Africa Revisited. Self Drive Safari. Namibia. Caprivi to Etosha

 Almost half-way through our holiday and Day 17 dawned. We were on our way across the border to Namibia via the Ngoma Bridge Crossing. We were feeling quite smug as we approached our third border crossing of the trip. First time into Namibia. We were not so concerned about money as we knew South African Rand was widely accepted in Namibia. The border control into Namibia was generally more relaxed and the queues slightly shorter. We paid our 277 Namibian $ and we were soon on our way.

Picturesque drive across the bridge, the bit in the middle is a "no mans land". The border police with their guns may seem rather intimidating but were actually quite friendly.  We drove through  the Chobe, Bwabwata and Mdumu National Parks but the game had gone elsewhere as we saw very little. The Caprivi area is very different to the rest of Namibia and quite populated. Most of the people seem to live in small self contained settlements. There are very few shops or towns. We saw lots of very young nursery aged children carrying their plastic chairs and later passed them all sitting under a large shady tree, their "school". Our children do not realise how lucky they are actually having a proper school building. Other school buildings looked like sheds within a dusty yard. The children all seemed very happy though.

We would have liked to have taken more photos of the small villages we passed but were reluctant to take too many pictures in case we offended anyone.

We were soon on our way to the next destination Zambezi River Lodge.

The Zambezi River is the fourth longest river in Africa and basically travels the width of Africa. Our camp was at the Protea Hotel near Katimia Mulilo where we stopped for food and fuel. We were also able to do a bit of gift shopping. The supermarket there was one of the better ones we encountered and we actually found food we could eat.We stocked up on some basic delicacies like ham and cheese.

A short dash cam of our drive from Senyati to Zambezi River Lodge. 5 minutes.

 The hotel seemed quite posh for Namibia and had a lovely bar and restaurant overlooking the water. We had a great grass pitch on the edge of the river with a very clean and good shower block, good for hair washing. The restaurant was pleasant, unimaginative food but very good value. The only downside to this place was the hotel pool, which looked like it needed a good scrub, shame really as we would have enjoyed a dip here. Other than that, it was a very convenient place to stop for one night and was very quiet. The river was beautiful and busy with boats and wildlife. There were some very noisy hippos splashing about, an ideal place to come ashore to nibble the well kept grass. We hoped we wouldn't bump into any later. 

Travelling through the Caprivi strip was very entertaining, it runs parallel with the Angolan border, a long straight road. Until fairly recently only armed escorted convoys could travel on what was a very bad road. With the end of the war with Angola and the advent of tarred roads, all is now peaceful, our trip was a very pleasant drive and we felt safe. 

Our next destination Mahangu Safari Lodge. Mahangu Safri Lodge is 22 k south of Divundu on the western bank of the Okavango River. The road was a rather bumpy corrugated road and we were glad of the 4 wheel drive although we didn't have to engage it. We were keen to arrive fairly early as we had a river cruise booked here. Luckily, we made good time as we were also able to book a table for the evening meal and orders had to be in by 1.00 pm. The campsite was well laid out with large pitches by the river, they also all had shady covers which we needed, it was hot!

 Another short web cam. 6 minutes.

A beautiful decking area where you could sit for sun downers and a river viewing spot. We had a lovely meal here and enjoyed the evening sunset cruise.

A view of our rooftop nest from the river.

All aboard!

Beady little eyes peering up from the river.

It's been a long day! 

Bath time for the locals. No running water for many families so an evening dip in The Zambezi.

Always time for a bit of fun.

Lots of ellies enjoying the evening air. We stopped and watched them for ages. The river cruise was very personal as there were only two couples and the "guide", on the boat! We did see quite a lot of wildlife and our guide was very knowledgeable. Perhaps we saw less game than at Chobe, the last time we were in Africa but very much less "touristy" and  the place seemed to be more of the natural Africa.

Local people in this part of Africa are generally very poor, this guy makes bricks and drys them in the sun. We saw loads of houses made from mud in the corrals and thatched with local reeds.

The end of a perfect day on the river.

The next morning we were off again on the road to Grootfontein. 

A webcam of our trip to Roy's Camp.

We made a slight detour to Rundu where we stopped at yet another Toyota dealer to get the wipers fixed. In two minutes he had diagnosed the problem. "You need a new windscreen wiper motor!" No comment!! Bobo later phoned us and arranged for a new motor to be fitted at a longer stop after we had been to Etosha National Park.

On to Roy's Camp. A very quirky place to say the least. The lodge was very artfully decorated with rusty cars and equipment.

The campsite had a lovely bush kitchen and imaginative toilet block. We had a great 3 course meal in the restaurant and would like to come back! The next morning we were delayed because it had rained heavily in the night and we were worried about driving without wipers. Fortunately the sun came out and we set of to explore the largest known meteorite to man. The Hoba Meteorite was en route to Etosha National Park about an hours drive away.

Another quiet, peaceful drive on sand and gravel. We were surprised when we got to the meteorite there were actually other people there, it was the middle of nowhere! Thanks to Madam Satnag and Tracks4Africa we arrived safely. To be fair, the journey was probably better than the destination.

A bit of an anti climax really! A chunk of granite but it had spun through the heavens for a long way to get here. We would have taken more photos but there were HUGE red ants everywhere! We were glad we saw it. The largest naturally occurring mass of iron on the planet. Really!

Next stop Etosha National Park. We were excited.