Self Drive Safari

Sossusvlei

enjean2013 4 Comments

One of the biggest reasons we wanted to include Nambia on our self-drive safari itinerary was to visit the surreal landscape of the dunes of Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert. We were able to spend two days exploring the area.

Unfortunately, a lot of our visit was dominated by the wind, which we described here.

Deadvlei

This pan with dead trees surrounded by massive red dunes was what we had seen pictures of and were looking forward to the most. It was a bit of a chore to get there – an hour drive on a paved road, 5 km on a sandy 4×4 track (Botswana experience came in handy here!), and then a 1 km hike through some blowing sand.

But once we crested a dune and saw the vlei, we were pretty happy to be here!

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Down in the vlei, the wind was mostly blocked by the dunes, so we spent a long time soaking in the surreal scenery around us.

Sesriem Canyon

The campground for the area is located near the Sesriem Canyon, which is a pretty cool attraction in its own right. We spent an afternoon walking upstream and downstream through the dry canyon bed.

Scenic Lookout

This was marked on the map, but not with a sign! We wouldn’t have found it if we hadn’t seen someone else here. We were able to walk out and get a nice view of the red dunes.

 

Elim Dune

Another spot that was on the map but a little hard to find. We climbed this dune, found right inside the park, on our first evening. We didn’t make it all the way to the top, because it got a little windy (and Della discovered that Keen’s are not the best for dune hiking)

 

Dune 45

One of the most popular activities in the park is to wake up very early and drive to this dune, hiking up in time to catch the sunrise over the red dunes. We planned to do this the morning after our first night in the park. But, when the aforementioned wind was still blowing when the alarm rang, we opted not to go. We thought about doing the climb the next morning before we left, but since the wind was also blowing hard that morning, we decided to skip this dune. We were pretty bummed about this!

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See the blowing sand? We decided to pass on that in our face

Hidden Vlei

The guidebook and a sign said this was only 2 km from the main Sossusvlei parking lot. But it was so windy that we couldn’t find the markers we were supposed to follow!

Hidden Vlei was somewhere out there... we think

Hidden Vlei was somewhere out there… we think

Moments of Misery: A Mighty Wind

enjean2013 5 Comments

Most of our posts on this blog will be happy recollections of some moments of our trip. But life on the road won’t always be fun. We feel like we’d like to share some of these moments of misery too. (OK, and vent a little about them too…)

Nineteen days into our safari, we were feeling so confident about the camping aspect of the trip. Sure, it had been a little cold, but we had figured out how to dress ourselves to deal with that. We were getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night, if not more.

Then it got windy.

After the sun went down on our night in Solitaire, a strong wind started to blow. We manoeuvred the truck into place behind the ablutions block, but it still didn’t really block the wind very well. Our tent was pretty sturdy, so we were worried about it collapsing or blowing away, but the wind was gusting strongly enough to cause the sides to flap very loudly, and even the wooden floor to vibrate. We didn’t get much sleep until the wind died down around midnight.

Hiding our tent behind the ablutions building

Hiding our tent behind the ablutions building

The next morning we were pretty frustrated not to have gotten much sleep. But, it wasn’t windy anymore, so we hoped our next night in Sesriem would be better. All day it was nice and calm, and even by the time we went to bed, there was only a light breeze. We were looking forward to a nice night of sleep to make up for the previous night.

Around 11, the wind came.

It was just as bad as at Solitaire, and this time continued on through the morning, interrupting some of our plans for visiting Sossusvlei. By the afternoon, the wind had died down to a light breeze. OK, this night, we really were looking forward to some solid sleep.

Around 10, the wind came.

Again, the wind lasted until the morning. We left Sesriem pretty bitter about the lack of sleep and interruption of our plans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwBBG_bL-Jc&feature=youtu.be

 

The next night, in the Quivertree Forest, there was no wind, and we finally got some good sleep!

Botswana

enjean2013 5 Comments

The first half of our self-drive safari was spent in the country of Botswana. We really enjoyed our time in the country, and thought we’d share some observations about the places we visited.

Safari Night 2: Khama Rhino Sanctuary, outside Serowe

Our first stop was at the campground at this haven for rhinos and other game.

Getting There

We were still adjusting to camping rhythms, and we left from our previous night’s camp in South Africa later than we should have. Crossing the border took a long time as well, with multiple lines to wait in. We were still a little way away from the site as the sun was getting pretty low in the sky, so we were getting nervous. Luckily, we made it to the site before it got dark.

Campsite

Nice and secluded with a sandy base. Each site has its own nice big tree.

