Zambezi Trip 28.6 -6.7

Zambezi Trip Zambezi Trip 28.6 -6.7 2014

Saturday, 28^th June (Alex)

So it’s been quite some time since our last blog post, but now this blog will be about something a bit more local, as in in Namibia.

We left early by standards, (mine as well as the family’s) at 6:10 am we were all in the Kombi and pulling out of our drive way, there had hardly been any tantrums or shouting this morning, this was probably due to us all being half awake. My father took the first driving shift, whilst Beatrice and I slept.
The next thing was us waking up in Otjiwarongo and pulling into the parking lot of the local Super Spar, here we had our customary meal, we always have a break here ( I highly recommend the chicken mayonnaise tramezzini, although a whole one is nigh impossible to finish in one sitting, even one half is a challenge – they are a bargain). Then after having the rest of our tramezzini packed up for take away we hit the road again, this time my mother took over. I read, my father slept and Beatrice kept my mother company in the front. In the blink of an eye we were in Grootfontein and after filling the tank with fuel it was my turn to drive. It was but a simple 240km odd drive about a fair third of the way, no problems whatsoever. Once one passes through Mururani gate (roughly 114km from Gootfontein) villages become more tightly packed and rural, this means however that one needs to watch out for cattle, donkey etc. crossing the road. Also each village specializes in some form of craft work, the first being clay pots, presumably a good reserve of clay around, and later on fancy wood carvings of helicopters and planes.

Then at around 14h00 we arrived at Gondwana’s Hakusembe River Lodge near Rundu, we were greeted with a glass of iced tea and very nicely escorted to our campsite. Our campsite is the furthest from the reception, but therefore we have a wonderful view of the Okavango River and right next to a floating deck, where we immediately assembled table, chairs and the where with all to have lunch. Thus we enjoyed a very nice lunch on a raft on the Okavango, not bad eh?

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with as my mother puts it “chilling”, well that’s what all but Beatrice call it, she was busy reading a text for school and preparing to write an argumentative essay about “dictatorship in the GDR”, thus not “chilled”. It the time it takes one to chill we also built up camp, as in putting up tents etc.
Towards sun down we assembled on the deck again and enjoyed the atmosphere. A very enjoyable time was had.
Aside: In case you were wondering it isn’t really recommended to have a swim in the river, as it is technically crocodile territory, nothing like our time in Mana Pools though. We were told someone is only actually eaten once every 10 years, and we should have no problem since the last attack was 3 months ago, so 9 years and 9 months of no problem? Ha.
My father then braaied some pork and lamb chops and made a nice cabbage salad, the meal was very nice. We then hit the hay at campers midnight aka. 8:30pm. A very good start to hopefully a lovely camping holiday.

Sunday, 29^th June (Cathy)

Last night was lovely and cool almost cold! Chris was up quite early but the rest of us waited until the day warmed up before emerging. Some of the lodge workers from across the river pulled up in their mokoro and walked through our camp chatting and playing their radio and people woke early in the village across the river. The sound of voices, cows and goats is very pleasant. Yesterday afternoon we watched two women winnowing grain and listened to the yells of a reluctant child being washed. Beatrice’ tent looks like a cocoon, one of the sticks has collapsed and is held together with duct tape. The whole tent teeters at an odd angle. Beatrice emerged like a slightly crumpled and disgruntled moth. The shower was hot and we sat in light shade to have breakfast. Beatrice had school work to do, Alex was still waking up and so Chris and I took a walk by ourselves to explore a bit.

We walked past the campsite of some consultants who are away on a trip. Seriously well equipped with big tents great shade, a fridge and a freezer. A motor boat and a motor bike stood idle waiting for their return. We meandered through past the chalets to the restaurant deck and then along to the vegetable garden at the edge of the property. Lawns, shade trees and lots of places to sit and admire the river. We paid for the sundowner cruise for later and then decided to walk to the ‘living culture museum’ a couple of kilometers away. We passed another lodge and decided to investigate, no one was around and so we walked around to see the campsites, very nice but totally unoccupied; apparently it’s owned by the pharmacist in Rundu. We heard music and drumming coming from the ‘living culture museum’ and walked further through some well grazed acacia groves. The drummers and dancers were being photographed by a bunch of tourists. We decided that maybe we don’t need that in our lives and walk on. This is a bird watchers’ heaven, the floodplains have attracted a large variety of birds that we could look up on Chris’ bird watchers’ app on his cell phone. For a while we were confused by a whirling cloud of large black birds but eventually concluded that they were cormorants.

