Southern Africa Part III, Namibia w/a Little Zimbabwe and Angola

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Southern Africa Part III Namibia (with short visits to Zimbabwe and Angola)

July 30 - September 9, 2015

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As you have probably figured out, these travel blogs are a way for Bernard and me to keep track of our adventures. I can't tell you how many times we've referred back to one of our over 60 travel blogs looking for various details, maps, dates, etc. That said, feel free to enjoy the photos and just skim the text - I've highlighted a few interesting events, so look for those in bold. Also, at the very end of the text are answers to FAQ.

Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls - July 30 - August 2.

After leaving Chobe National Park, Botswana where we’d been watching hundreds of elephants and buffalo, scores of impala and kudu, not to mention all the wonderful birds on the Chobe River, we drove a short distance to the town of Kasane, Botswanafor one night.

We’d arranged transportation and in the morning we were picked up and delivered to our hotel in Victoria Falls. The border crossing into Zimbabwe was easy. Time: 10 minutes to the border, an hour at the border, then 45 minutes to our hotel in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The town of Vic Falls appears to be prosperous, might be because all of Zimbabwe now uses the US dollar and their prices in Vic Falls were high - more than in the states, which seemed a bit odd. For example, our hotel had 10 rooms around a pool and verdant garden. The ensuite rooms were basic - no TV or coffee/tea making provisions, nothing but a bed, desk - the usual. It cost $100 per night PER PERSON - so for that we paid $200 per couple. We know it wasn’t out of line - the big hotels cost about $500 per night - but still, NOT a value. Victoria Falls is, however, one of the three largest waterfalls in the world, so a huge tourist draw.

FYI: Of the three largest waterfalls in the world, Victoria (Zambabwe/Zamba) is the longest; Iguaçu (Argentina/Brazil) the widest; Niagara (USA/Canada) carries the most water.

We only had two days in Vic Falls, one of which was spent at the falls itself walking to the 16 view points. The other day we shopped - they have amazing artisans in Zim.

Victoria Falls is in the middle of a national park, so we were cautioned not to walk around at night; they had no problems with muggings, for example, but walking back from dinner you might run into the butt of a buffalo. Taxis, which were plentiful and reasonable, were recommended.

One night we went to a resort’s evening show - traditional song and dance, plus amazing drumming. The ‘African food’ was abundant and delicious - my favorite was the warthog, Bernie liked the lamb and eland balls, Jack was partial to the ostrich, but liked the crocodile he’d had for lunch better.

Everybody’s favorite was getting to partake in the drumming and the ‘free style’ dance - we all had a turn in the circle, like it or not. Having said that, Bernard managed to hide when it was his turn to dance, but he wouldn’t have looked any sillier than we did. Fun night.

Before the show we had a drink on the safari lodge’s deck which overlooked a waterhole - saw a family of elephants and giraffes come down for a sip before sunset.

August 2. Our transport picked us up and we crossed back into Botswana in the morning; went back to our hotel in Kasane to pick up laundry we’d left to have done; had lunch, then drove into Namibia - just over the border into Chobe River Camp on the Chobe River again.

Namibia August 2 - September 4.

August 2/Chobe Camp. Our camp for the night was a beautiful spot on the Chobe River. The lodge was set on the river’s edge with lovely views, so we had a drink at the bar (decided not to have dinner there) before finding our site and setting up for the night. We were the only campers, so had our choice of lovely campsites - all on the river, each with its own cook house with a sink and running water, private toilet and shower (wood-heated hot water), and a nice man named Albeus who heated our water, arranged for firewood and generally took good care of us. A real bonus of this camp area was that they had put netting over the sand - all around the campsites - so we weren’t constantly dealing with sand between the toes, in our sleeping bags, etc.

It was an enchanting campsite - we could look across the river and see elephants grazing. That night we pitched our tent right next to the cook house, which was a tall structure. Feeling pretty safe we tucked in for the night only to be awakened a few hours later. I woke because of the noise the elephants were making crossing the river just up from our camp. Once on our side of the river, they made their way slowly up the river, sloshing and munched shrubs and browsing their way toward us - getting louder and louder. I had been fully awake for about an hour before I woke Bernard and whispered to him that we were surrounded by elephants. The moon was almost full and I’d been watching the shadow of the tree near our tent bend, pop back up, be pulled down again - an elephant had her feet planted on our platform and was busy eating the tree. I was afraid she would break off a big limb that might come down on our tent. We’d seen countless trees uprooted and split in half by elephants, so I don’t think my fear was misplaced. While we laid in our bags and watched the shadows, Sherri & Jack were watching from their roof-top tent. They counted 10 elephants all around our site - some eating a tree near them also.

After about an hour in our campsite, the matriarch of the family made a short, soft trumpeting sound and they all moved off, silently.

Just before dawn we heard the low roar (more like a deep, penetrating rumble) of a lion, followed by a raucous cacophony of a group of hyenas. Albeus confirmed the lion and hyenas, but hadn’t seen the elephants - he was in a cabin pretty far from us.

