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.

Botswana - Chobe Game Reserve

Tuesday 24^th February

 Yesterday we spent all day exploring Chobe game reserve, one of Botswana’s largest national parks. It is about 10,700 square kilometres in size and forms the northern border of the Kalahari Desert. It was originally inhabited by the Bushmen and is now home to the largest elephant population in Africa and you almost run into either a single elephant or a herd at every turn. We came across one herd right in front of us where a large male elephant was blocking us from driving on until a female with her tiny calf had safely crossed no more than five meters away.

There are very few ‘self-drives’ here and most of the organised tours go into the park early in the morning or late afternoon so when we entered at around 9am we didn’t come across a single other vehicle all day.

We stayed close to the Chobe River, which forms the Park’s northern boundary, for most of the day and apart from numerous elephant we came across a flock of vultures devouring what looked like a small elephant. The stench was unbearable!

At some point we headed inwards into a ‘valley’ where the bush was very dense and it felt like complete wilderness. Here we came across a recently killed buffalo with vultures still circling in the sky waiting their turn.

We enjoyed the day enormously but with temperatures in the late thirties I found it also exhausting.

We got back to camp feeling a bit like to guys in the picture below and I was glad it was Heather’s turn to cook supper and no, we didn’t have fish!

Last night in our camp in Botswana, leaving for Namibia tomorrow

Botswana

Friday 21^st February, Botswana

It is almost two years to the day since we finished our last trip. Having arrived from the UK last Sunday we spent the first few days getting ready. How much easier it has been to plan and pack for a six week trip rather than a ten months one; no winter clothes to pack and only two guidebooks instead of nine! 

We were pleased to find that our truck had not suffered from being left out in the open since we last used it and apart from a family of rats having made a nest in our solar panel sleeve, things were pretty much how we left them. Don had stuffed about 20 packets of moth balls into varies nooks and crannies of the truck and getting used to the smell took a bit of getting used to.

So we set off from our base at Ingogo two days ago, heading firstly north towards a town called Lichtenberg. Don and Ian spent most of their childhood there and hadn’t been back since the family relocated to Natal 50 odd years ago. Between the two of them they remembered the name of the street and the number of the house and we actually managed to find it.  The basic building was still standing but had been added on to and is now enclosed by a six foot wall.

We spent our first night in our rooftop tent for over a year and even though we camped in the vicinity of a cement factory it felt great to be sleeping ‘out in the open’ again. From Lichtenberg we headed northwest across what is locally referred to as bushveld country towards the Botswana border and had a reasonably uneventful border crossing. The biggest challenge of the day was the temperature, hitting 41 degrees by early afternoon.

Last night we stayed in a nice little camp near Gaberone, the capitol of Botswana. It was our first night in the real bush and we were greeted by a large resident elephant as we drove in. Unlike game reserves in South Africa, here the animals are pretty much free to roam without boundaries and it is not uncommon to see them crossing the road (even the highway) in front of you.

Right now we are on the main south to north road, hoping to reach a camp near the northern Botswana border by the end of today, so pretty much driving all day. We have made the collective decision to drive through Botswana towards Namibia without too many stop overs. Mostly because we want to spend as much time as possible in Namibia and explore Botswana another time.

Monday 23^rd  

Having spent two days driving on good tarred roads we were in need of a ‘road less travelled’ and took a detour on a remote dirt track which snakes along the Zimbabwian border to the east and close to the Hwange game reserve (which is in Zimbabwe). 

It took us six hours to cover 110 km and for the first time on this trip it felt like we were ‘on the road’ proper. It being so close to the border we were warned of possible poaching activities but apart from some anti-poaching soldiers suddenly jumping out of the bush in front of us waving their guns (a heart-stopping moment on my part!) we saw no-one along the entire route; just beautiful countryside and the odd elephant here and there. Most of the time we were driving through grass as tall as our bonnet and had to stop every now and then to clear grass seeds  and stalks that were trapped in the radiator.

the scull of an elephant by the side of the road

We spent the night in a nice little camp on the Chobe River where warthogs wander around your truck, monkeys steal anything they can and hippo are on the river bank right up in front of you. Across the Chobe River you look at the Caprivi Strip which is a narrow stretch of land jutting out eastwards from Namibia, which separates Botswana from Zambia. With Zimbabwe 60 km to the east, this part of southern Africa is a junction point for four countries.

view from our camp towards the Caprivi Strip

Tomorrow Don and I will take a drive into Chobe game reserve while Ian and Heather will do some fishing.

