Southern Africa Safari, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa April 2010
After a lean winter of not getting out too much, or at least not getting
out too far from Europe anyway, we have headed for pastures new. After
some DVD research watching Ms. Streep and Ms. McKenna in “Out of Africa”
and “Born Free” and a bottle or two of Amarula, we have decided to go to
the ‘Dark Continent` for some long overdue safari-time. Actually, this is
a birthday surprise for me from Heike and I had nothing to do with the
planning apart from some last-minute stuff.
Near Winhoek, Namibia Friday 2nd April 2010
After an overnight flight from Frankfurt we found ourselves in
Johannesburg and on a flight to Windhoek, Namibia. Heike had to persuade
some hapless woman to swap seats so we could sit together but otherwise
all went well. We had rented a 4WD truck but the tyres turned out to be
all worn out and there was no spare. By the time it was all complained
about and fixed it was getting late and the shops where we had hoped to
provision at in Windhoek were shut so we raced up the Trans-Kalahari
Highway, a very warthog and baboon infested road, to our first lodge.
After leaving the highway and announcing ourselves at the gate, the place
was only another 45km down a red dirt track, thick with gemsbock and other
antelope. The lodge itself was lovely and we had a very nice bungalow with
a picture-window overlooking the wildlife. The lodge is also a big cat
conservation area for leopards and cheetah but none were seen in action
despite lying a-bed watching the sunset.
At dinner, the woman that Heike moved on the plane, we will now call Norma
from South Africa, and her husband Allen originally from Wales, were
seated across the table from us. Nice people, luckily. A small enough
world as it was and it got considerably smaller as we discovered we had
many business, sporting and travel interests in common. The night safari
turned up half-a-dozen porcupines chasing each other around, very
carefully, but little else.
Etosha NP, Namibia Saturday 3rd April 2010
After breakfast we headed off to a small town to the north for food and
fuel and then on to Etosha National Park even further north. The first
wildlife we encountered were again the irrepressible Norma and Allen who
were also paying their fees at the park gate but then it got really busy
with big herds of zebra, ostrich, giraffe and springbok all over the
place. On the edge of the Etosha Pan, a huge salt flat, we saw a lion
lunching casually on a wildebeest watched patiently by marabou storks and
jackals. This was the real red-in-tooth-and-claw Africa. The 4×4 came in
useful on the rough and muddy tracks leading to our first night stop in
the park at Halali Camp.
If all goes well then we are staying another night in Etosha then moving
on to the Caprivi Strip, then the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park
in Botswana, then the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, then the Kruger
National Park in South Africa.
Etosha NP, Namibia Easter Sunday 4th April 2010
At Halali Camp we roughed-it in our own chalet with a hot-tub on the
patio. At first light we were off bouncing along tracks in the park. Not
much wildlife though, just the occasional giraffe or kudu in the bush. We
spent most of the morning on an elephant hunt, following broken trees,
elephant tracks and fresh poo the size of footballs but no elephant came
in sight. We lunched on smoked biltong and South African wine.
Near the edge of the Etosha Pan we were checking out a waterhole and got
the 4WD bogged down up to the axles in what John Mills would have called
“mouldy rice pudding”. After an hour or two a German couple turned up
with a tow-rope but a muddy Heike had already been set to work packing
rocks and blankets under the wheels and we managed to escape unaided.
The wildlife got more plentiful after that with more herds of wildebeest,
giraffe, zebra and gemsbok. Our next overnight camp was at the old German
fort of Namutoni on the eastern side of the park. As nobody is allowed out
of these camps by themselves during the hours of darkness we booked a
night safari with a guide. The night air was cool with only a distant
flash and rumble of lightning. Above the stars were bright as we drove
along in a safari truck with a red searchlight looking for eyes looking
back at us. We mostly saw the same stuff as during the day but also some
spotted hyena mooching along in the dark.
After breakfast in the fort we left the park at the Von Lindquist Gate and
headed northeast to Rundu on the Okavango River at the Angolan border. As
it was Easter Monday, most of Namibia was closed and we missed out on
treats along the way such as the world`s largest meteorite.
Okavango Delta, Botswana Easter Monday 5th April 2010
On the B8 between Grootfontein and Rundu we passed through a disease
control fence that separates the big cattle ranches and open scrubby
grasslands in the south from the subsistence farming in the bush to the
north. It`s a dramatic change from seeing almost no-one at the roadside
to passing through a world teeming with brightly dressed people and neat
mud and thatch kraals and villages and the smell of wood smoke. Who would
have thought veterinary science could make such a difference?
