21 – 28 August – The Zambezi Valley

I have been unable to update my blog now for nearly a week as we have been in some very remote areas, away from internet access, but I have now got an internet connection at the Parks HQ in Tashinga today (28 August).

21 – 22 August – Travelling down the Zambezi Valley  

Sunday 21^st August saw Tony Howgrave Graham leave the expedition for his long journey by air back to the UK.  He had been great company over the last four weeks and three thousand miles through some very arduous terrain in both Namibia and Zimbabwe and his photography was simply excellent.  We look forward to seeing all his pictures on a proper screen when I finally get back to the UK in November.  We shall miss his dry sense of humour and wry comments.  Ian, a veteran now with three previous expeditions under his belt and with me for the whole of this current expedition, had taken Tony under his wing from the outset and had patiently taught him the skills of camping in the African bush. We now smile fondly at the thought of Tony back safely at home, perhaps waking up at night in a sweat having dreamt that he was still in a tent by the Hoanib River with a sandstorm blowing around him and about to get another rocket from Ian for not meeting the high standards of tidiness and punctuality Ian demanded of him!  They got on very well together.

After dropping Tony at Victoria Falls Airport, we set off for the day long drive to Sijarira Forestry Lodge, situated some 25 miles east of Binga, where we were to stay for one night.  What a place!  The lodges consist of a row of luxuriously built thatched huts on stilts situated right on Kariba Lake shoreline. It used to be a rest camp for the Forestry people but is now under private concession for use by hunters and fishermen who mainly arrive by air to pursue their hobbies.  We drove in by road down a difficult track, the last 12 miles taking us an hour and a quarter over rocky ground and steep stream beds.  The lodges are managed by a South African couple who gave us a tremendous welcome and we had the luxury of sleeping on our own for a change, in three separate huts.

After a comfortable night at Sijarira we left at dawn on 22 August for the ten hour drive into the remote Matusadona National Park whose boundaries are Kariba Lake shore to the north and the Zambezi Escarpment to the south.  Our charity, Conservation Zambezi, has concentrated its funding efforts on this Park for the last 18 years and we planned to meet Lynne Taylor at Tashinga, the Park Headquarters.  Lynne is the founding director of a highly active and well known trust called The Tashinga Initiative and it is to her that we pass all charitable donations to fund important projects in the area.

23 – 27 August –Matusadona National Park  

It was a hard drive into Matusadona National Park yesterday.  The roads are now in a very poor condition and the Landrover’s low ratio gearing had to be used on several occasions to allow us to negotiate the steep banks on each side of the river beds and other areas where erosion had washed the road away: it is one of Lynne’s primary objectives to raise sufficient funds to re-grade these roads and rebuild the broken culverts so tourists can get back into the Park and revenue can start to flow back in again.  Instead of camping, we were delighted to find that Lynne had arranged for all of us to be accommodated with her and Andriss who is working with her, in a disused lodge by the lake shore.  The hot water system had packed up long ago but at least cold water still flowed from a header tank which I think Lynne had installed some time ago.  We therefore washed under a simple shower system in the open air by our accommodation - showering had to be done in the dark unless you wanted to be watched by the others! 

The toilet no longer flushed but Ian quickly set to work and soon had this repaired.  There is no longer any electricity so we used our camping lights to see by night and a torch to find the soap as we washed.  Cooking was done over an open fire using old saucepans we found in the kitchen area.  A chronic lack of funds for investment in these Parks has meant that these wonderfully sited lodges now do not meet the aspirations of modern tourists and so it seems are rarely used any more – a pity as they offer a good roof over one’s heads and security by night when sleeping.

The next day, Tuesday 23 August, saw us up early to accompany Lynne to the first of her project sites. We learnt that, after much hard work, she had managed to raise sufficient funds from the European Union to install much needed solar energy panels at the remote outstations to charge radio batteries.  The panels also provide power to operate a water pump at each station which sucks water from the lake shore to a holding tank near the sparse living accommodation in which the National Park Rangers live.  Our charity had supplied the vital pipes some time ago to bring the water ashore and Andriss was in the process of fitting the pumps .  These outposts are used to provide a network of radio stations for communication purposes back to the headquarters in Tashinga camp on the lake shore and to accommodate armed patrols which are deployed to combat the never ending problem of poaching.  Matusadona National Park is one of the few Intensive Protection Zones (IPZ) dedicated to the protection of the few black rhino left in wild in Zimbabwe. 

Over the next three days we drove with Lynne to all three of her current project sites, some of the drives taking up to eight hours to cover barely 50 miles over nearly non existent tracks.  The going was hard but the Landrovers coped magnificently with the punishing terrain.  I guess after a few months in this unforgiving environment there would be much wear on the vehicle suspension.  Lynne’s Landrover is 14 years old (a little younger than mine) but it has covered nearly half a million kilometres in that time with several suspension changes to combat the wear.