Ablutions

They felt a bit rustic, but the water was nice and warm

Activities

You can do a game drive within the sanctuary with hopes of seeing the rhinos,but we arrived too late at night to do this. Instead, we woke up early the next morning and drove around the park. We didn’t see the rhinos but did get our first views of some other game.

 

Safari Night 3: Khumaga Campsite, Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Getting There

We left early enough from the Rhino Sanctuary that we were able to make it here a little earlier. What we didn’t realize until we got there was that to actually get to the campsite you have to take a ferry across a river! This ferry costs 130 pula (almost $15) per one-way trip too!

Campsite

More out in the open than we would have liked, with a lot of exposure to other camps,

Ablutions

The first of what we learned was the standard model in Botswana parks. Nice interior furnishings. Only so-so for hot water.

Activities

We had time to do an evening game drive, but boy were we not prepared, This was our first introduction to sandy roads, and there was a big learning curve for figuring out how to navigate them. We gave up after almost getting stuck a couple of times, so we can’t really comment about what you will see! (We later figured some things out that we’ll put in a separate post)

Safari Night 4 & 5: Third Bridge Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve

Getting There

We had to cross back over on the ferry to leave Khumaga, then we had to drive through the town of Maun. Here we wanted to see if we could modify our reservations to get extra nights at some camps inside the park – we hadn’t been able to reserve these ahead of times. However, this got confusing because Botswana has privatized its campsites inside the parks, so you have to visit a different office than the National Parks Office (where we had to pay park fees). To make it even more confusing, different campsites are run by different companies! So, in Maun, we visited: the parks office (to figure out what to do), Xomae Camps, SKL Camps and then back to the parks office (because we couldn’t pay our fees until we had proof of our sites). Phew!

The road to Moremi itself switched to gravel, and then in the park back to sand. Uh oh we thought! But we deflated our tires (a big key) and switched into H4 and had no troubles.

Campsite

We stayed here two nights and actually stayed in two different sites. The first night we had to share a sight because of some confusion in the office (even at $100 a night they rely on paper records…). Luckily, the three guys (a South African, Namibian and Englishman) we ended up sharing with the first night turned out to be very helpful. They shared their fire with us and provided a lot of valuable advice about the different parks and route. It was almost sad to move to our own site the next day.

The sites themselves had nice shade trees over a sandy base. The edge of the sites was the water of the Okavongo Delta, so at night you would hear hippos pretty close to the tent.

Ablutions

The standard Botswana parks setup.We followed our neighbor’s advice and tried the showers in the middle of the day (the water is heated by solar), and it was pretty warm.

Activities

You are in the middle of Moremi, so go on a game drive! If you are brave enough to cross the “bridge” the site is named after…

Safari Night 6: Khwai Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve

Getting There

From Third Bridge to Khwai is basically a game drive in itself. A must-stop along the way was the hippo pools.

Campsite

The site itself was a little less nice than Third Bridge in terms of layout. There was a road right through the site basically but luckily no one ever drove down it. This was where we had a late night visitor. The back of the site was the Khwai River, so we also heard hippos again.

Ablutions

Standard Botswana parks setup again. Our shower was pretty hot here.

Activities

You could do a game drive in the area, but since we had driven from Third Bridge we didn’t partake.

Safari Night 7: Savuti Camp, Chobe National Park

Getting There

The drive from Khwai to Savuti was for the most part the standard sandy roads. There was one tricky water crossing to get out of Khwai Village, but someone was kind enough to show us the way.

Campsite

Our site itself was pretty paltry – just a patch of sand with a tree (but we were afraid to get too close to the tree because we were told an elephant might come through and they like those trees). There was a small store in the camp where we purchased a couple of cold beers while we relaxed in the afternoon.

Ablutions

The building was the standard setup, but what was unique here was that the building was surrounded by a reinforced circular fence with a gate. We think this was for the elephant worry mentioned before.

Activities

We did an afternoon game drive and saw our first lion of the trip! There were plenty of other places to explore that we didn’t get around to.

Safari Night 8, 9, 10: Chobe Safari Lodge, Kasane

Getting There

The drive to Kasane was boring… for the most part. We knew it was going to switch to a hard “tar” road at some point, so when it got to be hard gravel we decided to re-inflate the tires. Of course then it turned back to sand around the next corner so we re-deflated.

Then, when we knew we were almost to the tar road, we came upon a hill with deep sand… and got stuck! We were trying to figure out how to use the rubber mats and shovel when a truck of safari drivers came by. One hopped in the car, put it in L4 reverse, and got out. We were definitely grateful!

The tar road was a nice relief after multiple days of sandy roads.