We had lunch on the raft on the river, cool breezes not quite blowing the breadcrumbs into the water. Across the river four little boys were fishing and mucking about. The giggles carried clearly across the water. One caught a fish, quite a big one, which is more than the fishing tourists managed from their boat yesterday. A friend came along in a mokoro and pretty soon the boys and their fishing rods were off downriver, the giggling and arguing fading in the distance. Alex, after annoying his sister for a while sang to tunes on his ukulele to keep himself amused. I tried to read – ha!

Eventually it was time for the sundowner cruise. We walked over to the main lodge building and were picked up by Paulus in the boat. We were the only people on the cruise and so had Paulus’ undivided attention – always nice. There were a surprising number of crocodiles in the river – we really expected that they would have been eaten by now.  So the story about once every ten years is maybe wrong Alex! There were also lots of water monitors, less scary and without the ominous smile. There was a huge variety of birdlife, every kingfisher from malachite to giant, the giant could happily eat the malachite for breakfast; Darters, cormorants, a tree full of night herons, and bee-eaters darting around. We munched snacks and drank wine (me and Chris), beer (Alex) or champagne (Beatrice, yes, Beatrice) and watched all the wildlife and the beautiful river as the sun set. There are a surprising number of houses along the river, mostly owned by the better heeled of Rundu. Paulus offloaded us at the landing point near to our camp. There were other people on our raft – how very dare they!!! I cooked chicken for supper, involving much pan juggling on our one gas burner. One pot cooking or braai are definitely the easiest options. No wine with the meal – the sunset cruise put paid to that!

Monday, 30^th June (Beatrice)

We got up at the crack of dawn, some of us needed a bit more persuasion than others, but up we were never the less. After breakfast and packing the camp up we were off with the aim to go to Rundu. It was a short drive to Rundu, where we wanted to buy some groceries and a tent. Daddy was convinced he knew the town like the back of his hand, well I guess one does not know the back of one’s hand all too well. Yet we made it and our first stop was Cymot. They had one single pop up tent in bright orange- so that is the one we took. After that short and successful trip we went to Pick and Pay, where we were not quite so successful. The shop had a long line of people waiting in front of the sign promising to be open at 8. Since breaking in to shops is illegal we took the easy root, by going to Woermann and Brock. There we got the European version of the most important things, but the Namibian side was lacking; there was no meat. Since that was not good enough we went back to the now opened Pick and Pay and got the meat we needed.

Then we were off to our actual destination; Divundu. It was a lovely clear road, apart from 3 abnormally loaded lorries and it would have been the ideal place for me to drive, but unfortunately I had forgotten my license at home. Anyway we drove without much difficulty to the turn off point, which goes to the camp. They obviously don’t want too many customers for the turn off was not at all marked. Also, what might seem off putting to most was that the small way to the camp goes past a prison. The prison did not look at all bad, yet I could imagine it all becoming very boring. Interestingly enough the prison inmates plant and harvest miellies and wheat to feed the other prisons in Namibia.

Eventually we made it to the camp (if you hadn’t heard about it- you would not believe such a stingy road would lead to a camp site). We took the second campsite and it was amazing! A platform overlooking the river, a place to wash-up and cook, a very adequate bathroom and so much space under dappled light. It was quite beautiful. We got used to the fact that we had to speak slightly louder as normal to compensate for the roaring sound of the river below.

We had a nice lunch and all admired my new tent. The family relaxed and planned the rest of our trip while I continued working for school. Alex convinced the parents to go for a walk. They went off in the one direction saying their good-byes, when back they were to proceed to the other side, which was not a dead end. It was quite enjoyable, as enjoyable as school work ever is, to sit on the platform and listen to the river. They all came back and Alex kept begging me to go swimming with him. Apart from the fact that I was busy- why would I want to go swimming in crocodile infested water? So that is what we did. Mummy came along, deciding it would be better if we were supervised or simply to take some last pictures of her children to publish in the newspaper. The water was rather cold, but the adrenalin, which seemed not to pulse through Alex’ veins, kept me warm. Even though we were right next to some rapids, where we were quite sure crocodiles would not hang out, we could not be too sure. I went out quite fast but Alex needed convincing. Finally, with a few tugs on the good old heart strings, the water loving adrenalin junky, whom I call “brother”, receded back to dry land.

