Namibia – Caprivi Strip and Etosha (27.06.-04.07.09)

Finally in Namibia! It seems like arriving in another world. Everything is well organized, easy, and you can buy everything in the wonderful supermarkets! We almost feel like being home, with all the signs in German language, the newspapers in German language! However, it’s also a little like leaving Africa, the real Africa, the adventurous Africa.

After entering Namibia in Katima Mulilo we head for the Hippo Lodge. The campground is closed for renovation and we learn that the area next to the Zambezi River has been flooded for 2 months due to very heavy rainfalls in the North, especially in Angola! So we go to the next campground which is already restored. We like this place a lot, especially because of “Schtompi”, a 2 years old hippo that comes out every night to graze between the tents.

Here we see for the first time a real “braai” area, a place where you can make fire and barbecue. Every campsite has its own area and we spend a nice evening with 2 South African guys at their campfire. They tell us a lot of interesting things about South Africa and Namibia, but unfortunately also the bad news that we are in the middle of the South African school holidays now. And we should feel it from now on! Big crowds of people flood the campgrounds, and we are longing for our quiet places so far. We also can feel the winter now. At night, the temperatures drop sometimes under 0 degrees and that’s only the beginning. Everybody tells us that it is extremely cold the further you get south!!

We follow the very nice Caprivi Strip which used to be synonymous for a dangerous area due to the civil wars in Angola, but now it is completely safe with very nice roads. Here we can cover 200 km in 2 hours what took us sometimes a whole day in the other countries. On the border to Botswana we find a fancy campground directly at the Okavango River. It is famous for its crazy bathrooms which are really funny, but not very comfortable, because every time you try to get rid of your morning coffee, people are already waiting outside with their cameras to take a shot of the funny place…

 

We pass Rundu and from there we continue south towards Grootfontein. We pay a visit to the real bushmen in Kano Vlei    and they show us how to survive in the bush without anything. To make fire, to find water, to find food, to find “medicine”. On the 80 km gravel road to the bushmen we understand at last why they say Namibia has the best off road tracks in Africa. They are better than some of the tar roads in the rest of Africa!

In Grootfontein we really feel like home. We buy real “Apfelkuchen” (apple pie), eat our first “Boereworst” and our first biltong (dried meat) which is simply delicious! Meat here is very good and very  cheap. A little outside of Grootfontein we hit by chance a brand new, not yet officially opened campground “bushbaby” on a hunting farm. We are the very first guests there and we are treated like VIPs. We spend a very nice evening with the Danish owners Jan and Ingrid. It is a real highlight to sit on the terrace of their lodge, overlooking their farm and all the animals coming to the waterhole. It is a perfect place and we wish you, Jan and Ingrid, a great opening party and a lot of guests in the future!

From here we continue towards the Etosha National Park. We stop at the Hoba Meteorite, a 50 tons meteorite which hit the earth 80000 years ago. It is world’s biggest meteorite!

 

In Tsumeb, our car is washed after a long time and we are amazed that it still looks like new… now we are asked even more frequently if we really made this long way from Dubai and more and more people are curious about our long trip.

After a night at “Sachsenheim”, a very “German” campground, we enter the Etosha National Park. Again we are very lucky, because the first animals we see are 2 lions relaxing in the grass. The landscape here in Etosha is as we imagine the real Africa: short yellow grass with some scattered trees here and there. It is really breathtaking. We see a lot of animals and have very nice views of the Etosha Pan, which currently has a lot of water and looks like a very big lake. Our plan is to spend the night in the park, but the campsites are completely booked, already since 1 year! The more we enjoy a very quiet place 30 km after the park on top of a hill, overlooking the Etosha plains. To get some exercise, we make a 10 km hike over the owner’s farm and only see part of this huge farm! And this seems to be a small one…

 

We plan to stay a little longer in Namibia since we are told again and again that there is a lot of rain and very cold weather in South Africa.

Distances in Namibia are huge and traffic is little, so we drove 1460 km on the best roads and off-road tracks in Africa so far.

05.07.2009 Swakopmund