Campsite

This campsite was attached to a fancy lodge, so we were definitely impressed with the reception desk and the lodge itself. The campsite… didn’t have that much going for it. Our space was a patch of dirt just wide enough for our truck, surrounded by thornbushes. The sites were packed pretty tightly together. The one saving grace was that within 100 feet they had a bar overlooking the river, where we spent multiple afternoons drinking beers and watching elephants graze.

Ablutions

Substandard, for sure. Felt outdated. Water for the shower could barely be called warm.

Activities

As this was a lodge, you could pay to do all sorts of things. Kasane itself is a town full of potential activities. This was the base for our Victoria Falls trip. We also paid to take one of the lodge’s morning game drives through the riverfront section of Chobe.

 

Final Thoughts

We definitely enjoyed our time in Botswana and all of the game-watching opportunities it provided. The people of the country were all very kind and also very proud of the country. We did get a little frustrated by how expensive everything associated with the parks seemed to be – park fees, campsite rates, and so on. But that didn’t keep us from having a great time!

Monthly Recap: Month 1

globegazers 21 Comments

We have now been on the road for 1 month! It is hard to believe, at times feeling like way more than a month and at times feeling like way less. We plan to do a recap every month to summarize and then reflect.

Countries visited: 5 (Egypt, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia) – though two of those countries were visited for less than a day (12 hour layover in Cairo and Victoria Falls).

*Countries looked at: 2 (We stood across the border and reached our hands into Zambia on our Vic Falls trip, and we looked across the river into Angola at N’kwazi camp in the Caprivi Strip, Namibia)

Beds Slept In: 3 (One of those was our Self-Drive Safari tent which we set up 18 times!!)

Top Moments:

~We both agree that our first top moment was coming across the “Hippo Pool” in Moremi Game Reserve on our way to Khwai campsite. We had been stressing about the deep sandy roads we had been driving, but when we found this secluded spot and climbed into the blind to observe a large pool with many hippos sleeping and feeding, all the stress melted away. We were also thrilled to see the hippos!

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~We were so thrilled that our plan to visit Victoria Falls came together smoothly and that we were taken in by a large family of South Africans during the day.

~We both loved Etosha National Park! One of our favorite times was our afternoon game drive there where we came across a waterhole where we observed several elephants drinking, bathing, and playing. When we arrived, one elephant was in the middle of the pool, up to his head, and he was rolling around, clearly reveling in the water. As we watched, another elephant joined the first and they played with each other, climbing on each other’s backs and entwining trunks. At first we thought that they were mating? But a little later a third, much smaller elephant joined in so we weren’t sure.

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Runners up for Top Moments:

~Despite being exhausted after hours of deep sand driving, we decided to go out for an evening game drive at Savuti camp in Chobe National Park. We were so glad we did. We turned onto a side road which would take us to some rock paintings and we saw a car stopped ahead of us. They were observing a lion sleeping under a tree right next to the road! We were so thrilled to see our very first lion!

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~After a week in the wilds of Botswana staying at wild campsites, driving on deep sandy roads, and meeting hyenas, we were excited to finally make it to Kasane, where we stayed at Chobe Safari Lodge. First we were so happy to have access to internet to be in contact with family and friends, but we also loved their riverside bar. We would sit there with our St. Louis Exports (a Botswana beer) and watch the sunset over the Chobe River. What made this extra special was the elephants feeding in the water on the other side.

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~After two windy, miserable nights leading up to our camp at Sesriem in Namibia and a horrible, windy morning, we finally made it to Dead Vlei (see upcoming post) which was exactly what we had been waiting for the whole trip. Phew.

Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

1. Eric’s watch is broken. The battery died. He is very sad.
2. Eric’s camera is almost broken. There was an unfortunate incident where it fell out of the car in the deep sand. Luckily, it was not on this list as lost which it was very nearly. But since that time, it hasn’t worked quite right.
3. New bar of soap purchased!

Packing Update:

We have not made any changes to our bag contents. We only wish that we had some more warm clothing for this safari portion of the trip.

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read The Covenant by James Michener, Adrenaline by John Bendict, Adrift by Erica Conroy, The Advocate by Teresa Burrell
Eric had read The Stand by Stephan King and Starfish by Peter Watts
Eric and Della have BOTH read Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane, Born Free by Joy Adamson, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, Morality for Beautiful Girls (the 3rd book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series) by Alexander McCall Smith, and The Kalahari Typing School For Men (the 4th book!) by Alexander McCall Smith. (We read the No. 1 Ladies’ books out loud to each other while we drove across Botswana – very appropriate!)

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Small Comforts

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There are a few small comforts that we run into now and then that really make us feel better while traveling…

Small Comfort 1: Clean fingernails!

