No trip to Cape Town is complete without a hike up Table Mountain. Braving the scorching 30+ degree heat we climbed up the steep mountain which thankfully had a bit of shade in the narrow gorge. The views from the top were spectacular and it was well worth the effort. We boosted back down and had just enough time to quickly look around the District 6 Museum. This was dedicated to the suburb that was destroyed during the apartheid regime. The heat had taken its toll on us so we grabbed possibly the cheapest box of beer I've ever brought $10.20 for 18 cans and some equally nice and cheap food and headed back to the hostel to meet the rest of our truck members.
Now the truck we are travelling on is an absolute beast, it’s bright yellow has 6 wheels, open sides, seats 20 odd people and even has a beach. It's stocked with food, water, tents, fire wood, pot’n’pans and even has a library on board. We certainly gained the attention of other motorists and passerby as we sped north out of Cape Town on a well built motorway. Our destination for the evening was highlanders camp and winery complete with a swimming pool which was a sweet way to end day one. We weren't mucking around on day two as we continued north through some rather dry, barren foothills to the Namibian boarder. Our first land boarder in Africa posed little problems as we sped away into another vast open plain into the setting sun. We had parked up just outside a park which we proceeded through seeing the odd Springbok and Gazelle before reaching Fish River Canyon, the second biggest canyon on earth. Now as we had gone north the countryside had got drier and drier with barren farms in South Africa giving way to stony deserts in Namibia. This huge canyon has been carved out of rock which was in the vicinity of 1500 million years old and provided the perfect back drop for a picnic lunch. Continuing on our way our next stop was a dam where we enjoyed a refreshing dip to wash off a bit of the accumulated dust before setting camp.
Riding in the truck is an epic way to see the countryside. Nick was a bit sceptical at first about the seating arrangement as all the seats face into the middle of the truck (backs to the windows) however this isn't an issue as it's easy to kneel on the seats, move around, stretch out and chat with others. But the beach is where it's at, this is the name for the area of the truck right up the front which has a fold away roof. This allows us to meerkat out the roof and provides 360 degree views. Africa is so vast with endless plains seemingly stretching on and on but we have also been surprised at how quickly the landscapes do change especially around the highlands where we dropped from relatively green pasture down to the baking sand desert of the famous Namib. This is up there with one of the most spectacular landscapes we have seen. Up at sparrows fart, with a busy moon (only the tiniest slither was lit up but the full moon circle was decipherable) we set off in a mad dash to dune 45 where we raced up this 300m high beast in time for an epic sunrise.
Next on the highlights reel was Dedvlei lake, well the remains of it. The dunes surrounding this dried out lake - complete with dead trees were huge and provided an amazing contrast to the bright blue, cloudless sky. Lunch was back at a sweet camp which had a nice cool pool to relieve ourselves in. After lunch we hit the very well maintained dirt roads again and crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn before camping amongst grazing Oryx, Ostrich and Zebra on the side of the road.
So far most of our camps have been “bush camps” where we just find an appropriate place to pull off the road around sunset and set up our tents and cook our evening meal on an open fire. We are in cook groups of 3 and have to plan, purchase and prepare the evening meal, lunch and breakfast for everyone. It's great fun and food tastes so much better eaten outside under the southern hemisphere’s stars with their Milky Way which make them so much better than the northern hemisphere stars. Heading back to the sea we ran into the dreaded fog of the skeleton coast. It's a crazy phenomenon which cuts visibility to a hundred meters or so and decreases the temperature by at least 10 degrees. We visited the Cape Cross seal colony which has somewhere in the vicinity of 100 000 seals all hustling and bustling for space. The smell was also pretty unique…
Spitzkoppe was our next destination which is another dry desert area with some huge granite columns and very old rock paintings. We spent the morning exploring these cool geological features before heading back to the foggy coastal town of Swakopmund where we spent the next 3 nights. After a week on the road it was good to catch up on a bit of admin, find out the world was still spinning and the highlanders are still winning. One of the main ports on the west coast of Africa was just down the road and it is also meant to be a strong hold for flamingos so we bargained a taxi and packed a picnic. We saw a grand total of 4 flamingoes but it was a fun wee excursion. Departing Swakopmund and the comfort of a real bed we headed back up the skeleton coast as a couple of the inland roads had been washed out. After passing a large fishing boat that had run aground and succumbed to the harsh coast. The road got narrower and dustier and the landscape changed from flat barren sands to pebbles and rock. Although practically nothing grew there was something captivating and alluring about this rugged piece of coast that is suitably named. Waving goodbye to the Atlantic and turning inland we climbed some big foothills and gradually began to see more vegetation until the vast plains turned lush and green after the recent rains. The animal numbers also increased with mobs of zebra and springbok roaming along the road. We camped in the middle of a big flat paddock with grazing animals surrounding us.
