Self Drive Tour - Victoria Falls to Windhoek

Well, for those of you who expressed some concern about the safety and potential difficulties of completing a self-drive tour across Zimbabwean, Botswanian and Namibian borders, we’ll cut straight to the chase – we made it without serious incident (save for the odd flat tyre and getting sand bogged) and had an absolutely brilliant time in the process!  In fact, we couldn't more strongly recommend hiring a car in this part of the world; it provided us with such flexibility and autonomy – particularly in National Parks where we could do our own game drives and in the areas of Namibia where public transport is next to non-existent and car hire is the only tourist alternative to group tours.

We had organised this leg through a company called Discover Namibia – who made all arrangements with the car hire company, plotted out a route that showed off some incredible aspects of the countries we travelled through and made all the relevant campsite reservations.  It was all very easy and an experience to remember!    We are so thankful to Tess's Mum Julie for making this leg of our journey possible.  

Alick and our hire car 'Heidi' in Vic Falls at the start of the journey

We have included below some detail on our experiences in each destination, starting off with our experiences with roadside ‘requests’ along the way.  All in all, it makes for a rather long blog post though we wanted to make sure we got these memories down so we don’t forget them later on! We hope you enjoy reading them too….

Roadside requests

At the roadblocks and border crossings along the way, we had our first experiences of the ‘additional’ (aka bribe) requests that we had been forewarned about.  It really was quite comical and, over the course of the next two weeks, we certainly came to expect that the general flow of these conversations would be as follows:

Us: Hello, how are you?

Official at Gate Post: I’m not good at all today.  I haven’t had any (Insert drink/food item) today.  I’m very (thirsty/hungry).  In fact, I think that if I’m not able to find some (drink/food item), I will be so unwell that I will not be able to continue doing my job and open this gate post!

In fact, much later in our self-drive trip, a worker directing traffic through roadworks didn’t even bother with the ‘I’m not good’ song and dance – coming straight over to Alick and very casually stating ‘Just give me your sunglasses’.  We both started laughing at the bluntness of this request, as did the roadside worker who, on realising it wasn’t going to happen, followed up with ‘Well, maybe next time then.  Have a good day!’

Another classic stop was at the foot and mouth disease control post just before the Zimbabwe/Botswana border.  There was a massive sign that said we couldn’t bring milk (or milk products) into Botswana, in order to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease.  We hadn’t realised this and promptly disclosed that we had an open container of milk in our car fridge.  However, on opening our fridge to get it out, the quarantine officer decided that actually, the milk would be fine to take in (he wasn’t a big fan of milk), though he did see that we had a block of cheese and some limes – both of which he would have to take off us before we entered Botswana.  As we drove away from the quarantine post, we had a lovely vision of him unwrapping and biting into the confiscated cheese in our rear view mirror!  All of these experiences were in essence harmless, and certainly gave us some good amusement as we passed across borders!

One of the traffic hazards on the road from Victoria Falls

Chobe National Park, Botswana

The two nights we spent in Chobe Safari Lodge really highlighted the benefits of having our own car so we could spend as much time as we liked driving around looking at animals – the campsite was filled with other 4 wheel drives doing the same thing and there was a lovely sense of camaraderie amongst the cars, and whenever we passed on the roads, the drivers would wind down the windows and share where they had seen game and tips on where to look (and, it turned out to be a good thing that we had built up a friendship with some of the other drivers seeing as we needed to call on them one morning when an over-active car fridge saw us wake to a flat battery!).  It was at Chobe that we were so lucky to see two lionesses right beside the road, resting under a tree while carefully guarding an impala carcass from a kill earlier that morning.  Seeing our first lions in the wild, dozing after ‘breakfast’ really brought home to us the power of these beautiful creatures!

On our second night in Chobe we did a sunset game cruise through a company called Chobezi (who were recommended by a guy we met in Vic Falls).  The Chobe River (around which the Chobe National Park centres) was absolutely teeming with elephants, buffalo, hippos and crocodiles that evening and we couldn’t quite believe how close we were able to get.  

