Namibia - Mudumi Game Reserve

Friday 27^th February

Mudumi Game Reserve Booking Office

We crossed the border into Namibia two days ago and spent a couple of nights in a campsite by the Chobe River within the Caprivi strip, this time with Zambia (no longer Botswana) on the other side of the river.  It was our first full ‘rest day’ since we left Ingogo and it was good to have time to catch up on clothes washing, plan the next stage of our trip and we also had our first internet access.

We then moved on to the nearest town Kamilo Malilo to stock up on reserves for the week ahead. The plan is to visit three game parks in succession and since neither of them provide any facilities you need to be self-sufficient to enter them, including your own water. Because of the heat, Don and I are between us drinking about 4 litres of water a day at the moment.

It is now day two in the first game reserve, called Mudumi. We have set up camp in a sheltered spot by the river where Ian and Heather had stayed before, after we had separated from each other at the end of our previous trip in Tanzania two year ago. They had liked it so much that they ended up spending an entire week here.  Other than a ‘longdrop’ toilet there is nothing here, just wildlife all around and those awesome hippo sounds in the night.

This is supposed to be the rainy season but currently everything is very hot and dry. All the way since leaving Ingogo we have seen miles and miles of mielie (maze) crop struggling to survive due to the lack of rain.

Anyway, so last night halfway through our braai the rainy season started (for us, anyway). The rain came so suddenly and so intensely that we had to abandon supper and head for our rooftop tents hungry.  Luckily our tent stayed dry in the night, Ian and Heather’s got rather wet. The only upside of it was the fact that we managed to collect about 30 litres of rain water in various containers. Beats washing in river water!

Woke up with curly hair this morning (from the rain I think) and decided to have my hair cut by the only hair dresser for miles.

Sunday 1^st March,

We spent all of Friday driving around Mudumi game reserve. It is a mixture of swampland with very long grass and ancient forest. Apart from elephant and the usual game we came across this rare creature called Leguavaan which Don was very excited about. It is about a meter long and so well camouflaged that you would never see it unless it was moving.

It was one of the hottest days so far and driving at five miles per hour in this heat was a challenge. So we were very excited when we got back to our camp where Ian had been busy rigging up a bush shower. Bliss!

And here is the view from the shower:

We left Mudumi yesterday morning and drove some 50 km south to the second camp called Mamili. This one differs from Mudumi in that it is almost entirely swampland and usually 90 % of it is submerged in water at this time of the year. However, because of the lack of rain it was very dry and it appeared like most of the animals had migrated across the Linyati River into Botswana. Nevertheless, the countryside is stunning with all different coloured tall grasses.

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 We found a nice little camp for the night with a basic shower and toilet, so us girls were happy J

Halfway through the night it started raining heavily again and for the first hour this morning we didn’t even get out of our tents since everywhere around us was mud. When we eventually did get out we found that although it was wet all around us, there was no water in the tank feeding the showers or the toilet. We sat around drinking coffee and making poached eggs (thanks for the egg poachers Ed and Sandy, used for the first time today!) when the camp guard appeared, trying to pump the river water into the overhead tank, only to find that the pump was not working and Don and Ian stepped in to fix it.

The guard had believed that the pump had been broken, so he was very happy to have it working again. He treated us in turn by heating the river water for  a hot shower and since we were still wet and for the first time even cold, it was a real treat.

Next we are planning to make our way to the Okavango River, where we will leave the Caprivi Strip and then make our way westwards to our third Namibian camp, Kadum.