Oasis Overland Deserts and Gameparks

On the 21 December we set off on our second Oasis overland trip. This time a 33 day trip from Harare down to Cape Town taking in the sights and highlights of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

We flew in to Harare and stayed at the Rocks campsite just outside the city and waited for our truck to arrive! On that rainy Friday afternoon the big yellow truck pulled in to the campground and lots of smiley faces waved at us from the windows! After a really long journey and a bush camp in Malawi the group were rearing to start the fancy dress party they had planned and wasted no time in cracking open the bottles of Zappa and getting trashed! It was a perfect ice breaker for us to get to know our crazy new travel companions! They’d all gone to a local market in Malawi and bought a fancy dress costume for each other. The costumes were vibrant and eccentric to say the least! Gav and I didn’t miss out on the fun either, we were given some tinsel and two black bin bags to improvise with!

The next morning (many with sore heads) we set off in to Harare to have a look round the capital city. It really was an eye opener to go shopping and see how empty the shops were and how expensive even basic provisions are in Zim. The food hall restaurants in the shopping mall could no longer provide their usual menu. Some were just offering a paper menu with limited food items or hot plates with what ever food they had on that day, usually chicken and rice or stew. The horrendous fuel shortages were very apparent. Buses have to queue for days (with their passengers on board) waiting outside petrol stations to fill up with petrol for their journey.

After a few days we left Harare and headed south to Antelope Park in Gweru where we would spend Christmas. On our first pee stop I discovered the wonders of the Africa bush by stepping on an Acacia thorn which went right through my flip flop and deep in to my heel! Good start Ingrid!

Antelope Park was most certainly the best place I can think of to spend Christmas. We had a great guide called Simba who organised all our activities for the 4 days and kept us all fully entertained. We walked with lions, rode and swam with elephants, participated in elephant training, lion and cub feeding and learnt about the breeding and rehabilitation programme. We had a great campground on the edge of the river. Cade and Boyo our truck crew put on a fantastic buffet breakfast on Christmas morning and we had stockings full of sweets and secret santa. We had great fun playing with our secret santa toys and enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner that afternoon. Unfortunately Gavin ended up with a dodgy tummy by the afternoon and missed his Christmas dinner and ended up in bed.

From Antelope Park we headed for Bulawayo where we went walking with Rhinos in the Motopos National Park. For the entire 2 weeks we spent in Zimbabwe it rained constantly, except for the day with the Rhinos in Motopos! We luckily had gorgeous sunshine which made a perfect day even more perfect. We managed to see 6 white rhino and got within metres of these amazing animals. Our hearts were pounding and I was absolutely sh**ing myself when we had our first close encounter with the rhinos but once I gained confidence in our guide I was truly lost in the moment of being so close. A once in a life time experience.

Victoria Falls was our only disappointment of the entire 16 months trip. We had high expectations having loved the Iguassu Falls so much in South America and unfortunately it just didn’t live up to its reputation for us. It wasn’t helped by the weather. Our days in Vic Falls were cold, grey and rainy which made views of the falls quite poor. Thumbs down for Vic falls I’m afraid.

Botswana was our next stop after Zimbabwe. One of my long lasting memories of travelling in Botswana will be the surreal experience of driving along a road and seeing elephants in the bushes! You forget that there is so much wildlife around you until you’re squatting behind a bush taking a pee and beside you, you notice is a big elephant footprint and big fresh pile of elephant poo!

Another thing about Botswana is they are paranoid to the extreme about the spread of foot and mouth! Every road check throughout the country has disinfectant stations where vehicles have to drive through disinfectant. They also require passengers get out and walk over a sponge pad bringing with them a second pair of shoes to also rub on the disinfectant sponge! Hence the truck was always a mess with piles of shoes everywhere ready for the checking stations every 100 or so miles! We also had to be very discreet about what food we transported in the truck so we became experts at quickly hiding any fresh meat we had in the coolers from customs officials as we travelled through Botswana!

We only spent a short time in Chobe National Park, taking a sunset boat trip to view elephants and hippos. Once again though the torrential rain and mud was what marked our stay here! To cheer us all up though Cade made an amazing lasagne that night (on an open fire!). Maun, was our next stop after Chobe. Most of the truck set off for a 3 day trip in to the Okovango Delta but Gav and I decided we would stay and chill out in the campsite in Maun for a few days as we were saving our money for Namibia!
On the last day in Maun though we did take a flight over the delta. You could really appreciate the vast open space of this huge wetland area. We saw so much wildlife from the plane; elephants, hippos, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, impala. The pilots on the delta are renowned for their stunts and crazy flying and our pilot didn’t disappoint! Adding at the end of the trip “if anyone asks we never flew that low!”.

Next as we crossed from Botswana to Namibia, this week was full of bush camps and cool drive and wonderful African sunsets. I didn’t particularly like bush camping in South America but fell in love with it in Africa. Being able to camp in the African bush (and the climate being warmer!) really was an amazing experience. Watching the stars shine through the roof of our tent and waking up to scenery you think you only see in professional photos was truly awesome.

