Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: Windhoek, Sossusvlei and Swakopmund, Namibia

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia is a strange sort of city. Driving towards it we went through many mountains and winding roads, and even 10km out, there was not really any sign of a major city. Nonetheless, when we got there we found it to be very much like a city, lots of traffic, big buildings, an apparent large presence of wealth (see note below) and a return to some sort of normality.

The road about 5km out of Windhoek

Overlooking Windhoek from the freeway

Windhoek was just meant to be the “fun” and relaxed part of the trip, or at least the opportunity to normalise even if for only a short period of time.

Joe's Bar: A pretty cool beer hall in Windhoek with way too
many things to choose from!

During our few days there we had lovely dinners every night, trying out different game meats and new beers, we did some shopping for both crafts, and in my case clothes (!!) and basically took it easy. Sadly this was also the part of the trip when mum and Reegena had to leave us to return to Oz.

Mike's selection: A skewer of different game meats. I'm told Kudo
was the best

Another of Mike's selections: This time a skewer of
barbequed meats

One of my selections: Seafood rice- Yummy!!!

After a sad farewell, Mike and I set off to the town of Okahandja to catch up with some fellow VSOs for the night before making a quick dash back to Windhoek the following day to purchase our new roof tent (although we were unable to get if fitted there).

From there we went on to Sossusvlei, down a rather “interesting” road, completely chosen by the GPS. In hindsight it was actually a good road, but at the time it did have me wondering why it was taking us through creek beds and around mountain bends. Doesn’t matter, because we got there and checked into a fabulous campsite, each fitted with its own private facilities and an “oasis” pool.

Impressive: Each campsite has its own facilities, including solar
powered water

Our oasis :-)

The next morning we had an early rise to check out the morning sunshine over the Sossusvlei sand dunes The road out to the dunes was pretty good with the exception of the last 5kms which is for 4wds only. That part of the road was extremely sandy and kind of fun. Although as we were driving back out it became apparent how difficult it can be to navigate with other tourists struggling in their vehicles against the sand.

Deep sand

Tough "Ruth"

The dunes didn’t disappoint and despite a hard climb up them, the view from the top was amazing. Once we had started climbing them we also realised that it was actually quite difficult to fall down them as the sand acted as a sort of brake; however, it did take a while to feel steady.

Amazing colours

View near the top

Getting there!

Cool sand patterns

Mike & I stopped for a rest

Sand and more sand. I'm still trying to get rid
of it all!

Dead trees at the bottom of the dunes. Amazing!

A return visit in the afternoon close to sunset was also very pretty and a bit more pleasant with less tourists.

Afternoon view of the dunes

Mike and I

From Sossusvlei we headed north and then west, towards Swakopmund on yet another interesting road taking some serious navigating with stretches of dangerous bends, potholes covered by sand and loose gravel. And to top it off, we experienced a sand storm as we finally made it onto tar roads heading into Walvis Bay, approximately 30km south of our destination. A long day of driving but we did make it in one piece!

Death trap: A horrible road where some tourists do get
themselves in trouble 

Sand storm as we headed into Walvis Bay

Swakopmund is a lovely town, much bigger than I had expected and not as German as I thought it would be, although you can definitely feel the German influence. It probably wasn’t the best time for camping, a bit like camping in Sorrento in September; cold with icy sea winds. However we survived ok for the first few nights, upgrading to a room for the last.

Swakopmund

Mike & I on the pier in Swakopmund

View from the pier looking back at Swakopmund

In Swakopmund we indulged a little again, coming across temptations that we hadn’t seen in 12 months. Lots of cakes, excellent coffee (finally!!), new beers, nice dinners of fresh fish and schnitzels.

Mike enjoying a schnitzel and beer

Fresh fish and chips

We enjoyed being near the ocean, despite parts of the ocean front smelling a lot like sewage (not sure why you would spend in excess of $1 milllion USD to live along there when it smells so bad, but each to their own!) and I can now say that I have dipped my foot in the Atlantic Ocean.

Freezing: Dipping my foot in the Atlantic Ocean

We also decided to give Quad Biking a go, the tracks taking us well into the sand dunes that line Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. Initially I was quite excited about this activity, until I actually got there and it felt like my bike was going to tip at every turn. It took a while to get used to it, but admittedly, I did have fun in the end.

Me with my scary quad bike

Mike and I at quad biking

Coming down the dune!

After four nights in Swakopmund I could see why many Namibians flock there in the summer, however I felt satisfied with what I had seen and ready to move on to the next part of our road trip.

** Note: Namibia is the number one country on the UN scale of inequality. Measured using the economic measurement of national income equality, the Gini Coefficient, Namibia has a Gini of 74.3% (with 0 being perfect equality and 100 extreme inequality). This measure is far from perfect, however just to put Namibia’s standing in the world into perspective, the next country behind it, country number 2  is Lesotho with a Gini of 63.2%, while Australia is number 84 on the scale with a Gini percentage of 35.2%. The gap between rich and poor in Namibia became more and more apparent throughout out trip; big expensive cars in Windhoek, grand beach houses in Swakopmund versus clay huts with thatched roofs and carrying water several kilometres from the pump to home in the north!

Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: The Okavango Delta, Botswana

The Okavango Delta was one of the destinations I had most been looking forward to and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint.

After Mike navigated through a sandy and bumpy road into the park, we finally arrived at Mankwe Lodge. Again Mike and I had planned to camp while mum and Reegena were booked into one of their tented camps. However after a quick look at the camp sites which were approximately 3kms from the lodge, completely isolated and offering cold bucket showers, Mike and I quickly reviewed our accommodation options and with a pretty good deal on price from the manager there, went for the tented camps as well. A great decision and a real treat!

The following day we set off on our tour guided day safari. Unfortunately we didn’t have much success with our animal viewing that day (you know a guide is getting desperate when he gets excited over an impala), but were still fortunate enough to see giraffe, zebra, hippo and a lot of game. Regardless of animals, the surrounds were just as beautiful as I had expected, so I didn’t feel let down.

Better luck with animals the next day when we did a self- drive tour through Moremi Game Reserve, South Gate. Before we had even entered the park we had elephants just stroll on by behind us along the road. It’s so amazing how close you are able to get to them!

In the park our success continued with my long awaited leopard and a cheetah, as the key highlights.

My long awaited leopard!

Need a better camera: A cheetah in the distance

Heading towards 3rd gate: This water was ok, but we had
to stop on the next lot of water; too deep!

Our group: Reegena, Mum, Me and Mike

We felt so lucky with our animal spotting and I guess in many ways our luck did continue as we arrived for a stopover in Maun, ready for a long trip to Namibia the next day, only to have our radiator blow after we had arrived in town. Go Ruth!! She managed to hold on all the way to Maun, without stranding us in the park.

So the next day we (or mostly Mike) made a mad scramble around Maun to find someone reliable to fix it.

Our newly, reconditioned radiator

Back on the road that afternoon, with a newly reconditioned radiator and only a minor inconvenience to our plans, we headed off towards the Namibian border. Our goal was Ghanzi, which we made in plenty of time before sunset, but not without a second run in with the Botswana Police. This time it is was for speeding, 83km in a 60km zone, as we came into a roadside village. These police were much nicer than the ones we had encountered at the “Animal Control” post, but did still issue us with a fine. However, out of this incident came one of the stories of the trip for me, as Mike (who for some reason forgot to mention this story in his own blog), not only negotiated the price down, but then asked if they give “volunteer discounts”. Turns out the Botswana Police do, and Mike as a result got 100 Pula back. Classic!!

The rest of our stay in Botswana was without incident, another “Animal Control” post, but this time we had nothing for them!

The road towards Namibia: Too many cows crossing!

Unfortunately I am going to end this post on a sober note, as it seems the rumour we kept hearing throughout our Botswana leg may be true. Next year Botswana Tourism is planning to raise the prices of its park entry fees, by a LOT. Standard park fees that we paid during our trip are 120 Pula pp per day, plus 50 for private vehicles. Next year the cost is likely to be raised to 700 pula pp per day, nearly a 600% increase, or approximately 100 Australian dollars per person per day.

This change in fees seems to be an attempt by Botswana Tourism to virtually eliminate self- drive throughout its parks, forcing tourists to take guided tours and also giving preference to “high-end” tourism. While this has been their strategy for some time, I wonder if they have given enough thought to the flow on effects on their economy, given the money that self- drive tourists provide to local businesses such as fuel stations, supermarkets, craft markets, auto repair, etc. It seems a shame to kill such a large part of its tourism industry forcing tourists into skipping Botswana for other parks and countries, all to make a quick buck and meanwhile denying the majority of people (those of us who aren’t rich), the opportunity to experience these incredible parks!

Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: Chobe National Park and Planet Baobab, Botswana

Truthfully my holidays started a bit before our September 9^th departure across the border in to Botswana. Mum and her friend Reegena arrived in Livingstone with a week to check out the town prior to the start of road trip.

So, as a result Mike and I got to do a couple of the remaining tourist activities that we hadn’t yet done such as “Walking with the lions” and the Zambezi Sunset Cruise and others that we had done before such as sundowner drinks at the Royal Livingstone Hotel and Sunday lunch at Taita Falcon Lodge. 

Mum with the lions

The lions: Unfortunately these ones are bred in captivity

Enjoying sundowners on the Lady Livingstone Cruise

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Finally, the 9^th of September arrived and we set off on our Botswana and Namibia trip, with Mum and Reegena joining us for the Botswana part.

First stop was just over the border in Botswana, to Kasane. After a quick “lunch stop” at the border post where we had to scoff down our home packed lunch before being allowed to cross the border (damn that foot and mouth disease!), we made a return visit to Chobe National Park.

