Malawi

Malawi – “The Warm Heart of Africa”
Malawi’s currency – There is an image of a Defender on their 50 Kwacha bank note; I like it here already!

From the border crossing, we scooted straight to the capital, Lilongwe; and stayed at the Golf Club, which offered cheap food and drinks at the clubhouse. Camping includes the use of all their facilities, golf, tennis, etc.

We drove to Lake Malawi, the 3rd largest freshwater lake in Africa, being approx. 570km long! The drive through the countryside is amazing and scenic, but keep an eye on your speed. Police with speed cameras typically hang out where the highway looks normal, but are actually 50km/h zones.

The highway makes a very scenic descent, dropping 1,200 meters down to the lake. Many roadside stalls were selling beautifully crafted wooden toys, including our loves, bicycles and Defenders. Unfortunately we could not buy any, as we do not have space to carry souvenirs.

Cape McClear is at the southern end of the lake. People come to the beach all day long to swim, wash themselves, their dishes, pots, pans and laundry; 5:30am is peak time, I thought I was up early and was surprised to see the crowds up and down the beach. At night, in the distance across the lake, ‘lights of a city shine brightly’; but they are actually the bright lights from many fishing boats way ‘out to sea’. It is tough for the fishermen; the lake is being over fished and they use small nets catching tiny fish. In some areas, numerous motorboats all head out on sunset; in others, the fishermen set off in their heavy wooden canoes at about 4pm. It takes them 3-4 hours to paddle out, they then fish all night, and paddle all the way back in the early hours of the morning; very dangerous if wind and waves come up.

Bilharzia (parasite) is common in many African waterways, including Lake Malawi, and especially the Cape McClear area. Risking infection, we hired a canoe to paddle out to an island for some snorkeling. A cormorant was watching, when Frankie dived in, it dived in too, and darted around him. There are hundreds of tiny electric blue fish that follow as you snorkel along. (Apparently the shores along Cape McClear are high bilharzia risk areas, but that is where the campsites source their water, so you are showering in contaminated water anyway. We bought Praziquantal tablets, which the Doctor said to take 3mths after exposure).

Lunchstop (or accommodation) tip: Best Cape Malay curry and cheesecake was had in the Nkhotakhota Sitima Inn, an interesting hotel resembling an ocean liner.

Vwaza National Park
Frankie found some back roads into and out of this park so it was a very pleasant drive. Vwaza is a small park with lots of hippos, some elephants and Tsetie Flies. You could easily go in and out in a day, as the internal roads only cover a few kilometers.

Lukwe Gardens and Eco Camp in Livingstonia.
It was quite amazing to see the simple measures (permaculture) that Lieza and Auke have put in place to enable their whole property (campground, staff residence, gardens, etc) to operate without being connected to any town water, sewer or power.

With careful plant selections (bananas, tubers) they are successfully converting poor, dry, degraded areas of their land back to useful, healthy environments. Even though they are located very high up a mountain, they have been able to increase the ground water table, simply by controlling water run off. As a result their springs now flow all year round, no longer drying up during dry season.

They have a very diverse organic garden that produces food for the restaurant, as well as for their chickens, ducks and rabbits (which in turn provide fertilizer). Some food plants (eg leeks, peppermint) also act as natural pest repellents; others (eg legumes) replenish nitrogen back to the soil.

Being in the coffee industry, I took note of the coffee growing in their garden. Lukwe have 3 small, organic garden harvests a year. They roast their coffee in a skillet, pound it in a wooden mortar and serve as stovetop coffee in their cliff-top restaurant.

Livingstonia micro breweries.
I tasted some “beers” that 3 ladies brew from maize and cassava. The men will sit there all day drinking the beer. They say it makes them strong, and if you have 3 mugs a day, you don’t need to eat. A huge mugful costs 100 kwatcha (approx. of 28cents) 1st lady’s was quite neutral and pleasant, 2nd was more tangy and alcoholic and was the most popular, 3rd had an unpleasant, strong burnt taint.

Floja Foundation.
The work done by Floja in the local area is quite amazing. Floja sunk a bore, and locals can come to collect clean water from the tap. They setup a school for orphans, disabled and special needs kids. Other local children can also attend but their parents pay a fee.

We were told not to give money, food, empty bottles, anything directly to people in the area, even for photographs; and the locals have been told they are not to ask. I heard “Begging promotes laziness” and is probably one of the motos they teach. Everything that Floja are providing and doing must be working as the surrounding area has a different feel, everyone seems happy and no one is begging.

 

Zambia (part 3)

We had heard reports of elephants at South Luangwa National Park campsites that break into cars to steal food, so I was ready to transfer all my fruit and veges into the camp’s storage. But when we arrived we were advised not to keep ANY food in our cars or tents as one particular elephant not only eats fruit and veges, but also bread, biscuits, chocolate, milk …anything.

I took the advice and moved garbage bags of food to the elephant proof storage.

In the evenings I made sure we had dinner early so everything was packed away by night.

On our first evening, the elephant had already visited the other side of the campground. He destroyed a tent and bent the door of a car, there might have been food inside them.

About 7pm the guard came to tell us the elephant was coming our way. We closed up our car and went to watch. There were 3 elephants browsing on trees and slowly making their way towards our camping area and us. Each time they got closer, we backed away to a safer distance and kept watching.

The naughty elephant walked over to a car, stood there and examined it, sniffing with his trunk – nothing. He walked over to check the next car – nothing. He then broke into the garbage bin, and examined a bag of rubbish I had disposed of, leaving slobber all over it.

Next was our car…. we held our breath. He stood there and ran his trunk across our roof tent window, then along the windows of the car – Nothing. Phew, he moved on to check a few other bins and to find snacks around the gardens of the campground.

We watched and kept retreating to safer areas of the grounds each time he moved closer. At one point Frankie found himself in the restaurant kitchen, he thought “maybe this is not a such a good place”, so ran back out to find an alternative shelter.

In the meantime, the other elephants were well behaved, browsing on bushes, and then moved onto the next campground. The naughty elephant made his way out too.

