Katima Mulilo to The Great Zimbabwean Ruins

Although Katima Mulilo (it’s got a nice sound to it….Ka-ti-ma-mu-li-lo) was a short stay for us we enjoyed the campsite on the banks of the Zambezi River with warnings everywhere of possible crocodiles and hippo’s. We spoiled ourselves with a meal out and at last I got to have Bream, which is a local river fish….very tasty!

68 Km to Ngoma Bridge/Gate had us saying goodbye to Namibia and into Botswana. The border post was friendly and efficient and half an hour later we entered into Chobe National Park. This stretch of 70km to Vic Falls is a national road that runs through the Park so the motorbikes were allowed here. We loved it and saw giraffe and elephants on the way. I must admit that you do feel a little vulnerable on a bike with an elephant standing next you. 

See the elephant crossing behind me?

We arrived in Kasane before lunch and had time to check out some campsites and plan a river cruise. As we were about to give our credit card to the lady at the reception of one of the lodges we heard a voice in Afrikaans next to us. Gerhard (Guts) Swanepoel high jacked us there and then and said he missed speaking Afrikaans and we should come and stay with him. Gerhard runs a company called Pangolin                         ( www.pangolinphoto.com) in Kasane. They offer unique Game Drives and River Cruises where they give you a state of the art camera and teach you how to take National Geographic Quality photos. Yip, he is that good!

Professionals in the making...thanx to Guts

So we followed him to their beautiful house on the Chobe River. Thank you Gerhard and Kerstin! We had such a wonderful time and can’t thank you enough.

Guts and Kerstin's home - look at the tree going through the roof!!

We joined his afternoon cruise and saw the most amazing things…..a Jakana bird with a chic that the male Jakana picks up under his wing when we come too close, Fish Eagles up close and personal, Hippo’s fighting and lots of Elephants. We were also taken to Bird Island which is where all the birds of the surrounding area come at sunset to spend the night. You should see our professional photos of all these.

 Guts and Kerstin invited us for dinner with friends of theirs from PE, so we spent the night speaking Afrikaans to 13 travelers from our home town…craziness.

It did not take much to convince us to stay another night, Guts just mentioned Tiger fishing and Hennie was in. So we had coffee on the Chobe in their small boat followed by a lazy breakfast of French toast and Nutela (which I enjoyed so much I had it all over my face). We found some time for blogging and set off on our Tiger Fishing expedition.

On the way there Guts and Kerstin found 2 more motorbike travelers and they too received an invitation to stay in their house and join us for the fishing. Guts and Kerstin you really are special!!

Tiger Fishing on the Chobe River

Hennie trying for a Tiger

So we got to meet Roy Elmholdt and Lathoya Lekatompessy, who are from Holland. You should hear their story…. They also quit their jobs and sold all their belongings (except for a huge flat screen TV) and started their journey on two motorbikes 8 months ago. They have toured through all of Asia and shipped their bikes from Malaysia to Cape Town and now are on their way back to Holland through Africa. We really enjoyed sharing some of their stories. They are also blogging on their own website called Nowayback. I’ll add the link as soon as I have it....it's http://www.nowayback.info/

Guts and Kerstin with their dogs Bliksem and Dixie

 Although we had an exciting afternoon with new friends the Tiger Fish were not willing to bite and poor Hennie went home without his Tiger. We said good bye early the next morning with the exciting notion of seeing the Victoria Falls!

Hennie, Mia, Lethoya,Roy,Kerstin and Guts

The view infront of their house on the Chobe

All the bikes

After some photos at the Kazangula ferry (to Zambia) and an easy border crossing at Kasane (into Zimbabwe) we had 70km to the town of Victoria Falls. We drove straight to the falls really excited to view them and started the walk where you can view all the points on the Zimbabwean side. In our rush we declined the offers of locals to buy rain coats thinking we would enjoy getting a little wet……what’s a little water anyway??

The smoke that thunders

Still relatively dry

Just the beginning of the falls

The river was high so there was a lot more than “a little water”, it was more like walking in a Balinese Monsoon. Within minutes we were drenched. Our riding pants and boots were soaked and became very heavy and uncomfortable. We could not see much behind the curtain of water but what we saw was spectacular. The falls are much bigger than I expected, a long white curtain of thundering water (Mosi oa Tunya – the Smoke that Thunders).  They are truly magical and I can only image what David Livingstone felt the first time he came across them. I think it would have been ideal to see them from the air so I will have to return with a bigger budget.