Excitement was growing as we were getting closer to the world famous Etosha National Park but before we got there we had some stunning scenery to drive through. Piles of dung on the road gave an indication that larger animals may be visible and it wasn't long before Nick’s eagle eyes spotted a giraffe followed by a heard of elephant. Next thing we know we stumbled upon a tower of giraffes quietly browsing the tree tops. We ended a relaxed day in an amazing camp spot surrounded by bush and a cold pool and even 3 rescued tame cheetah that we could pat! Days in Africa go by so fast and we manage to cram so much in without ever being in a hurry. Waking at our usual time of sunrise, 6am we headed to a unique tribe of people, the Himba, who have the most amazing hair dos. Their hair is woven with clay to form something similar to dreadlocks and they also use the red ochre to cover their skin instead of washing. We toured their little mud huts and played with the kids who were very funny and wanted to take photos of us with their cardboard iPhones.
Etosha lived up to all its expectations. Our big yellow truck might be a little slow up hill but it is amazing for spotting game because of its height. We hadn't gone 3km before we ran into herds of springbok and zebra but it was lions we were really after. Luck was on our side as we ran into four lionesses and a big male as well as a female cheetah and two cubs. Then just moments before we pulled into camp we saw 3 black rhinos! We thought things couldn't get any better but when we visited the floodlit waterhole we saw 2 rhino drinking. These two fellas quickly got chased away by a big bull elephant who then trumpeted in his whole herd of 20 including some little babies! We didn't get much sleep as we sat up all night watching elephants and rhinos jostling for the water and also saw 4 hyena. Rising at the crack of dawn we set off game hunting once again. It was a slow start, and just when were starting to think our luck had run out we came upon 7 lionesses lazing right beside the road who were quite happy to pose for the camera with their huge golden eyes. With our heart rates still pumping we came across heaps of giraffe and zebra quenching their thrust at a watering hole. We checked out a couple of other watering holes but none were as stocked with animals. By lunchtime we had run out of time on our 24 hour pass so set off along some bumpy straight roads to our last Namibian bush camp.
Lunch was the highlight of the next day as we stopped in to Rondu. BBQ meat cooking on the road side caught our attention so we sauntered back and although it was only 11:30 thought it would be rude not to accompany our meat with a cold beer. Apparently it was a holiday so their was no alcohol for sale at the supermarket so we spent the last of our Namibian currency on a few takeouts and had an enjoyable afternoon drinking cold beers as we raced through small villages full of smiling waving kids and fields of maize. We were treated with a bit of a drums performance at our nice riverside campsite and even had a slight sleep in which was a perfect way to round out our stay in Namibia – a country we’d highly recommend visiting.
What was supposed to be a relatively cruisey drive day across the boarder turned in to a rather long one as we had forgotten we would lose an hour due to a timezone change, plenty of donkeys, goats and cows playing chicken with us and the tar sealed road having huge truck eating potholes. We arrived at Maun the gateway to the Okavango Delta just after dark and all very excited about our up and coming two night makoro (wooden dug out canoe) excursion. Made of fibreglass these days for sustainability reasons and propelled by local villagers from a collective organisation we loaded all our food and camping stuff and set off through the narrow reed filled channels. It was such a relaxing way to explore the delta which at this time of year is slowly starting to refill as the rains in the headwater trickle on down. Not only did we see frogs and spiders which regularly jumped into our makoros we were also lucky enough to spot a dazzle (heard) of zebra and an elephant which we stalked up close to. Our polers were very helpful, keen to share their knowledge of the delta and its inhabitants. They even had dinner ready for us once we returned from our sunset bush walk which didn't reveal too many animals. Up at the crack of dawn we endeavoured to track down the heard of elephants from the day before without much luck, but it was just a great experience to be roaming free in the African bush. We had the rest of the day to relax reading books, swimming in delta and learning the art of makoro driving. After a sunset makoro cruise and a late dinner, the polers put on some great entertainment and had us all up singing and dancing by the end of it.
Lucy had a bit of a crook guts and provided everyone with a good laugh when she raced back from the toilet saying there were some big green menacing eyes in the trees (a fellow traveller and her guide had seen leopard prints near our camp that morning). Racing just behind the guides we discovered the culprit, a bush baby, quite possibly one of the cutest wee animals. A leisurely return trip through the reeds, a farewell handshake with our polers and a pancake lunch and a swim and we were ready for the next adventure. Lucy still wasn't a hundy so opted out of the scenic flight which Nick rated as one of the best experiences ever... in a little 7 seater plane and buzzing just 500 feet above the vast delta the true size and beauty was unveiled. The real highlight was seeing huge herds of elephants some over a hundred strong grazing and wallowing in the watery channels. At one point the pilot dropped us down to only 50m or so above the ground and raced along the river channel much to the annoyance of some grazing hippo. It was such an amazing experience and it was surprising how many different species were easily distinguishable including smaller animals like crocodiles and warthogs. Another perk of doing the makoro trip was we got to pig out on the buffet back at the resort.
We had one last bush camp shared with jumping bush babies before Zimbabwe. The long drive day was made exciting by spotting elephants with as much regularity as spotting horses back home and a detour around a big flooded section of road. Twice we had to stop and let herds cross the road. Our last activity was a cruise up the Chobe River where we saw plenty of animals including some big crocs, hippos and buffalo. Then it was time to join the huge queues of trucks at the boarder and try our luck getting our visas.