Later that night, Frankie woke me about 10:15pm when he heard the elephants again. This time 5 had come back walking around the grounds. We spied on them and went back to sleep with a smile after they walked right by our tent.

Next night around 7pm, the peace was broken by the guy next to us banging his pots. I looked across and there was the elephant! He was right there in their camp!! We jumped up and closed our car doors.

The elephant had come up the river bank, into their site. They were eating dinner, but it went for the open doors of their car. He put his trunk in the door and swept a load of their gear out. The guy kept shouting elephant!! elephant!! The elephant got angry and charged him. He ran behind the tree, it chased him around the tree. It was so fast!! so fast!! He fell but managed to escape (where were the guards?). Someone came out cracking a whip and drove him away, back into the bush.

Third night, the elephant visited again about 7pm. It was exciting but nerve wracking as we watched him examine each car in our area again. He found nothing thank goodness, however earlier that evening he was over the other side of the campground and did some damage to an Overlander Bus.

Our last night, and we were ready as usual, but he did not come, however we did get a bonus hippo grazing around the grounds and he walked past our tent at 2am.

We are very relieved that our car/home did not get damaged, but we have met other travellers with minor damage to their vehicle, trailer from the South Luangwa Elephant.

Here the elephant has just finished sniffing our roof tent and car. He looked over at the light we were shining on him and came walking towards us. We scattered.

 

Zambia (part 2)

Say ‘remote’, ‘back tracks’, ‘less tourists’ and you’ll have Frankie’s attention. He is often scouring different maps, satellite photos, any other sources for interesting or less travelled tracks to link our destinations. They take longer to travel, being rougher and slower, but are more interesting. It is how we usually holiday travel in Oz.

We were on our way to South Luangwa National Park. Following a faint line on the map, crossing some nice country, and then dropping down a rocky mountain escarpment onto the plains.

We stopped to watch some elephants cross in front of us and had our first encounters with Tsetse Flies. They swarmed the car; we could see them following and buzzing around the windows as we slowly travelled along. The ones that came inside attacked us so we kept the windows up.

We went through a number of village checkpoints carrying the flies with us; they needed to record our details, including how many firearms and ammunition we were carrying.

Around 4pm we pulled up to camp. Setting up camp didn’t even start. As soon as we stepped out the flies attacked, biting hard and drove us back inside the car, slamming the doors behind us. We just sat there, trapped in the car; occasionally zapping the few that followed us inside. This was absolutely horrible, horrible camping!

We had to drive on, hoping to come to an area clear of them; but this place is full of Tsetse flies, and really hungry ones too. They were always out there so we decided to keep drive until sunset.

Eventually we pulled off and camped right next to the track, there was no need to move into the bush as nobody was going to be coming along this way.

I had also decided to abandon dinner. A bowl of cereal did us, and then we jumped into bed. One bugger followed us in and managed to bite me in the dark! Everything seems to be extra hungry and more desperate in Africa, even the flies ☹

We got up just before sunrise to get going before the flies, but a few had camped around our car and were ready for us at that hour! We shoveled in some cereal again and were on our way.

A few hours later we were driving through some lovely remote villages. Like the flies, they don’t get much passing traffic either so there were lots of waves and smiles rather than the usual frowns with begging hands held out (although we did not stop incase the greetings turned into begging). Some huts were beautifully decorated. There were lots of kids, neatly dressed in uniform heading to school. It was good to see there were many wells that residents could pump clean water.

The track got very slow and bumpy with stretches of track entirely of dried mud holes from elephant footprints. We crossed many arms of a river. A lot of these dry crossings were like very steep, deep dips; some were about 2 car heights deep. It looks like the water rises to the full depth in the wet.

We knew we had to cross the main river and wondered what the crossing was going to be like.

Finally we came to the main river and followed the track along it. We did not see any obvious tracks down to the riverbed to cross, but we knew we had overshot the area where the crossing was supposed to be. Further down we could see a massive group of hippos, so we went to visit them. What a fantastic sight! Lots of crocs together with them too; they’re all friends. Awesome, but it was a shame we could not stay longer to enjoy this sight, as the task at hand was how and where are we going to get across this river??? Obviously, not right here!

We backtracked and found a very easy crossing area where we would normally just drive across without batting an eyelid, but this is croc and hippo territory. Being a lone vehicle, and there being no winch anchor points in the a wide riverbed, we would have a very tedious, nervous recovery if we happened to get stuck.

Ideally we were looking for a crossing that would be 100% ok (without walking it).

“It looks so easy”, but we didn’t want to get stuck and have to fiddle around in the water. Standing there with these thoughts reminded me of similar situations that we have to deal with on our own, in the Top End of Australia (tho longer and deeper), in croc country.

‘Well its 99% LIKELY to be as simple as it looks’. We decide to do it and walked back to bring the car down.

Next problem, there were trees and bushes blocking car access to the river, and where there was no trees, the banks were 3 meter high vertical drops.

We are not into destroying bushes and banks so we continued driving back along the track looking for an area to access, getting further away from our crossing.

Finally we saw a track down to the river, which we had missed the first time, and this lead to the actual crossing point.

We looked at the crossings, and again we were not going to walk to check them. We just trusted the sticks marking the way; a diagonal crossing onto a sand bank; and then another crossing to the other bank.

The first crossing was fine, very shallow and firm. As we approached the 2nd crossing, 2 baby crocs scurried off the bank into the water. The 2nd crossing dropped off a bit deeper, but was also fine.

Now we were on the other side; we picked up the well-travelled main track to continue on to our destination.

 

 

Zambia (part 1)

“It is not safe to walk or cycle to Victoria Falls”.
“Do not stop at the viewing area (described) on the way to the Falls, you will get robbed” – says notices on the campground board.

Zambia was our first country after leaving “Africa Lite”. It was the start of a few things, which continue and apparently get worse the further north you go:

Unsafe trucks, buses and other vehicles – We drive past fresh crashes, fallen loads and broken down trucks/buses on a daily bases. Loads are not secured safely, drivers are unsafe, vehicles are mechanically unsound/un-roadworthy, and you see vehicles having major repairs done by the side of the road eg whole engine or diffs out.

