davparto

Can't believe this is it, the last journey of our epic voyage. We were booked into the Springbok Inn for B&B but at 5:30 we were both up and decided to make an early start, again. We were on the road by 6 heading south down the N7 towards Cape Town. The roads were pretty quiet, and we made decent progress. The Northern Cape is very sparse but also beautiful at the same time. As we watched the daylight appear on our last road day it was quite emotional thinking back over the last week and a half. We got into the Western Cape and the scenery became more and more familiar with a real hint of spring in the air with the rapeseed fields coming into colour. We stopped for fuel just before Clanwilliam and ... read more

Day 9 and the longggg journey back to Knysna begins. Away from the lodge by 6:30 and heading south on the B8. A pretty uneventful beginning to the journey except for a great unexpected sighting of 2 Giraffe at the side of the road, looked like mother and baby and baby hid behind the tree when we stopped the car. The scenery didn't change for around 2 hours, seemingly endless settlements of Mbunza people. In around 4 ½ hours we reached Otavi and joined the B1. Heading further on and desperate for a coffee after around 6 hours we came into Okahandja spotted an oasis, a Wimpy. Wimpy have been our saviour this trip with the early starts as they're always dependable on quality and are the few people who actually serve a decent Cappuccino. Rita ... read more

Day 7 was a bit of a rest day but as usual we both got itchy feet and needed to get out and do something. We started by taking the short bird walk around the lodge before breakfast and saw some beautiful birds and then went for breakfast. After breakfast we scoured the Internet and I came across a museum, a living museum. Never heard of this before so Googled it and found that it is a group of people showing how a tribe in Namibia lived and worked. Figuring the hotel must know something about it we asked the reception, no clue, we asked a waitress who had heard of it so she called their "tour guide" and he had no clue so we figured it must be good and decided to go find it. ... read more

Sad to say it's our last day in Kasane, travelling to Namibia tomorrow morning for the next leg of the adventure, but what a last day it was. We headed into the reserve at around 8 hving heard so much about it but not knowlking what to really expect. Got to the gate and sorted the day permits out and got ready to go in and noticed all these people letting their tyres down. Normal behaviour when driving in sand but why would they do it here I thought, we'd find out later. The first 10km was pretty uneventful with a few sightings of Impala, some beautiful brds and a few Baboons. Once we got to the river trail though it all changed. Rafts of Bufallo all over the river banks, Impala and Water Buck everywhere. ... read more

Day 3 started with a cheekly little lie in until 5. Away from Palapye by 5:45 and heading north again, this time to our final destination in Botswana, Kasane. Leaving early gave us an opportunity to see another amazing sunrise and within a couple of hours we were tucking into a Wimpy breakfast in Francistown. After Francistown the landscape became more and more African with endless grassy savanahs either side, absolutely stunning. The traffic was extremely light with the majority of other traffic being intermittent lorries heading south presumably back to Gaberone and South Africa. Reaching Nata after about 4 hours we stopped for fuel and a wee in probably the least disirable toilets you've ever seen, fortunately though Reet had bought wet wipes, a flannel and soap. After Nata the A3 trurns west and we ... read more