Hey, guess what......

And finally...

Saturday 2nd March

We have been back in Durban for  a week now. Although not quite home yet, arriving at Kirsty’s marked the end of our trip because this is where it all started. So when we drove into her yard and had an emotional re-union it was a special moment. I gave little Kei (aged three) a big hug and then another one saying ‘this one is from your granny Heather’. He squeezed me as hard as a three year old can for a good thirty seconds then stepped back and said in a very grown up way: ‘ I really really can’t wait to see them again’! Ahhh, hope you are reading this Granny Heather.

This last week was mostly about post-trip logistics, having the car serviced as well as being checked up ourselves. Doctors here know what to look for when it comes to all things ‘tropical’ so it made sense to do it here. We spent most of the week staying with Ed and Sandy and were once again treated to their amazing hospitality.

We had to extend our getting back to the UK by one week, partly because there is more that needs doing here than there is at home. Sorting through all our belongings is like moving house. Some things will stay in the truck, others will come back to the UK and some (mostly 'worn, torn and faded' clothes) will need to get thrown away. The truck will be stored on Ed sister’s farm, at least until Heather and Ian get back at the end of May when they will take it up to their home in Ingogo.

So as you can see I am scratching around for things to tell you now and I guess the time has come to ‘sign off’. There always was going to be the last blog so this is it. I have enjoyed writing it probably more than you have enjoyed reading it (at least that is what you keep telling me!). It has felt very indulgent sharing this experience with you as has getting your comments and emails. 

It really has been a great experience! We managed to see all the places we set out to see and a whole lot more. Africa is so beautiful, so varied, so raw and so dramatic.  There are landscapes that are totally untouched by time and human civilisation and you get a real sense of how things must have been once, a long time ago. 

We have been incredibly lucky. Almost all the people we have met in the various countries have been friendly and welcoming, we certainly never felt in any way threatened, despite the fact that more often than not we went off the beaten track; perhaps it was because of that. We also had nothing stolen nor did we lose anything (apart from my hair brush). But most important of all, we have remained healthy and not picked up any of the many diseases which are a big threat and could ruin a trip like this.

Our best moments? Well, although that was one of our main topics of discussion throughout the trip, looking back now we both feel that it wasn’t any one single moment but the sum of many small ones; the night sky in Sudan,  driving along Lake Turkana in the dust and extreme heat, the old Turkana woman welcoming us into the church on Christmas morning, and one of my favourite moments: sitting in our roof top tent and looking  out on to an African landscape,  feeling a huge sense of connection with everything around.   

Our low points? Of course we had those too but actually not many. These are easier to define into single events: losing Ian and Heather in Malawi with no phone reception and no plan B for re-establishing contact, visiting the Gikongoro college in Rwanda where 50,000 people were massacred.

One of the recurring comments from a lot of you has been the question of how do we end a trip like this and get back into ‘normal’ life.  Of course we have thought about this and in fact it was one of my main concerns before we set out. 

Well there is only one answer to this question and that is you plan the next one, so watch this space!

                                                           

Gabi (and Don of course) xxx

South Island, Lake Turkana

Central Island, Lake Turkana

Ian fishing, Lake Turkana

Scaffolding, Ethiopia

Camping in the desert, Sudan

Children selling handmade toys, Sudan

Ian walking in the sand dunes, Sudan

children playing music with home made instruments, Ethiopia

Wash day

Vegetable stew, Ethiopia

Ancient scripture, Axum Ethiopia

Freezing cold, Siemien mountains, Ethiopia

Coffins for sale, Lesotho

Ian with Gabriel, Lake Turkana

Heather taking notes of bird sightings

still undecided which way to go, Zimbabwe 

planning the journey home, Tanzania

fixing and mending day, Zambia

Sudan

Nyungwe National Park

Sunrise in the desert, Sudan

Best part of the day, Ian and Don making coffee