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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!!
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| Tiger Fishing on the Chobe River |
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.
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| Hennie getting wet again |
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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!
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| Ivory Lodge Campsite |
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| 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.
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| Matopos Hills |
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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….
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| The milk truck |
We stopped in Bulawayo for a quick Malaria test which luckily was negative
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| 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.
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