Someone asked if we’d been afraid the an elephant might step on our tent and the answer is no, they know exactly what a tent is I think (some say they see a big rock - I think they are smarter than that). They are leery of humans and general don’t harm us, so it was the falling tree branches I feared, not an elephant’s misstep.

August 3, Nundu Safari Camp. This was a great campsite - big sites with electric and water, nice ablution block w/showers and an easy walk to the lodge which sat on the Okavango River. We went on a sunset boat ride that evening to see Popa Falls, which is really just a small cascade, but a lovely ride on the river none-the-less. We saw a river otter, our first, crocodile, hippos (many), and numerous birds, including bee-eaters.

August 4, Roy’s Camp. This was just a place to camp on our way to a Koi-San village where we had a two-day cultural experience organized.

August 5 & 6/Nhoma Safari Camp. After nature adventures for two months, here at Nhoma we got some cultural experience with the San people (aka Bushmen). Our first day in camp we were escorted to a San village very nearby and observed jewelry and arrow making, women and children in games and learned much about the culture from our San guide, Freddy. You are right, that is NOT his San name, but the San language has many **click sounds we have a hard time imitating, and hence the guides take Anglo names.

**In writing the click sounds are represented by signs: //, ?, !, /. For example hello is !kao, baboon is //aiub, elephant is ?khoab

The San (and Koi in other places) were, and some still are hunter gathers, so no ownership of cattle, sheep, etc. They traditionally live on game and tubers, greens and other plants the women are expert at finding. Medicines are derived from plant leaves, roots and bark.

Mostly now the San are very impoverished because of their lack of modern skills. In this village, however, the camp owners support a school, store and give them a share of the profits from tourists. This enables them to live a more traditional lifestyle than other Koi-San. They have elected to be an alcohol free village also, which Freddy was very proud of.

Our second day in the camp we met with Freddy and three San hunters for a morning hunt. We were fast on the trail of a porcupine, which they love to eat, but he evaded us. So we spent about four hours learning about the area, the trees, and medicinal plants. Freddy was great at explaining what the San hunters were doing. He pointed out the tracks we were following. He was also really good at finding and explaining the medicinal plants and their uses. Kept thinking of my friends at the Desert Museum who specialize in ethnobotany and how they would have enjoyed that amazing morning.

While tracking the evasive porcupine, the San found the burrows of springhare, which they dug down into trying to snare the hare. We also found aardvark burrows, which they did NOT dig down into and in fact gave a wide berth - could be an aardvark, could be a honey badger; nobody wants to tangle with a honey badger. Speaking of honey, our San used the long hooked spears they carried (and tried to snag a hare with) to test cavities high in trees looking for honey.

August 7 - 11, Etosha National Park. The name “Etosha’ means Great White Place; is 22,270 sq. kilometers (8,600 square miles). The San legend has it that this ‘lake of mother’s tears’ was created by a woman who cried for the loss of her child. She cried so much that her tears filled the lake. When her tears dried up, only the salt from her tears remained, creating the salt pans.

In Etosha we surpassed 10,000 kilometers (approx. 6,000 miles) driven.

We had a long drive (eight hours) from the San village of Nhoma to Etosha National Park and had a flat tire along the way. Fortunately we were near a town (**Grootfontein) and the Dunlop tire place had our tire off, patched and replaced within 45 minutes, for a whopping $8.00 US.

**A notable stop because it was here that Jack finally found a urinal that was too tall for him to use. In all of southern Africa they seem to put the urinals at a height that caters to tall people; there had been several before now that Jack had difficulty with, but in Grootfontein he finally met his Waterloo - get it, water in the urinal which is also a loo. . . ok, never mind.

August 7/Numatoni Fort/Etosha NP Entrance. We had chalets here and since we’d had a long hot day on the road and been camping for five days, a hot bath and comfy beds were most welcome.

We went to the waterhole that night, but not much was happening early on and our exhaustion got the better of us. As soon as it got a little cool, we were hightailing it to our comfy beds.

August 8/Halali Rest Camp. We got up early so as to have plenty of time to drive to our next camp site, still in Etosha. We drove down dik-dik drive first thing as we’d not seen a Damara dik-dik yet. Seems lots of folks were on the hunt for these little (15”/37 cm tall; 10-12 lbs./4-5 kilos) antelope - there were big buses on this gravel road. Fortunately the buses drove through quickly leaving us in peace to finally see five dik-diks. As a bonus we saw our first black-faced impala - both new for Jack & Sherri.

We then went on to see four-six lions (at a distance; couldn’t see how many were in the ‘scrum’), two black rhino, elephants, zebra, red hartebeest, springbok.

