Aprill 2010 - Namibia II

We spend a night in Windhoek and went for the locally brewed (voluntary nach Reinheintsgebot) beers. What a pleasure!

The next day we headed off to the coat. We chose to take the shorter but gravel road option along the C28. It is a very scenic route which transports you from the friendly climate of Windhoek within 3 hours into the desert. Schwarkopmund is quite peculiar city. It is in the middle of the desert but it has a beach with ice cold Atlantic Ocean water. We spend two days in Schwarkopmund to rest. We enjoyed ourselves in the 100% German bakeries. Fred was introduced to amazing things like Aprikosenkuchen and Mohnkuchen.

Before heading back South again, we gave a visit to the Flamingo colony in Walvis Bay. Beautiful birds, but be aware of the flying midgies in the air!

Heading towards the Namib Naukluft Park it was gravel all the way along the C14. After 5 hours of solid driving we finally reached Sesriem, the last outpost before the famous Sossusvlei, the number one tourist attraction of Namibia. Immediately we drove through the camp and towards the dunes. We followed everybody’s advice that the dunes are at their best during either sunset or sunrise. And how true they all were!

It is hard to describe the beauty of those huge soft mountains of red sand. Despite their fame one really feels isolated. Lets rather let the pictures speak for themselves.

After the dunes there was still one highlight of this so diverse country to visit, the Fish River Canyon. It is the second biggest canyon on Earth after the Grand Canyon in the States. And it is BIG! Again, it is hard to describe the feeling of calmness and amazement one experiences when standing in front of a natural creation like this one.

Just before crossing the border into ‘homeland’ South Africa one last stop at the hot springs of Ais-Ais as we thought that it would be the perfect ending to the trip to spoil the body in a bath. The 60 degree water that pours out of the burning earth is anything but that. Despite this we enjoyed the stay and had a good nights sleep.

We returned to Cape Town at 4am and at 7am it was time to get up and get to work. Dream over! Plans for the next one were already underway.

April 2010 - Botswana

Botswana has an impressive record. It is one of the most dynamic economies of Africa, it has the lowest corruption rate, exceeding some European countries (Hey Greece!) and it offers one of the best investment opportunities in the developing world. Unfortunately, it is a country with one of the highest HIV rates worldwide; its government however, in 2002 became the first in the world to offer free antiretroviral treatment to its citizens!

Apart from that it also offers some of the most dangerous driving we had experienced so far. The North of the country’s road network is covered by potholes and cattle, the few vehicles driving along the road do so with an average speed of 150km/h. Driving in such conditions at night is quite exhausting.

We arrived in Maun at night, waking up the next day we discovered that Maun must have been Maun to have the highest concentration of 4x4 vehicles. One rarely sees any other vehicle than a Land Cruiser or a Defender. Safari hats and khaki coloured clothes everywhere.

On the road again, this time towards the famous Okavango Delta! Just a month ago we were watching the BBC’s Nature’s Great Events – The Big Flood, of which the Okavango is the star and now we were actually there, ourselves! And this, despite the Okavango Delta being one of the most costly destinations in Africa because of its remoteness and the need to use private charters in order to reach the secluded 15-star, $2000 per night lodges but also because of Botswana’s low volume low impact tourism policy. A very sustainable and respectable approach to economic development which makes visiting a unique experience to those lucky enough to get there.

Within an hour from Maun had reached the South Gate of the Moremi National Park. We enquired at the entrance about the state of the roads, we were told that this morning another vehicle had passed through and made it to the camp. One vehicle only?

We needed to drive about 70 km to reach the Xakanaxa camp we could stay in (of course we had not made a reservation). The stretch started off with waterholes across the whole width of the road. The further into the park we were getting the less recognisable the road was becoming. Here and there we could spot an elephant, some hippos and giraffes. We were already driving for at least two hours at 15 km/h without meeting anybody else along the way. The road at this stage was more of a swamp, we could hardly make out a path which we followed and hoped that it was the right direction. The waterholes became dense mud pulls, before each the co-pilot needed to get out and with a long stick and assess its deepness. At one of them while I was standing knee-deep in the mud I suddenly distinguished marks of big claws in the mud next to me, this made me suddenly realise that we still were in a territory with wild animals, the need to reach the camp at day light had somehow overcast this thought. I rushed back into Cruisi and as we were turning around the next bushes there was the lioness walking just in front of us....

