After the wildness of Botswana we we crossed the border over to the relative civilization of Namibia, we were booked in for a few days at Kalizo lodge near Katima Mulilo right on the mighty Zambezi river.  The Zambezi is a mighty slab of river and was running at full level due to plenty of rains north in Angola, we guessed it to be around 400 meters wide where we camped.

It was a nice to spend a few days in one place and take a break from all the driving. Pete and I were hoping to catch some tiger fish, whilst Dad and Hester were keen on a birding boat trip.

The extreme wet season up north did not work in our favor when it came to catching huge tiger fish, apparently they hang out in the reeds when the water is this high, so we were relegated to spinning and trawling for the little ones that hang out in the main river.

We still had heaps of fun, even if we did have to settle for the little fellas, amongst the 3 or 4 tigers we also caught some squeakers and a cat fish. The squeakers are so name because they make this weird squeaking noise when out of the water. Pete got a little nervous towards the end of the trip when his tiger tally was a little low (Zero), but he managed to get one right at the end.

Dad and Hester enjoyed their birding trip immensely,they saw some really scarce king fisher and plenty of other cool birds, unfortunately I don’t know all the names.

Another awesome chapter in our trip.

After the Delta we headed north, first stop being the Moremi South gate camp ground. Just outside the reserve entrance we saw a group of elephant, giraffe, zebra and red buck, but did not even bother slowing down as we weren’t even in the reserve yet so we figured if the spotting was that good outside the reserve we’d see plenty more…. we were wrong.

That night we had a spotted hyena visit the camp, he obviously scavenges the camp sites often as he’d return quite quickly after we shooed him away. We took the camera to bed and waited for him after we turned the camp lights off to get these pics.  So much for all animals being afraid of fire, he didn’t flinch as he ate some scrops right off the fireplace next to the fire.

Just after we retired Neels said there was another much larger one around the camp also but we missed him, the whole experience made us glad we shelled out for a roof top tent (especially with Max).

The next day was meant to be a quick half day drive to Savute and some game drives around there, a half hour into the trip we realised our mistake.  Just because the map has a nice big fat white line that’s much fatter than most of the other lines, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a “real” road!

No, the “major” road we were taking was just a single lane sand track, much like ever other sand track we’d been on, twisting and humpy limiting our speed to 20-30 kmph. By lunch time we’d only just reached the North gate (around half way) at which point they told us the way forward was impassible due to some deep water crossings, and that we’d have to go all the way back to South gate where we’d camped the night before and take another route around.

Due to the fact that we’d seen the grand total of SFA the whole way up the track we weren’t so keep on the idea of doing it all again. At that point this real boertjie (Afrikaans) cowboy strolled in, he managed some other camp to the North and had just came through all the water crossings the guy at the gate was saying was impassible in a similar model hilux to ours (with a slight lift kit).  He said both our cars would make it through the crossings no worries and offered to go ahead and show us the best line through each crossing.

I don’t know if there’s any official colloquial term warning about trusting cowboys but we “just” made it across the crossings, the point where water came over the front of Neels’  Pajero was and little too close for comfort.  We were thousands of ks from civilization on deep sand roads in all directions, if we had have drowned one of the vehicles, it was definitely holiday over….  All is well that ends well I say! 

PS: I actually really enjoyed finally giving the Hilux a good test… but the look on Neels’ face didn’t let me show it at the time.. Pete.

The road to Savute was just more sand, but pleasant enough, it got quite deep at some points requiring some low range actaion. At one point in the track we came across these weirdoes in two Kia soft roaders getting towed by a really cranky local in a tractor… when I say towed, I mean towed by a friggin chain as thick as your leg… I’m sure the front would have been missing by the time they got to Savute.  Thankfully after crawling along behind them for a few ks they stopped at a little offshoot through the bush and let us pass.

That night we had a honey badger visit us, yep a stinking badger!!! Thing is you very rarely see them in the wild, apparently they’re quite a force to be reckoned with in the wild so we made sure we packed the camp up before heading to bed…. Unfortunately no photo.