On the way back from the second patrol base we saw a two metre python crossing the track and stopped to admire it.  The dense bush on each side of the road however meant we saw other little game, apart from small groups of elephant moving down to drink on the lake shore and the occasional herd of impala, often grazing in the open where they have a better chance of surviving predator attack.  Sometimes we saw kudu and bushbuck too.

This small Park has a very large lion population at present (some estimates put it at over 150 beasts) and the dwindling herds of buffalo and antelope are thought to be the result of frequent lion kills, as well as poaching.  The occasional whiff of rotting flesh in the bush during our various drives reminded us of the presence of lion.  Andriss told us that a month before we arrived, a pride of 36 lions were seen on a kill close to our lodge.  A few months before that we hear that a white tourist was attacked and severely injured whilst sleeping in the campsite nearby.  The lioness and her 2 three quarter grown cubs who were responsible for this attack still remain in the area so we kept a sharp eye open for them at night on our thirty metre walk from the campfire back to the lodge.  Lynne was camping alone here recently, cooking her food outside in the evening, when a sixth sense made her go into the lodge.  A colleague of hers arrived shortly afterwards by vehicle and saw the lioness and her cubs in the bushes on the edge of her camp.  Lynne is quite relaxed about this kind of situation but we are inexperienced and have little of the massive knowledge she has built up from a lifetime in the bush so remain more cautious.  So far though we have heard no roaring at night and only seen lion spoor in the dry river beds we cross on our drives to our project areas, so we hope the lion are hunting elsewhere during our stay.  There are two more nights to go until we drive back into town and, as Lynne has returned to Harare to prepare for her son’s wedding in a week’s time, we will remain vigilant!

In the last few days I have been twice, in my capacity as a trustee of Conservation Zambezi, to see the Senior Warden of the Park and on the second occasion was taken on a tour of their facilities.  I found that one of the six old ex British Army landrovers our charity drove down from Kenya to Zimbabwe in the mid nineteen nineties to donate to National Parks is still working, its passenger door ripped open by the tusk of an attacking elephant, but the engine runs sweetly and it is still used for rhino protection patrols.

 Sadly, most of the other vehicles lie unused – we hear from Sergeant Moyo that the problem primarily is due to a lack of money to buy tyres.  I also looked at the two diesel generators we donated in the mid nineteen nineties.  Only one is now running but it appears the other could be repaired and got going again.  These generators provide the electricity supply at night for the Parks Headquarters.  I will talk to Lynne and see whether the money we have raised so far from generous donors supporting my trip can be used to help sort out some of these problems.  Another frustration is a shortage of fuel to run the vehicles.  Lynne warned me of this before the trip began and I gave her at that time sufficient funds to buy one and a half drums of diesel.

It has been so useful over these last few days to see at first hand the problems the Park currently faces as it gives us in Conservation Zambezi a much better idea of what is required.  When I last visited the Park some eleven years ago the roads were rough but manageable and the accommodation was spartan but serviceable.  Since then, due to an ongoing lack of funds, the Park is now in desperate need of major refurbishment if it is to fulfil its anti poaching obligations and attract more revenue from tourists.  Despite this glum assessment though I was impressed during my visit by the morale of the staff I met and particularly by the total dedication Lynne gives to the raising of funds for not only this Park but for projects in all the Zimbabwean National Parks in the Zambezi Valley.

Yesterday we took some time off to visit Steve Edwards, an old friend of Mike’s and mine who runs a luxurious bush camp called Musango some six kilometres away across the river Umi. He kindly picked us up in his speedboat for the 10 minute trip by water across the river – had we gone by road it would have taken us some five hours of driving to reach him!  I last saw Steve some 20 years ago when he was still serving in National Parks.  Steve and his wife Wendy treated us to a first class lunch in their beautiful thatched dining room overlooking the water with fresh vegetables and fruit and ice cold beers to wash it all down – what a luxury after weeks of tinned food! 

After lunch Steve took us on a short game viewing trip by boat before returning us to our lodge across the river in the Park.  That evening, to celebrate the day I found a bottle of brandy that I had hidden in our food boxes.  Ian and I had a couple of tots each but Mike said he was not a brandy man so opted to drink tea instead – we were impressed by his strength of will but I guess, had I produced a bottle of Irish whisky, it might have been a different story!

As I write this blog the long shadows of another African evening are beginning to appear.  A hippo is basking in the evening sun just off the shoreline and the evening bird chorus is about to begin.  Three elephant were eating down by the water a short while ago but now have gone.  Mike Moody has taken the Landrover off for a game viewing session on his own and Ian is resting in the shade after carrying out essential repairs to the Landrover before Mike left, in temperatures of 40 degrees centigrade. Ian has found nothing of serious concern but has cleaned the radiator which was covered in grass seed after driving along disused tracks over the last few days and found that a branch had damaged the tap connection of our 40 litre reserve water tank, emptying the tank in the process.  We have patched this up but will have to get it repaired in Harare before our adventures begin in Zambia and Malawi next month.