Alex and I had a good Frisbee session, where we practiced various techniques, the aiming and catching part obviously not being quite so important. Later on we tried to find a broadcasting service that gave football commentary on the Germany match. Alex got more and more frustrated because there were no English or German Radio stations that seemed to be giving football commentary and live streaming “does not work in your country”. Never the less we enjoyed a nice sundowner in our little fantasy world that was our reality.

I started cooking spaghetti bolognaise, which seems easy enough, but with only one gas cooker- timing and keeping food warm is not as easy as one imagines. The rest very kindly made the salad and hey presto; dinner was served.

To end a very nice day we had to choose who had to get up at 5am to stoke the donkey to enable us to have a warm shower in the morning. The game of luck, by pulling the shorter straw, was between Alex, Daddy and me. So it ended up being Mummy. Do not ask me how, just don’t.

I went to bed, but Alex and Daddy still stayed up to listen to the Germany match (apparently they suddenly did find an applicable radio station). I will just share with you the sight I was confronted with in the morning for I doubt Daddy will mention it; a shovel and an ax posed next to the driver’s seat. Why you might understandably ask- they think they saw a wild animal and grabbed them in self-defense. But instead of warning Mummy they let her get up at 5am to start the fire- real gentlemen.

Tuesday 1^st July 2014 - Christof

Well, Beatrice had drawn the lot last night to light the donkey at 05h00 in the morning, so that we all could have warm shower early before braving the day. Somehow Beatrice managed to ‘delegate’ this task to Cathy (who was not even part of the sample). Cathy therefore, dutifully, got up at 05h00 to light the fire. I got up at 06h00 – it was light already – re-stoked the ailing fire and stripped down to a well-deserved hot shower in the tastefully but rudimentary constructed bathroom. To my shock no water came out of the hot or cold tap – ambient temp 12 deg C! So instead I heated some water from our reserves for a short tub wash including hair wash.

Much later Cathy and Beatrice started stirring: Beatrice followed my example, but Cathy, in an indignant mood, walked to the ‘reception’ where, indeed, they promised her to switch the pump on. I would not have believed the answer would be as simple as that.

That explains why today we did not get going as early as the day before, but just before 09h00 we were on the road. First of all up to the main Rundu – Katima tar road and then after a short 10km we turned off south to the Buffalo conservation area. At the gate we paid the pittance of N$ 50 in total for the car plus us 4 persons. I had been here a few years earlier with Peter Lenhardt, so I had an idea what to expect. Game started a bit on the slow side, but the generous riverine forest – a veritable park landscape – was glorious in itself. But soon we spotted the first impalas and young kudus, followed by buffalo and hippos. Not to forget the ubiquitous wart hogs. Lots of big water birds too.

By about 12h00 we reached the southernmost warden’s compound and decided to get back to the tar road. However, we took a wrong turning and got into a deep sandy rut. It took us quite a while to find a place where turning around was possible. I was glad to have a 4x4 to power through the deep sand, otherwise we would have had to let the tyres down very low.

Back at the tar road we turned back west for a few km to have lunch at a road-side concrete table and benches with a beautiful view of the Okavango river. Then followed the 300 km stint to Katima Mulilo. In the middle, close to the Kwando river, we saw a large family of elephants crossing the road. Now our animal count for the day was complete.

As we came into Katima we saw the brand new Katima Waterfront development (NWR!!!) offering ‘luxury camping’ in addition to their bungalows. However, we first went to the Protea Zambezi Lodge where the camping is now N$140/pax/night. We had coffee/hot chocolate on the veranda overlooking the Zambezi as the sun was about to set and then decided to go to try our luck for camping at the Waterfront.

That was a debacle in itself: we found no office open and could not find the camping, but later we went back to the gate where a helpful security guard could be persuaded to show us the camping spots. N$130/pax/night, but own ablutions per camp site. Typical NWR: spared no expense in setting this huge place up with taxpayers’ money, but then lacked the human touch with the details and maintenance.