Regular Police checks along the roads/highways – They might want to check your license, rego, local insurance, safety equipment, where you have come from/going to, how much they can get from you. At one of our first checks we experienced some lovely Zambian hospitality. Not sure what this happy policeman was checking but we exchanged lots of lingering handshakes and smiles and I asked him what the peculiar large mounds we had been seeing for the last 50km were. He said they were termites, and that you make mud bricks from them, he then offered to show us. We followed walked to someone’s brick making site by the side of the road and he explained the process of how the locals make bricks from termite hills, an easy business to set up.

The famous Victoria Falls – It’s dry season, the falls on the Zambian side are not really running, but we still did the walks around the park. Clouds of mist did not leave us soaked, and as expected, the falls were quite underwhelming. However, because it is an unusually dry, dry season, we were able to walk right across the top of the ‘falls’ to Livingston Island. The rocks would normally be submerged in mega-tonnes of water flowing over the cliff. That was pretty surreal.

Frigella Farm Lodge – have had their post office, bakery, butchery, medical clinic since the times when a working farm had to be self-sufficient.

They offer camping, and food in the restaurant is very good and cheap

The meat and veges come from the farm or surrounding farms (rice in Zambia is good, unlike Namibia and SA where parboiled rice is served).

A cart comes around to collect the garbage every day and is pulled by 2 nice bulls. They know the routine and respond to verbal commands (like ‘come and get back under the harness’). I went and talked to the goats and chickens, and fed my food scraps to the pigs.

There is a viewing window to the bakery to watch what’s being made. Fringella Pies are the best! This is the beef pie, but the chicken pie was my favourite.

 

You can also stock up on meat and smallgoods from the farm butchery.

Mutinundo Wilderness Lodge – we had a sensational camp on top of a hill with wonderful views. The huge shelter was great when a storm came through and we kept warm in the evening by the open fireplace. They have canoes to use on their river, horse riding and we walked to one of the larger granite mountains. Sensational 360deg views! You’ll want to descend pretty quickly if you see a storm coming as the many areas of burnt grass and bushes indicate lots of lightning strikes up here.

 

Caprivi Strip / Zambezi Region

Just before we entered Namibia, the president announced that the names of some Namibian regions and towns were to be changed in recognition of the tribal people of Southern Africa.
Lüderitz was re-named as !Nami≠Nüs (the symbols represent different click sounds).
The Caprivi region was renamed as the Zambezi region. 

At this point, we had to make up our mind whether to go into Botswana, then to Zambia; or cut across the formerly named Caprivi Strip to Zambia. We had heard much about Botswana and were very tempted to drop in for a couple of weeks. However, the wet was coming down from the north, and we wanted to be out of Zambia when we met it, so we chose to take the Caprivi Strip option, as we could do this faster.

Ngepi, an environmentally aware campground with imagination and a sense of humour. Bathrooms and toilets were all open air, some with themes, some with river views. We stayed 3 nights, on the 2nd morning we woke up with a family hippos out the front, who hung out there for most of the day.

Mahango National Park, a nice and very compact park. We drove all the tracks in a few hours and saw giraffe, elephants, various bocks, zebra, monkeys. This elephant showed us how he held food in an ‘elbow’ of his trunk while he took small amounts at a time to feed into his mouth.

Nambwa Conservacy – seemed to be popular however there are only 7 campsites, therefore pre-booking is a must! There are a number of lodges in the area that take their guests on safari drives, we did a couple of self-drives.

We spotted a hippo, which sunk down as we drove by the waterhole. We stopped the car to sneak back on foot and hid behind some bushes and trees. After a while, the hippo surfaced and walked through the water comfortably and weightlessly, unaware we were spying on him. He then turned and disappeared up a channel through the reeds. Being one of our first hippos sightings, we were pleased with our stalking.

We also had our first Buffalo sightings but they were quite shy and kept a big distance.

We came around a corner; up ahead was a big group of elephants next to the track. I stopped not wanting to upset the elephants. The alternative track was a long backtrack, and a long drive around. I got out to tell the South African man and son that where following behind us.

We let them go around us and they continued and drove on, pushing through them, so I followed too, hoping that we would not come around a corner to face some upset, angry elephants. There were elephants left and right standing under the trees, every corner more elephants left and right …. a big group. We drove through steadily trying not to disturb them, only one felt he had to flap his ears to scare us ….sorry elephant, it always seems to be the young boys trying to prove themselves.

We had been driving all morning so stopped for lunch at horseshoe bend where we could watch a hippo grazing on the grass a little further on.

The South Africans continued on but then returned to parked right near it. It retreated into the water. He was enjoying that grass, and waited by the edge to come back out and munch on the lovely grass again.  Eventually he did come back out after about and hour.

Meantime after our lunch a group of elephants can down to the water for a drink.  I think if we were not there they would have stayed longer to swim and play.

We took another drive and when we came back there was a group of elephants enjoying themselves and playing in the water.

A lodge safari vehicle was driving around to them. The elephants started leaving the water and making their way up the beach to the safety of the bush. The safari vehicle raced on to cut them off. The protective elephants did their best trying to scare the car back (giving the tourists spectacular photos), and making a shield as the young elephants, babies and others passed behind. When all the elephants had passed, the car parked and the driver and tourists got out laughing their heads off – Bloody Muppets.

On our way out another group of elephants were at the water. We stopped to wait for them to finish as the road went between them and the bush; but more groups of elephants started arriving, waiting for opportunities to have a drink. We could have been waiting for hours and hours, so we left and drove though as calmly as possible so they could drink in peace.

 

Number 96 – Have we hit the highlight of our trip already?

Khaudum National Reserve was marked as a destination for us as it is said to be the wildest park in Namibia.

Lonely Planet ref: Few tourists visit Khaudum as the tracks are unmaintained, hard on the vehicle and facilities are “rudimentary”. Elephants have destroyed what look like were once nice campsites.

After coming from Etosha where the elephants are used to visitors, we had to re-adjust back to wild elephants again. We were given accounts of elephant and hyena attacks on people in the park.