On Monday 29 August we leave Matusadona National Park for the capital, Harare, where we must have the Landrover serviced and get running repairs done to our camping equipment which has now suffered seven arduous weeks of use.  We will also attend the wedding of Lynne and Russell’s son, Winston, a week today. This will be held in the bush an hour out of Harare and we are told we must all to turn up in bush gear wearing our favourite hats and are to sleep in our tents on site once the celebrations are over. 

I will write my next blog from Harare in a few days time.

Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe 18 – 20 August

This is a rather speedily written blog as time is short this afternoon (20 August) and the battery on my laptop is getting low.

 A dawn start on 18 August saw us packing up camp, shopping for fresh rations (we have no fridge so have to buy daily or live off tins) and then leaving for Hwange National Park by 9am.  After an hour we turned off the main tar road onto a very corrugated dirt road for some 30 miles until we reached the entrance gate into Hwange National Park.  With four people and two weeks rations on board the Landrover was heavy and wallowed on the uneven surface so we had to drive slowly.  At Robins Camp, just inside the Park we paid our entrance fees and began a slow game drive towards Sinamatella Camp where we were to stay the night.  The Park was empty of people and we had it all to ourselves.  At first we saw little game but as the afternoon progressed we came across more and more elephant.  The highlight of the day was Deteema Dam where we watched some 30 elephant, 20 buffalo and other game coming down to drink.  The afternoon went quickly and we had to rush the last 15 miles to reach Sinamatella before the gates closed, being hindered on the way by countless elephant crossing the road in small family groups, on their way to drink.  We hear there may now be up to 60,000 elephant in the Park – far too many for the good of the vegetation which was badly damaged.  Sinamatella Camp is built on a ridge overlooking the bush and an enormous herd of several hundred buffalo grazed below us in the evening sun.  An elephant had knocked over one of the electricity poles the night before so the camp had no power and we cooked on wood outside and the sat in the dark listening to the sounds of Africa before retiring to bed.  The campsite was virtually deserted and only three of the 15 or more lodges were occupied.  Very peculiar as the Park used to be so popular with tourists and South Africans, but it is now very run down so that might be the reason.

The next day, 19 August, saw us up again at dawn.  We drove in the half light to Mandavu Dam some 8 miles away for a breakfast of muesli and tea whilst watching hippo and crocodile in the water.  Rock hyrax scampered through the undergrowth within feet of us.  As the sun rose we drove on, seeing little except more elephant, until the afternoon.  Then, at Nyamandhlovu Pan (a well known haunt to Mike Moody and me from years gone by) we watched growing numbers of game coming down to drink, risking the hunger pangs of the three resident crocodile in the process.  A small group of hippo had adopted the Pan (about one hundred metres wide) as their home and lay submerged in the centre.  Fifteen giraffe drank quietly.  At intervals of 30 minutes or so small herds of some 20 elephant came down to drink and then dawdled around the edge of the pan, intermingling with the ease of old friends. In all we saw over one hundred elephant at this pan in the space of three hours.   Several kudu gracefully but timidly approached to drink but a couple of young adolescent bull elephants charged them like young hooligans at a seaside brawl, trumpeting with ears outstretched and tails held rigidly behind, to chase them away.  Impala came and went with little fuss and dodged the lurking crocodiles. Yellow billed hornbills ate undigested seeds from the elephant dung.  We left with reluctance just before dusk to find our lodge in Main Camp before the gates closed and supped in the small restaurant to save cooking uninspiring tins of processed food.

We rose an hour before dawn on 20 August, our last day in the Park, so we could be back in the bush as the sun rose.  It was very cold.  Ian’s thermometer registered just over 6 degrees Centigrade (it rose to 34 degrees by noon) and we shivered in the sharp wind as we sat silently in a hide watching for game. The bird life was prolific but few animals came to drink and then we heard cheetah had been seen some miles away so we set off in pursuit as Tony, who flies back to the UK tomorrow was longing to see one.  Our search was fruitless however so we packed and left for the three hour long drive back to Victoria Falls to camp overnight before putting Tony on a plane to Jo’burg and then UK. 

As I write this blog the sky above me has clouded over slightly.  The first clouds I have seen since early July.  The wind has got up too so we may be in for a stormy night – no rain of course because this is the dry season.  Tomorrow, having dropped Tony at the airport, the other three of us will begin the long 350 mile, two day drive along dirt roads to Matusadona National Park on Lake Kariba, stopping overnight at the remote Sijarira Forestry Lodge on the way to rest.

15 – 17 August – Victoria Falls, ZIMBABWE

I apologise that my blog recently has contained no photographs.  Over the last two weeks the speed of the computers in the internet cafes I have used has dropped markedly and the price for their use has gone up in equal measure!  The result is that it is now taking up to 20 minutes to download just one photograph from my laptop into the blog which works out to be about £4.50 per photograph!  I therefore have given up the unequal struggle but hope things will improve as we move on.

