay house lodge 2 hours outside Windhoek. A pool, trail walks, archery (?) great food and even a local sculptor to visit. Sadly no sign of the porcupines after which the lodge was named.
 

Landy Glamping in Namibia

Landy Glamping (pretentious moi?)

Already worried about the off-road driving ahead, Carolyn's nerves were not soothed by a call the night before we left the UK telling us that our driver training on arrival at Windhoek may be delayed as a vehicle currently out on safari had just been rolled! The tent on the roof apparently assists the tendency for a land rover to flip on rutted dirt roads which will be the road surface we will spend most of our time on.

So, after a door to door journey lasting over 24 hours and desperate for a cup of tea, let alone a beer, we were introduced to 'Drake' our travelling companion for the next two weeks and our camping equipment. and shown how to take down the tent which had been pre-erected on it's roof, it looked so easy.........! The technology, including the sat phone and GPS was a real focus. And then a couple of hours looking at maps and our planned route.

After a good night's sleep and excellent food (kudu steak, picture of the animal seen later, below) at our guesthouse, we emerged at 8 am  for our off road tuition and Carolyn was handed the keys to the Land Rover! What, me????

Actually the streets of Windhoek on an early Saturday morning, despite being the capital city of Namibia, were quite quiet and even the gravel roads on the outskirts were not too scary. And they drive on the left here too. But the relief at handing the keys to Nic to learn about the diff and low gears for sand was palpable!

After signing the 'be good' forms about adhering to speed limits etc. (60 km/hr on gravel) we were off on our own! First stop, after a photo below a spectacular jacaranda tree, was Super Spar. Allegedly, and it proved to be so, our last opportunity to purchase fresh fruit and veg for over a week! We knew that we had a long drive ahead so threw things rather randomly in the trolley, paid and set off up the main motorway North, the B1.

Fours hours later, we reached our first camp site at the Africat centre near Otjiwarongo. Just in time for a visit to see a leopard rescued as an orphan and raised in captivity being fed (and a slender mongoose enjoying the scraps) and sighting some cheetah soon to be re-released into the wild. Fascinating! Then, just as dusk was falling we returned to the landy! OMG, how to put up the tent?? After failing to get the sat phone to work to ask for advice, we finally managed to get the metal struts in place ourselves! Definitely time to cook our first braii and open a bottle....

The Camping 

There is quite a steep learning curve here. You need a certain agility just to climb up onto the vehicle and set the tent up. And climb in. If you are late, have had a Windhoek lager or two and it is in poor light the process is that much more difficult.There is also lighting your cooking fire and preparing your gourmet spread ( joke ). The donkey boiler (a form of wood burning stove), which we had some trepidation about, proved to be easy, a simple set and light up, the wood is so dry that there is no effort involved and this provided the hot water for the open air shower and washing up. When there is a donkey boiler of course; there was no running water at all at some remote sites so we needed to access the water reservoir in the Defender.

The donkey boiler is on the right!

Rock pool and bar with a view

Starling we can't find in the wildlife book!

Kudu

We agreed that showering in the open air, surrounded by mountains and desert, was strangely addictive. And Nic was pleased to find sites with no power so he could at last use his solar powered power monkey!

The individual sites here are set so far apart that you cannot see or hear anyone else. Just the odd passing kudu and over-confident birds after the muesli! So peaceful, until the night usually, when some truly extraordinary animal noises were heard. You are certainly open to the wildlife, both in terms of sound and visitations in the early hours but we felt safe and comfortable in our tent on top of the Defender; except for the night with a lot of rustling and then some huge and new unidentifiable poo about 6 foot away from the vehicle in the morning!

Male ostrich

Guinea fowl: very entertaining!

Springbok: amazing when they do!

Etosha National Park

The game viewing here is so prolific because in the dry season, the game has no choice but to visit the rare waterholes, some of which are no more than small ponds or damp areas of ground. So, whilst there are no guarantees, the chances are that your waterhole visit will produce a sighting of some sort.

Night visitors

The game lodge where we were staying (Okaukuejo) has an especially well visited waterhole, indeed it is why it is located there. It is also floodlit at night so you can literally watch as much game as you have the energy to stay awake for, and this is on top of your own or guided game drives.

At night we saw four rhino, including a young one and a pride of lions which also meant most of the other game stayed away, whereas in the late morning we saw literally hundreds of animals in sight at the same time, including giraffe, springbok, zebra, warthog, wildebeest, kudu and elephant either at the hole or approaching it, and this was all about 50 metres from the chalet we had been sleeping in!

Kori bustard

Yellow hornbill

Otherwise we would take ourselves off to explore other waterholes, at an ungodly hour of the morning or in the early evening. Some of the tracks were strictly four wheel drive only as the driver of camper van in the picture below discovered to his cost. He had already been there for five hours with his passengers sitting very still on one side to prevent the problem getting even worse!

We had some great moments when we were off on our own, mainly concerning elephants and zebra, and often at very close quarters!

Zebra crossing!

Rather more worrying: Elephant crossing!

However, probably the best moment was on the guided tour we undertook when at one moment we had 19 lions in front of us, the cubs trotting out to welcome the two males and lionesses returning to their families and other guarding lionesses.

The Driving

Well, there was a lot of it! Four to six hours on many days, virtually all on gravel/dirt/sand tracks and usually heavily rutted. Traffic was not an issue. Namibia is the size of France and Germany combined with a population of around 2.5 million and the majority of people in the capital. That means you rarely see other vehicles, even on the equivalent to motorways, perhaps one or two an hour for most of the time. Everyone waves to check other vehicles are OK which is reassuring. And we had no punctures!
The rutted, loose surface and the top heavy vehicle means that if you do slide, which you do all the time, and then brake you risk rolling so you just take your foot off the gas and 'allow the vehicle to correct itself' so the instructor said. And it did so there were no really hairy moments. Apart from some really deep sand, miles from anywhere, Carolyn says, where Nic just got stuck but only temporarily he says. The cold sweat she saw on his face was apparently only imaginary.