We could not cross the bridge to see the Zambian side as we did not have Yellow Fever Vaccinations, but at this point we did not mind all that much as we were wet and hungry   ( not a great combination), so we changed into dry clothes and had a great lunch (cherry- whirl milkshake).

 Victoria Falls really is a tourist town and we found everything to be ridiculously expensive. As we are not so crazy about the touristy activities we decided to drive on to Hwange National Park about 130km away. We got caught in an afternoon thunder storm and again we were drenched….not our lucky day.

Hennie getting wet again

We found the Ivory Lodge on recommendation by Kerstin. The camping was a bit wild, but had everything we needed and after supper (2 Minute noodles and Tuna) we had an unforgettable elephant experience. The camp has a hide built close to a water hole. They throw coarse salt onto the ground about 3m in front of the hide. The elephants love this and come right up to the hide to eat the salt on the ground. We were about 2m away from 30 of them, and spent more than an hour just watching in awe. Our second magical experience of the day!

Ivory Lodge Campsite

Elephants really close

 Before bed we had tea with Thulani, a tour guide who camped with us. He told us a story of a 6m black mamba that he found under his tent in the Kalahari. Needles to say, we did not sleep that well, with the mamba bedtime story and knowing there were no fences around the camp. Hennie also started feeling feverish during the night…..no really.

We had breakfast at the lodge and were surprised by another visit of a different herd of elephant at the hide, this time more that 80. What a sight!!

The road to Bulawayo was straight and boring; tar road really does make it easy for us. We were expecting to be stopped by the police as we had been informed of these stops by the other travelers at the camp. They all had to pay horrible fines for silly things like not having a fire extinguisher (which would be challenging on a bike), not having lock nuts on their wheels ect ect. We were stopped 6 times and not fined once. I think the fact that Hennie kept talking and telling them how much we like Zimbabwe and how excited we are to be here, not giving them a gap to ask anything was the reason. So this would be our strategy for all the road blocks to come….we’ll see what happens.

In Bulawayo we stopped for petrol and food. The city is a crazy Afican city with taxis, busses, people and bicycles everywhere. Even our GPS could not cope. A driving nightmare but colorful and busy. Our destination for the night was the Matopo Hills which is where Cecil John Roads was buried, which was about 40km outside Bulawayo.

We camped at The Big Cave Campsite where we were all alone under a beautiful starry sky. Hennie, still not feeling well went to bed early.

 

Matopos Hills

In the morning on our way to the Matopos National Park we came across our second accident, again first on the scene….a milk truck with 3 passengers had driven off a narrow bridge and rolled into a ditch. One passenger was out and informed us that the driver was trapped inside. A lady was lying in the grass crying with pain. A taxi stopped to help and with a little coordination we managed to get the driver out safely. The whole area was full of milk and diesel. Hennie had to pick the lady up to move her away from the leaking diesel and could feel crepitations on the right hand side of her chest. It looked like she had fractured some ribs. Both injured parties were taken to hospital by the taxi. I did not even get to use my medikit….

The milk truck

We stopped in Bulawayo for a quick Malaria test which luckily was negative

Ag shame

We drove 300km to The Great Zimbabwean Ruins, and came across another 3 road blocks. The one police lady allowed us to pass without a fine if we promised to make babies in Zimbabwe..haha..lol. So still no fine.

The ruins have their own campsite which was really cheap but a little run down. We had a good meal and had a chat with some other travelers. Tomorrow we have a jam packed day with the ruins early morning and then a long trip to Nyanga to see the eastern hills.

Our time is running out quickly now but we want to try and see as much of Zim as possible.

Caprivi??

Caprivi?  Unexpected change of plans!

I took the extra day in Oshikati to make sure the bikes were ready for the second half of our adventure, changing the oil and checking the battery water.

Thursday morning we were up before the sun as we had a big day ahead of us, some 550km to Rundu. We said good bye to Braam who even drove ahead of us for a bit to show us the road and left Oshikati round 7:30. 

Bye Braam??