We arrived at Halali early, so got to spend some time at the waterhole. Bernie went first and for an hour was entertained by a several elephant families (40 total). One of the little ones tired to drive off any other animal that wanted to drink - kudu, zebra, etc. We’d read that elephants didn’t like to share a waterhole . . . . By the time the rest of us got there, that group of elephants was leaving, but not before the little bully ran back and drove off three kudus who had the audacity to try to drink. Then a a herd of zebra who’d been waiting nearby rushed in to drink. A short time later, a family of 10 elephants came for a drink, but no aggressive little bull elephants with that group.

Up early to head to yet another compound within Etosha, but we had a low tire (not the one we’d had fixed), so we stopped at the gas station in Halali where we put on the spare tire and had the deflated one patched. It took about a half an hour and was much more expensive than the first at $12.00 US.

August 9 & 10/Okaukeujo Rest Camp. On our way to this compound we stopped at numerous waterholes and saw the usual suspects. At one hole in particular there were animals as far as the eye could see - hundreds of springbok, impala, zebra and gembok/oryx.

At the waterhole that evening we enjoyed watching giraffe, elephant, black-backed jackals and a female black rhino with a youngster. Jack and Sherri stayed longer than we did and saw three more black rhinos.

Okaukeujo was a great campsite: large sites, flush toilets in the bathrooms, showers, a laundry facility (did all of our EXTREMELY dirty clothes). The compound had a restaurant, pool, post office, grocery store, souvenir shop and of course the waterhole. With such a great venue, we spent the day in camp; no need to drive to see game as the waterhole brought them to us. That night at the waterhole (after we’d left; my camera battery was dead) Jack and Sherri were rewarded with a visit by a male lion and more rhino.

August 11/Dolomite Camp. This part of Etosha was closed until recently and you must have a special permit to even drive in this section. We had lovely rooms booked at the only lodge; built into a koppie (rock outcrop) with fabulous views across the plains - both east and west. We sat on our decks and watched elephants, giraffes and many antelope meander across the vast landscape. Jack climbed out on some rocks and photographed elephants mating at the waterhole, among other things, but those were the photos he showed to our dinner companions over drinks in the bar. We were all very impressed.

On our way to Dolomite we visited many waterholes, many of which were just chocker-block with animals. At one hole, after spending time looking at all the birds and animals, we were headed out when Jack said, “Check out that wildebeest under the tree over there. A lion’s profile can look a lot like a wildebeest at that angel.” And he was right, what we’d dismissed as ‘just another gnu’ was a male lion just sitting under the tree looking at the lovely lunch buffet at the waterhole. Once our binos were up, we saw three more (two female and another male) behind a tree.

While it was great to see more lions, the interaction between the big male lion and a herd of zebra was the highlight. A group of zebra left the waterhole and walked directly up to lion. The leader of the group seemed to challenge the lion, walking closer and closer, vocalizing and vigorously nodding his head. The lion’s reaction: he turned his back on the zebra and ignored him. What a hoot!! This all took place over about 20 minutes; we weren’t sure at first that the zebra saw the lion. We thought they were walking into a trap, but noooooo, that big male zebra was just showing off for his ladies I think. See a series of photos at the end of the blog.

August 12 - 14/Epupa Falls. Leaving Dolomite Camp meant we were also leaving Etosha, Namibia’s premier national park. We’d had a lovely week, but were ready for our next adventure.

From the exit gate at Etosha we turned north - all the way to the Angola border, which is where Epupa Falls is. It was a long drive and we needed supplies, so our first stop was at the town of Opuwo, OMG what an experience!! This town is the hub for the area, which is full of different tribes, mainly Herero, Himba and Damara. The streets were full of ‘traditionally’ dressed women and some men.

The Herero and Himba are related. After the German (this was formerly Germany Southwest Africa) missionaries came, some of the group, who are now Herero, adopted more moderate clothing (old fashioned looking dresses with full skirt and shawls). The key element of the outfit is a striking headdress fashioned into cow horns.

The Himba stayed more traditional, i.e., still wearing only animal skins, keeping their hair fashioned into braids with cow skin and coating the ends of it with ochre mixed with fat. They use the same ochre to smooth onto their skin, which gives them a beautiful sheen and reddish/golden color. Because of this skin and hair treatment, the women never bathe. More on that later.

From Opuwo we continued to Epupa Falls to a beautiful campsite on the Kunene River, about 200 meters/yards from the falls.

Our first day we went with some Italians from our campsite to a Himba village. Our guide, Dom, had family in this village, but still had to get permission to bring us and also brought corn meal as a gift. Of course it was a given that we would all buy a trinket or two also, as way of thanks. Turns out I loved the horn bracelets, so had no trouble buying two.

In the village of small bee-hive huts, we were taken to a slightly larger hut - the circumcision hut. Four boys about 8-10 and one about a year old had just been circumcised. They were naked and their swollen, oozing penises abuzz with flies were left exposed. The had been rubbed with ash all over, so had an unworldly look, but they didn’t appear to be in any pain. Women of the village took turns throughout the day staying with the boys.