The drive from Namibia to Zimbabwe on 15 August was uneventful and only took some 6 hours, including negotiating two border crossings. The section through Botswana took us through Chobe National Park and we saw a surprisingly large number of animals on the way.  The Namibian and Botswana border crossings were fairly slick but the one into Zimbabwe was slower, bureaucratic and inefficient.  This we soon found was the norm. The supermarkets in Namibia, we found, contained most of our needs.  Botswana sold just about everything and both were clean and hygienic.  But when we reached Zimbabwe, the Spar and TM supermarkets in Victoria Falls were both poorly equipped.  Thank goodness we took Lynne Taylor’s wise advice and stocked up with rations for the next two weeks in Botswana!  The same can be made for the people: we were never hassled in Namibia and Botswana but the touts in Vic Falls are now a dreadful nuisance. 

We arrived at the Vic Falls campsite in the late afternoon and found it also lagged behind those we had used in Namibia for comfort and cleanliness.  The hot water for showers and washing was lukewarm and most of the equipment was in a poor state of repair. Vic Falls town was the same: I had good memories of it from my time in Zimbabwe twenty years ago but it is now somewhat neglected and dirty and the lack of tourists suggests this is having and effect on the local economy.  We were told that tourists now tend to stay just over the border in Zambia or Botswana and are driven over for day trips to see the famous Victoria Falls - certainly, the hotels in Vic Falls seemed half empty and this is the height of the season!  We walked around the town the day after our arrival and then went to see the Falls.  The entrance fee is now USD30: I think we had paid less to see the whole of Etosha National Park in Namibia a fortnight earlier!  And the queue to get in was long as there is only one entrance desk.  I wonder if this noticeable decline will be reflected over the rest of Zimbabwe during our month long stay here.

It is peculiar to find that Zimbabwe now uses US dollars as it’s currency but it seems this has helped reduce the rampart inflation that was endemic here until two years ago.  Street traders now offer souvenir one million Zimbabwean dollar banknotes for sale to tourists for a few US dollars.

The campsite today (17 August) now has an invasion of baboon and vervet monkeys and we have to leave someone on guard lest they destroy our belongings and rip open the tents.  I can see that this has been an ongoing problem as the perimeter fence has electric wiring laid all around the top but I guess it no longer works for they now get in with ease.  There is however a camp dog in residence and, though old and stiff, he works hard (when not sleeping) to see them off with growls and shoulder fur standing on end - I note though that he is careful not to get too close!  Baboon incisors are as large as those of a leopard and would do fearful damage to an adversary if cornered.  In return for his services though, the old dog is fed by grateful campers so both parties benefit from this unusual relationship. But I see that a new tactic has been developed by the baboons which the old dog has yet to fathom.  Baboons are canny animals and have learnt, when they see the old dog on patrol, to mount lightening raids across the camp from the perimeter trees overlooking the fence.  In a single raid taking seconds they will race across the open ground, tipping up rubbish bins and grabbing tasty morsels as they sprint for the opposite fence and safety.  But we humans are learning too during our brief sojourn here.  We find if we stoop to pick up an imaginary rock as the baboons approach they retreat rapidly for safety.  I guess this game for survival has gone on for thousands of years.

This morning I picked up Mike Moody from Victoria Falls Airport some 12 miles out of town, avoiding the police speed traps as I drove.  Air Zimbabwe is apparently on strike so Mike’s journey to reach here had been somewhat convoluted and since leaving the UK, had involved some 5 plane journeys over the last few days!   For the next three days we will now be four strong (I fear the Landrover will groan with this extra weight and the additional food and water we need!) whilst we drive through Hwange National Park.  We will then return to Vic Falls on Saturday for a single night to drop off Tony Howgrave Graham (our doctor) for his return journey to the UK and the other three of us then will continue along the Zambezi Valley to Tashinga Camp in the Matusadona National Park.  Our visit to Matusadona will be a major highlight of the journey.  We (the trustees of our charity Conservation Zambezi, working in close harmony with Lynne Taylor and The Tashinga Initiative) have spent the last eighteen years trying to raise money to help preserve the unique biodiversity of this part of the Zambezi Valley - I will tell you more when I have completed my visit!

Namibia 12 -14 August

12 - 14 August   A weekend relaxing at Katima Mulilo.  On Monday morning we will leave for Victoria Falls so we worked out our food requirements for the next fortnight and bought most of it in the local supermarkets to get rid of our Namibian dollars.

We went on sightseeing trips by vehicle and on foot along the Zambezi - the bird life along the river and in the swamps to the east is excellent. 

Yesterday Tony and Ian developed sore throats and had runny noses.  Tony also felt dizzy so everyone took it rather more gently.  Today they feel much better.  Tony (a doctor) thinks it might be an allergy as opposed to an infection.

We also stripped out and cleaned the interior of the Landrover to get rid of yet more of the eternal dust that had gathered over the last ten days.  Apparently Landrovers are well known for letting the dust in whereas Toyotas, we hear (which most people drive out here) do not.  There seems to be a love/hate relationship with Landrovers in Africa.  People either look scornful and are very rude about them, or love them, flash their lights in recognition and, when parked, come over and ask questions about them. 