Only 45 km out of Oshikati Mia’s bike, “Night Fury” was overheating so we stopped… I started by checking all the components I worked on the previous day, but could not find anything wrong. Double checking in the Heinz manual Henri gave us to explain everything that could cause over-heating problems we headed off again hoping for the best.

Here we are again

Less than ten kilometers on the same warning light came on..?? We stopped again! 

This time I noticed that the water was not being pulled through the radiator from the water container. I filled up the radiator and noticed the water dripping out a small leak from the bottom of the radiator. While the Night Fury was cooling down, we grabbed the map and decided to head straight for Oshikango (On the Angola border) some 8km away.

The day was quickly changing into something we had not planned for. At 11:00am we arrived in Oshikango. As we arrived, Night Fury still showed the same problem. We pulled into the first service station, both already showing signs of frustration. The only person we knew in the Northern parts of Namibia was Braam…. so I called him. He did not hesitate to help and told me to stay put as he had connections in Oshikango. His friend Loise (his motorbiking buddy) who owns a bike shop (KTM) came to get us and took us to his business premises where we assessed the problem.

We pulled apart the whole cooling system of the Night Fury and discovered that the radiator had a shaving mark right up the middle…

Loise made some phone calls for a replacement part, but could not manage to get one in the whole of Namibia. Our mood was sinking! I knew the problem was going to cost us some time, but not having the spare in Namibia meant getting one from SA which would take even more time.

I decided to not waste any more time and source it myself. My first phone call must have been a blessing in the right direction. I phoned Guy Houwens in PE (Port Elizabeth)...and amazingly he had the spare we were looking for in his workshop! Whooha!

Meanwhile as we were waiting to get confirmation from the courier pickup in PE the sun was frowning over the town and the only way we could bear the heat was to escape into a KFC with some good air conditioning.

Braam arrived in Oshikango with the good news that he had already arranged the courier service and that the spare was being picked up in PE as we spoke.

Thank you Braam and Guy!

So we loaded the Night Fury (in pieces) onto Braam's bakkie and headed back to Oshikati to Braam’s house. 

Night Fury in pieces

 

On our arrival in Oshikati Braam’s brother Josef offered to attempt to fix the broken radiator. These guys know their story and within half an hour and some alu-putty it was fixed. Maybe good for 100km or 10 000km, who knows…

Again that night we were entertained in the best of Namibian fashion.

The following morning I fitted the fixed radiator and it worked! Sunday morning we joined Braam, Marius and Loise on the bikes and explored the area around Oshikati up to Ondangwa where we picked up the radiator from a guy who works for Loise. Thank you Loise for the logistical help!

Some fun in Oshikati while we wait

With little persuasion Braam agreed to join us into Caprivi! So after we fitted the new part to Mia’s motorbike we were ready to get back on the road on Monday morning.

To our dismay the new radiator that we had spent 4 days waiting for was faulty…. What now?? We decided to change back to the original radiator which was fixed by Josef (Braam’s Brother) because after all, it lasted the weekend’s ride..

By now I was able to do a radiator exchange on a BMW with my eyes closed!

We left Oshikati at 11:00 am.. destination Rundu, 520km..  As per our planning Rundu was just a quick overnighter on our way to the Caprivi.

Monday late afternoon we arrived in Rundu. Braam had arranged for us to camp on one of his friends (Jaco van Dyk) front lawn. Thank you Jaco for your friendly hospitality!

The van Dyk's

After a BIG Wimpy Breakfast we set off to Divundu, Ngepi Lodge on the Kavango River.

Braam and Hennie watching a man in his makoro on the Kavango River

We stopped at Andara Catholic Mission along the road

The 4km to the lodge was very scary with deep loose sand. As usual the yellow canary took a dive, but Braam made Mia feel better when he put his bike down as well.LOL!!

Hennie laughed and took photos - Braam bit of earth

The canary's turn, Hennie still laughing...

This lodge was absolutely amazing. Rustic tree houses on the river bed built with creativity that you can not imagine. With lots to do and see we planned to stay here for two days. 

Our tree house on the Kavango River

On our first evening we arranged for a sunset boat cruise. A beautiful sunset, many hippos really close to the boat and lots of water, absolutely spectacular! The guide informed us that the river levels were still rising because of flood waters flowing through from Angola and filtering down to the Okavango delta. Quite sad for a river that never reaches the sea.

