Happy New Year!!
My Southern Africa Adventure was just that - an incredible adventure filled with new experiences and phenomenal sites. It is nearly impossible to say what was the best...I figure it is easiest to give you a run down of my time and let you decide what you think was the best.
I left Kampala on December 13 way too early in the morning - we were at the airport by 515 and stood in at least 3 20 minute lines before boarding the flight to Joburg. I was lucky and was somehow bumped up to business class:) Upon landing Jen and I searched for the driver to the hotel I found online - we were quite concerned with the idea of taking a taxi as we had heard some pretty terrible stories. I could not call the hotel to check as my Uganda sim card, which I paid a hefty deposit to have roaming, would not work! Just as we went in search of a cab we found the driver and off to The Peech Hotel we went. It was the perfect hotel and such a great treat. We headed to Sandton Square Mall in search of a new sim card and some last minute things I needed for my trip. (An FYI for anyone in need of a SA sim card - you need to register it and to do so you need your passport and a letter from your hotel). I saw Inviticus - very cool to see it in Joburg and then leave the theatre and see a massive statue of Nelson Mandela.
On the 14th Jen and I parted ways and I hopped on a flight to Livingston, Zambia. I found the hotel/ campsite without too much difficulty and headed straight to the activity booking office. I found out that part of my group and the guides would be attending a sunset booze cruise so I signed up for that and a full day of rafting.
Sunset on the Zambezi River
Rafting the Mighty Zambezi was quite an experience - 21 rapids, 5 of which were grade 5 and 1 which was a 6 that we had to walk around. The adrenaline was rushing through my veins.
The trip officially began on the 15th with our pre-departure meeting and move into our tents. Night one sleeping in the tent without a pillow was not so comfortable...but it improved. Just before our meeting I signed up to take an early morning micro-flight over the falls (must admit I was not sure what this would be but I had heard good reviews) and a trip to Livingston Island with an opportunity to swim in Devils Pool.
Micro-flight over Victoria Falls
At the Royal Livingston Hotel
(I was not sure that I would have another X-Mas photo op)
On Livingston Island at the edge of the Falls
The swim to the Devil's Pool was a bit frightening at times - although I am a string swimmer it is the fear that if you stop and think the current will take you over the edge. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Devils Pool (the water was too high to bring my camera over) - it is a pool of water that you can swim in at the edge of the Falls - but google it....its super cool.
After having seen the Falls from the air and from the Island I wasn't sure that the actual visit to them would be too exciting - I was wrong. Walking through the spray of the falls and seeing the rainbows was amazing. In many places there is actually a double rainbow band - the fainter one being a reflection of the bright one.
Victoria Falls
Double Rainbow at Vic Falls
You will notice the lovely black dot in the pictures - I somehow managed to get some dust or water on the inner lens of my camera and had to deal with this through then over 1700 pictures I took from this point. My camera has already returned to Canada and I have my fingers crossed that the problem can be resolved.
After Vic Falls we left Zambia behind and headed into Botswana to Chobe National Park - the game park with the highest concentration of elephants in the world. It was hot in Chobe - thankfully the campsite was part of a resort and there was a pool that we could cool down in. In Chobe we did and early morning Game drive in safari jeeps and a late afternoon cruise.
Unhappy Elephant charging our vehicle
Elephant cooling down
Sunset on the Chobe River
We left Chobe and Botswana and headed to the Caprivi Strip, Namibia for a night before heading into the Okavanga Delta. It was our first longish drive day and the whole group held up quite well - even when we ran out of diesel (fuel leak) and were stranded on the road for a couple of hours. In fact, we had a great time playing frisbee and football (soccer).
Our truck - Caprice - with the cab open while Hannah and
Craig try to figure out what's wrong.
me happy as can be with a Coke Zero
(this was my seat on the truck for the trip - I had 4 seats & a table!)
After less than 24 hours in Namibia we were back in Botswana and on our way to the Delta - after a River Crossing we faced some terrible roads, a thunderstorm and 5.5 hours later we met our mokoro (dug out canoe) guides that would take us to our camp sites. We spent one night in a permanent tent camp (with beds) and the next in a bush camp...with nothing! I think at a different time of year the experience may have been improves. It is a stunning area and the scenery while traveling by mokoro is amazing but it was so, so, so hot that our walking safari was a bit miserable and left a few of us with in feral moods. We quickly recovered as we re-hydrated and played in the lake.