The Khaudum elephants tended to move away as soon as they saw you, or let you know your presence is not appreciated. We tried to keep our distance, with an eye on escape routes, but fast exits would be impossible if trapped by thick scrub in the deep bumpy sand tracks.

To get to the park, there is a 3hr (60km) sandy track. It is soft and deep immediately as you turn off the bitumum. The deep sand tracks continue throughout the park (take plenty of fuel).

*Namibia Wildlife Resorts asks visitors to travel in a two-vehicle convoy and be self- sufficient in food, water and spares. Caravans, trailers and motorcycles are prohibited.

We spent hours driving in the self steering sand ruts being thrown side to side to side to side, plus kangaroo hopping resembling donkey kicks when judgment or concentration lapsed.

Go slow…., try fast for a while…., try going slow again…..; it was long and hard going on the poor car.

Over the last few weeks we had driven tracks with miles of horrid Namibian bulldust, some as wide as 6 lane highways! Whilst the bull dust bogs were shorter in Khaudum, the dust plumed out from the wheels then ran down the windows like rain. Others threw dust clouds that completely blocked daylight, temporarily turning the inside of the car into darkness – wow! Extinction of the dinosaurs went through my mind.

We turned into a track, the wheel ruts were very wide and deep from trucks. Our car could only travel in one wheel rut at a time, the other wheel up on the sand mound.

This made the car lean either left or right and scratch along the bushes on the side of the track ☹. It was thick scrub so we kept going on the lean and scratching the car, Frankie said “I hope this is going to be worth it”.

Finally we came to a clearing, where we saw a helicopter. They were spotting elephants for relocation to Erindi, a private game reserve. They invited us to join them the next day to capture 2 bulls, they even brought extra fuel for us so we could join in the unexpected adventure ☺.

Khaudum National Park, with 5000 – 10,000 elephants, is overpopulated for its area. Erindi and the park have been negotiating and planning for 7 years to relocate 200 of these elephants to the game reserve.

We had to be at their base at 7am, therefore we had to leave camp at 5:30am.

Rule#1 – Do not drive in the dark – Broken.

You could see so much elephant activity in the area, I was worried we might encounter elephants on the way and be delayed, but we were lucky none were on the track at that time and we only saw 5 big hyenas. Many of the animals in this park seem to be bigger than ones we had seen in other areas.

(The elephants here are said to be the biggest in Africa. In fact, Erindi found their standard elephant transporters were not big enough to accommodate the Khaudum bulls and they lost a few days production, in the beginning, as they had to pause operations to get height extensions added to the transporters)

We travelled with Ruan, who is the game manager of Erindi. I had the best seat (but forgot my camera☹) and was sitting up front with Ruan (whoops I had pushed Paul, the owner of Erindi, into the back of the ute). Ruan was coordinating the operations, so we were the first truck in the convoy! He was like an octopus, talking back and forth to the chopper on one radio, then the other trucks on another radio, plus driving (shame I cannot understand Afrikaans).

As we were coming up the track, we could see the helicopter herding the darted bull towards the track. The elephant crossed the track and the chopper stopped him going too far, trying to keep him close to the track.

The elephant was ready to lie down so we pull off the track towards it, with all the other trucks following. The elephant had now stopped. We were first to him and parked right there and got out. Wow! He was standing there leaning backwards with his front legs out straight, slowly leaning further back more and more. We took some photos. Then he dropped to a sitting position with his front legs still straight. I wondered if they all go to sleep this way. Once he had sat down they pushed him over onto his side.

It was all go! Guys were clearing bushes with chainsaws, the 2 vets were attending to the bull, a stick was put in his trunk to hold it open, measurements and data was being taken, and he got “95” graffitied onto his bum. It’s a 2 crane job, the 2 cranes and a flat bed were already in position, straps were put around #95 and the 2 cranes simultaneously lifted him. The flat bed backed in and together they all skillfully positioned, lowered and laid him down so he was lying on his side, centered across the flat bed. He was tied down and Job Done!!

The chopper took off to find #95’s friend. It was herding him but this time the elephant needed to lie down before they could get him close to the track so we had a bit of a bush bash to get to him.

This time Ruan pull up to the side of the elephant and jumped out. The chopper had dropped off the 2 vets and they were already attending the elephant, which was sitting in a crouching position. Ruan had put some straps around the elephant and jumped back in, he then pulled him over onto his side. Wow, everyone knows what they have to do and the team can immediately deal with every situation (Elephants have to be lying on their side or they could crush their lungs).

Same deal, the chainsaw guys were clearing, the cranes and flatbed backed into position, data recorded; #96 is lifted and expertly laid down onto the flatbed. Impressive coordination!

 

With #95 and #96, the convoy was ready to make its way back to base for wake up and transfer. I was on the flat top with #96 and Maria, one of the vets. I was looking around for a secure hold for the journey, they told me it was ok to sit on him! Heheheh, I wondered if #96 would mind, and thought I’d better just lean against him to brace myself. But his body was really relaxed and wobbling so I had to be careful not to step on his ear with each bump and gear change. He was having a wonderful snooze and SNORED VERY LOUDLY all the way! Pretty funny.

Once back at base there was another display of no fuss coordination as they smoothly transferred sleeping #95 into the wake up crate. Here the vets administered the anti dote and he was helped to his feet, and then moved to a transport crate for the trip to Erindi. Same procedure for #96.

It was a sad day for the team, as Sept 30 was the last day of the relocation season as the weather starts to get too warm for the well being of the animals. The teams smooth operations had transferred 96 elephants in just 6 weeks. The only down time they had were a few days at the beginning of the season to add the height extensions to the crates. The remaining 104 elephants will be collected next season.

For Frankie and I, it was a privilege to watch firsthand, the professional collection of #95 and #96, and we thank Paul and the Erindi team for the extraordinary opportunity and experience.

Staff and guests of Erindi were already reporting seeing the other elephants as they were settling in well.

There has been quite some media interest about the whole project by the likes of BBC, National Geographic, etc so hopefully we may see some programs about the project.