Pete was fascinated by the fortified wall around the ablution block, the whole thing was like a military bunker, with the cinder block walls on the outside reinforced by 45 degree sloping dirt on the inside. It was made like that so it was elephant proof, because in the dry season the elephants dig all the water pipes up, you can see from the photo the bunker was elephant proof but the sign wasn’t.

Another great leg of the trip, we’d love to head back this way one day and give ourselves a little more time to explore… now that we know how far you can/can’t drive each day.

First thing the next morning we packed up camp and headed straight for the airport to catch our flight into the Okavango Delta. The flight was quite interesting, we all packed into a Cessna for a short 20 minute hop over to the Delta. We only ever got up to 4000 feet so we got a great look over the delta. The dirt landing strip looked pretty dodgy on approach but our pilot Freddy made a nice “smooth” landing.

On our first mokoro outing we went to the hippo pools. Never thought I’d say this, but we actually saw a hippo jump out of the water and take a little dive. The second time round was a little close for comfort, as this one felt we were intruding a little and actually jumped towards us, doing a kind of mock charge. Gave everyone a good fright.

Plenty of interesting insects visit the mokoro, specially if you don’t have the spider stick in the front, which KP (Pete’s guide) never bothered with, he also struggled to steer his bent “banana” boat on the main track so Pete had plenty of visitors, they are all friendly insects though…. even the wasps nest we went through didn’t attack us.

Most outings consisted of a mokoro trip to an island, followed by a little hike looking for some animals. We did one big day to an island a little bit further away with a packed lunch. When we got there our guides immediately saw some lion spoor (foot prints). It was awesome to see how they tracked it, staying down wind, we circled around full of anticipation (we were tracking loin on foot with no rifles or backup). Unfortunately we didn’t see the lions, mainly cause some baboons got us side tracked, and the fact that lion are so well camouflaged. We find the remains of a giraffe was killed recently, the bones still had some skin on.

This was one of the best veld (bush) experiences ever, with no guns, no cars, no motors. Just trusting our guides and there knowledge.

Other interesting animals were the red lichwe, they are a lot like a red buck but specially adapted to all the water with padded hoofs that don’t get stuck in the mud as they run across the water plains. The sound they made running through the water was real distinctive.

We had an awesome stay at Oddballs camp. It is an all inclusive kinda deal, with open bar and great food. The guides eat with us, and we got a bit of a feel for there life style as we went to watch a pool game of South Africa vs France in the Soccer world cup at Papio’s tent in the staff camp.

Overall we loved the Delta and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Botswana!

This is from the (only) journal entry of our trip:

Zett and I are sipping on a beer on the stoep (Veranda) out the front of our tent overlooking a slice of pristine Okavango delta, Max is having a snooze so there’s no sound other that the birds and the odd baboon call.

I figure this is as good a time as any to jot down what’s happened the last couple of days.

Day 1. Pretoria to Kubu Island

We started out with an early start after a not so good nights rest, Max was projectile vomiting from 11:30pm through too around 2am, we all found out later that it was due to a stomach bug… we’ve all had a dose of it over that last couple of days, luckily it seems to only last 24 hours.

Despite this we were on the road by 5am and made really good time up to the border arriving at around 10:30am.

The border crossing itself didn’t go as hoped but about as well as expected, the main problem being that my application for an extension to my relatives permit is still processing (after almost 3 months) and the permit itself has expired. We had the extension application with us but as you expect no-one really knew what to do about it, we managed to get them down to a R1500 fine for overstaying, which they say will allow me to re-enter on a 3 month tourist visa… thanks for nothing the department of home affairs!

After the border crossing we again made good time up one of the main highways north for several hours. Once we turned off the main highway though it was a completely different story, the tar road gave way to gravel road, which gave way to sandy track, which gave way to “choose your own adventure” salt pan and grassy plain where we were using a combination of GPS, compass and gut feel.

We eventually made it to Kubu Island (an island dotted with Baobab trees on the edge of the salt pan proper) just before sunset. We bypassed all the designated campsites and setup camp on the pan side of the island, right in front of a stand of 5 impressive baobab trees.