We got to spend a few days in Windhoek. It was possibly the cleanest and nicest capital city we’ve seen. Our highlight was having our first taste of African game meat. I tried Oryx (aka Gemsbok) and Gavin had Kudu. Both were delicious! Us girls also went shopping mad in Windhoek! Mr Price rocks!

We spent 2 days game driving in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. Etosha was a real contrast to the thick green vegetation of Kruger. The landscapes were dry, white and barren which made for excellent game spotting. We were incredibly lucky to see herds of Zebra, Oryx, Springbok and Wildebeest. Etosha’s waterholes also made for great sightings of giraffe, jackal and lions. At one waterhole in the late afternoon we sat and watched a pride of about 5 lions protecting a baby giraffe kill they were devouring. The following day we were watching two lions when some zebra and a mother and baby springbok came to their attention. The lion sat and watched them for a while then crouched down in the stalking position and within minutes was running full speed towards the baby springbok and killed it in seconds! Our first sighting of a live kill.

We bush camped outside Etosha the night before and the last night of our 3 day game drives and just stayed in the rest camps inside the park for one night. We stayed at Halali rest camp which had a great flood lit waterhole. Gavin and I decided to take our sleeping bags and spent the entire night (the only two people there!) by the waterhole. Our tiredness and not so comfy rock was well worth it though because we had a few hours with 3 rhinos drinking at the hole. A visit from an Africa wildcat and also a pride of lions that came to drink on two occasions. At one point I was stood on a rock above the water hole (protected by the electric fence!) when a lion came along the wall about 4 metres below me. She stopped and looked directly at me and we stared right in to each others eyes. My heart was pounding and I knew that was a really special moment I would never forget! Having experienced the sounds and eeriness of being sat in the wilderness through the night was amazing. The owls made it feel like a scene out of “Harry Potter goes to Africa” and the growls, noises and rustles from the bushes left you in constant anticipation of what might come out next.

After Etosha we drove to the Brandburg mountain range to visit the White lady cave paintings. Brandburg is also known as Fire Mountain because of the golden orange colour the sun has on the rock face as it sets each evening. Our bush camp at Spitzkoppe another amazing formation of huge rocks. We had the whole afternoon to climb and explore the rocks then sit and watch an amazing sunset turn the landscape in to blazing orange, red and pinks. Needless to say we all got very snap happy with our cameras here. We ate tea and then toasted marshmallows and ate vodka watermelon around the campfire all night.

Driving from the mountains we headed towards the skeleton coast with a quick stop off to see the Cape Cross Seal colony. It’s the only place on continental Africa where the Cape Fur Seal breeds. With around 100,000 seals all densely packed together on this coastline it makes for impressive and close up viewing! Bring a peg for your nose though because the seals don’t smell very pleasant.

A bit further down the coast we arrived in Swakopmund (or Swakopond as someone knicknamed it) this was our favourite place in Namibia! There are very few towns where you can stand on the high street and look one way to see gorgeous waves crashing on to the beach and in the other direction huge orange sand dunes. Swako is definitely a place for adrenalin junkies with sand boarding, quad biking and sky diving being the most popular activities. We both did a tandem sky dive which was the most exilerating thing we’ve ever done. The views from the sky were breath taking and I most certainly hope to go back one day to do it again. We also loved sandboarding and managed to bring sand back to england in our shoes!

Entering the Namib Naukluft National Park we spent a few days taking in the outstanding views of the sand dunes at Sossusvlei. We’d seen so many pictures of these famous sand dunes but nothing really could have prepared us for seeing them in real life! We were able to spend the whole day walking in the dunes then we all met up with the group in the late afternoon to watch the sunset together on Dune 45 (the most photographed sand dune possibly in the world!). Having seen the dunes throughout the day you really appreciate the effect the sun has on them. They certainly look most impressive in the late afternoon as the oranges and reds become more vivid as the sun sets.

Leaving the sand dunes really started to feel like we were on the final stretch of the trip and with a few long drive days ahead of us to reach Cape Town. We did some cool bush camps though by a huge dam in the south of Namibia then crossed the border in to South Africa with the temperature soaring in to the mid 40’s. En route we visited the Fish River Canyon which was worth a visit if you’re passing but not quite as impressive as the Grand Canyon.

Stellenbosch, the winelands of South Africa was our final stop over before Cape Town and it certainly finished our trip off with a fun few days. The town of Stellenbosch is gorgeous with great restaurants and cafes, beautiful buildings and green, pretty parks. Could have stayed there for a week. We went out and celebrated Simon’s birthday on the first next before taking a full days tour of the vine yards and sampling more than just a taste of the South African wines. Generous measures are the only way to describe how much wine you get to “taste” on the wine tours. However the extra 4 bottles of wine supped by one group whilst travelling by mini bus between vineyards would fully explain why some people were passed out in bed by 7pm. Could highly recommend the Goats do Roam winery (play on words for Cotes du Rhone) . Not only did they have great wine tasting but also extensive range of cheeses to taste!

Just a short drive on the final day and we had arrived at the end of our trip to Cape Town. We hung out with the guys from the truck for a few days until it was time to say a teary good bye to everyone. Another amazing Oasis trip, packed full of memories and wonderful travels. Miss you lot already! Cade and Boyo you rock!!!!!!

---

---