"Scoffing" down our packed lunch at the Botswana border

I won’t spend much time writing about Chobe as this was our 5^th visit. But I will say that Chobe never disappoints and hopefully the photos speak for themselves!

Monkey Tree

Impala taken it easy

Mum and me: Check out what's behind us!

After a couple of awesome days in Kasane, we set off south, heading towards Nata onroute to Planet Baobab, west of Nata.

The road south to Nata was interesting; under construction, the diversion road was narrow, slow and dangerous with large trucks coming from the opposite direction and taking up much of the road.

The road on the way to Nata: Over turned car

The road to Nata: Narrow roads

On this road we also had our first negative encounter with the Botswana Police. Set up on this stretch of road was an “Animal Control” post, at which we were forced to give up our earlier purchased rump steaks (vacuum packed), salad ingredients and apples. Apparently there are different zones in Botswana and you cannot bring such goods from one area to the other. I had a couple of issue with this as:

1. Botswana Tourism fails to disclose this to tourists, so many people run into this issue after making large purchases at local supermarkets in known tourist towns, and
2. The post was for animal products only. There was no mention of vegetable products, only the police telling us that they had to take our vegetables due to issues with fruit flies. I’m not sure if they were telling the truth or not, however no where on the post signage was there mention of vegetable products, only animal. Also interesting and a little suspicious to me, was how selective they were with the vegetable products. Things like lettuce they let us keep.

I did get a little fired up during this encounter, probably a result of my built up frustration at Zambia. But as expected I/ we didn’t win and I have little doubt in my mind that they all had a lovely dinner much later J. Local hoteliers also later confirmed that the vegetable products should have been ours to keep!

From “animal control” we continued onwards to Planet Baobab, a bush camp surrounded by giant Baobab trees.

Planet Baobab

I loved this camp and the Baobab trees that surrounded it. They are truly amazing. Most of the trees are believed to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years old and are just beautiful, especially at sunset and sunrise.

The camp itself was also lovely with cute bush huts, which mum and Reegena were lucky to stay in (Mike and I camped) and a large inviting pool to chill in while gazing up at the Baobab Trees.

The pool at Planet Baobab and me in it!

One of the many huge Baobab trees

Sunset at Planet Baobab

Mike taking a picture of a giant Baobab tree

To give you some idea of the scale :-)

Unfortunately we had planned only one night there; a second night would have been great and also given us the opportunity to check out the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, which we were sad to pass by along the highway. Nonetheless, we continued on to the next exciting phase of our Botswana leg, the Okavango Delta!

Road on the way to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

Livingstone: The (temporary) escape!

I wasn’t planning on any more posts prior to our Botswana and Namibia road trip, however I felt an update necessary, if for no other reason than to vent!

In the lead up to our “escape”, the doubts I’d been having in regards to my organisation and their receptiveness to improve and work hard continued and became stronger.

The absence of my colleagues from work and then their unwillingness to work during the limited time they are there continued. In the pursuit of the next “big donor”, current partners (and beneficiaries) were being let down with lack of focus on those programmes. The monthly newsletter that was started to promote the organisation and which had been receiving a lot of positive feedback has been abandoned, my colleagues only producing a single edition on their own (i.e. without me doing it for them), before simply being too lazy to complete anymore. Lack of forward thinking that perhaps putting in the hard yards short term and impressing current donors (regardless of the amount they have contributed), may lead to bigger things in the future, seems to escape the minds of my colleagues.

Prior to leaving for my trip I worked with them to put together an organisational work plan so that we could see all of the things we had on, schedule them and allocate responsibility. However I hold little hope that much of it will get done and I know I will come back in a month’s time to yet again disappointed.

And what to say of Zambia? On the 20^th of September, the country went to a presidential election, an event that should bring hope and excitement for the future. However the lead up left me feeling that new leader or not, nothing was likely to change. In the week prior to us leaving for our road trip, both our water and electricity situation had never been so good. High water pressure 24/7, not going out once. And our electricity outages stopped, completely! Coincidence? I think not! (N.B. Since initially writing this post the election results have been posted, with the opposition party, Patriotic Front and a new President Michael Sata, winning. Interesting times lie ahead for Zambia.)

And then there is the really sad story of yet another infant mortality that I know would probably never happen at home. One of my colleagues (the one that is the smartest and hardest working by far), was expecting his first child, due in September. Only a week before I left, the doctor told him and his wife that he “suspected” twins and recommended she go the hospital.  The result? The first scan she had during her pregnancy confirmed twins and literally days after she went into labour, having a boy and girl. But instead of keeping her and the babies in for observation, they were released that day and only the girl survived. Complete stuff up from all medics involved! And more eye opening for me was the reaction of people in Zambia. No one seemed to care, it was so easily accepted. My colleague who was clearly devastated, and rightly so, was back at work two days later and expected to carry on like nothing had happened. It made me realise what little value on life Zambian’s seem to have.

So with all that said, I think our road trip came at the right time, with my patience growing thin and my cynicism towards Zambia and development aid rapidly growing.