The young woman who was attending the boys when we visited was taking the opportunity to rub herself with a combination of **fat and ochre. Her reddish-brown skin was flawless and quite striking. She showed us the mixture and demonstrated how she rubbed her skin and ends of her hair with the concoction. I’m not going to try to describe the hair - see the photos; they are AMAZING.

**We suspect that instead of using the traditional animal tallow for the fat in this mixture, they use margarine. I say this because in the grocery store in Opuwo I was jostled out of the way at the dairy case by two Himba women intent on getting large quantities of a certain kind of margarine.

Because of the ochre skin and hair treatment, the Himba women never bathe, NEVER. Don’t ask about sponge baths, etc., because I don’t know. Having said that, the village did not have an odor, nor did the woman we interacted with nor the hut we went into. Now at the grocery store in Opuwo in the tussle for margarine, which included the Himba women reaching high and over me, there was definitely an ‘aroma.’

On the way back to Epupa Falls we realized we hadn’t seen any outhouses, so asked Dom who told us they don’t have designated toilet areas but go outside the village perimeter for such duties.

I’m not going to try to describe the clothing of the Himba people - I’ll let the photos do the talking. Dom explained many customs: hairstyles; clothing for prepubescent vs. girls who had started menstruating; jewelry and how you could tell their marital status; the duties and responsibilities of the men, women and children.

There were few men in the village as in the dry season they take the cattle herds into the mountain pastures. Several young men came into the village while we were there and Dom explained that periodically they were sent down to check on the women and children (who were left to tend the large goat herds).

One interesting custom is the knocking out of all the Himba people’s two lower front teeth. At age 12 they are all, boys and girls, brought together in a circle, each with an older person behind to hold their arms and insert a twig between their lower teeth and tongue. Another person then puts a stick (the right size - two teeth width) in their mouth and hits the stick with a large stone. If they are accurate, in one fell swoop the two lower teeth are knocked cleanly out. You could see Dom cringe when telling the story and he ended by saying, “The pain was terrible, just terrible, unbelievably terrible.”

As I mentioned above, the Herero people evolved away from their Himba relatives many years ago. The knocking out of the teeth was one of the old practices they discontinued. Also, we met several young Himba men working in tourism who had not had their teeth knocked out; said the custom was on the wane.

We were taken into one of Dom’s sister’s tiny **hut (timber frame covered with mud mixed with cow dung; dries and is waterproof). There was just enough room for some personal objects; her extra skins were hung on a line on the wall, she had a gourd for water, her ochre mixture and a small fire in the middle. Other than the door there were only two small holes on each side of the hut for the smoke to escape. You’ll notice my photos inside the hut look hazy - that is the smoke.

**At age seven all children are given their own hut; really just their own room as all the huts are close together.

We spent about two hours in the village, had lovely interaction with the kids and young women in particular and all the while Dom was explaining the culture to us. We ended the visit with shopping - the women do bead work, bracelets from cow horn or bone, leather work - all for sale, and for you a deal!!

ANGOLA - AUGUST 14 - FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES

Our second day in Epupa Falls we walked to the falls in the morning and in the afternoon joined a group of 16 Spaniards for a float on the Kunene River. Paddling with Latins, hum, interesting. In our boat were six Spaniards, Bernard and me. What a hoot - they chatted the entire time, never listened (couldn’t hear) the commands from our guide, paddled out of sync and not evenly on one side. We were constantly turning in circles, going down rapids backwards and once in a tight spot almost flipped the boat as we ran into trees on the bank. There was another boat with eight Spaniards; Sherri & Jack were in a double kayak.

Let me back up a bit. The guide, Ernest, tried to put Bernard and me in a double kayak, which was SUCH a bad idea. We do OK in a canoe, but whenever we’ve been in a kayak, we’ve not been able to sync our stroking strength, so end up going in circles. Add to that the fact that I don’t swim - I can float and do alright in saltwater, but this was decidedly not saltwater and was, oh, full of crocodiles!! So, by protesting strongly was able to convince the guide to put two experienced kayakers from the Spanish group in the double.

The Kunene River is the border between Namibia and Angola. We landed on the Angola side for refreshments, so were officially in Angola - score new country for all of us.

After finishing our drinks in Angola, we headed downstream again at full cacophony - the Spaniards yelling between boats, continuous water fights - thank goodness it was a hot day and the cold water felt wonderful.

Not too far from the end of the trip Jack & Sherri were in the lead in their double kayak. We’d seen several crocs on the trip, but they seemed docile and certainly not threatening. For whatever reason at this particular time a monster crocodile decided (we startled him?) to launch himself off of a high bank straight at Jack & Sherri. He hit the water and disappeared under their boat. Jack & Sherri practically lifted the kayak off the water in their haste toward the opposite shore. Sherri told us later that she was trying to remember if we’d read anything about crocodiles flipping boats to get to the occupants, all while on an incredible adrenaline rush and paddling furiously. Good times, good times.

August 15/Khowarib Camp. We drove from Epupa Falls, back through Opuwa (again, a cultural highlight) where we camped one night at the Khowarib Lodge campsite - lovely absolution block, camp attendant who delivered wood.