We had arranged a night in the Kaisosi River Lodge on the Okavango River
near Rundu to break the drive to the Okavango Delta. Wet dirt road turned
into a sort of river tributary several kilometres before reaching the
lodge. We arrived with water up to the door sills, hoping for the best.
The lodge turned out to be good and our room was still just above water.
Later they laid on a cruise up the river with a spectacular sunset over
the Angolan bush on the north bank.
Okavango Delta, Botswana Tuesday 6th April 2010
From Rundu we followed the Okavango River downstream for a few hundred
kilometres to Popa Falls then crossed the border post into Botswana and
pressed on another few hundred kilometres to the town of Maun where the
river delta finally dries up in the wastes of the Kalahari.
We found accommodation out of town just before dark but it was vile so
least said the better.
Okavango Delta, Botswana Wednesday 7th April 2010
We were keen to get into the heart of the delta but the only possible way
is by air so we chartered a small Cessna in Maun and flew the 60-odd
kilometres north to the airstrip at Pom-Pom Camp to stay overnight in a
very posh tent on the edge of a lagoon. Pom-Pom Camp is in a beautiful
spot. We had a hippo snorting at us from the water while we had tea.
In the evening we went on a safari truck drive through the bush. There
were just the usual suspects at first then the local guides spotted some
impala looking alarmed and we crashed through the trees in the direction
they were looking to find a leopard sat on a branch just next to us. It
was generally considered to be a rare event and even the leopard agreed.
Sundowners and sunset watching were partaken of next to a huge termite
mound.
The night chorus in the delta is unbelievably loud with a continuous
insect drone, a rhythm section of frogs and deeper vocals from any number
of other things. We had hippos pounding through the shallows just outside
the tent at one point.
Kalahari Desert, Botswana Thursday 8th April 2010
The morning was spent being punted around the reed swamp in mokoros.
Mokoros are the traditional dugout canoes of the area although they are
dug out from brown fibreglass these days for conservation reasons. After
lunch we were taken back to the airstrip. There was a bit of a cock-up
with the plane scheduling which nearly stranded us there, but we were back
in Maun by early afternoon; provisioned and off eastwards across the
Kalahari once again.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe 9th April 2010
Not a hugely successful day. We wanted to take a look at the Makgadigadi salt pans of the eastern Kalahari. Even though they cover hundreds of square miles, we didn´t actually get to see these endless plains of
whiteness due to minor navigational problems. Maybe as well, as with the heavy rain that they´ve been having here it would have just been endless plains of grey mud unfit for driving on.
We also had to abandon looking at Chobe National Park and turned back as we reached the gates to allow more time for crossing into Zimbabwe before the border closed for the night. The border crossing was a nightmare as
expected with loads of fees for this and that. We even had to buy Third Party insurance and some kind of export-guarantee insurance as we were arental car and classed as a commercial vehicle. Poorer but with a sigh of
relief we drove into Zimbabwe and around the first bend we were stopped at a police roadblock and, like all non-Zimbabwe cars, we were fined for not having a bit of reflective tape on the front bumper. We drove on to Victoria Falls and stayed at the elegant but faded, old colonial era, Victoria Falls Hotel. The place was nice. There were baboons and warthogs on the lawn and we could see the rising falls spray and the Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambesi from our room.
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 10th April 2010
In the morning we walked to the Victoria Falls National Park for a view but they wanted $20 each for the pleasure so we got a helicopter flight instead for an even better look. The falls are not easy to take in from the ground anyway as the Zambesi spills through a series of gorges. After that we changed some money. An unusual experience as Zimbabwe has no currency of its own these days and only uses US dollars. As well as currency problems they also have fuel problems. All the normal petrol stations had no petrol to sell but fortunately we were able to get some
from an industrial supplier on the edge of town. Then we used almost all the petrol up by driving a long way south through the forests of Matabeleland, stopping in Bulawayo for the night.
Kruger NP, South Africa 11th April 2010
From Bulawayo there was more driving through Matabeleland to Beitbridge and the chaotic border crossing into South Africa. Over the border we drove through a baobab-tree-covered landscape to the northernmost gate of the Kruger National Park. We had to be at the Punda ria Camp before 18:00 as they close the camp gates then. There are few
petrol stations in the area and we almost ran out of petrol on the way. We had petrol in jerrycans but had to illegally get out of the car to refuel at the side of the road in dangerous lion country. We saw no lions but there was a hungry-looking wild dog on the road ahead. We made it to the camp as they were closing the gates. They don`t lock you out but there are fines involved and we had had enough of fines recently.