Home

 

 

 

Kaokoland (Northern Namibia)

We passed through Opuwu to restock for the next 10 days or so, in Northern Namibia. There were many Himba and Herero in traditional dress going about their day, on the street, in the supermarket, stocking up on grog, carrying cases of Black Label (their preferred beer) on their head. I did not dare to take any photos.

We headed up to the Cunene River on the Angolan border. After being in the desert, this was very refreshing and relaxing; and having endless tap water was luxurious. A guy came around the campground looking for company to do the 4WD Riverside track, which goes to Epupa Falls. He did not get any takers; some said it was too difficult; others were not permitted to take their hire cars that way. We were doing it, but we did not want to go until 2 days later. He needed to head off the next day and was very nervous so we told him not to worry, as we would be a day or so behind him.

The only vehicles we did see when we did the track were a convoy of Mercedes G Wagons, 7 of them coming in the opposite direction. They were on a Mercedes event and having a GREAT time!!! And who wouldn’t! They had been flown to Epupa Falls, handed these brand new company cars, Mercedes G Wagons, no less; to bash down a 4wd track, in Northern Namibia. (Each car only had 140km on the clock and was brought to Epupa by truck. They did not have to go easy on the vehicles as Mercedes would look after any problems if something happened.

The drive takes about 6-8 hours at flower sniffing pace, we split this over two days and arrived at Epupa Falls to have another day relaxing (as with Cunene, there was no malaria, no hippos, no fishing).

Van Zyls

Van Zyls track is quite long, slow, rocky and bouncy, with a number of low range/ 1st, technical sections. Good ground clearance is useful. Take everything to be self sufficient.

We found rocks placed in many of the trees along the track. Not sure what it means or who does it.

The people in the campsite next to us at Epupa Falls told us they were doing the Van Zyls track as well. They took off a couple of hours ahead of us, very early the next morning. They were in a Landcruiser and a Mitsubishi (something) with independent front and rear suspension. This probably explains why we were seeing so many scrape marks on the rocks.

Around mid afternoon we had already come up behind them, the ladies were walking, guiding the cars over the rocks, they must have been doing that all the way.

They let us pass them, and said they would be camping “at the top”. We moved on slowly and within 100 meters they had already dropped behind and out of sight. Not far along was a reasonably steep rocky hill climb, with a couple of tricky technical steps right before the top. I was thinking those guys are going to be out examining this hill for a while as Frankie made a nice clean ascent straight up in our good Defender (if they could not drive their car up the last section they might have had to winch as it would be difficult to build it up, and awkward to snatch). We passed what could be “the top”, it was not obvious, but a quick check on the GPS confirmed it. There were no good spots to camp up there, certainly not for three cars, so we continued on until we found a nice area.

 

Next morning we waited around to see if they would come by, but I think some of the sections would have put them back at least a few hours. One of the ladies would not have had a happy face with the endless bouncing and rough going.
We left after waiting an hour as we still had another tricky descent before we got to the end of the track.

After Van Zyls track, we could either turn right as originally planned and head back to the Cunene river along the Marienefluss; or turn left and head back into the desert – we turned left and once back in the desert, we were spotting animals again. We passed a wreck of a ute, said to have been blown up by a land mine – Not sure if it got blown up where we saw it, but I made sure I only walked where there were plenty of footprints.

 

Out of the blue, there was a couple tricky technical sections, and one climb in particular took us by surprise. No problem, just had to drop into low range and we went straight up. A local car had been following us and when we stopped I was instantly his best friend, we had a brief chat in broken English. When we were leaving he gave me a big bear hug. I guess he was super surprised to see a girl driving up those hills.
We drove up to a marble quarry and felt the smooth, cool marble on the hot desert day.

 

One day we were driving in a riverbed and stopped to set up camp. When bush camping we make sure we get up into our roof tent soon after sunset, so before we retired we took a quick walk to see if anything was nearby. About 150m along, Frankie stopped, he heard something on the other side of the bush and suddenly we were staring at a giraffe. The poor thing got such a fright that we had crept up so close, that it took off, up onto the plains and way off into the sunset. It eventually stopped and even though it was so far away it would not take his eyes off us as we walked back to our car.

Driving through the desert
 

The expected elephants were not around Puros Conservancy, but we stopped to camp anyway. We had a relaxing afternoon and enjoyed the luxury of endless water on tap again. Every thing is so dusty it is nice to be able to wash your hands all the time. I also caught up with the laundry (later regretting I used so much water during our stay).
Next morning, as I was having breakfast, I saw a giraffe walk by, so I took my muesli and went to see if I could get closer. We stood staring at each other, both of us chewing our breakfasts. The nearest bush to the giraffe was 20-30 meters, so I only went as close as that bush. (I am not sure if my idea of running around the bush and keeping the bush between us, would protect from giraffe attack, if there is such a thing).
We drove through Puros town and I chatted with a local. I asked about water and he explained that the water is pumped up from the bore by solar. When the town tank is full, a bell sounds to indicate to the town residents that water will be released to their taps and they will be able to fill some containers with good clean water. I asked how long it takes to fill the tank, and depending on the weather, the tank fills approx every 3 days. I then realised that water for the locals is not endless but quite limited. I suddenly felt guilty about the amount of water I splurged for washing our clothes and to be able to feel clean again.

This was the first of the Desert Elephants we saw.

Elephants are clever and can hid well. This fella was behind some bushes waiting for us to pass, but we spotted him before he hid, and therefore could see his tail swinging as he was waiting for us to leave. We stopped the engine and waited. In the meantime his friend also came browsing along but did not notice us. The first elephant then had to come out of hiding to be with his friend.

Etosha

Most of our animal spotting has been while traveling along the back tracks. The animal fear factor varied a lot, depending on how many cars come by, from fleeing at first sight, to just moving away a short distance as you get close.
Then there is Etosha National Park. The animals are so used to cars that some won’t move off the road and you have to gently drive through huge herds.

 

 

Begging

We came across many Himba and a few Herero. Himba tend to come out and stand on the track with their hands out and expect you to give them something. We were told NOT to give money or food to begging children as it reinforces continued begging. Giving food is only acceptable in return for something eg they help set up your tent, or fetch water, selling handicrafts. One thing we did noticed was Himba do know what a GoPro is, and if they saw it mounted on the bull bar they would not approach to beg, they even send the children away in the opposite direction.