August 16 - 18/Palmwag Concession within Sesfontein Conservancy. On the way to the concession we had our third tire issue. We’d had one flat (near Grootfontein) and one stem issue, so this was our second flat. We were stopped on the side of the road trying to locate our tire iron under all of our gear when some locals stopped to assist. I say assist but really they just took over, got their own tire iron and went about changing our tire for us. Very nice young men. Interesting that while they didn’t refuse the money we offered for their help, what they really wanted was food and/or water; the cookies and apples we gave them seemed to please them more than the money.

Palmweg was likely one of the wildest areas we’d been in. No improvements, not even signs indicating where the campsites were, even though we had a map with said designations. We had to rely on GPS coordinates completely. The landscape was surreal, at the beginning the barrenest of it reminded us of the Atacama Desert in Chile or parts of Alaska. On the last day we were driving in the Hoanib River bed that had water in places with lots of trees and grasses. In those places we saw the desert elephant (with ‘spindly’ legs for long treks) and baboons that were almost black.

At the end of our second day’s drive we were, naturally, looking for a camping spot. We drove down into a sandy riverbed under some shady trees, got out to asset the spot for overnight when we discovered we had ANOTHER flat tire - number 3. So having found our campsite by default, we unloaded, changed the tire and set up camp. Jack patched a rock puncture we found, but it wasn’t holding air. Fortunately the spare was a new tire - we’d had to buy one after the previous flat tire.

The next day in Sesfountein at the tire repair shop (BOOMING business in Namibia) they discovered it was a double puncture, but they were able to fix both.

August 19 - 20/Grootberg Lodge. After three days of camping ‘rough’ in Palmweg we rewarded ourselves with two nights at a really nice lodge. We not only enjoyed hot water and a bed, but a superb restaurant, fast laundry service from well-trained and friendly staff.

When given a choice, Bernard and I opted to forego another day in a vehicle on rough roads, so stayed at the lodge for a day of leisure, although we did a nice hike in the morning. Jack and Sherri went with a guide in search of rhino. They got up at 4 a.m. for a 5:30 departure and returned at 12:30. Most of the time was in the open vehicle, but they did get a nice hike when the guide spotted rhino tracks. They saw two black rhino very close up. One rhino had its horns sawed off to protect it from poachers. We were told later that over 90 rhino had been poached in Namibia this year.

August 21 - 22/Mowani Camp near Twyfulfontein. This was camping at its best - big, private campsite in the rocks, private bathroom with flush toilet, shower and sink. A kitchen with hot and cold running water and plenty of counter space. Camp attendants to build a fire in the hot water heater mornings and afternoons and deliver firewood for the evening braai.

The Mowani Safari Lodge of which the campsite was connected, had in their literature that campers were NOT allowed into the exclusive lodge area. We had to go to the lodge to pay for an extra day of camping (we’d prepaid only for one night), so were allowed into the beautiful lodge with breath-taking views, and amazing architecture. After chatting up the manager, Joanne, she invited us up for sundowners that night.

As we headed to the lodge at 4:45, one of their safari vehicles was returning with a Norwegian couple who’d been out looking for the desert elephants. The gate guard (whom we’d also befriended) stopped the vehicle, told the driver we’d been invited to the lodge and so we got a lift.

We thought we were just going to the lodge bar for a drink. Nooooo, there was a special bar and seating area set up on a west-facing rock. It was a fantastic view over the plains to watch the sun go down behind the distant mountains. But wait, that’s not all!! They served delicious appetizers to accompany our drinks (African Sunset and Desert Gin Volcano). We had nice conversations not only with the Norwegians, but a German couple and two young men from San Francisco.

Namibia’s first World Heritage Site is in Twyfulfontein - ancient rock engravings. They have a nice visitors’ center with good information and guides (mandatory) to take you into the hills to show and explain the various engravings. On the way to the site we stopped at a beautiful lodge for lunch - one we remembered from our trip with Ernie & Kaye in 2006.

August 23 & 24 Spitzkoppe. Spitzkoppe mountain, created by volcanic activity, is 1,800 meters (6,000 feet) and visible for a long distance across the plains before arriving. Camping in the giant, isolated campsites among the boulders was magical. Just as we’d had in 2006, we had an almost full moon so did some ?hipping and hopping with our moon shadows, moon shadows, moon shadows. ?

The area is held by the local Damara community and half of the camping and guiding fees go to support the community - school, business loans. I got the impression that no interest was charged because our guide, Eddie, said the people could pay it back over time and could use livestock for payment.

We hired Eddie to show us the 2,000 to 4,000 year old rock paintings (ochre, egg yolk, animal blood) on the rock overhangs. In some places in Namibia the art is 25,000 years old, but not in this part. At this art site there were many depictions of humans and from that you could tell it had been the San people who lived in the area and had created the paintings.