Sunset on the Delta (night one)
Reflection of Jenny & Matti while watching hippos
Sunset on the Delta (night two)
We left the Delta early in the morning and headed back to the Caprivi Strip - this time it only took 2 hours to get to the same river crossing! We returned to the same campsite but now had two nights to get a bit of downtime. Ngepi Camp was a great place for some R&R. They have a cage in the lake that you can swim in...pretty cool to watch the hippos while you are in the river! They also have a frisbee golf course through the campsite which kept a group of us entertained and left us quite inebriated (apparently its a drinking game?). They also had some the most unique washrooms I have ever seen with names such as the Garden of Eden and Poopa Falls. I will have some photos of these posted on Facebook eventually.
We left Ngepi Camp on the 24th and headed into the desert to spend Christmas Eve with the San Bushmen. We spent the night in a bush camp (ie. no facilities) but it seemed appropriate after our tour with the tribe. They really live completely off the land and make fire with 2 sticks!
San Bush Woman and child
In the evening we were treated to a variety of San Bush dances and songs - it was really a very unique and interesting way to spend Christmas Eve.
After a delicious breakfast (I should mention Dodge our cook was incredible - even I ate almost everything!!) we headed to Etosha National Park. On the way we made a quick stop for charcoal and I ran in and bought Christmas Ice Creams for the group - it really made it feel like Christmas even though it was well over 30 degrees! When we arrived we quickly set up camp, had lunch and then exchanged Secret Santa gifts. It was a really nice and fun thing to do. One of the guys on the trip had bought a santa suit and handed out the gifts. We had a late afternoon game drive and then an amazing Christmas Dinner - no Turkey but great Chicken.
putting the final touches on Frosty
he was designed in some of our free time at Ngepi
Giraffe drinking water
me with my homemade X-mas Crown, Cracker and new necklace
We did an early morning game drive that was a good success - we saw a number of lions, some more elephant, giraffe, zebra, impala etc.
Lion
Springbok or Impala
Upon return to camp we had some brekkie, packed up and were ready to start the journey across Etosha but Caprice (the truck) would not start. There were some serious issues (truck stuff - so I didn't really understand but we tried pushing and pulling and it wouldn't start). I ended up spending most of the day between the pool, the store and the truck bringing the group that brought Caprice back to life cold drinks! We were back on the road before 4pm but had to rush through the camp to get to the next site by 630 when the gates would close. We were able to make 2 quick stops for rhino sitings.
The great thing about Okaukuejo is the incredible waterwhole. We were there in time for a spectacular sunset (perhaps the best of the journey) and after dinner were able to watch rhino and giraffe come for a drink. I only lasted until around 10pm but those who stayed a bit longer saw 6 rhino at once including a baby!!
Poor Caprice - what is wrong?
Sunset at the Waterhole
Me & the sunset
Since we missed a bit evening game drive we did one in the morning before leaving Etosha. I am so glad we did - first off we saw a rhino which then proceeded to charge us....definitely a wake up- call. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this....all I managed to take was a blur in the bush! From there we headed to a waterhole and arrived just in time to see 8 lions come up for a drink. This was something I had never seen. (I must admit while the game parks in Botswana and Namibia were an experience they don't quite compare to the Masai Mara & Serengeti).
Lions at the waterhole
From Etosha we began to travel south. We spent a night at Cheetah Park - exactly what it sounds like....a park full of Cheetahs which are fed by the farmers. We were able to play with 2 grown and one baby cheetah before heading into the park to feed the others. I think one of the funniest thing to see was a small dog playing/ fighting with the baby cheetah!
Cheetah's jumping for their zebra steak
Next was Spitzkoppe - a big rock formation. Driving from Cheetah Park to Spitzkoppe reminded me very much of the Australian Outback. It was incredibly hot out (but it was the whole trip) and the terrain was flat and sparse until we came to the rocks. We did a lovely hike/ scramble up the rock for sunset. As we were eager to get up we didn't wait for our guide and took the trickier route. The night was clear and the stars were incredible so a group up us hiked back up the rock after dinner to sleep under the stars.
Decked out in Lulu for the sunset
Sleeping bags in the morning after watching the sunrise
(great job Mom, E & C - my new sleeping bag (MRC Raven -7)
was super comfy although I kept in undone most nights due to the heat)
Onto Swakopmund - Namibia's adrenalin capital. One the way to the town (it actually felt like a big city to me) we stopped at the Cape Cross Seal Colony. We were warned ahead of time that it would not be the most pleasant of experiences as it was pupping season and we would see a lot of dead baby seals on the beach. I think that there were over 80,000 seals there and the smell was overwhelming. I must say it was a bit sad to see the dead and dying seals lying around....especially the ones just next to the boardwalk.
