We started off north and went back to Etosha. We were a bit worried that it wasn’t a good time of the year at Etosha to see animals, but started off on a good foot when we saw a lion about 5 minutes into the park. While there were fewer animals than before, it was still magical. We saw elephants, rhino, giraffes, zebra, gemsbock, hartebeest, wildebeest, warthog, etc. etc. At night at the Okakuejo waterhole there was a herd of about 30 elephants, accompanied by some rhino. Brad quickly got used to the animals, and was shoeing the zebras off the road when they’d block us in. WE did have a tense moment when we witnessed an elephant chase another car 2 kilometers down a road in reverse. We also had a quite fun time when a Springbok decided to race our combi - they are fast!
Lion at Etosha
Elephant ready to charge
Not more zebras on the road!
After Etosha , we went to a community run campsite called Treesleeper. The camp is called Treesleeper after the San/Bushman who used to live in Etosha, who would sleep on the limbs of the trees when they were hunting to avoid getting attacked by animals. The people who ran Treesleeper were descendents of the these hunters, two or three generations removed. They had built platforms up in the trees, so the kids got to pitch their tent up in the sky. The Bushman (they informed us there that they preferred “Bushman” over “San”) teenagers did a traditional dance for us. They are in the traditional class club at their school, and have won some competitions. Then we went out for a village tour. This was very interesting. We brought a pile of food with us to give to the folks out there, and sat down and had a 30 minute chat with two of the families. They told us about how their lives had changed since independence (for the most part, for this ethnic minority group, it had been worse). They enjoyed getting their photos taken and then looking at the photo on the camera screen, so I spent a lot of time taking photos of everyone, and then showing them their photo with them laughing at their image heartily.
Kids near Treesleeper
San Leader (note Eminem hat)
This is the part of the country where Baobabs start appearing more frequently.
Kids in a Baobab Tree
Northern Namibia changes drastically when you cross the “veterinary fence”, a fence that transects Namibia. South of the fence, cattle and other animals are generally kept by farmers behind fences, and their meat can be exported. Because of hoof & mouth disease, the animals north of the fence cannot be exported, so the farmers are mostly subsistence farmers. Directly north of the fence, you see animals all over the place, and begin to see many more people living along side the road, and walking in the road. This looks more like the “Africa” that people might envision. It’s an interesting drive.
Caprivi Homes
We stayed for a night at a lodge just across the river from Angola in Rundu, and then went on to a place called Ngepi on the Okavango river just south of Popa Falls. At Ngepi, we started to see the river safari types of animals that we hadn’t seen before. There were lots of hippo and crocodiles, and we saw sable and roan antelope at a nearby national park. The hippos snort and grunt, and you can hear them almost all the time on the river. We stayed in a very cool chalet that they called a tree house. It was completely open on one side to the river, so you slept with nothing but a mosquito net between you and the outside. It was a stunning view! This was a funky, low-key, laid-back type of resort, with lots of quirky signs and interesting décor. We arranged to meet some friends also on vacation at this resort, and the kids all had fun together playing Phantom of the Night and generally running around. Unfortunately, a stomach virus began to get all of us one by one starting at this resort. I told Maxine,” not too many of your friends in Minnesota have been sick to the sound of hippos in the background.” She was not amused. However, when both she and Brad were staying sick in the tree house, they were fortunate to see a hippo come right up by the tree house. We also saw Bush Babies in the tree above our friends’ chalet.
Maxine and Ruby outside of Rundu - with Angola in the background
Our "Tree House" in Ngepi on the Kavango
Hippo right outside our place!
We then were entering the Caprivi strip, a weird long strip of land in the northeast corner of Namibia that is a relic of colonial politics (long story, but England had it, and Germany wanted it for trade, so they swapped Zanzibar for the Caprivi). People in the Caprivi have more in common with folks from Zambia (same ethnic group, language, etc. of people in southeasatern Zambia) then the main part of Namibia. We stayed at very fancy safari resort called Lianshulu – I think this is the type of resort that many people going to Africa on safari stay. After mostly camping during our stay in Namibia, it was nice to see what one of these looked like. It was nice. When we arrived, people were waiting for us in the parking lot, put our bags in our chalets, and then brought us into the lodge where someone was waiting with fancy drinks on a tray for us. The main lodge is a huge lapa building hanging over the river. There were only 14 people staying at the resort, and at its maximum it holds 25 people. We went on two separate boat tours with a private guide, and we saw an elephant, many hippos, a water buffalo, fish eagle, red lechwe, and many other animals. After each boat cruise, someone was waiting with a tray of drinks for us (e.g. a tray of sherry). We all especially enjoyed the hot water bottles waiting for us in our beds when we turned down for the night! While these resorts aren’t used to children, they were very nice to the girls.
Monkey on our combi at Lianshulu
After this safari lodge experience, we moved on to Botswana. The border crossing into Botswana was very easy and efficient (though the girls gave the restrooms two thumbs down on either side of the border – no toilet seats, paper, didn’t flush, filthy, etc.!). Upon entering Botswana, we began our regular dipping our feat in bleach and driving our car through bleach. Botswana is apparently very worried about the spread of disease, and over the next week, we all had to get out of the car and put our shoes in a pan of bleach and drive our car through a vat of bleach about 8 times!