 

Swakopmund to Twyfelfontein

(6/9/13 ) We spent most the day getting ready to head into the bush again.

Tap water to date has been quite varied in taste, but not too smelly or slippery like some bore waters we get in outback Australia.  Swakopmund’s town water is salty therefore we filled our tanks at, RO3 Water, a South African franchise business which processes town water through 6 treatments: sand, carbon, 5 to 1 micron filtering, Reverse Osmosis to remove the salt, UV and Ozone to kill microbes, producing great drinking water, luxurious! They also discourage continuous container disposal.

Refueled, restocked and laundry up-to-date, we exited Swakopmund by the Salt Road, to head up the cold, foggy Skeleton Coast.

Ships have been coming to grief since the 1400s, and the desolate desert coast would have been a dreaded place to be stranded.

We did take a photo of a shipwreck which came aground only 5 years ago, (nobody died), but all you can see in the photo is fog.

There are many turnoffs to fishing spots. The fishing must be very good judging by the number of cars loaded up with big rods.

Salt mining still occurs. People sell Salt lumps along the side of the road ~$3 to $12 (AUD) per lump

The Seal colony was a noisy, smelly place. There was plenty of complaining with a lot of clambering over and sleeping on top of each other.

It was interesting watching what they do. Bulls were confirming their borders with the neighbouring bull. A large group of young seals (kindergarten age) had been out in the sea together. They returned and each had to find their mummy by clambering around, and calling out. As they moved around the bulls were either checking them or warning them to keep away.

We turned inland onto a corrugated track and left the cold Atlantic air and fog behind. Driving just 10 minutes inland, the fog disappears and transforms into a warm and clear day; 30 mins later we have to turn the air con on.

Lichen proliferates in the fog. The ancient Welwitschia Mirbilis plant grows in the desert river beds.

 

I am lucky to have a good tour planner, this day he announces we will be having our lunch stop in a crater.

We had to drive through Mars to get there

When trip-planning Frankie also used Google Earth to select our various lunch or camping spots.

Our lunch spot had sensational views.

Back roads and small tracks are our preferred option, it is usually harder going for the car but on the plus side you might not see anyone else for days. We continued our scenic drive and onto one of Frankie’s possible camp locations. There were Aardvark burrows everywhere including right on the track. Constant concentration was required, dodging holes otherwise we’d loose a wheel.

Our camp site was in a great location and the combination of many things made me finally feel at home (ie similar to our travels in Australia). ie bush camping with no-one around, the temperature finally warm enough for me to sit around relaxed with a nice cold beverage, gazing at the amazing Rocky Mountains surrounding us, a nice hot shower in the sun.

However in Oz, we do not have to worry about possible encounters with lion, leopards or hyenas (only crocs) so we made sure we retired to the tent early.

We should start seeing other wildlife now (other than deer) so next day it was my job to animal spot as Frankie was busy concentrating on the track, corrugations, aardvark holes and other obstacles. But for hours I could not stop gazing at the amazing mountain range of rock.

Maybe that is why we only saw 2 mountain Zebra.

Pretty awesome mountains, and so many thoughts and wonders went through my head as to how they formed and how many millions of years I could see in all the layers and weathering.

That evening we were looking for a spot to camp, following the bends up a dry river bed/canyon. Again, I was just gazing at all the amazing rocky cliffs on both sides. Another turn and then Frankie yells …… GIRAFFE!!!

…3 of them!! and zebra too. It was the first time we had seen giraffe so it was a bit of a surprise…. They were surprised too and ‘hid’ behind the trees:

We set up camp nearby and again got up into the tent soon after sunset.

Frankie could hear zebra snorting all night, and in the morning we missed a wonderful “bedshot” of a Zebra who was staring straight at us from the top of a hill with the bright pink sun rising right next it. Oh well, it was an amazing site, so now we have to take the camera to bed with us.

There are many rock art sites and we went to the Brandberg White Lady and Twyfelfontein carvings

Namibiam architeture is pretty stylish. The eco-designed building at Twyfelfontein was made from recycled materials and looked very cool. 44gal drums were used to make the rippled roof and the drum lids were used in the walls. It was a very hot day and no energy was required to keep it amazingly cool inside.

Camp grounds in many of the Namibian lodges are also very stylish using nice wood, stone and/or reed features, making it feel more like “glamping”. Outdoor loos and showers with views are not uncommon.

Our journey continued north towards Kaokoland.

 

Luderitz to Swakopmund

30/8/13 Back to the coast, diamond areas and the cold Atlantic of Luderitz. The town’s campsite is right at the end of the point, absolute prime real estate, however quite exposed for camping and our down jackets were unpacked again for the cold night air.

All is good if you can get out of the wind, with some German food and German beer that’s cheaper than in Germany, (disappointing for a coastal town, the fish dish was inedible).

Luderitz is in a super windy area, also chosen for the windsurfing speed record attempt. We stumbled across the trench where the record was broken at 52knots last year! (or around 100km)?

Diamond mining still occurs in the area and just offshore; however Kolmanskop is now a ghost town. We wandered in and out of many buildings, most now filled with sand.

Back inland to Aus, where there were hundreds of horses sleeping and standing outside the ladies toilets. The Sperrgerbiet (forbidden diamond areas) ran on both side of the road all the way from Luderitz.

Sossesvlai 3/9/13
Stunning scenery and Number 1 attraction of Namibia. The sunrise climb is the thing to do. Tick. (See pics in photo galley)

There are 3 areas with giant granite monoliths. We did two. The campsite was a couple km from a uranium mine, which proudly sponsor the campground’s garbage service! The noises from 24hr/day digging and trucks moving around carried in the night air.

looking up, looking down to camp.

4/9/13

 

Swakopmund, a town which is more German than Germany. Finally fresh seafood, properly cooked steaks, and fantastic groceries again! Makes the cold foggy climate very bearable.

 

Fairy Rings – These bald spots in the grasses of Namibia are unexplained and cover vast areas.