Kruger NP, South Africa 12th April 2010
From Punda Maria Camp we drove south stopping at Mopani Camp for lunch just south of the Tropic of Capricorn overlooking the Tsendze River. Then it was on to the Olifants River and the Olifants Camp with another excellent river view with a campfire to watch the sunset. All the buildings in the camp are thatched but they don`t seem to fret too much about it all going up in flames.
Kruger NP, South Africa 13th April 2010
We watched the sun rise over Mozambique then it was another wildlife
spotting drive through the park to Satara Camp with the first rhino plus
baby rhino and spotted hyena plus baby hyena sightings. We barbecued (or
braaied) some bleasbock outside another thatched bungalow.
Kapama Game ReserveSouth Africa 14th April 2010
On our third day driving in the Kruger Park we stopped at Tshokwara for
breakfast under a giant sausage tree (Afikanischer Leberwurstbaum auf
Deutch) and had the Full South African of kuduwors, pap and sheba
(antelope sausage, wallpaper paste and tomato salsa). We called into
Skukuza Camp briefly then left park through the Paul Kruger Gate. We took
an interesting drive on a terrible road through rural Africa reaching
Kapama Game Reserve in time for afternoon tea. Timing wasn`t really an
issue though as we were the only guests in the lodge and considerably
outnumbered by our personal staff of bearers, trackers, game wardens and
domestics.
The evening`s game drive, just for us, with Wesley and Britt, the
Afrikaner game wardens and the native tracker, Derek, turned up three lion
cubs, two lionesses and two rhino. The night sky was very clear and our
old Pacific friend, the Southern Cross, was there.
Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa 15th April 2010
This day was something of a mystery tour for me, probably as it was my
birthday and Heike likes to give surprises. We were up very early, or
quite late depending on how you look at it and on what seemed to be
another game drive but I was beginning to suspect something when we
switched from the safari truck to a car at the gate. The car took us to a
grapefruit orchard where a big round yellow thing was growing. I
recognized it as a hot-air balloon straight away, having been in one just
last year.
After the balloon safari, it was back to the Kapami Lodge for breakfast,
then a little nap then lunch and a birthday cake for me. Then another
little nap (we were up very early) and then it was time for another
evening game drive. Or so I thought. It started off well when we saw a
male lion waking up from a sleep. It`s a tough life in the African bush.
Wesley then seemed to drive forever down smaller and smaller tracks. There
in front of us was a four-poster bed with a mosquito net. I was handed a
radio for ´just in case` and we were left there with the sun going down
and roaring coming from the trees. Surprise, surprise, Martyn. There were
hurricane lanterns and a cooler full of wine so it was not too bad. A chef
called Emanuel turned up later and cooked dinner for us then left. How
surreal is that? Dinner was carpaccio of springbok and some fish followed
by amarula pannacotta.
Kruger NP, South Africa 16th April 2010
Wesley turned up as the sun was rising and we were off driving through the
bush again on what I thought was yet another game drive. Suddenly lined up
in front of us were eighteen African elephants all with African riders. We
had arrived at the Jabulani Camp for an elephant-back safari. Surprise,
surprise, again. We lumbered through the bush for a couple of hours
ripping up trees as went along and looking at the animals. I had the
biggest and baddest elephant that used whole trees for toothpicks. Then it
was back to the Kapami Lodge for breakfast then on the road again back
into the Kruger Park.
We took a look at the hippos at Lower Sabie Camp then went on to
Berg-en-Dal Camp where we barbecued some kudu for dinner. As one does.
Dullstroom, Transvaal, South Africa 17th April 2010
In the morning we had a monkey sneak into our bungalow to breakfast on
some packets of sugar. Our breakfast was eggs and bacon. We then left
Kruger Park through the Malelane Gate. Kruger Park is about the same size
as Israel so, who knows, we may have missed a few critters on the way.
From Kruger Park we drove west into the Transvaal Drakensberg mountains
going over the Great Escarpment and on to the High Veldt. The Escarpment
is cut through by rivers with big waterfalls and canyons. We took a look
at MacMac Falls and the Blyde River Canyon on the way to the historic gold
mining town of Pilgrim`s Rest. Overnight it was a stay in a nice hotel in
the town of Dullstroom.
Vanderbijlpark, South Africa 18th April 2010
From Dullstroom, it was a drive to Johannesburg to return our 4WD. We had
driven over 5,500 kilometres over some rough country and slept in a
different bed every night for 19 nights and I for one wasn`t sorry to
stop.