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As you can imagine, camping for 25 days is sandy, dusty, desert-y climates can make you dirty! There was almost nothing better than those first few (unfortunately, very few) minutes after a shower when the fingernails were clean!

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Self-Drive Safari, Week Four

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We’re not sure we will have Internet access while on our safari, so we’ve scheduled a few posts like these to automatically go out.

During the final week of our safari, here is where we are planning to be:

Day 22 – July 29

We leave Sesriem and start our long haul back to Joburg. Tonight we stop in Keetmanshoop, Namibia at the Mesosaurus Fossil Camp.

Day 23 – July 30

A very long day of driving – all the way to Kuruman, South Africa where we spend the night at the Red Sands Country Lodge.

Day 24 – July 31

We will drive almost all of the way to Joburg, stopping about an hour away. No camp booked yet, but we are expecting to stay somewhere near Magaliesburg.

Day 25 – August 1

Explore the Cradle of Humankind archeological park, where there is a visitor center and a cave where ancient hominids were found,. Once done, we drive to Joburg and return our truck to Bushlore – hopefully in one piece! 🙂

Our Self-Drive Safari Truck

globegazers 4 Comments

We wanted to show you all our self-drive safari truck… or our home on the road currently. We picked up our trusty Toyota Hilux in Aug 8 in Joburg. We promptly named her Hennie Hilux for the duration of the trip. She has everything we need to live comfortably for the following 25 days. Here is a series of pictures to show you how we’re living.

Victoria Falls

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When planning our self-drive safari, we knew that a visit to Victoria Falls was a must-do. These gigantic falls are definitely a unique attraction within the world.

The falls are a nice day trip from the town of Kasane in Botswana, where we were staying for three nights. The falls themselves are on the Zambezi River, which forms the boundary between Zimbabwe and Zambia. So, to visit the falls you have to go into one of those countries for the day. All of the tours offered in Kasane go to the Zimbabwe side, which was convenient since that’s where we wanted to go anyway!

We booked our day trip as “unguided,” meaning that the tour company would get us to the park and back from Kasane, but we were on our own inside the park. We priced a few companies in town, then went with one that was cheap and already had a large group going (meaning we were less likely to get lost). After paying though, we began to have regrets for going through a random company we found on the street. What would we do if the driver didn’t show up the next day?

Luckily, our worries were unfounded. Our driver showed up the next day right on time. He took us to the border, where we first had to get a stamp to exit Botswana. Then, he drove us a little down the road to enter Zimbabwe. Both stations were very crowded with tourists trying to do the same thing! The visa for us to enter just for the day was $30 US, which seemed very high!

We were then handed off to our driver from the Zimbabwe side. It is cheaper for the company to have a separate vehicle in Zimbabwe than to pay fees for taking a vehicle through.

At the falls park, one of the first things you will notice in the parking lot is vendors attempting to rent you ponchos. We had our own so we were prepared.

The entry fee to the park was also $30 US per person. This plus the visa fee plus the tour fee made for an expensive day!

There are numbered viewing areas that you go through as you get closer and closer to the main falls. First,  you start off near the Devil’s Cataract. Then as you proceed down the stations, it starts to get mistier and mistier. At some of the final stations, the mist from the falls is so powerful that it feels like rain is falling. We don’t have pictures from these stations because we didn’t want to get our cameras wet! Even with our ponchos, our lower legs got soaking wet. We’d recommend for future visitors to wear sandals!

We also took a little bit of time to walk out on the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia. At least we didn’t have to pay a fee for this – just a “bridge pass” is enough even though you are technically leaving the country. There was a bungee jump available from the bridge, but we decided to pass :).

It was a quick visit, but one that we won’t soon forget!

Self-Drive Safari, Week Three

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We’re not sure we will have Internet access while on our safari, so we’ve scheduled a few posts like these to automatically go out.

During the third week of our safari, here is where we are planning to be:

Day 15 – July 22

We spend the day exploring Etosha National Park in Namibia, again spending the night in Halali Camp.

Day 16 – July 23

Another full day in Etosha and a night in Halali.

Day 17 – July 24

We leave Etosha and head to Twyfelfontein, spending the night in Abu Huab camp. Hopefully we have some time this day or tomorrow to explore some rock art in the area.

Day 18 – July 25

We drive to the coastal town of Swakopmund, spending the night at Alte Bruck.

Day 19 – July 26

We drive from Swakopmund to the town of Solitaire staying at Solitaire Guest Farm.

Day 20 – July 27

We drive to Sesriem and and explore Sesriem Canyon. We spend the night in the campground here.

Day 21 – July 28

Another day in Sesriem which we will use to explore Soususvlei.