There is no doubt that Toyotas, which make up every second vehicle on the roads in Namibia (compared with perhaps one Landrover for every five hundred vehicles) are probably every bit as good across country and both faster and arguably more comfortable on the tar roads.  But they  have to be thrown away after ten years, have plastic interiors, saloon car dashboards and leaf spring rear suspension on the twin cabs which makes them characterless, anonymous and uninteresting and in Namibia for some reason they are all painted a boring white too!  Landrovers on the other hand (fans will say) have personality and, whilst rough around the edges, are very tough and will last 40 years if looked after properly. 

Caprivi Strip 8 - 11 August

8 August – Etosha   It is a month since we landed in Capetown at the start of this adventure and we have not seen a cloud in the sky or had a drop of rain in all that time, just solid blue skies and sunshine. The temperature in Capetown was about 20 degrees Centigrade by day and fairly cold by night.  Now we are 1500 miles further north the skies remain just as blue but the day temperatures now reach up to 34 degrees and the nights, at 10 degrees (still cool enough for a jersey and a good sleeping bag) are warmer too. 

We spent our last morning in Etosha visiting waterholes on a final game drive before hitting the tar road to Grootfontein where we filled up with diesel and bought food for the next few days. 

 After long discussions we have decided to change our plans as we can no longer go to Khaudum National Park.  Locals tell us most of the Park has been engulfed by extensive bushfires and much of the game has left for neighbouring Botswana.  We therefore decide to say our goodbyes to those in the second Landrover tomorrow morning.  My party will head north for the Caprivi Strip and Zimbabwe and Nigel’s party will go east to Bushmanland near the border with Botswana, before retracing their steps to Windhoek and a flight back to the UK in a fortnight’s time.  In the meantime we have found a remote campsite on the road heading north out of Grootfontein where we shall camp for our last night together with a bottle of brandy to hand to celebrate an excellent trip with many adventures together over the last month.

9 August – the Angolan Border   Africa is an extraordinary continent, or at least the part we have been through suggests that.  For the first time on my Africa trips I have brought an altimeter with me and, apart from the coastal regions, I find we have been travelling at altitudes of over 3000 feet for most of the journey.  In fact, at times we have been surprised to find we are sitting around our campfires at over 6000 feet – higher than any part of the United Kingdom. 

After our farewells, our short drive today brought us to Rundu on the northern edge of Namibia, bordering Angola, where we camped on the edge of town.  This was an important stop as a mishap with our LED camping lights meant we had to find replacements, as well as some fresh rations.  Rundu met all these requirements.  It is a bustling African town on the banks of the Okavango river. 

Very few whites around and lots of African shops - on earlier stops we frequently found the larger shops were owned by white Namibians of German extraction – but nevertheless the Rundu supermarkets were surprisingly well equipped.  We ate an enormous steak for supper, split into three, with lettuce and tomatoes and fresh oranges for pudding – our diet has rather lacked fresh fruit and vegetables over the last few weeks so this was a welcome change and set us up for the long drive along the Caprivi Strip in the coming days.

The Caprivi Strip   I did not realise until I read a brief account of its history in the Lonely Planet, that the formation of this unique 350 mile long corridor was the result of negotiations between Britain and Germany in the late 1800s.  The Germans, who owned German West Africa (now Namibia), wanted to establish a link with German East Africa (now Tanzania) and the British wanted ownership of the island of Zanzibar off the German East African coast.  At the Berlin Conference in 1890, Britain agreed to create a corridor for the Germans along the northern part of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) in return for ownership of Zanzibar.  In the end, the Germans lost possession of German West Africa during the First World War and the Caprivi Strip, and indeed the rest of their possessions in south west Africa, were mandated in 1923 to come under South African administration.

Namibia is an enormous country (the size of the UK and Germany put together) but it only has a population of about two million people.  Consequently, much of our travels to date have been through vast tracts of empty and often seemingly barren and mountainous countryside.  We are told the farms we passed are usually owned by white Namibians of German or Boer extraction and are measured in thousands of hectares.  The poor and often rocky soil however means they will only support a limited number of domestic animals and we rarely saw any crops. 

Now, as we travel through the northern parts of the country and along the Caprivi Strip, we find increasing ribbon development along the road.  Growing numbers of simple mud huts, sometimes with corrugated iron roofs, small maize fields and endless herds of cows and goats who always seem to want to cross the straight tarmac roads just as we approach them.  Occasionally, we come across cunningly placed speed traps – we were warned the local cops are very keen to catch speeding cars exceeding the 120kph speed limit – but luckily our 15 year the old Landrover is at it’s happiest trundling along at 100kph so we are not stopped. 

10 August – Driving along the Caprivi Strip   We set off early this morning to start our drive along the Caprivi Strip.  After 120 miles we stopped at Divundu to see the inappropriately named Popa Falls, which in reality are no more than minor rapids marking the point at which the Okavango River turns south towards Botswana. We had thought of camping there but were warned the mosquito problem was significant so we pressed on instead for Kongola. 