We only had one full day in Spitzkoppe and that evening Sherri & Jack took a sunset horseback ride. I don’t much care for riding, so Bernard and I elected to go on a hike instead. We all saw more lovely country, but B and I saw some spectacular birds. Rosy-faced parrots and sunbirds seem to love this area.

August 25 & 26/Swakopmund. The big city of Swakop (locals didn’t say the last syllable) is on the ocean, so we went from camping in a warm desert setting to a B&B in a wet, chilly city. Appears the Namibians don’t believe in heating their houses either - our rooms were COLD. They kept a fire burning in the community room (where the wi-fi and TV were), so that is where all the guests hung out.

August 27/Rostock Ritz Camp (on the road to Sossusvlei). It was a relief to leave the chill of Swakopmund behind and head into the desert again. Our next destination were the amazing sand dunes of Sossusvlei.

On the road between Swakopmund and Rostock we had another flat tire. For those of you keeping count, that was our FOURTH flat tire and fifth tire issue (stem problem). We put on the spare tire, which immediately lost air. Geeze, how discouraging was that!! We put the air compressor on the tire and inflated it, but had no faith in its holding air, so limped at about 20/30 mph/30-40 kph to our campsite. The campsite was adjacent to a lodge, but they didn’t have tire repair capabilities. They assured us that the nearby town of Solitaire (population 72) had a petrol station that had all services, plus a world-class bakery, and indeed they did. The tire, however, couldn’t be repaired and we had to buy a new one - second tire we had to buy on this trip. Surprisingly, the spare had held air and appeared in good order. With our wallets lighter from purchasing another tire, we took comfort in huge pieces of apple pie.

August 28 & 29/Sossusvlei Dunes in Namib-Naukluft National Park. One of the premier parks in Namibia, Sossusvlei is indeed spectacular and the campground is booked solid most of the year. We’d booked an electrified site, so had a power outlet to recharge our many devices. There was wi-fi in the park too, but was $10 an hour for slow, frustrating wi-fi - no thank you.

We arrived in the park early afternoon, so drove into the dunes for sunset. Jack & Sherri climbed Dune 45, which lots of people did - that was the dune I have a photo of Bernie ‘summiting’ nine years ago.

That night, since it was dark when we got back, we went to a nearby 4-star resort for an amazing dinner. You don’t have to pay $400 per night for a room to enjoy some of the amenities of these amazing remote resorts.

Lighting is very important for photography in the dunes, so the next morning we got up at 5:00 for a 5:30 entry into the dunes. We drove all the way to the end of the road and onto 4WD tracks, had breakfast and then started exploring the dunes. Seemed every angle was a photo op so please excuse my too-many dune photos. We hiked out to the dead vlei (pan) thusly named because of the huge dead trees, some as old as 880 years, still standing.

August 30/Farm Namtib/Little Hunters' Rest Camp. We overnighted at this lovely game farm, but had some of the worst weather of the trip - it actually rained on us!! This part of Namibia gets very little rain so I'm sure they were loving it, but camping in mist and rain didn't appeal to us.

August 31 - Sept. 1/Luderitz. When we got to our B & B in the coastal town of Ludertiz we had to hang out our soaked tent. In the sunshine and wind of Luderitz, it dried in about 10 minutes.

About the only tourist attraction in town is the ghost town of Kolmanskop, which was a diamond town. The diamonds were alluvial - found in the sand and rocks, so couldn't really be called a 'mine' until later when they started digging for them. Now the 'mining operation' is dredging the ocean just off-shore.

Kolmanskop was a fully contained German town - every building and home had electricity and a telephone and this was 1908!! They had a ice factory and delivered ice to every home every day, plus water and other supplies by way of a mule-drawn tram that ran through the entire town. The women of the town also employed the tram for getting around town - the clothes of the times being rather burdensome. They had a casino, gymnasium, bowling alley, theater, as well as a butcher, baker, etc.

Keetmanshoop, An Unexpected Stop: On our way out of Luderitz we encountered an official stop - police, immigration, traffic police. All checking different things. The immigration lady wanted to check our passports (this is the only time this happened in 3 1/2 months) and turns out we had a scofflaw among us - JACK!! When we entered Namibia from Botswana the immigration official entered the wrong date of our leaving (put August 11 instead of September 11) in Jack's passport; we other three had proper dates. The nice lady said if Jack tried to leave (which we'd be doing in a few days) Namibia with that mistake in his passport, he'd be in big trouble as he was technically in Namibia illegally. She suggested we go to the nearest immigration office, which was in Keetmanshoop - about 45 minutes out of our way - which we did. The immigration official there saw the mistake immediately and without any fanfare, lecture or fee, changed Jack's passport.

September 2 & 3/Fish River Canyon, Namibia. Out last days of camping were very nice ones - great views of the Fish River Canyon, nice walks on the rim, pleasant weather, a big and shady campsite. We cooked our last meal (pasta puttanesca; garlic bread; pepper, onion, tomato & feta salad), burned the last of our firewood and turned in early as we were getting up at first light (about 5:00) and driving toward Pretoria.