We had arranged to meet our old Boer Pacific sailing friend , Gerrie
Boshoff, for a beer before flying out but as it turned out, European
airspace was closed due to an Icelandic volcano and the flight was
cancelled. It now looked like we could stay a bit longer. Gerrie kindly
showed us around Pretoria and the Voortrekker Monument and some pre-World
Cup preparations in Johannesburg then we stayed the night at his home on
the Vaal River in Vanderbijlpark. Gerrie also invited his friend Reetha
over for drinks and I had an audience for a slideshow of what I did on my
holidays.
Cape Town, South Africa 19th April 2010
It now looked like a serious extension to our vacation was becoming
inevitable so we returned to Johannesburg and caught a flight to Cape
Town.
We arrived in Cape Town by late afternoon; rented a car and drove down to
the Quayside Hotel in Simon`s Town on the Cape to the south of Cape Town.
The room view is over a nice little marina.
There is a certain sense of tying up loose ends to being here in Cape Town
as according to my original circumnavigation plan I should have been here
for Christmas 2008. By taking the revised route through the Red Sea it got
me a Christmas in Penang, Malaysia instead.
As fellow travellers are sleeping rough in the airport in Jo`burg, we are
having ourselves a very pleasant extension to an already long trip.
Cape Town, South Africa 20th April 2010
We went up the cable car to the top of Table Mountain today which is
something that has to be done when here. It was worth the trip and the
views were as advertised.
The weather here is autumnal but warm enough and sunny. The whole place
looks very Mediterranean and reminds me of Greece or Turkey. Some trees
are even dropping leaves which I`d not expected. Later we went on more of
the tourist trail by going to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. I`m still
trying to find out why it`s “Alfred” and not “Albert”. There must be a
good reason.
Cape Town, South Africa 21st April 2010
Today we got up very early for a longish drive down the Cape to see the
sunrise from the Cape of Good Hope but it was a wasted trip as the park
gates were closed until daylight. On the way back to Simon`s Town we
stopped off at the penguin colony at Boulders Beach. After a bit more
sleep we tried the Cape of Good Hope again and went up to the lighthouse
at Cape Point. It`s a desolate, windy spot.
In the afternoon it was a boat trip out to Robben Island to see where
Nelson Mandela spent his pre-Presidential years. The bus trip around the
island and the prison tours are conducted by ex-inmates who must have been
originally locked up for crimes against public speaking.
Cape Town, South Africa 22nd April 2010
We drove out to the Cape Winelands outside of Cape Town today. It`s very
pretty mountainous scenery. We had a nice lunch in the wine-growing town
of Franschhoek.
Even in the very European-looking Franschhoek the street begging and “car
guards” are a bit of a nuisance with the implied threat that your car
might end up somewhere other than where you left it unless you give them
money. The drive back around False Bay took us past some huge
nasty-looking shantytowns which must spawn these entrepreneurs. Much of
Cape Town looks really pleasant though, but the best bits still seem to be
only for us white boys.
Namibia 23rd April 2010
Flying to Windhoek, Namibia, today to see the red dunes of the Namib
Desert which we didn´t get to see the first time around.
Namibia 24th April 2010, A Heikiblog
This is not a blog about going to places or seeing sights. This is not a
blog about the little delights or disasters on the way. This is not a
blog about what we have done. This is a blog about Africa, it`s about what
you feel and experience when you come to Africa, it´s about all your
dreams about freedom and infinity.
We are back in Namibia. We are back in the open.
As soon as you arrive in Windhoek airport you are out in the open. The
airport is approximately 45 km east of Windhoek and your soul is already
adapted to this amazing land by flying for quite some time over absolutely
open land – wide, open, empty, as wide as the sky, as wide as the desert,
as wide as the universe.
Driving through that wonderful, wide landscape frees your mind, frees your
imagination and empties your mind from everything that is associated with
“civilization”. It brings you in touch with all the colours you could ever
imagine, with the purity of nature and with the rhythm of the land.
The colours here in Africa are absolutely breathtaking: You find the
emerald green sea floating into clear blue skies, lined with heavy dark
green lined bushes and highlighted with lovely shaped clouds and the shiny
yellow of the grass and the warm red of the earth. You find grassland so
wide and beige that you think you could drown in there, dotted with
singular dark green bushes and trees and limited by unlimited blue skies.