Crocodile, Chobe National Park

Camp Kwando, Caprivi Strip, Namibia

After crossing into Namibia, we stopped along the Caprivi Strip, camping at the beautiful Camp Kwando.  One of the great things about this stop was that we were able to self-drive in the nearby Mndumu National Park – which is slowly regenerating its wildlife populations after they were nearly wiped out by poaching in the 80’s.  While re-establishing itself, the Park currently has a very relaxed attitude to letting visitors drive around of their own accord with no instruction, and we did find ourselves in some rather hair-raising situations with a large herd of elephants!  Thankfully we could draw upon the information from Liwonde National Park about the bull always being behind his ‘wives and children’ and to never place ourselves between the bull and herd, so we could keep that in mind when determining when to proceed after elephant herds crossed the road in front of us.  The roads in Mndumu were rather difficult and after a few hours we came across a lady who had been bogged in the sand since the previous day.  Luckily Alick was able to tow her out, though we were certainly on lion and leopard lookout when getting out of the car to tie the ropes on (even though we wouldn’t have had a clue what to do if we had seen one!). 

The conservation efforts at Mndumu National Park include a partnership with the Lianshulu local community – as a means to both maintain cultural traditions and local awareness of conservation strategies.  One of the ways this is done is through a kind of ‘living museum’ where visitors can learn about traditional village life, customs and hunting – it was a very interesting tour. 

N’Kwazi Lodge, Kavango, Namibia

After we left Camp Kwando, we had an overnight stopover in the Kavango region to break up the journey to Etosha.  N’Kwazi Lodge was a beautiful setting looking over the river to Angola (we worked out this was our seventh night in a row where we were camped by a river with a different country on the opposite bank!). We had the camp completely to ourselves that evening,  which was lovely though the staff were very quick to assure us that the night guard would remain on shift throughout the night. 

N’Kwazi Lodge funds a local pre-school which we visited with one of the N’Kwazi staff members Isaac the next day.  It was great to see the school and meet the teacher and kids, though the highlight of this visit was the conversations we had with Isaac on the hour-long walk to and from the school about his life in Kavango, and Namibia more generally.

Alick and Isaac, Kavango

Namutoni and Okakeujo, Etosha National Park, Namibia

From Kavango we made our way to Etosha – where the wildlife was unlike anything we’d seen on our safari adventures yet.  We stayed in Namutoni camp for our first night there and on going for a quick afternoon drive before setting up camp were lucky enough to see a leopard right next to the road!  Amazing to see another big cat at such close quarters, although we felt a little bad as we were sure that the few cars that had pulled up to gaze at and photograph the leopard had interrupted her (or his!?!) plans to stalk and make dinner of the springbok grazing across the road…  At this point, we’d also not seen many zebras or giraffes in Africa and that certainly changed as soon as we hit Etosha, with large herds of both animals (in the case of zebras HUGE herds!) frequently crossing the road in front of our car as they made their way to water sources across the dry plains of the park. 

On our second and third nights in Etosha we stayed further west in Okakeujo camp – which had a floodlit waterhole right on the camp for night-time viewing.  We sat there for hours each evening while the wildlife soap-opera of elephants, rhinos, lions, springbok and giraffes played out before us.  Late on the first evening in Okakeujo we even saw a lioness kill a springbok at the waterhole just a few metres in front of us; such a unique experience to see the lions in action though so brutal at the same time. 

On our final morning in Etosha we went for an early morning game drive, and while initially kicking ourselves that we had overslept a little and had not made it out of the camp until 7am, we were amazed when we approached one of the furthest northern waterholes in the camp, and watched as a pride of around 15 lions (including heaps of very playful cubs) made their way calmly from the waterhole, across the road about 10m in front of our car, and into a nearby thicket.  It was fascinating to watch the dynamics in the group as ‘senior’ lionesses watchfully tolerated the antics of the cubs – who relished the opportunity to play, clubbing each other and rolling around in the grass, and to hold up the tourist cars by lying down for a quick rest in the middle of the road! It was an incredible gift to see on our last morning, and made us thankful for our laziness!  All of a sudden our timing for the moment felt perfect!

We really don’t know how else we can go about fully describing our Etosha experience, so hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves when we are finally able to get them onto Flickr (hopefully in the next week or so!). 