We made it to Swakopmund in time for lunch. It is a desert town that is predominantly German and has quite a touristy feel. After a quick lunch at a deli - with amazing bread (impossible to find in Kampala) - we were at the activity centre to make our bookings for our time there. I signed up for the big 3 - Skydiving, Sandboarding and Quad Biking. I left a bit queasy thinking about the next day's big jump and we headed to our accommodation for the next three nights. We were in A-frame houses as opposed to tents!!! My house was Sherelle, Warren & me - all three of us would be skydiving. We walked back into town and stocked up on food for our time there. Our first night there we realized how crowded Swakop was when we struggled to find a restaurant to eat - we knew we would be totally out of luck for New Year's Eve. In the end it all worked out as we had a great BBQ and then headed to the Beach bar after midnight.
Sign on the window of the plane
And out of the plane we go!
holy crap I am flying through the sky
Sand Dunes when Quad Biking
(no pics of the morning sandboarding adventures - but I did manage to reach 61km/hour!)
Just finishing the adventure - loved the semi-manual bike
We had a bit of a rough start on the morning of the 1st - after our 10am checkout we roamed aimlessly and spent some time at the internet cafe before an great lunch at Tug - the seafood restaurant on a tugboat (I was able to have baked camenbert & a steak salad). We were on the road by 2pm and off to another bush camp - this was definitely the most rustic of all of them and was a bit too dusty for my liking. That being said it was still pretty cool.
In the morning we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and headed to Sesriem & Souselvi where we would see the great Sand Dunes. It had been decided that we would hike up dune 45 (the highest dune) for sunset as opposed to sunrise as we would have a super long day ahead of us. The Dunes were incredible - really everything that I had anticipated them to be. I only wish we had had a little more time there. The trek up was not so enjoyable. My calfs were still recovering from all my dune hiking when I sand boarded but making it to the top was well worth a few cramps.
At the Tropic of Capricorn
The path up Dune 45
We left Sesriem by 630am with our lunches packed and headed towards Fish River Canyon - the second biggest canyon in the world. It was a long drive day made a bit longer because Fish River had flooded the bridge! We checked it out and then Hannah & Craig decided that Caprice could make it through. There was a railway bridge for us to walk across and I was able to make a great video of the Caprice crossing the river.
We got to Fish River Canyon with plenty of time to wander around before the sunset. I will post some actual Canyon pics on facebook.
Hanging on bars near the canyon
Amazing Tree
We were up and on the truck at 5am for our last day in Namibia. We had a 12 hour drive into South Africa to the Gekko Campsite in Citrusel. We arrived just in time to prepare a celebratory last night of camping dinner and then dance the night away in the tiny bar. It may have been a record night for them as we all owed rounds of shots for various trip offenses.
Although we had a 6am breakfast everyone was cheery as we set out for Cape Town. We had pretty brutal traffic just past Cape Town as we headed to the Cape Point Pennisula. The small beach towns that we passed through were beautiful and parts of the trip were familiar from my 2005 visit. We made it back into Cape Town and to our hotel by 330pm. I somehow lucked out and got one of the two rooms that had been renovated. Unfortunately no air conditioning and it was 35 degrees! I thought it would be a good idea to head to Table Mountain, hoping for a breeze at the top. Sherelle and I hopped in a taxi and up the mountain we went - no breeze but it was clear and we had amazing views. While up there I did realize the state of physical and mental exhaustion that I was facing after 22 days of Overlanding. My credit card was left in the bank machine at the top....only to be realized an hour later while sitting in the internet cafe. No harm done - I quickly cancelled it and had a back up for the shopping I had planned:)
At the top of Table Mountain
We had a final group dinner at the game restaurant that I remembered from my last visit. the Eland was as good as I remembered. The next two days were spent exploring Cape Town. I headed to Robben Island - famous in my mind because of Mandela - but the history is much older than just a jail. I got to catch up with and RTP friend from Toronto, Heather and we headed to Camps Bay for dinner. (Here I realized I am a creature of habit as we ate at the same Italian restaurant I went to in 2005....the spinach was just as good!). My final vacation day was spent first at the District 6 museum and then at the Waterfront. The restaurant selection there is amazing and the shopping is ok. One of the best things there was the Haagen-Dazs kiosk (you can't get that in Uganda).
Overall it was an amazing trip - thanks to Craig, Hannah & Dodge of Dragoman for getting us from Victoria Falls to Cape Town and to Andrea, Chelsea, Heike, Jenny, Matti, Sherelle, Tracy & Warren for sharing the journey.