September 4/Kuruman, South Africa. On our way back to Pretoria; drove ten hours and stopped for the night at a guesthouse. We were exhausted, so ordered a pizza for dinner, took hot showers and hit the hay. Good thing we showered the night before as during the night the entire town lost its water - no water citywide.

South Africa September 5 -9

September 5 - 9/Pretoria. Back in South Africa we contacted our friends Sue & Peter and got together with them the first night as we'd left things at their home. Jack & Sherri kept the truck for four more days; drove to Pilanesberg Preserve, while Bernard and I stayed in Pretoria visiting friends.

The plan is to meet Jack & Sherri at the airport on Sept. 9 as we are all on the same flight to Atlanta.

FAQ:




How Much Did it Cost:

We kept track of all expenses and the trip cost each couple $25,000. That includes airfare, vehicle rental, cost for additional equipment, diesel, all food, all accommodations - everything. So that was $12,500 per person for 3 1/2 months. Try pricing a safari trip to Africa; you'll see that they often cost $12,000 per person for two weeks.

Birds & Animals:

We saw an amazing number of birds, many of which we couldn't identify, but we did identify 161 different species. We identified 60 species of mammals:

List of mammals seen in Southern Africa 29 May to 9 Sept 2015

Antelope/Deer-like Animals: Blesbok; Bontebok; Bushbuck; Dik-dik, Damarra; Duiker, Common; Eland; Gemsbok (Oryx); Hartebeest, Red; Impala; Impala, Black-Faced; Klipspringer; Kudu; Lechwe, Red; Nyala; Reedbuck; Sable Antelope; Springbok; Steenbok; Tsessebe; Waterbuck

Cats: African Wild Cat, Caracal, Cheetah, Civet, Leopard, Lion, Serval

Other: Chacma Baboon; Bats, various; Buffalo; Crocodile; Dassie/Hyrax, Rock; Dassie/Hyrax, Rat; Dog, African Hunting; Elephant; Fox, Bat-Eared; Giraffe; Hare; Honey badger; Hippopotamus; Hyena, Brown; Hyena, Spotted; Jackal, black-backed; Jackal, side-striped; Monitor Lizard/ leguan; Mouse, stripe-backed & tree; Monkey, Vervet; Mongoose: Banded, Dwarf, Slender and Yellow; Otter, River; Porcupine; Rhinoceros, Black (hook-lipped); Rhinoceros, White (square-lipped); Squirrel, Ground and Tree; Suricate (Meercat); Warthog; Wildebeest, Blue and Black; Zebra, Hartmann’s Mountain; Zebra, Burchell’s



Camping vs. Lodging:

We managed to camp **56%!o(MISSING)f the time with other accommodations (lodges, B&Bs) the other 44%! (MISSING)We alternated camping for 2 to 4 days with an accommodation stay of 1 to 2 days.

**In 2006 we only camped 1/3 of the time.

Jack & Sherri always slept on the larger of the two roof-top tents. Bernard & I always in our ground tent. Had we been forced to use the other roof-top tent, I doubt we would have survived as friends - there wouldn’t have been enough privacy.

Food.

We had a **two-burner, propane gas stove, the same one we used in 2006 as our friends in Pretoria still had it. They also had our old camp table, so we took that as well. The vehicle came with a good refrigerator/freezer combo.

**Toward the end of the trip one of the burners got clogged (with no way to unclog it) so was more of a ‘warming’ burner - that made cooking interesting.

We did vegetables with or without meat (sausage/boerewors mostly as that was the easiest to find) in simmer sauces over rice or pasta. We found various Indian curries, Thai green and red curry simmer sauces. We made other types of pasta sauce from canned tomatoes, mushroom soup mix, etc. We also did eggs & potatoes; tacos when we could find tortillas/wraps.

I’d brought from the states a large ziplock filled with smaller plastic bags of herbs and spices and we could find all the basic seasonings in the grocery store.

For lunch we ate peanut butter and jelly, tuna or ham (canned Danish) sandwiches that we could make on the fly having done a bit of preparation before getting on the road.

Water:

You can drink the water almost everywhere in southern Africa, except where it comes from a river, for example. Bore hole/well water is wonderful and many towns treat their water with chlorine. Don’t much care for the taste of chlorine, but Bernard says it is the taste of safety.

We had a 12 gallon/50-liter water tank in the vehicle, so we filled up whenever we had good water. In some areas (Trans-frontier Park, Central Kalahari and Palmweg for example) no water at all was available, so having a supply was a must.

Travel:

We drove 15,210 kilometers (9,126 miles) in our three months. The roads in South Africa were paved and excellent. The roads in Botswana were mostly sand tracks, so slow going. The roads in Namibia for the most part were high-speed gravel; some excellent, some wash-boardy.

The Land Cruiser was quite comfortable, even over some pretty rough roads. In time we figured out how to pack things and so were not crowded in the seating areas.