On the way, a herd of elephant crossed the road just ahead of us but we saw no other game.  Much of the Caprivi Strip has suffered extensive bushfires, like other northern parts of Namibia and we hear that heavy hunting over the last 20 years, particularly of buffalo, and growing ribbon development has depleted the numbers of wildlife. At Kongola we are stopped by a joint Army/Police roadblock but are not hassled.  We thought we would stay there for the night and drove into the nearby community campsite but found it was damaged by fire and very neglected.  Knowing of no other campsites nearby and after a straw poll amongst the crew, we decided to continue for another 60 miles to Katima Malilo.  Here we found an idyllic grass campsite on the banks of the Zambezi River with hot showers and cold beer and views of a beautiful sunset over the Zambezi.  After 4 weeks of continuous driving and with 3000 miles of dirt and tar roads under our belts, we decide to stop in this lovely spot for a 3 day break and do some administration.

11 August – Katima Malilo.   Katima Malilo is the most remote town in Namibia, being over 1000 km from the capital of Windhoek.  It is situated on the banks of the Zambezi River and is bordered by Zambia, Botswana and, some 60 miles to the east, by Zimbabwe.  The Germans set up an administrative capital for the region further to the east in the early 1900s but this was moved to Katima Malilo when the mandate was signed after the Great War.  Now the town is the official exit point for travellers going east and we must visit the local Government offices today or tomorrow to complete the necessary paperwork to cross the top of Botswana and enter Zimbabwe. 

But first we decide we must do some urgently needed admin.  We wash the inside and outside of the tents which are still covered in dust and sand from our time in the Palmweg Conservancy and the sandstorms of the Hoanib riverbed.  We then do some washing of clothes - the water afterwards looking distinctly brown in colour!  Tony then spends the rest of the morning looking for hippos and photographing the extensive birdlife along the river bank.  Ian dons his swimming costume and goes to the nearby hotel pool for a swim and some sunbathing and I catch up on the blog.  I try to write this each evening and save it on my laptop in readiness to download it at the next internet café, but the last few days have been very busy so I am now somewhat behind. 

There is talk of going back some 60 miles to Kongola where we hear from Russell Taylor that there is an excellent bush campsite and the chance of seeing more game, but I rather doubt this will happen.  Everyone is feeling the need for a break after 4 weeks in close proximity with each other, driving over difficult terrain and 28 days of wild camping in the bush, so I guess they will opt for some space and a bit of time to relax and do their own thing.  We realise we have forgotten what it feels is like to be clean and wear clean clothes, our sleeping bags are in a desperate need of an airing and the tents are going to take a day or so to dry out fully. 

It would not surprise me if we are still here tomorrow!  I will ask the others for a decision at lunchtime.

Etosha 4 - 8 August

4 August   After a short drive we reached Outjo.  This is marked as a town on the map but it was no larger than a small English village, apart from a liberal dosing of fuel stations and internet cafes and two small supermarkets.  Outjo is on a cross roads and is also the last stop before Etosha and we quickly realised its small size belied its importance.  White German farmers in pickups with black farm workers perched precariously in the back, tourists of all hues in hired Japanese 4x4 twincabs with roof tents, old buses crammed with locals and overland trucks filled with expectant youngsters came and went all day.  We joined the masses at the internet cafes to send our emails out and ate German ‘café and Kucken’ in a local restaurant.  I walked around the town looking for a hardware shop to replace our leaking gas regulator and re-filled the gas bottle at a local garage.  Then it was off to a local campsite run by a South African for the night.  That evening Nigel lost a filling in one of his teeth and a few phone calls later, found an obliging dentist some 60 kms away who promised to replace it the next morning.

5 August   Alice (my daughter) phoned my mobile as we were packing up to go.  I sat on a rock nearby to chat to her.  As we spoke together a slim four foot brown snake appeared near me and calmly slithered past into a rocky cleft, mobbed by several birds.  I could not identify it and, as it just might have been a spitting cobra (we are told cobras come in several hues of brown in this part of the world) I left it well alone.  After an hour’s drive we reached the entrance to Etosha National Park and paid our fees to go in. Nearby was a waterhole and we watched a large old bull elephant drinking and covering himself in mud to cool down.  Then we slowly drove 80km along a well made dirt road to Halali rest camp where we plan to base ourselves so we can spend the next four days exploring the Park.  That evening we spent several hours at the waterhole by the camp.  To our delight, a striped hyaena and two black rhino came down to drink before we returned to our tents to sleep.

6 August - Etosha   We were up at dawn for a game drive and more time by the waterhole.  We also explored the salt pans for which Etosha is so famous.  Nigel found a cow herd of elephant and we saw kudu, zebra, springbok, giraffe and a lilac breasted roller.  A goshawk chased and devoured a small bird in front of us.  As the sun rose higher in the sky, the chill night air gave way to the heat of a 35 degree centigrade day.  The wind gusted and dust rose in small whirlwinds.  Everything is so dry.  Ian is feeling unwell so we have put him to bed with a couple of aspirins and a cup of coffee.  Tony (our doctor) says it is too early to know if it is the sun or an infection.  We shall leave him to sleep for a while and see what happens.  In the afternoon we returned to the waterhole and were rewarded by seeing a cowherd of elephant come to drink and as the evening shadows lengthened, a female leopard.