Sunset cruise

The Guava Bar at Ngepi Lodge

 The following morning we were up early with a day planned and packed with adventure. First we had our minds set on some Tiger Fishing!  After a couple of hours and zero luck our enthusiasm failed us and we went home empty handed.

Luckily for me we have the whole Zambezi river still coming, so I’m long not done with Tiger fishing, I will get one!

After lunch a swim in the Kavango River among the Croc’s and Hippos was made possible by a floating cage. Another amazing experience!

Hennie still hoping for his big TIGER

Swimming with Crocs and Hippos

Game drive in Mahango

The afternoon the three of us took a game drive in the Mahango game reserve. A very nice and relaxing way to end our day.

Today we had to say goodbye to Braam. In this week, we made a great new friend with whom we shared many beautiful memories. Thank you Braam for all your kind help, support and enthusiasm.  We are sorry to see you go…

Bye Bye Braam

On the road to Katima Mulilo

320km to Katima Mulilo as our next destination. Katima is situated on the northern part of the Caprivi strip. A boarder town should you want to pass into Zambia. Here we were greeted by the even mightier Zambezi River. We followed our Bardenhorst notes to Namwi Island campsite. Hoping to see the friendly hippo called Stompie.

Tomorrow we will cross into Botswana. A short ride and hopefully a quick border crossing, plan to stay only one night in Kasane on our way to Zimbabwe - Vic Falls!! Heeeha!

Swakopmund - Oshakati

Hello everyone…here our story continues. We absolutely loved Swakopmund, but today we have to move on. Thank you again to the Bardenhorst family for their friendly help. 

Goodbye Swakop

With a long day ahead we headed off to Henties Bay early morning on what the Namibian’s call a salt road (Skeleton Coast). Kind of like tar but not, and very slippery when wet. Lucky for us it was dry, but colder than expected and we were wearing all our warm clothes on top of each other. The road was rather earie, misty and cool but yet barren and alone.

The road to Henties

We stopped in Henties for a breakfast and a quick look around.

Henties Bay

Our next stop, only 65km on, was Cape Cross, famous for its seal colony. Motorbikes are not permitted, but the couple of Owambo words we had learnt up to now worked like magic and we quickly became the exception to the rule. At Cape Cross there were thousands and thousands of seals everywhere, the sea was full of them, the beach was full of them. Crazy! But even more impressive to see was the beautiful left hand point break that would have been great for a surf. 

Cape Cross Seal Colony

 

Mia could not handle the smell, which was caused by a mixture between massive amounts of seal excrement and dead decaying seal bodies (yip..that bad) so we did not stay very long.

We followed the road up to Mile 108 and turned inland towards the Burnt Mountains where we were planning to camp that night. This took us onto a district road which is something like a secondary gravel road. This last 190 km stretch turned out to be extremely challenging. Within half an hour we were back in the dry hot dessert area and had to make a stop to take off all the layers of clothing we had on. As we were gaining altitude the landscapes and colors kept on changing. Even the color of the road kept changing, from red to purple, maroon, pink and white, and with every change the condition changed as well… this meant hard work on our part and required an extreme high level of concentration.

Just as we thought things could not get any worse, whalla… our friend “ sand” arrived! 

Mia walks the canary through the sand

It was very tough and very slow! But eventually at 18:30 we arrived at the camp! Exhausted and dead tired! 

The “Brandberg White Lady Lodge” provided us with a warm welcome and lots of unusual staff members, like a dwarf python, which helped us forget about our tough day.

Dwarf Python

The Lodge looked out onto the “The Burnt Mountains” with scenery I can not express.

Beautiful Brandberg

And again..

After chatting to some locals and other travelers about our planned route, we both agreed to change our plans and take easier roads.

Kamanjab was to be our next destination as it was on a good gravel road. We stopped to take a photo with some tradition Herero women who sell their crafts next to the road. 

Herero women

We arrived in Kamanjab nice and early and found a private farm called ALPEC Bushcamp and Game Park, with a wonderful campsite. The farm is run by Pieter and Alene Pretorius, who in true Namibian style, made us feel very welcome. They joined us at the campsite for a braai and we had a great evening together. Thank you Pieter and Alene for your company, the lessons about Jagermeister and the home grown butternut!