Mowani Mountain Camp, Damaraland, Namibia

As we left Etosha National Park and headed to the Damaraland desert we found ourselves with a flat tyre, literally 2km after hitting our first real gravel road for the drive.  We were so thankful this had occurred after we had left Etosha and we were at least able to get out of the car without risking being eaten by a lion (or trampled by an elephant)!  With the tyre changed (thanks to Alick!) we were able to continue enjoying the stark Damaraland landscape and mountains, which we found very reminiscent of our time in Central Australia a couple of years ago – just with springbok and oryx, rather than kangaroos and emus, roaming the plains!   We stopped off for a look at the petrified forests surrounding the area and spend the night at Mowani Mountain Camp.  This was by far the most picturesque of any of the campsites we stayed at on our journey and was so beautifully set up with a private bathroom including a stunning outdoor shower (interior designers take note!) and kitchen sink.  For anyone heading to the Damaraland area, we highly recommend staying at Mowani.  Simply stunning.

A picturesque place for a flat tyre! 

View from our campsite at the beautiful Mowani Mountain Camp

In the morning, we had a tour of the rock engravings at Twfelfontain (Namibia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site), with our tour guide Raymond providing some very interesting insights into Namibia’s (and more broadly Southern Africa’s) current political and financial situation.  We also visited the Living Museum of Damaraland where we had a bush walk tour of the medicinal plants in the area. 

At the Living Museum we did get an understanding of how remote the facility was, and how difficult it was to get medical attention in a country as sparsely populated as Namibia (the second-least populated country in the world, with an average of two people per square kilometre!) when one of the staff asked us if we had a band-aid we could give to the cashier who had fallen on a rock earlier that morning.  The cashier had her hand wrapped in a bit of plastic, however on removing the plastic, we could see that her fingers were shredded, with huge chunks of skin hanging off – clearly in need of stitches, however the girl explained that the closest hospital was over 100kms away and wasn’t an option for her anyway. All we could do was give some alcohol swabs and bandages and were grateful that the girl’s friend took responsibility for applying them, given we were both very cautious about the amount of blood involved.  Not for the first time on the trip, we both felt we were really lacking in some practical nursing skills (where were you when we needed you Fi!?!).

Swakopmond and Walvis Bay, Namibia

From Damaraland we made our way relatively uneventfully south-west to Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast – into a completely different landscape and climate once again.  We felt absolutely freezing on reaching the ocean, after the heat we had become so accustomed to inland.  We found Swakopmund to be quite a bizarre experience.  The town itself is completely flat with wide open streets, which though surrounded by coast on one side and colossal dunes on the other and covered in fog for the majority of the time.  The Lonely Planet describes Swakopmund as ‘more German than Germany’ and we certainly did feel that in the majority of places in Swakopmund, German was far more widely spoken than English or any of the local languages.  On arrival in Swakopmund  we checked into our guest house and were actually quite relieved to have the opportunity to sleep in a real bed for the first time in over a week!

While in Swakopmund we did a tour called the Living Desert Tour, which provided us with a huge amount of information about this section of the Namibian desert itself and it’s inhabitants (known as Namibia’s ‘Little Five’).  The founder of the Living Desert company was instrumental in petitioning for the desert surrounding Swakopmund to be re-zoned into the Dorob National Park in 2010 (the area was previously known as the West Coast Recreational Park and was suffering from the impact of unrestricted walking, horseriding, 4 wheel driving, quadbiking and sandboarding activities).  The tour guides were passionate about the desert ecosystem, and showed amazing skill at being able to track and find the various different lizards, beetles, spiders, snakes, geckos and chameleons that inhabited the dunes.  It was a fascinating experience that really brought the dunes to life, and demonstrated to us how many unique species were supported by such a seemingly desolate environment.