Alex cooked up a scrumptious dinner and we had a relaxed evening.

Wednesday, 2^nd July (Alex)

Well I was as usual awakened by the rest of the family having breakfast, with the usual bickering here and there, I’ve grown quite accustomed to it; will I be able to wake without it?
Next was actually getting out of bed, which is always quite an ordeal, meaning that I have to have breakfast.
We briskly packed up our camp and headed to the reception where we intended to pay. Now for this next part I’m only going with what my parents have told me, not what I had perceived, as Beatrice and I had waited in the car: My father had gone in and said that he wanted to pay, the receptionist thought he meant that he wanted to pay for this evening, not the previous one, thus a conversation unfolded in which neither realized what the other was trying to say and when my father tried to explain that we had stayed the night, she didn’t want to believe him. It was at this point that my mother couldn’t handle it any longer and came out. My father tells us that the receptionist had told him that it wasn’t possible to pay for the previous night, since it hadn’t been noted in the computer. Thus my father agreed and we left.
Next we dropped my mother and sister off at the local supermarket and my father and I went off in search of petrol and ice. For the ice we had to flit around quite a bit, but eventually we located a spot with ice, the actual ice was kept in a Gun shop which I found quite interesting.

Aside: In Katima there is a shop which has its own mill in the back and thus can sell their own bread at cheaper prices than all the other shops. It then follows that people from Zambia come over and load their cars up with bread, about 50 loafs at least, and then drive/cycle back to Zambia.

Next we made our way out of Katima and onto a road that was being built, thus we had to drive on a side road for about 60km, which isn’t the most pleasant. It did mean though that we had time to look at the villages better and also now have firsthand knowledge on how a road is built. We then hit a 60km patch that was already built and thus we could speed up considerably. In no time at all (slight exaggeration) we arrived at (village closest) and then made our way further along a very rough road to hopefully our camp.
It felt like hours on this uneven track until we found any sign of life. We drove firstly past a camp that semed deserted, next a camp called Livingston (which is supposedly very nice) and then a Lodge called Nkasa Lupala. The Lodge was very upmarket and didn’t have camping facilities, thus not the place for us, yet we still received a warm welcome and drinks on the house. The water isn’t all too high up at the moment and we were told that boat cruises aren’t possible, the management at the lodge did however tell us about another very nice camp, to which we then headed. On the way we first stopped at the ranger’s station and commissioned permits for N$10 per person per day.

We then headed to the recommended camp, as we rounded the corner we saw a big red land cruiser, I jokingly said that it would be quite funny if it turned out to be our friend’s the Müllers and lo and behold it was. We have thus joined their camp. We said goodbye and hello to Anna, their youngest, and a friend who were going back to Windhoek today via bus. We then spent the afternoon in the camp, chatting with the Müllers and putting up our tents. Later Helen, Katie & Jake arrived who had been out holding interviews for Helen’s master’s research. It is themed on nature conservancies in Namibia and what the problems/pros are. We discussed this at length and in no time it was time to start cooking. We had offered to cook this evening and thus my father and I made a very mild chicken curry, which was delicious though. At around camper’s midnight we all hit the hay, with the grunts of hippos in the river next to us.

Thursday 3^rd of July (Cathy)

There was definitely something heavy splashing around in the water last night but nobody got up to investigate. After all something must be keeping the grass nicely cut around here. The odd grunt made it likely that it was a hippo but we all slept on and left it in peace. I woke quite early and admired the dawn with Peter and Helen. I sent Auriol a ‘what’s app’ picture of Peter taking a photo of the sun coming up just to surprise her. We made tea and waited for the day to heat up a bit and for the Brock family to emerge. The final person to get p was Alex who shot from his tent just as Peter was asking if anyone wanted some fried egg and bacon – coincidence? Probably not. The plans for the day took shape; Katie, Helen and Jake went off to continue with interviewing the local conservancy members, peter and Beatrice went to see a man about some fish and Chris Alex and I organized the car to go off to the game park. Tyres were let down to cope better with the sand and luggage was stored to avoid too much rattle.