We have a million elephant photos!
Immediately upon leaving the Namibian Caprivi strip you enter the Chobe National Park in Botswana. This is a fantastic park, with amazing numbers of animals. There is a fairly large town, Kasane, right on the edge of the Chobe riverfront. We stayed at a nice place just outside of Kasane which Bill chose because of the big lawns which he thought would be nice for the kids. Though we could not let the kids run around at all because of the crocodiles on the lawns. From Kasane, we went on two game drives and two sunset boat cruises on the Chobe river (though Ruby missed some of these, as she was hit hard by the stomach virus here). This was an amazing place. The prime attractions are the herds of elephants, hippos, and water buffalos, along with crocodiles, impala, puku, baboons, and monitor lizards. At any one point, you could usually see 4 or 5 herds of elephants – maybe 100+ at one time. At one point during a game drive, we got stuck in the sand, and an entire herd of elephant walked on either side of the land rover – literally feet from us. A little nerve-wracking! I especially enjoyed seeing the elephant swim, using their trunk as a snorkel! While the amount of animals is spectacular, you aren’t on your own at Chobe. Unlike Namibian parks, like Etosha, at Chobe you feel like you are with other tourists, though I hear Botswana is still much less crowded than the safari parks in eastern Africa. While it isn’t enough to spoil a trip, it isn’t quite as special as that experience you get when you are at a waterhole by yourself with a herd of elephant.
On a Chobe game drive
We then went on to Zambia to see Victoria Falls. We got to experience a crowded, confusing African border crossing on the Kazungula Ferry over the Zambezi River. We’re not sure if it is always as crowded as it was, or if it was because the other crossing was into Zimbabwe (the day before the sham “run-off election”). There were trucks lined up at least for three kilometers waiting to get onto the ferry. We passed all the trucks, and got up to the front of the ferry “cue”, which consisted of about 75 cars, trucks, combis, in a haphazard arrangement. They were all waiting to get on the ferry, which holds about one semi truck, one medium sized truck, and two or three cars at a time. Each time a ferry would come, there were all sorts of arguments about who could get on and trucks and cars scheming to block each other to get on first. We ended up paying a person who helped get our combi on the ferry, and we made it on only the third ferry. Immigration in Zambia looked chaotic, but actually didn’t take too long and everyone was quite friendly and helpful.
The Ferry Baot
The infrastructure in Zambia was in noticeably worse shape than Botswana or Namibia. We got into Livingstone, which is a bustling town well-suited for tourists. After an ice cream in the busy center (which the kids were not fond of – too much cream, not enough ice) and an impromptu car wash, we went to our lodge. This lodge has got to be on one of the worst roads ever. We had already been on some pretty bad roads, but we really thought we might not make it. It took us almost 45 minutes to go the 15 kilometers to the Taita Falcon Lodge. We went right through a few villages (almost taking a wrong turn right through someone’s hut, and ran across a herd of elephants too. But the lodge itself was a fantastic bush lodge. It was perched high, high above the Zambezi river overlooking Rapid 17. The South African owners sat and had drinks with us, and apparently do this on a nightly basis with guests.
Our main purpose for going to Zambia was seeing Victoria Falls, and it was well worth the visit. We avoided Zimbabwe for various reasons, primarily because the day we were in Zambia was the day of the Zimbabwe elections. The Zambia side of the falls was fabulous though. Even though we’ve all seen photos of Victoria Falls, seeing this wonder of the natural world in person is well worth the kwacha (Zambian money). Vic Falls are about twice the size of Niagara Falls, and far more spectacular all the way around. We rented raincoats at the top of the stairs, which was good because we got completely drenched viewing the falls. Absolutely spectacular! After the Falls, we said good-bye to Brad as we dropped him off at the Livingstone airport and he returned to New York.
Here we are at Vic Falls
After a nice lunch in Livingstone, we crossed back over the Kazungula Ferry to Botswana. We were able to get on the first boat, and did the whole crossing very quickly without help from anyone. We stayed at a nice riverfront motel, which even had a bathtub! Luxury!
We then drove down from Kasane a few hours to Nata, and then over to Maun. The drive from Kasane to Nata was characterized by two things – elephants and potholes. We saw game fences along most of the road, but the elephant go right through them. At least 5 times we had to slam on the breaks because an elephant family had decided to suddenly cross this road (national highway)! We saw the elephant go up to the game fence, and then all step right over it! This road was so potholed it was almost impossible to drive. At some points, the whole entire road was one big pothole. There was a dirt shoulder, but it had potholes too. We could only go about 30 km/hour for large stretches of this highway. From Nata, the road was better and we were in the middle of Baobab land.
We enjoyed camping in Maun, but were really happy when we crossed the border back into Namibia!
1 comment:
Our family is enjoying your posts--we'll be in Namibia during 2009. Thanks, the Powells
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