The baobab tree looks like it’s been planted upside down, with its branches looking more like the roots of some sort of tuba. Though the outside of the tree is hard and smooth it looks sort of wrinkly and fleshy, apparently they take hundreds of years to grow to a decent size.

After a fairly windy night and cruisey morning we set off for Maun, at this point the navigation really got interesting with the GPS devoid of any roads, we mostly relied on the kindness of the goat herders we passed and the compass on my watch.

The sandy tracks eventually made it to the back streets of Gewa, where after driving through some shacks and grass roofed huts we made it to the highway again for some fuel before heading to Maun for the night.

The following shots are to/from and around Kubu island, we weren’t actually there for long but it make for some great photos.

In preparation for our Kili trip at the end of August, we did a two day hike a couple of weeks ago in Magoebaskloof. It is a fairly well renowned hike spot about four hour north of Pretoria.

The following photos are a quick log of our trip, it was a stunning place, as Zett described it “the kind of place fairies live”. Which is strangely fitting, we are a fair way latitudely north but at 1600 metres high so it’s kind of like a rain forest but more high country. Whatever the reason the end result is a stunning place to spend a couple of days.

As always Max was a star, didn’t make a peep (other than motivational babbling and slapping for the pack horse.. ME) for the 5 hours a day for 2 days in the “Max Pack”. Must admit the trail wasn’t the flattest I’ve ever hiked, couple that with 10.5kg of Max’s tightly packed atoms and all his food my shoulders and quads certainly knew they had been working.

The huts we stayed at each night were quite comfy, the first night we had the place to ourselves and no power but the second night we shared the hut with some interesting young people, a couple of the fellas had just returned from a trip to South America so we had plenty of stories to swap over a few rewarding glasses of red.

A few weeks ago we started so hike training in preparation for our trip to Kilimanjaro in August, Kiwi and Eloise were breaking in their brand new boots.

It was a surprisingly tough hike, 10km around Groenkloof (our regular weekend ride) had a bit more elevation than we thought.

Lucky for us Max seems to love the “Maxpack”, gladly hanging out in it for the 4-5 hours it took us to get around.

Nice way to spend a “lazy” Sunday.

The Chimp knocked up this awesome little video of our on water action, he had some trouble with the copyrighted music he used (youTube doesn’t allow it) so he used their auto substitution system, certainly adds some emotional punch to the piece.

The weekend before I flew back to Australia I took the Friday off and organised a chalet in the “Giants Castle Reserve” for Zett, Max and myself to spend a little quality time.

We also took the chance to kick off a bit of hike training for our Killi assent later in the year. Lucky for us Max seems to really like hanging around in the hike pack.

Back in Pretoria we decided to pop into Farm Inn (a local game farm/breeding facility), seeing Evan and Tan once again missed out on lions in the Kruger. They specialise in white lions and cheetahs, but has some other general game too.

Max got to play with his first baby white lion.

We didn’t get to pat the Cheetahs this time (unlike when Lamby and Sambo where here), they seem to be a little more commercial breeding oriented these days. It’s still always a nice little afternoon out.

After Coffee Bay we continued north towards Durban. We were heading to Margate. I went there 4 years in a row for the South African equivalent of Schoolies week and this stopover was intended as a trip down memory lane. We arrived at Margate around 5 pm. My memories of the place were absolutely shattered. What once was a simple car park for friendly beach goers turned into a taxi rank with hordes of people, rubbish and rubble. Although the view was still nice, a sense of security was a little lacking.

We high tailed out of there first thing in the morning and stopped in at Giba Gorge for a nice MTB ride. From there we headed to the Central Drakensberg. We set off on a “quick” hike, but got tempted to see the next waterfall. What was meant to be a quick stroll turned out to be a 4 hour hike with no supplies, a little baby, and a pregnant chick (who likes eating at regular intervals). We got rained on, had no carry pouch for Max, but still had fun. It is an awesome area.

Can I just add that after being together for 10 years and married for 3, this is Zett’s first post on BrownBot… lets hope there’s more to come.