7 August - Etosha   We were up at dawn again to take advantage of the cool morning air. This is the best time to see wildlife before they seek out the shade to avoid the heat of the day.  Ian is feeling much better so he joined us for the day’s activities.  For a change, we decided to drive to another waterhole some 10 km away.  A pride of lion were resting near the water’s edge in the morning sun and the bird life was abundant.  Later in the morning we found another herd of elephant, black faced impala, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich, black shouldered kite, a bee eater, a tawny eagle and a black backed jackal.  We returned to our campsite at 1030 am to eat a late breakfast of hot porridge and honey washed down with coffee.  In the afternoon some of the party went back to the waterhole near our camp and saw a black rhino coming down to drink and bath!  Tomorrow we leave Etosha for Grootfontein. 

We hear that Khaudum, the next park we had planned to visit, has had a massive bush fire and most of the animals have left. The party will therefore split up after Grootfontein.  We will continue on alone along the Caprivi Strip to see if we can get into Mudumu National Park and Nigel Stitt and his party in the second Landrover will head east to Bushmanland for a few days before heading back south to Windhoek to fly back to England.

Swakopmund and Walvis Bay - 25 July to 3 August

We are temporarily back near civilisation as we transit eastwards from Kaokoland to Etosha.  After 10 days with no internet or mobile phone signal, we have stopped in a small town for a few minutes to update my blog – see below:

25 July. We reached Swakopmund after a 4 hour drive through the high veldt of Namibia.  Swakopmund is situated at the southern end of the Skeleton Coast, near Namibia’s only port, Walvis Bay.  We arrived in the late afternoon to find high winds and a persistent sea fog which made visibility poor –this is normal at this time of year we were told.  The sea, renowned for it’s treachery in this part of the world, was fairly calm but 2 metre rollers still crashed onto the beach near our camp.  I have to say, we all thought the area was dreadful, with a high humidity which gave a damp feeling to all our clothes and sleeping gear. The locals told us that they experience (in their words) ‘four seasons a day on the Skeleton Coast’.  Over the next two days we would realise what they meant!

26 July After a restless night we packed up camp in heavy mist and explored Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.  Both consisted mainly of single story buildings built with a strong German architectural influence over the last hundred years.  Then, as the day progressed a hot sun came out as we headed north along the desert road up the Skeleton Coast.  Some 15km north of Hentjies Bay, the last place for fuel, we found a primitive but pleasant campsite along the desert shore where we spent the night.  As the rays of the sun lengthened, the winds picked up again and a fog bank grew out to sea and slowly came inland.  Then, as night fell it got colder and colder, making us pull our heavy sleeping bags out again and shiver the night away.  We now realised the rigours faced by the one hundred or more survivors of the Dunedin Star which was shipwrecked further along the coast in 1942 and who were stranded on the beach for nearly two months until rescued by a military convoy – there were no roads in the area in those days.

27 July After over a hundred miles of driving up a rough dirt road along the Skeleton Coast we finally turned inland and made for Palmwag, a small village at the start of Kaokoland Province.  Here we found a delightful camping site by a river surrounded by hills and at an altitude of over 3000 feet.  The days were once again crisp but warm and dry.  This is the area where the last remaining desert black rhino live and the river beds attract the desert elephant too.  We were in lion country for the first time and felt we must be careful.  After a chat with the local wild life manager we realised to our surprise that he would be prepared to issue us with a special permit to drive and camp in this beautiful, protected wilderness which covers over 10,000 square kilometres of uninhabited land.  We decided to take up this offer and planned to set off the next day.

28 July  After a morning of feverish activity filling fuel tanks and spare jerrycans with diesel and collecting a large reserve of water (we were told there would be none in the park) we set off for 4 days and nights of wild camping.  We heard we would be one of only 5 small groups in the concession and must be prepared for all eventualities.   The countryside was beautiful and there were no people around anywhere!  We found gemsbok, springbok, zebra, ostrich, kudu, black backed jackal and a myriad of birdlife on the dry vleis, surrounded by rocky hills.  Elephant and, on one occasion, rhino spoor, were found in the dry river beds.  Surprisingly, some pools of water still existed after Namibia had experienced its wettest season for years.  Normally only 200mm of rain fall each year, but the last wet season brought 800mm of rain.  We camped on the side of a hill overlooking a riverbed and spend a cold, windy night in our tents.