You find chocolate brown mountains with shimmering grey bits reflecting
the never-ending sunshine, embedded in yellow grasslands and decorated
with ostriches, impalas and springboks. And you finally find bright red
dunes that look like even mountains, reflecting the warm red colour in the
clouds above them in a sea-like blue sky that seems to never end. And on
these huge red dunes which have edges that seem to be cut into the sky you
see little dots of yellow, grey or green that are painted by god’s own
hand.
These colours are so bright, so intense and the forms of the mountains are
so bright, so clear and so wonderful combined, that they almost seem to be
surreal.
The colours at night seem to be even more surreal: All the stars of the
south, the Southern Cross and the best view of the Milky Way! And at the
moment when the moon sets in warm red colours into the dark sky you
couldn’t wish for more beauty on earth or in heaven.
And when you walk through that landscape you smell the wonderful smell of
wild sage, either because the elephants you were following just stepped
over it and exposed that wonderful smell or because they just swing in the
wind and release their earthly odour. And after sunset or before sunrise
you smell the wet earth that nurtures the land.
Associated with all these impressions is the rhythm of Africa: Dark, very
rhythmic, warm and sometimes very slow, touching your soul. You just have
to sway and swing to the wonderful tunes that embed your soul into these
wonderful colours, into this wonderful landscape, into all the smells and
into Africa. Or upbringing and cheerful so that you just have to move your
body to the rhythm of the tune.
All of this is Africa, all of this is what you experience when you come to
Africa, when you come out into the open, when you allow your body and soul
to dive into Africa and drown in colours, in smells, in rhythms and in
infinity and eternity. Come to Africa and experience it for yourself,
there is no way I can describe it in words! You just have to feel it,
have to experience it and your soul will never forget Africa! Nkosi
Sikelel’iAfrica (God bless South Africa)!
Heiki
Namib Desert, Namibia 24th April 2010
From Windhoek we drove westwards forever on dirt roads through the
Namib-Naukluft mountains. Shops, petrol stations and even people can be
hundreds of kilometres apart in this part of the world which is a bit
disquieting when you are used to a compact little England.
We reached our camp at Kulala Lodge in the Namib Desert, watched the
sunset over some red and purple dunes and then slept out under the stars.
It`s a good climate for it at this time of year with a cool night breeze
and no mosquitoes.
Namib Desert, Namibia 24th April 2010
After breakfast, we drove into the Namib-Naukluft Park down the dry bed of
the Tsauchab river. Big red dunes, yellow grasses, green trees and blue
skies loom all around. Around 60 kilometres into the park the tarmac road
ends and only 4WD`s continue on a soft-sand track to Sossusvlei where the
Tsauchab river sometimes reaches before it dries up. By nightime we
were back at the Kulala camp.
Namib Desert, Namibia 26th April 2010
It was another huge drive on dirt roads back towards Windhoek where we
stopped at the Goche Gana Lodge for the night. Waterbuck and ostrich were
on view from the room and Hartebeest was on the plate for dinner.
Windhoek, Namibia 27th April 2010
We watched the sunrise from our verandah and listened to animals
breakfasting on each other. The view is very big from this lodge with
miles and miles of bushveldt and mountains and almost nothing man-made in
sight. I think perhaps part of the appeal of this Africa-watching is being
able to feel superior to these other end-products of countless millions of
years of evolution who are still slugging it out down below while you sit
cosily wrapped up in a duvet drinking coffee.
Then it was time to drive to Windhoek airport for the flight to
Johannesburg then maybe another flight to Frankfurt overnight assuming no
other major natural disasters extend our trip.
Germany 28th April 2010
Arrived back this morning.
Flights from Windhoek to Johannesburg and from Johannesburg to Frankfurt
were relatively uneventful. We had some hours to wait in Johannesburg
Airport so, in search of free drinks and sandwiches, Heiki blagged our way
into the Business Class lounge by waving a bogus card. I think it’s called
“chutzpah” but maybe Adam or Dawn can confirm the spelling.
So, the grand totals:
In 28 days away we drove over 7000 km, mainly on dirt roads. Took ten
flights by air including: six by commercial jet; two by light aircraft; one
by helicopter and one as a hot-air balloon safari. Took four trips by water
including: one riverboat cruise; two island ferryboats and one dugout canoe
journey. Did an elephant-back safari; crossed two deserts; visited the big
beasts in six National Parks and a number of other game reserves. A
thoroughly excellent time was had by all and well done to Heiki for
organizing this surprise trip.
“Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew
and for
several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.” – W.C.Fields