Jan 17th - 24th 2016

 

Africa 2016 is underway. Niels and Susanne our neighbours drove us to the airport to catch our flight to Frankfurt. We had a good trip down to Windhoek in Namibia where our two month safari holiday will start.

We had rented a Hilux 4x4 Bushcamper to get us around this time. After the disapointment of our trip a year ago, we decided to rent with a reputable organisation to minimise the problems with breakdowns. The vehicle wasn't even two months old and had driven 2937 kms. So we are off to a good start this time round.Did some shopping, with two trollies required to contain our purchases. Stayed at Oubush Camping in Windhoek to get the vehicle organised and to get an early night - we were tired.
 

Karen getting the vehicle organised for a two month safari
Next day we are off to Etosha to meet friends (Ole, Anette, Iver, Solveig)We got to Okakuejo camp at 16.15 and there they were waiting for us. Great to see them. There weren't too many large groups of animals. As you can see from the photo on the left, a lot of the park was flooded. This means that the animals don't have to go to the water holes, because all of a sudden water holes are everywhere.

We saw quite a few dead giraffes in the park, because the rains have been very late and unfortunately a lot of animals have died. Hopefully mother nature will in time correct the situation. In the campsite during the eevening, the jackals are everywhere, so you have to be really carefull about leaving items unguarded, because during a blink of your eye they will disappear.

After three days in park, spending two nights at Okakuejo and one at Namotoni, we were on our way towards Botswana. Ole and Anette had decided that they wouldn't visit Botswana this time, but spend it in Namibia. Solveig and Iver will continue with us for a few days yet.

We stopped at Roys camp on the way to Caprvi Strip area. This is a good place to overnight. He has lots of gadgets hanging all over the place, with a couple of rusty car shells adorning the bar area. The water running into the swimming pool runs out of a bath tub. Halarious! 
 

A mother and her calf trying to find food

On the road again to Rundu where we will say hi to Chris who helped us last year. We found his garage and he was really pleased to see us because the bill for repairs to our vehicle last year has still not been paid. We wrote in our blog last year about Zebra Car Hire in Joburg and what a lousy firm it is, but we didn't expect him not to pay a bill for work done. We gave Chris as much info as we could to help him get his money.

We are now camping at Nkazwi Lodge camping for a couple of days. Iver and Solveig have had some problems with their vehicle, so Bushlore, the firm they hired from, have just been here to help them. This is always the problem down here - maintainence of vehicles. Some firms are good at it, but a lot are really not in touch with what the word means.
 
The bird life in this area is fantastic, even Karen and me are getting interested in studying them a bit. It's very warm and has been so since we got here. An average of 33 C during the day and falling to 23 during the night. They generally need rain, because everything is very dry, even though it is the rainy season now

One of the many birds in the trees above the camp
 

25th -29th January

 We left Nkwazi after two days and moved on up towards the Caprivi Strip. We drove some of the way on the secondary road which takes you through villages and you see something of the lokal life, more than if you used the main asphalt road. You can't often stop and have a drink, because you will be surrounded by the locals, but we found a spot between villages on the river side and managed a cup of coffee. Arrived at N'gepi Lodge campsite. The campsite runs along the river and is owned by people with a sense of humour. One of the signs behind the bar says "the amount of the bill is decided by the guests attitude" or another one which says "security is important for us, so if you miss your sense of humour, report it at once to the management". There were more, so I was walking around smiling and reading.
Mudumu Park is a place we didn't really get a chance to experience as we wanted to last year when we were here, because our hired vehicle was giving us trouble and we had to leave. Now after about 300 kms we are here again together with Iver and Solveig who are still with us. Here we are completly on our own out in the bush - no facilities except a long drop open toilet. This is heaven for Karen and me. The river was full of noisy hippos, lots of baboons around, kudus, and inpala,three herds of blesbuck and giraffe. We could spend many days here. Next day we drove with Iver and Solveig to the water hole withoiut seeing too much. Iver and Solveig decided that they would not continue up into Botswana, but will drive back down in a southerly direction. It was sad to wave goodbye after nine great days together. We had another day and night and then crossed the border into Botswana
 

The view from our campsite fire in Mudumu

BOSTWANA

 

29th - 31st of January

Crossing the border didn't present any problems at all. Show your passport and the vehicles documents and you are through.We had driven around in Etosha for three days aand only saw two elephants, and her we are now on our way towards Kasane and the elephants are at the side of the road and crossing it in ttheir hoards. We counted about thirty!

Arrived at Senyati Campsite (elephant man) in Kasane. This is one of our favourite campsites. Here congregate the elephants around the illuminated water hole overlooked by the bar. Nothing better than a G & T while watching the ellies entertain us. From the camp we can drive into Chobe Game Reserve, take a sunset cruise along Chobe river and if you wanted to Victoria Falls are only an hour away. Yes we are in heaven!

A blesbuck in Mudumu

  
 

Each campsite has it's own toilet and shower, so it's a bit of luxury. The eeleephants arrived on cue at the waterhole in the evening,

Next day we were up early and on our way to Chobe for the day. You drive along Chobe river and hope to see the wild animals of Africa. It doesn't always happen, but it did for us today.

We saw a large group of giraffe on our way out of Senyati and more elephants on the road on the way to Chobe. The list of animals we encountered was fantastic - mongeese, thousands of impala, buffalow, baboons with young, lots of giraffe, hippos walking around also with young, large group of maribou stork,vultures eagerly hacking away at the several carcasses we saw, tortoise, warthog, large lizard, lions, kudu. Yes we saw lots. We didn't meet many vehicles in the park at all, except the safari trips from the lodges.
 

An elephant having and argumant with a tree at the side of the road
 

One of a pride of seven we met in Chobe

  
  Got back from Chobe at just after 7pm and after we had eaten our evening meal we went up to the bar to see if the elephants would be entertaining us again this evening. They came and did. I don't think I have ever seen so many elephants here at one time before. They were fighting to get to the water and they were very noisy most of the evening and night. Today (sunday) we are staying at the camp and our intention is to continue south tomorrow. The elephants invaded the area around the camp today from the middle of the afternoon until about half five. About one hundred elephants spread out over the savanna was an impressive sight. Another good day.

Elephants just enjoying life in Chobe

Elephants at Senyati
 

You could say we have seen our fill of wildlife, especially elephants, which Botswana is famous for.

  
   
February