Assessing the obstacles became somewhat less important. And immediately it paid off. The next pool of mud was deceiving, the moment the front wheels drove in it they sank into the mud up, the rear followed and the whole car was up to the chasis in deep thick mud. No tree, not rocks no nothing around. Us in the car slowly realising the situation we were in. An attempt to put in the reverse simply made the wheels spinning and sinking deeper.

The moment we stepped out of the car, we saw another a car started approaching! The first one in 4 hours, here in the middle of nowhere! Two young guys and their mother, Germans, came to save us. We could not believe our luck. Within minutes both cars were standing on solid ground again, not even time to take a picture. We travelled the rest of the stretch together. Many times we needed to step out of the cars and search for the road on foot. We raced with the remaining daylight and reached the ‘camp’ by dusk. 70 kms and 8 hours later.

Xakanaxa is not a usual campsite. It is in the middle of the Park with no border around it. Kruger Park compared to this was a high security prison! We were glad we had arrived and could still not believe the luck we had had with the Germans. We put up the tent and started our usual evening routine of slowly cooking around the fire and enjoying where we were. At some point, an awkward feeling overcame me, as if there was another presence around us. We could not see anything. The feeling of something around us became ever so more evident until at some point we looked up towards the trees and there it was!

In the light of the fire the only thing that one could properly distinguish were his huge ivory teeth. The elephant was standing a meter and a half distance away, he had come that close without us noticing in the dark as his legs and lower trunk were well-camouflaged in the dark and our visual range had not included looking upwards. So now we had this huge bull standing just in front of us. His ears were started to expand towards the sides, this did not seem like a sign of friendliness. After unfreezing from the initial shock we quickly moved into Cruisi. Once sitting inside, the elephant came closer, by simply lifting one of his legs he could have landed his foot right in top of Cruisi, it seemed like a toy in front of him. We were looking into the eyes of this huge creature and he was looking back at us, until he lost interest and moved on. Slowly we got out of the car and sat again around the fire, rather tensed this time and with no great appetite. This might seem made up now but it truly is not. After 10 minutes or so, I hear, the cry of a hyena, of course Fred does not believe me. Until just a minute after we see two simmering little spots approaching in the dark and there she was! Wow, those things are actually much bigger than what they look like on the screen. Just three years before, a little boy of 7 years was eaten at exactly the same camp site while he went out at night to go to the toilet, by a hyena. Very quickly we were sitting again in the car. The hyena walked around it and left. As for us, we forgot about dinner and went to the tent. It was a rather un-restful but truly unforgettable night.

The way out of the park the next day was great fun as we had gotten a bit more used to driving in mud and we felt happy in having been able to reach a place like this. We drove back to Maun and straight through the centre of Botswana towards the East and its border with Namibia. Back to German-Land!

April 2010 - Namibia I

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17 days and 7000 km. We put it into our mind that we wanted to see Namibia and Botswana and test the Cruisi in sand dunes and swamps. And we made it. No question that we spend a lot of hours driving and refilling this thirsty engine at innumerable petrol stations, but we were rewarded with some of the most fascinating sceneries and experiences.

We arrived in Namibia by driving in a straight line North from Cape Town on the N7. A rather monotonous route which however, during dawn and dusk reveals its beauty, like many stretches we have been driving along, making those times our favourites.

With having our goal in mind we drove all the way through to Etosha on excellent roads in about 2 full days and many full tanks... The campsites on the road were rather unspectacular next to petrol stations on the highways of Namibia. The long driving hours were pleasantly passed by listing to GERMAN radio, yes ok, Namibia was a German colony, but I truly did not expect guys with accents from Berlin and, my favourite, from Cologne to be accompanying us through the roads of Africa. To my even greater surprise it was Carneval!!! My mood was booming, Fred was on the opposite not so much thrilled by the traditional German Carneval songs...

Da sind wa dabei, dat is prima, Viiiiiiivaaaaaa Cologniaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

When we arrived finally in Etosha, the radio was switched off, driving through the herds of elephants and giraffes while listening how the FC Koeln did perform last night, was then truly a bit too much.