Hennie, Mia, Alene and Pieter

Tar road to Opuwo was a welcome change. In Herero language, Opuwo means “the end” which is certainly a fitting name for this dusty collection of concrete commercial buildings ringed by traditional rondavels and huts. We found an expensive lodge with a cheap but stunning campsite, on recommendation from Tannie Andriette. (Dankie Tannie!) So we could enjoy the beautiful pool and setting while sipping a Malawian shandy….now we’re on holiday!

The end of civilization - Opuwo

We left civilization towards the Epupa falls and found the road winding between little green hills and rocky open plains. This was to be our taste of the Koakoveld which is often described as one of the last true wildernesses in Southern Africa with free roaming desert elephants and lions. On the road we passed many Himba villages.

Hennie with two Himba Boys

The Himbas are a semi-nomadic pastoral people that continue to live much as they have for generations on end. The women smear themselves with a mixture of animal fat, bush herbs and red powder/stone which dyes their skin a burnt-orange color. This serves as a natural sun block and insect repellent, so apparently there is no need to bath. They use this to cover their braided hair and wear nothing but an animal skin around their waists. Though this is supposed to be a big attraction to tourists I think the fact that we come from South Africa and have seen these traditional outfits in our Zulu’s made it a little less exciting for us. We found the Himba’s to be pushy and near aggressive trying to sell their crafts to you, so really a bit scary and smelly. The fact that they wanted $50 for a photo was ridiculous.

A Himba woman and her baby

We arrived at Epupa (Falling Waters in Herero) early afternoon with enough time to swim in some of the pools next to the waterfall( apparently crocodile free), save a local donkey trapped in the rope tying him to a tree near the river and check out the view from a close by hill for a sundowner.

Swimming in the pools of Epupa

Epupa waterfall

Camp at Epupa

Here we met two couples, Oom Koos & Tannie Willemien Croucamp and Oom Michael and Tannie Marieta Holland-Muter.

Oom Michael &Tannie Marieta,Oom Koos & Tannie Willemien

What a treat! They are all from South Africa and we got to know them quite well over the next two days as they traveled with us to Ruacana. We really enjoyed their company and spent most of the time laughing at Oom Michael’s stories about all his many girlfriends.

We left after them the next day but met up again when we stopped for a drink at Kasane River Lodge. Here we decided to travel together, which really was a blessing as the 48km to Ruacana was to be the most testing road we’ve had.

By now you will have realized that we write a lot about the road and its condition which may sound boring but if you spend 8hrs a day on a motorbike the road condition is what keeps you busy and determines what happens that day. So please bear with us…

Anyway, on the road from our stop to Ruacana, Hennie’s motorbike (Taruk) got stuck in a deep mud pit and the Yellow Canary (AKA Night Fury!) had a pull him out…lol.

Taruk in trouble

He nearly did it again when he hit a deep water trench and soaked his side panniers…which means he was nearly deep enough to swim. Just after that Night Fury/Yellow Canary had a lie down in her own muddy pit and again on a very rocky downhill. Nothing broke and no one got hurt so all and all a brilliant day full of fun and games. The Fortuner in front of us (Oom Michael and Tannie Marieta) had no problems but the other Fortuner behind us (Oom Koos and Tannie Willemien) very nearly got stuck and spun out half of Ovambo land’s mud to free themselves.

We camped at Ruacana with our new friends and laughed and chatted until 1am the next morning. Thank you to the Croucamp’s and Holland-Muter’s for their special company and the way they took care of us those two days! Zahelo.

Tuesday 13 March we had a short tarred journey to Oshakati where we abused Namibian hospitality and went looking for Braam, Nico’s friend. He was kind enough to help us fix the canary’s right mirror and even braaied for us that evening. We woke up on Wednesday in pouring rain and decided to stay another day to do some washing, blogging and resting. Braam, we cannot thank you enough for your hospitality and help. We hope to return the favor with a visit in Canada or else pay it forward.

So hopefully tomorrow will be dry enough that we can take on the long road (Tarred – yeah!) to Rundu and so start our Caprivi expedition. We are trying to convince Braam to join us for a long weekend on his motorbike.