 Not much rain for Solitaire

 

South Namibia

 

25/8/13 Across the Orange River was Namibia, with amazing landscapes deserts, spectacular mountains, lunar scapes and mars scapes.

I thought we had driven to Mars when we were heading into Ai Ais hot springs resort. We had a soak in the hot pools and walked to a lookout with stunning views.

27/8/13 Fish river canyon – again, more spectacular views.

We crossed paths with Charlie Boorman motorbike tours twice that day. They pull into Ai Ais for morning tea, and later into Fish River Canyon. He was not scared of messing around on the very edge of the cliff. They were going to be in Victoria Falls in 6 days. We will take around 6 weeks to get there.

We stopped well back from the cliff edge for all of our photos.

28/8/13 We were passing the LR repairer Johan Strauss of Steinfeld Garage, so dropped by to replace a worn shock bush. Wow, what a stunning property, and he also has a canyon (with descent 4wd tracks as we discovered). We passed Johan on his way to a job, on the 5km drive to the house; his assistant Korvas sorted us out and then suggested we take a drive around the property to kill an hour or so; by then Johan should be back so we could pay.

He gave us no warning but I would suggest not to head down into the canyon unless 4wd experienced: technical, rocky, low range 1st, with some track rebuild required; some unexpected fun. (When driving gets interesting, it becomes my turn and I push Frankie out of the drivers seat to take photos). We continued for a few kms along their fence line (the property seemed endless), time was passing, so we turned around to return to the house, down and up the canyon again.

Other common scenes of South Namibia:

Social Weavers build large nests in many trees (or here a telegraph pole). They are very busy flying in and out, threading straw into the nest like thatched roofs.

We try to make friends with small creatures.

There are many Quiver tree “forests”. They are actually not trees but aloe plant.

 

Richtersveld

Port Nolloth was our next stop to resupply and rendezvous with Greg, the new trip leader who would take us through the Richtesveld. We took a passage road through large restricted areas of the De Beers diamond mines. On this passage, there were lots of turtles crossing the road. There is strictly no stopping allowed on this section, even for the poor turtle flicked out by the car in front and left spinning on its back.

Australia claims to be The BBQ Capital Of The World and so does South Africa with their Braai. After spending time with the club and other South Africans, I would say the South Africans have one up on us. There were 15 carloads of people on the trip cooking their meals night after night; the production and coordination around the braai was like poetry in motion. And it did not stop there, as they cooked extras for next day’s lunch or snacks. A plastic food container seems to be a Braai accessory.

Greg van der Reis, founder and owner of the 4×4 Offroad Adventure Club, took us through the Richtersveld, a desert area of northern S/A.

We travelled through many amazing landscapes, moon-scapes, mars-scapes; a lot of trails weaved through gullies and canyons, one track Greg had not been down in 12 years so there was some clearing to de done. (Heck! the trees and bushes here have massive spikes all over them!!!) We had lots of interesting stops including mica mines (we explored inside a few), gold mines, a granite quarry (Greg explained how they cut the granite blocks by drilling and using a cutting band), ruins, petroglyphs and a tank which usually has Baboons skeletons in the bottom (they climb in but cannot get out. Greg says they have put ropes and ladders in, but the locals steal them).

We were specifically asked not to share our GPS traces as this area was still largely unmapped and unspoiled.

It was wonderful spending time with the club and their members, some of the warmest, genuine people I have met. The majority of the trip attendees seemed to be young and many retired, a consequence of the regime change and many white South Africans being offered attractive early retirement packages. We had some great chats including:

Colin – all the hilarious things his pet meerkat gets up to. Steed and John (Amarula Coffee Mixologist and Potjki Master) – gave an overview on South African snakes and their own personal encounters. (Yikes. I think South Africa also out does Australia in the poisonous snakes area too….. scary!!) Peter (retired nuclear chemist) about his job at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, also giving me a quick lesson in the basics of nuclear reactions, reactors, Fukushima, etc….. So interesting. Bernard – a retired cameraman, looked after us throughout the trip, lovely, warm fireside chats.

So sad to say goodbye, as they headed south back to Cape Town, we continued north into Namibia.

More pictures in the Photo section

 

Namaqualand, West Coast

The track opened up to the Atlantic Ocean and Lamberts Bay, a fishing village. Not the most attractive town but it does have a big potato factory on the wharf (but again, they don’t have public tours through this factory either ☹).

There is a big bird colony past the wharf, you can pay to go out to see. We declined as we imagined it was all birds, stench and getting shat on. Instead, we were entertained by a seal in the harbour waving / cooling itself.

We had an average to ok seafood dinner in town, was hoping for better from a fishing village.

The only thing we found worthwhile in this town was the seafood buffet experience at Muisbosskerm Restaurant (Mouse bush shelter). The restaurant is basically a stylish, open air shelter on the beach: walls made of mouse bush, the sand floors neatly raked, not much in the way of ceiling, cool furniture made from single slabs of stone or cross sections of tree trunks, no cutlery available, only mussel shells to use. We started with fish biltong, then approx. 6 separate fish variety, paella, stews, fresh bread, crayfish. Ergh, so full….

Observation to date: All seafood (actually all food for that matter) seems to be cooked very well (done) over here.

Continuing north along the coast, the next village was Doringbaai. This village has a Winery on the wharf; (the grapes come from their coastal vineyards nearby) where we had lunch and topped up our mini wine cellar.

The seafood lunch was just edible to really bad; but the location was utterly stunning as our lunch was served in a private room, with 360 deg views, right at the end of the jetty.

When moving on, and out of Doringbaai, a Land Rover convoy was going past. We pulled out and slotted in a gap in the middle of it. We scanned our CB channels but could not pick them up (turns out they use AM, and unfortunately we ditched our AM radio about 8 years ago after UHF became the norm and AM phased out in Oz).

We thought we looked the part, but apparently the extra car caused a bit of commotion over the airwaves. We continued as if part of their convoy until they turned off to do a sidetrack, and we went straight on into Strandfontein to camp.