Etosha is a very pretty National Park which distinguishes itself from the others by its Salt Pan. The Salt Pan is a saline geological formation which resembles a white desert, stretching over 5000sq. Around this unique barren land lay many waterholes which attract over 470 living species and like always a fair number of the one and only species which takes pictures of its cohabitants on this planet.

We arrived late at night and were lucky enough, as always, to get a camp site without prior booking on the overly packed Etosha Rest Camp. We arrived at dark and also set off at dark again to be as early as possible within the park. The gates were opening at 5am and we were there. Alone. Where is everybody? After 45 minutes finally some more people started arriving at the gate and informed us that in the night the time had changed. So we had been there since 4am, that was a good opportunity to check some minor things on the engine with the help of the Cruisi Manual, what an amazing invention!

The park was beautiful as we drove through it while the sun was rising. We stopped at a waterhole and finally had breakfast. Although it is forbidden to get out of your car in parks we, as quickly as we could, climbed on top of cruisi and had our muesli, tea and coffee on the roof rack. To be honest, it was not the most relaxed breakfast one could have as the thought that a big claw was getting you from the back was hard to get rid of.

As the prices were ridiculously high for to spend a night in the park we opted for a nice camp site just a few kms away, the Sachsenheimer camp, “where strangers come and leave as friends”. Fred was able to get a fresh steak of the beautiful Gemshok (Antelope species) which were farmed on the huge forests that the Sachenheimers owned. The farm lady, as all the others we had met along the way, could simply not apprehend that I would have butternut for dinner and no meat. She double checked in German with me, just in case she had not fully understood in English.

We saw the most amazing sunset that evening from the top of the Cruisie.

The next day the journey continued towards the Caprivi. The drier climate of central Namibia gave way to lush vegetation and even more surprisingly huge palm trees growing alongside the road. Obviously we were getting closer and closer to the great Kavango River.

The Caprivi is a very unique stretch of land, it is officially Namibian land but due to its unique geographical location it borders not only with Angola in the North as Namibia does, but also with Zambia to the North-East, Zimbabwe to the East and Botswana to the South. The Caprivi is a good example of the monopoly-like games the European colonisers used to play with Africa. In the 19^th century, the Caprivi was part of the British protectorate while Namibia was under German rule. At some point in that time Germany decided that it would be nice to own the beautiful island of Zanzibar, the waters are a bit warmer, the climate a bit friendlier. Claims like this were settled back on the European continent in form of big Conferences. Germany was not granted Zanzibar as the queen of England won the dispute and got granted the island. Germany in return got the Caprivi strip which was named after German chancellor General Count Georg Leo von Caprivi di Caprara di Montecuccoli (typical German right?!). It was only 20 years after this decision was taken that the people of the Caprivi found out that they were under German rule!

We arrived in Rundu at dark (of course). Looking for campsites in the dark is never the best option and not recommended but this seems to be one of our destinies. Most sites were not accessible because the roads were flooded already so we ended up in a central camp site of the town. We slept as it felt next to an Angolan discothek. The Caprivi due to its proximity to Angola is inhabited by a mixture of people. Angolans, having Portuguese influences due to their colonial past, entertained our sleep with Salsa Rhythms up into the early morning hours.

In the morning the degree of flooding became obvious. Whole stretches of the town were covered in water for as far was the eye can see. The Kavango River floods once a year, bringing the rain down from Angola’s plateaus, passing briefly through this unique little stretch of Namibia and then releasing its full volume into the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Our next stop took us to the most beautiful Camp Site we had seen so far. Ngepi Camp. Situated almost in the river and accessible only with a 4x4 it offers the ultimate nature experience with a laid back sense of comfort. The river seems to be everywhere. The same applies to the hippos and the crocodiles, you hear them constantly moaning somewhere, not seeing them does not help feeling more at ease. We took a wonderful mokoro ride (Botswanan style canoe, shaped out of a tree trunk) which could have easily been cut out of a BBC documentary.The water lilies were half a meter in diameter and helped to spot the hippos as they moved them from underneath.