Beatrice and Peter returned without fish – the man was not feeling well enough to fish, never mind – plan B for supper; I find that plan B can often be very tasty. Beatrice decided rather to go with Peter to visit a local school and so we remaining three went to the game park. The road is as promised, much better inside the park; no heavy lorries to churn up the mud in the rainy season. The tracks were a bit vague and some came to a dead end in ponds and streams but we meandered around happily knowing that we were so to speak ‘captive’ in the one dry and driveable part of the park and so were hardly likely to get lost. Our sense of security was added to by Chris’ tracking app that mapped our journey. About twenty minutes into the park Alex spotted some zebras and about seven minutes later he spotted what we thought were a few elephants, but as they emerged from a thicket where they had been snacking the line of elephants grew longer and longer, elephants of all sizes walked single file across the grassland towards another thicket along one of the well-trodden elephant trails. We followed them for a while since our track mirrored theirs but eventually we lost them in another thicket. There were at least 25 of them but some were very small and were lost to sight amid the legs of the others so there may have been more.

So Alex had his elephants at last and stopped complaining about the lack of animals. After that we saw a large group of hippos, more zebras and lots of impalas, not to forget the warthogs, always warthogs. The bird life is plentiful in the park and I think that Alex might even be finding the birds interesting, maybe not as much as we do but the complaining is less than before. We found a route back to the camp that brought us in at the end of the campsites. The landscape is truly beautiful here, lots of tall golden grass and tall trees, together with the patches of bright blue water. The word ‘pristine’ comes to mind.

We got back to the camp as Helen, Katie and Jake were in a flurry of re-departure to conduct more interviews. Beatrice had enjoyed her visit to the school where she found out a bit about the difficulties of managing modern technology in the rural areas. Peter was shortly to leave to collect Auriol from Katima. We had lunch and spent much of the afternoon relaxing apart from Beatrice and Alex who were busy with maths homework. So really only Chris and I relaxed – sorry kids.

Alex and Chris were detailed to guard Peter’s poitjkie – plan B for supper.

In the late afternoon there was an invasion of convoys from South Africa looking for somewhere to camp. By this time most of the campsites were taken, only camp 2, the less desirable camp was available. After the first convoy took number 2 the only option was to camp in the bush or trek back to Livingston camp a couple of kilometres closer to the village. They elected to camp in the bush without the loo and shower facilities that the rest of us were enjoying. One woman told us that they had seen a really big lion not far from the camp – at times like these the laager approach is a comfort.

Everyone returned to camp by early evening and we enjoyed our supper together followed by an evening of music, four guitars, and a ukulele playing into the night, I wonder what the lions thought about it!

Friday 4^th of July (Beatrice)

We slept in today. That is, woke up at 7.30. We said goodbye to Auriol and Helen, who had to go and work in the village. We leisurely packed up and after saying our farewell to the others left for Divundu.

On the way we stopped off at a seemingly desolate little shop in Kongola, yet they promised ice, bread and all sorts. Alex and Daddy went into the shop and bought freshly baked bread, which was still warm from the oven. Onwards we went until we arrived at a Godwana lodge Namushasha, where we stopped to have a look at the place, where we might have slept the previous evening. In short; we stopped for no particular reason. We first drove around the campsites, which my parents thought so different in comparison to 15 years ago- odd that isn’t it? Yet I do concede the camping places were very nice, with high trees and lawn. We eventually stopped looking at random peoples’ tents and washing lines and went to the main building. The main building was very pretty and we had a cup of warm drinks on a big porch overlooking the Kwando river. It was all very lovely until my parents decided to name and count every single bird species they saw. Meanwhile Alex and I were getting quite bored, so we struck a deal with Daddy, who could not identify this one particular orange headed bird. If Alex can identify the bird, using Daddy’s App, we can go. Alex being very good with technology found the swallow in a matter of seconds- concluding that my parents did not believe him, since it suerly could not be so easy to find the bird. Never the less off we were to Divundu. Well not quite. A few minutes later we stopped at a cultural museum. Daddy, Mummy and I went in and found out the entry fee was N$40 per person, so we promptly turned around. The manager caught up with us and said that we could walk around none the less, but that we would have no dances or presentations. That was ideal for us and we walked around. It was not particularly spectacular, but for complete foreigners probably fantastic. We did not stay long and were on the road again. This time we did not stop anywhere on route and managed to reach Divundu for a late lunch.