One of Namibia's 'Little 5', Dorob National Park, Swakopmund

Following two nights in Swakopmund we headed down to Walvis Bay as our great friends Owen and Bec had kindly arranged for us to do a seal kayaking tour – thanks so much guys!! The tour itself was at a place called Pelican Point – about 40 minutes drive out of Walvis Bay itself along the sand in what really felt like travelling through a moon-scape.  The unique scenery took us through the fog, with salt mines and flamingos being the only really visible figures (except for the very strange encounter of us stumbling across a film crew and Charlize Thereon who were filming a scene for Mad Max 4 in the area – so random!).  On arrival at Pelican Point we passed an old lighthouse and port control building (which is now being converted by a wealthy Belgian businessman into boutique accommodation), and kept driving for about another two kilometres before reaching the point of the peninsular.  We were puzzled as to why the lighthouse was so far from the end of the point, and our (very knowledgeable) guide Francois told us that Pelican Point was continually accruing more sand, and was growing at a rate of 25m per year!

The seal kayaking was absolutely amazing; we were able to paddle right up to seal colonies numbering in the hundreds (if not thousands), and float in the bay with countless seals playing around our kayaks – complete with playful splashing and barking!  Given that it was mating season, there was quite a lot of noise from the shore as large males battled to protect their harems of females, fighting with much gusto with any potential usurpers!  It was wonderful to be able to see these beautiful creatures from water-level, and we’re sure we were the envy of the people crammed onto large sight-seeing boats that made their way into the bay to also see the seals!

Seal spotting, Walvis Bay

After our seal experience we returned to Walvis Bay and after a quick stop to restock and check our tyre pressures, we were off on the 5-hour drive through the desert to the famous dunes of Sossusvlei, in the Namib-Naukluft National Park.

Celebrating the milestones along the road!

Sesreim, Sossusvlei, Namibia

We arrived at the Sesreim campsite quite late in the afternoon with just enough time to head out to one the closest dunes to the campsite (Elim Dune) to watch the sunset.  It was a beautiful view though we underestimated how long it would take us to climb to the top so we ended up watching the sunset from the half-way point – which was still incredible all the same.

The next morning we made sure we were in the park as soon as the gates opened at 5.15am in order to be at Dune 45 (45 kilometres inside the gate) by sunrise.  This was our first experience driving in the dark in Africa and we were greatful that nearly everyone else in Sesreim campsite had the same idea about getting in early so we could drive in convoy to deter the springbok’s from crossing the road infront of us.  The climb up Dune 45 was actually rather big (though definitely worth it for the views from the top) and we were both amazed at how quickly we seem to have lost our Kilimanjaro fitness!

After breakfast we wandered around the dried up lakes of Dead Vlei for an hour or so until the sun was almost unbearable and we realised how knackered we were.  Just before leaving we met some other tourists who had just gotten bogged in the sand on the 4-wheel-drive track coming into Dead Vlei (we’d found the road somewhat difficult coming in) so we were quite wary on the 5km drive out and sure enough, about half-way along we found ourselves completely stuck.    The worst bit was that after a few minutes, a safari truck full of tourists came past and the driver though he’d do the kind thing of coming over to tow us out – however he also managed to get completely bogged before he’d even reached us.  So there was now about 20 people all stranded, trying to dig the sand out from under the wheels of the two cars! Eventually, another vehicle approached, driven by a National Park Guide who asked if we needed help.  He then got in our car and, with a little bit of pushing, managed to manoeuvre it out of the sand – luckily Alick didn’t have too much pride invested in his 4-wheel driving after he’d already made so many failed attempts to do the same thing!  The worst bit was, once the car was out, he instructed us to keep on driving so we maintained the movement (actually what he said was ‘you need to go on ahead so that when I come past later I can help you when you get stuck again up ahead!’) so we had to drive past the other vehicle who were still trying to get out.  We felt absolutely terrible! 

Sossusvlei

After more incredible sunset and sunrise viewings over the following 24 hours (including having a massive area called ‘Hidden Vlei’ completely to ourselves the following morning), we farewelled Sesreim and started the trek back to Windhoek – via an incredible bakery called Moose McGregors in a town called Solitaire (approx 100kms from Sesreim). 

Windhoek, Namibia

Following a short overnight stay in Windhoek, Namibia where we returned the car and prepared for the next leg, we boarded the 22-hour Intercape bus to Cape Town where we are currently enjoying our time in the sun.  We will post another update from our time in Cape Town shortly. 

Love Tess and Alick xx