Weather:

South Africa was fairly warm in the north and cooler and moister in the south. Having said that, I think we had about 15 minutes of rain in Cape Town. It was cold though - in many of the accommodations portable heaters were necessary even if the South Africans pretend it doesn’t ever get cold there. In Pretoria at the end of the trip we had a very rainy day - a downpour at night actually and unusually cool temperatures for that time of year - it was 14 C/57 F. and should have been 27 C/80 F.

In Botswana we had the coldest camping with several nights below freezing and gloves needed by some of us when striking camp the next morning.

Namibia was surprisingly warm, hot during the days actually, although the nights were cool and comfortable. We did, however, experience rain in Namibia - who’da thunk it!! Camping at Farm Namtib (a stop-over on our way from the dunes to Luderitz) we had thunder and lightening, and then some light rain that night. In the morning it was foggy and misting.

Illnesses:

Sherri caught a bad cold in Botswana; the rest of us managed to avoid her virus. Other than that, a few ‘rummy tummies’ but nothing serious - nothing that lasted more than a day and it never interfered with any plans. In fact, no Imodium was used in the making of this adventure.







DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW (VERY BOTTOM, BELOW: THE AD, OUR PROFILE, THE BLOG OPTIONS, NORTH AMERICA, TRVELBLOG AWARDS, TOP PHOTOS - YES, RIDICULOUS!!) AND GO TO THE OTHER PAGES (CLICK ON 'NEXT' AT BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE) AS THERE ARE MORE PHOTOS (105 TOTAL) AT THE BOTTOMS OF THE PAGES.

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Photos

Himba Woman
The Himba live in northern Namibia, as do the Herero, relatives. The women rub a mixture of fat and ochre onto their skin and hair making them this wonderful reddish-brown color. Because of the skin treatment, Himba women NEVER bath.

Bernard at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
We were only in Zimbabwe two days, but they were beautiful, warm days, which was good because the spray from the falls can be extremely cold

Zimbabwe Shopping
While the women shopped, Bernard and Jack chatted up the locals

Sunset River Cruise from Nunda Lodge
In this very dry country, we had some lovely 'water' experiences, such as this one on the Okavango River

San Mom & Son
We had a lovely day in a San (Bushman) village watching the women play games and music; the men make arrows

San Matriarch
This lovely lady played a musical instrument for us and sang a traditional song

San Women Making Beads
These women are boring holes in ostrich egg discs to use in jewelry.

San Men Making Arrows
The poison they put on the tips of the arrows are gotten from a grub they find in the forest

San Water Break
The San hunters didn't bring any water, but when Bernard offered them ours, they drank it gratefully

San Honey Hunter
Checking his stick after exploring a cavity for honey

San Hunter
Exploring a burrow for a porcupine or springhare

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra
Different from the Burchell's zebra by not having any 'shadow' stripes, but being more vividly black and white, the male also has a dew-lap

Dik-Dik
What a face! This little dik-dik is tiny and hard to see. Fortunately they stay very still when threatened, so we could get some great shots.

Himba Woman
Himba woman applying fat and ochre mixture to her skin and hair

Himba - Circumcision Boys
These boys had just been circumcised and covered in ash

Himba Woman
At the hair roots they have a leather cap, then the rest of the hair is rubbed with the fat and ochre concoction, along with their skin, daily

Inside Himba Hut
With only a door and two small holes for ventilation, the hut was very smokey

Epupa Falls Raft Trip
We floated on the Kunene River which is the border with Angola - we landed in Angola for refreshments

Himba Young Lady
This young lady was 13 years old

Young Himba Girl
An 11-year old Himba girl

Himba Teenager
This young lady was 13 years old

Herero Woman
Related to the Himba, they broke away when the German missionaries came hence this modest dress

Opuwo Town
The street scene in Opuwo was a kick - lots of different peoples represented

Sossusvlei Dead Vlei
Some of the trees in the Dead Vlei were 300 years old and dead for over 800 years.

Sossusvlei Sand Dunes
In the Namib-Nauklauf National Park are these amazing sand dunes

Fish River Canyon
I want to call it Snake River Canyon because the San people say it was a snake wriggling wildly that created the canyon

Desert Elephant
Desert elephants are said to have 'spindly' legs for long treks, but they also look rather short to me as well

Lion Pride
Wouldn't have spotted this pride of lions relaxing in a field if other vehicles hadn't been stopped - we searched the direction their binoculars were pointed and voila!! They were a long way off and hence the not-so-clear photo

Southern Africa Map
Notice all the little squares - those are premier game parks/reserves and we visited every one of them!

2nd Flat Tire
Third tire issue (one was a faulty stem) and we had another flat a few days later

Comments

[Mara]

What a trip!
Kathy -- this was excellent! Though I won't be taking such a trip, I'm so, so glad you did! Thank you.

[Jenny Coniglio]

I don't usually read much of your blogs... They are so interesting but long. But this one really was good. Camping in the bush was really interesting. Pictures were great!