29 July   After a dawn reveille we ate muesli with long life milk and tea for breakfast and then climbed a nearby hill to get a better view of the area.  Everything was so dry.  The grass was a consistent gentle yellow in colour and the few trees are stunted by the eternal wind.  We set off slowly along very rough tracks with the Landrovers in low ratio for most of the day’s drive.  Large rocks and rough dry river beds made me grateful that I had decided to put strong sided cross country tyres on my vehicle – ordinary tyres would have been shredded in minutes.  The Landrovers were in their element and ttook the steep 1 in 2 slopes into and out of the riverbeds with ease, despite being heavily loaded (it has strengthened springs).  Each vehicle weighs nearly three tons.  The extra weight was mainly caused by the 180 litres of fuel in long range tanks and the 80 litres of water each vehicle was carrying, as well as food for six people for a week.  Game became more scarce as we drove deeper into the wilderness, probably due to the scarcity of water.  Vultures a quarter of a mile off the track to one side made us stop and we found a gemsbok carcass in the long grass.  It looked like a natural casualty but we were reminded of the need to watch out for lions as we camped that night by a dry riverbed.

30 July   During last night a dry wind began to blow from the east and by the early hours of the morning it was gusting 50 plus miles an hour.  The tents bowed in the storm and we had to take emergency action to stop them blowing away.  Grass seed got into every nook and cranny in the tents and by dawn the storm was intensifying.  We moved the vehicles and all our belongings into the lee of a large tree and packed up without breakfast, thankful to be back in the vehicles and out of the wind.  We drove off and breakfasted later on a huge plain before dropping down a steep gorge (remember this is all off road!) to the Hoanib river.  Here we found much sign of elephant and saw many gemsbok and giraffe in the dry river bed.  As we turned west, the vegetation gave way to sand.  We were on the edge of the desert again and only some 30 miles from the sea.  It was getting dark so camped on the river bank and went to bed. 

31 July   Just after midnight an easterly wind got up again and by dawn, with gusts once again exceeding 50 miles an hour, we found ourselves in a full blown sandstorm.  Visibility dropped to 50 metres at times and we realised we could not drive in these conditions.  We were experiencing the violent and unexpected storms the Skeleton Coast is so renowned for and which have driven many ships to their doom.  We put plastic bags over the vehicle air intakes to protect them from the driving sand, closed up the tents and retreated on foot into the lee of a large tree with heavy vegetation around its base.  Here we sat all morning with scarves around our heads to protect us from the sharp sand gusts.  By lunchtime the wind had subsided and we returned to our tents to find them full of sand.  In front of one, a small sand dune a foot high had built up in the lee of the tent.  The vehicles were full of sand too - it had blown into every crevice, penetrating the rubber door seals and depositing a layer of sand on the seats, dashboard and steering wheel.  Our bags were full of sand and the top of the engine was coated in sand too.  It is amazing what Landrovers will put up with!  We packed up quickly, brushed as much of the sand away as we could and drove eastwards up the river bed.  A few kilometres later we came to an elephant water hole and washed ourselves down before driving on.  Shortly afterwards we saw an old bull elephant standing in the bushes by the dry river bed and stopped some 50 metres away to watch him, positioning the vehicles for a quick get away. Despite all the warnings that the elephant in the area were very aggressive, he paid us no attention.  We camped again by the river bed that evening in a protective lager and this time were careful to put our tents in the lee of a large hill to minimise the effects of any further winds.  The map showed a deserted village nearby with the ominous wording ‘deserted due to lions’ written beside it, but we heard no roaring that night.

1 August   After a comfortable if somewhat wary night we were away early again driving eastwards up the river bed once more.  The vegetation became thicker and the desert sand less prominent.  Once we got stuck in the soft sand of the river bed but, using low ratio with diff lock and rocking the vehicle forwards and backwards we broke free.  A few minutes later we came upon a small cow herd of elephant some 50 metres to our right, with an attentive bull lagging to the rear.  We stopped to watch for half an hour, leaving the vehicle well placed to make a quick retreat.  Again the elephants paid us no attention but carried on eating reeds on the river bank, the bull at one stage making amorous advances to one of the cows.  Eventually they drifted away into the thick bush and we decided to drive on.  But on engaging first gear the vehicles would not move - whilst we had sat watching the elephant, unbeknown to us, the vehicles had gently sunk into the soft river bed sand!  Eventually, after more rocking and with diff lock on we got going, feeling slightly foolish as we had unwittingly become sitting ducks for potentially annoyed elephants had they decided to come our way.  That night we found a community campsite with showers and a loo and settled in for the night.

2 August   Today was a day of rest and cleaning.  We washed out the vehicles which were filled with dust and grass.  Then laundered our clothes and cleared the grass seed out of the vehicle radiators to prevent overheating.  Tomorrow we leave for Kamanjab, en route for Etosha National Park.

3 August   A short four hour drive brought us to Kamanjab and we were back on a tar road for the first time in a nine days.  Kamanjab consists of a shop and a petrol station and nothing else, but we found a campsite run by a South African couple with clean showers and cold beers – the first for a week and very enjoyable.  The temperature in the low veldt over the last 10 days has hovered in the mid thirties centigrade and was still hot at night.  Now we are back in the high veldt at nearly 5000 feet it is a bit cooler and I expect will be cold tonight in our tents.  Tomorrow we continue our transit drive east to Etosha, stopping overnight at Outjo for the night before entering the National Park on 5 August.