The ‘Divundu Guest House’, which was run by some friends of ours, was still in the making. Concluding that hot water was out of the equation. We set up tent on the lawn underneath some beautiful and lush trees and immediately had to smother ourselves with mosquito lotion. After lunch Alex and I played Frisbee (amazingly getting better every day). Soon it was time to start preparing snacks for our TV dinner watching the World cup football match between France and Germany. Alex kindly put toppings on the crackers, while I cooked the chicken. I had decided to make some popcorn, which was not as easy as it seemed, due to the fact that one could never know if the popcorn had finished popping or not. Occasionally I had a peek inside the pot to have popcorn spraying out of the pot. With or without problems the snacks went quite well and the match began.

I am not going to talk too much about the match, apart from that Germany won, having shot the only goal in the 13^th minute. To make sure that it was seen that we were supporting Germany we drank beer instead of wine that evening. The highlight of the match had nothing to do with the players, but instead with Mummy’s question about half through the match; “who is that man in the red shirt?” She was referring to the referee and we did wonder about her observation skills.

After the successful match we watched some of the short interviews and wondered how one could ask a question to a crying French football player concerning his feelings of being so close to winning but still losing.

All and all it was a good evening for all Germany supporters. Neuer (the German goal keeper), by far the best player of the match, will probably have a sculpture erected of him in Germany if he continues like this. And on that note we went to bed.  

Saturday 5^th July 2014 (Christof)

We got up moderately early, because we wanted to reach the Zensis’ Farm by afternoon coffee time. Breakfast and packing a well-oiled routine!

The first 200km to Rundu was a routine too. In Rundu we still went to PicknPay to buy some wine and other visiting gifts, then on for the next 250km to Grootfontein. In Grootfontein we spent some time looking for a restaurant, that I remembered from the past, but it must have closed down. Even a big town like Grootfontein is slowly declining ….

In the end we settled for the Spar Restaurant, which we had identified earlier as our plan-B, but by now it was almost 14:00 and we struggled a bit to still get something, even managing to pay in the end did not come easy.

Then off to the last about 80km to Farm Hamburg for the pre-announced arrival circa 15:30. Nice chats on the verandah. As the evening was (initially) not too cold we stayed on the verandah and Peter made his special braai for us. There were 2 elder German visitors there as well who joined us. One of them kindly promised Beatrice some info on medical studies in Germany.

Later we settled inside in the lounge for the quarter final world cup soccer Netherlands against Costa Rica with the outcome of Penalties with Netherlands winning and Argentina against Belgium with the outcome of Argentina winning 1:0.

Although by prior arrangement we would all have camped outside, Cathy and me were now offered one of their girls’ rooms while Alex and Beatrice pitched their tents on the lawn just in front of the house.

Off to bed not too late as tomorrow we have to get up early to get Alex to the Windhoek Airport in time for his flight to Cape Town.

Sunday 6^th of July (Alex)

Well an early start to the day being ripped out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:30 (am), trying to fight for another half an hour, not succeeding and then getting up. Quickly packed up our tents, easy for my parents as they didn’t need to sleep in theirs, then packed the car after which we gathered around the dining table for breakfast. The family were in heaven, very lovely farm bread, if you don’t know what that is, well get to it! , eggs and bacon as we have basically become accustomed to over last few days, homemade smoked meat, which was divine.
Then we said our farewells and off we went, might I add here that at the house it was very cold, during the drive, being early and all, it got colder, until the limit of 0.0°C. I was the one who braved the cold in shorts and flip-flops to open the farm gates.
The drive was very fine, we took it in turns to drive, my part being from Otjiverongo to Okahandja, which went fine, not wrapped around any trees or such.
At very close to 11am we were home then. I could end the blog here, but as I’m now sitting in an airplane on my way back to Cape Town . . . I’ve got time:
So once home we unpacked the car, greeted the dogs and I started to repack my bags. A haircut followed and then lunch, after which Beatrice started baking my father’s birthday cake. Then the drive to the airport, bye and take off. Now here I sit feeling very happy with a brilliant holiday behind me with brilliant people in beautiful places.