Getting to close to those huge animals is something to be avoided by all means. We fully trusted our guide, not that we had any other option anyhow, who looked relaxed but alert at the same time. Only once we noticed him falling silent and paddling our mokoro franticly towards the current of the river and away from a moving bush just meters distance away. We realised that even with his many years of experience he did not like getting to close to the hippos. On the other side of the river bank, elephants started to show coming to have a drink. The area is not under the status of any national park or nature reserve thus, those elephants were as wild as it gets. That such a thing actually still exists! A wild elephant, not within any sort of man-made border!

The next morning we woke up and discovered that Cruisi, with us on the top, was neatly circled by fresh, huge hippo footsteps. No comment.

The next day off we went to cross the border into Botswana. We chose the crossing through the Mahango Game Park. Again, getting out of the car is not recommended but seeing a termite tour almost 2 meters high is simply too irresistible not to conquer.

February 2010 - Cruisi

Buying a car, especially after the experience we had had with Cherry, was a bit of a nerve-racking state to be in as both of us were plainly clueless about mechanical and off-road required specificities of a vehicle. Our ignorance regarding engines was becoming ever so more evident during our countless car viewings which not only included getting to know bit by bit more about engines, suspensions, transmission cases etc but also Cape Town’s suburbs and getting in touch with a very special kind of South African personality. The 4x4er.

The 4x4er is in his early 40s, married with kids, lives in the wealthier suburbs of Bellville, Blouberg, Noordhoek in rather large family houses with a nice garden and a dog or two... Their 4x4 is standing in the garage next to the city car of the wife, his motorcycle, the quad bike and of course his fancy new 4-wheel drive vehicle which is the reason for the old ‘Baby’ to be sold. Despite the newer toy they have acquired to play with, their heart out of some reason is always connected to the older one as this has taken them to the trips they have such good memories of. Now however, the wife is insisting of getting some more space in the garage (the children are getting old enough to get their own cars) and does not relate to the sentimentalities of the husband, so the old needs to make space for the new.

This is where we come into the story. Whereas, for a proper South Africa 4x4er every little piece of equipment needs to be of the ultimate quality we were satisfied with what looked, sounded and felt reasonable as in the end it was all coming down to the simple fact of affordability. This is rather contrary to the highly equipped SA 4x4er who seems to only buy the top range of whatever he might buy. This can become rather intimidating and many times in the process we doubted our approach but then quickly reminded ourselves again of where we come from and that we would do with what we got and try to get the best out of it.

No matter which car we viewed and in which suburb, people approached us with the same curiosity and excitement about our trip. We could spend up to a couple of hours in someone’s garage even after having mention that the vehicle in question would not be the one for us simply because a 4x4er has a genuine passion for his car and is thrilled to share every bit of knowledge mechanical or not.

A Land Rover Defender was the car we were aiming for, relatively affordable with a right size and a rather trendy style and most importantly the car that any European would most directly associate to a safari... However, after reading, viewing and listening to a lot of people phrases like,

‘A Defender never dies, but is always sick’

‘Where do you most often find a Defender? Broken on the side of the road’

‘Half the time you spend with a Defender is under it’

Kind of got to us as for a vehicle like this it seemed the owner needed to have the knowledge of how to repair thus, we settled with the decision to buy the much more robust Toyota Landcruiser.

To make a 6-month quest short we found our companion one afternoon in a garage of a half-Austrian half-South African in Milnerton. Cruisi or the Beast is a 60 FJ series equipped with a 2F engine from 1982, she had 270 000 km on the clock, a very neat interior and exterior, she came with a roof-rack and tent and some more little overland accessories like a very convenient drawing system at the back.

We did not proceed to make great alterations to the car as it was in great shape, we were told and we felt. Since that time we have been maintaining it as good as possible and Fred for our (and especially my) peace of mind has been sacrificing many hours on firstly, as a proper academic, reading the “Engines for Dummies” (thank you Phil Gelvan!) and secondly translating the theoretical knowledge into practice with the help of the invaluable Jason, to whom a Land Cruiser 60s series has the same impact as a beautiful woman. Thank you Jason for all the tips and enthusiasm you have been giving and showing us.

We viewed the car on a Friday, agreed to buy it on a Monday, all paperwork was done by the Wednesday and on the Friday morning we were on the road to our first 17 day road trip to Namibia and Botswana.