Strandfontein has nice campsites overlooking the big swells but it is also a bit exposed to the wind. The waves were coming in from a long way and it was blowing side on (thought – this could be a good, tho cold, windsurfing beach). The tap water tastes good here so we filled up our tanks.

The campsite was quiet and peaceful, being offseason. We set up camp, and were quietly settling in when in comes the convoy. Suddenly we were surrounded by 15 LRs from the Cape Land Rover Club. Normally it would have been an invasion, but being LR we were now camping with a bunch of friends.

Next morning we said goodbye to our new friends. There was the possibility that we might bump into each other along the way as we were going to be covering similar route and areas, but we assumed we travelled slowly as we tend to stop and hang out at anything that takes our fancy.

We left them and continued up the amazing coastline along 4wd tracks. The conditions must be ideal for mussel growing, as there were beaches and beaches, made entirely of mussel shells. Instead of banks of sand, there were massive banks of mussel shells, some 3 meters high from the low tide water. The locals used to burn the shells to make lime for cement.

We were lucky to be in Namaqualand at the beginning of the wild flower season.

It is illegal to drive on the beaches so we camped in the dunes, our neighbours being some mice in the mouse bush and some seals down on the rocks.

Next day was another late start after mooching around the rocks and marvelling at the incredible amount of mussels.

We drove past lagoons with Flamingos. Funny birds, when flying they’re all neck and legs, when sleeping, they look like a helmet on a stick.

Two meerkat jumped out and raced along the track in front of us, then stood at their hole and stared at us as we went by. Other animals to date were ostrich, whale, dolphin, deer.

The sand gets really soft in places and following a track can send you into soft deep sand or down the bottom of a hill with the only exit being back up the soft, deep sand track. All a bit of fun, but if not 4WD experienced and you get yourself stuck then you could be waiting a while before some assistance passes by.

By mid afternoon, we ran up the back of the LR convoy again. They had just finished extracting a car out of deep sand (even with so many competent drivers, it still took them 45 mins). We stopped for a late lunch where they presented us with a club sticker and made us honorary members of the Cape LR club; what wonderful surprise!

We found ourselves camping together again; and they invite us to join them for the rest of their trip into the Richtersveld. This area was in Frankie’s plan, however the club was meeting with a member who had access to areas ordinarily closed and knowledge of many unmapped tracks, so we joined them for the next 5 days.

 

Cape Town to Cedarberg mountains

SNOW on the surrounding mountains of Cape Town confirmed it was too cold to stay longer, and to start heading north to warmer climates.

Our drive was via the Cedarberg Mountains.

We crossed Bain’s Kloof Pass and as we were heading down, a large group of girls were grinding up, all on high-end mountain bikes including a carbon Titus (Frankie spots these things).  We did not crack the code, but they were all wearing long purple sox (dress code the day before around Table Mtn was long red sox).   We thought the colour indicates the SPF of the sox – Snake Protection Factor, SA has lots of scary snakes.

The drive thru the Cedarberg mountains has many spectacular rocky formations.  But where are the Cedars trees?  Where are any trees?

The area looks ideal for camping in warmer weather (although it also looks snakey), with many walking, mtn bike tracks and creeks, however the many camping facilities made it look like it is very popular (= busy).

We nearly got trapped in the Cedarbergs during our 2^nd night.  At 3am it started to rain, and did not stop.  Mountain runoff further upstream funnels into the river that cuts Algeria campground in half. By the morning, the river was roaring and raging.  Still rising, it had cut us off from the track out of the campground.

We estimated we could be stuck for 5 days or more, that’s no problem except it was miserably cold.  We were getting prepared to sit it out when a ranger appeared in the rain (over the high footbridge) and said he would open the back track gate to release us, and our co-trapped neighbours, Robbie and Nora.

Robbie is a retired military arms engineer working on and selling military helicopters in interesting countries.  With cold wet weather now set in, we all decided to head to the Hot Spring Baths of Citrusdale.

Some roads were also closed by swollen rivers, so we had to go all the way to the highway and take a long route to Citrusdale.  We passed the dam and one of the overflow gates was open, when we passed again a few days later, 3 gates were open releasing water with impressive power.

All the indoor spas of Citrusdale Baths were far too hot and unbearable for me, however I was in heaven soaking in their outdoor hot rock pools in the freezing cold rain.

2 days later, it was still chucking it down, but it was time to leave the baths and keep moving north.

The world’s supply of Rooibos comes from this area of South Africa and there is a Rooibos factory in Clanwilliam.  The factory looks impressive from the outside, and the air around the factory smells nice, but it is not open to the public.  The shop has an informative video of the process.

Next door we walked around the floor of a shoe factory and watched shoes and boots being made by hand, an amazing number of bits and pieces, being cut and glued and sewn and pressed together.

Still cold and raining, we left Clanwilliam.

More pictures in the Photos section of the site.

 

Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town almost a week ago.

After flying in from Sydney, we were met at the airport by Duncan who took  us to his place and the wonderful sight of our car waiting for us.  Now reunited with our gear we crawled straight into our roof tent and crashed out.

The car’s journey to Cape Town went well,  but not without some extra stress, cost and organisation, luckily all sorted while the car was still on the water.
When the carnet was “lost at sea” we had some concerns:   Could we get another one in time, would customs stamp the carnet without an inspection of the car and would it get lost when sent again?
There was no alternative so another $530 was spent and a second carnet was bought, stamped and sent again … and it arrived the day before the car, avoiding expensive storage costs!

We’re loving Cape Town; when it is not raining.  This city has everything,  its a bit like having the Hunter Valley, the Blue Mountains, the Northern Beaches and the City of Sydney all compressed into a tiny area.

We are staying on Duncan’s farm in Stellenbosch, one of the wine areas of the Cape.
We drove to the Cape of Good Hope with its stunning views, were entertained by the car park ostriches, and the penguins in Simon Town.

We enjoyed the most spectacular view of the city, land and sea from Table Mountain. Being off season, the Gondola was closed so it was like Pitt St up the steep, rugged track.  Its a pretty decent hike and I’m glad I had my hiking boots and a jacket to put on up the top (6 degC), rather than dressed like many other tourists in casual and even office clothing and shoes.