The trip of a lifetime started, as most do, with many flights. Two over-nighters. Halifax, Newark, Frankfurt, and Windhoek. We had a full day in Frankfurt to checkout the signs walking around. My first time in Europe, but not for the wife. We did a considerable amount of walking around. One of our important tasks was to find American dollars, which we needed to enter Zimbabwe. The Newark airport didn’t pan out on that, and neither did my banking at home. It was a task for sure. My highlight of Frankfurt was getting a beer and drinking it on the street in public. Something highly illegal at home in Nova Scotia for some unknown reason.
We arrived in Windhoek the next morning and scooped up Toyota Hilux and for the first time I drove on the other side of the road from what I’m accustomed to. It was an easy task, especially in Namibia where the roads are wide open, and population was sparse. We drove into the city to find some food, then hit the road for several hours our resort near Sossusvlei called Elegant Desert Lodge. It was good place with great food. Pool, birds, and an Oryx crashing through or out of the fence around the property in pitch black while we were having dinner a few meters away.
Back to the drive, but I’ll sum it up quickly. Great views and a stop at Solitaire for a snack. Baboons, zebra, wildebeest, oryx, giraffe and sociable weavers all seen.
The next day the lodge gave us a tour of the nearby attraction of the sand dunes and Deadvlei with the super cool trees. It was amazing. Standing in the searing heat on hard ground in the valley between some of the worlds largest sand dunes. Just fucking incredible. Recommend. Our guide capped it off with breakfast outside under the shade of a tree. A tree with vegetation that actually provided shade. Link to that image here.
The next day was a driving day, Sossusvlei to Welvis Bay. I can’t remember how many hours it was but it was many and had some great views. they would not have been great a second time, but Africa was new to us so the drive was spectacular. We even got to stop and check out the only quiver tree we would see on this entire trip.
At some point we decided to book a tour for the afternoon/evening to Sandwich Harbour as we realized we would have time when we arrived at the Marriott in Welvis Bay.
We switched cars to one controlled by a tour guide, and what a ride it was! Like a sand dune roller coasters. Going at speed up and down. We did get some stops to see some birds too such as these pied avocets, but it was clear, this drive was meant to be an adrenaline rush, and that it was. Check out the track in this photo.
The next day we got our breakfast to go and hit the road in the night. Not a long drive, but we had to return the pickup truck at Avis in Swakopmund then walk to the Hans Garnison B&B where we’ll hop on a tour bus for the rest of our journey in Africa with Nomad Africa.
My first group tour! The wife has done a pile of tours previously, but I have not. Our last two trips were Costa Rica and Chile, where I mostly designed our trip and booked everything. Not without extensive input from the wife obviously. Planning Costa Rica was OK, as it was only a week, and three destinations. Got ripped off with the car rental, but otherwise was a great trip. Chile was three weeks and a shit ton of driving. I booked too many one night stays with long drives in between, and we decided to adjust that part way through our trip. It was a lot of work and mental energy, and so I looked at my wife and said, “So, how about those tours?”. Chile was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want to play an entire trip again. So Africa was going to be a tour, on a bus like thing, with others, and hopefully no kids.
There were kids. And it was a very rough riding truck with no A/C. It was also budget for Africa. Everything here for tourists is crazy expensive except beer, so it had it’s moments of not being super comfortable but that’s what we signed up for and it really was an amazing trip with few complaints.
The first day with the tour had a lot of driving and it’s honestly a bit blurry when we made stops to see things on which days. But within the first couple days we stopped at one mediocre spot to see a shipwreck on the beginning of the skeleton coast, before heading inland and back towards the hot weather. The coast of Namibia was damp and not hot. We saw an area with petroglyphs and another area with a petrified forest. Also a crazy weird plant that only ever has two leaves that grow constantly. It’s called a Welwitschia. We stayed the night at iGowati Lodge / Hotel. This was what our accommodations were going to be like. Pools, bars, grass to setup tents on. Not bad at all!
The next day was a long drive again to Etosha National Park, where we got our first game drive of the trip. It did not disappoint, even without a guide! Just with our giant tour “truck”. Kestrel, eagles, pipit, ostrich, finch, babbler, hornbill, zebra, giraffe, lions and an African wild cat, oh my.
Over the next couple of days we did a few guided safari game drives and saw a large number of animals including lion cubs and a rarely seen African wild cat. We saw honey badgers furiously digging like their lives depended on it, while being followed by raptors looking for a meal too. Leopard tortoise, elephans, springbok, kudo, bateleur, jackal, and impala.
Our next stop was on the other side of Etosha National Park at Namutoni Camp. There was a lion vs zebra incident within ear shot in the evening here that attracted all the tourists in the camp. The cries of the zebra and the howl of the circling hyenas was hard to miss. No great photos, as it was getting dark, and honestly, we were busy enjoying the pool and I didn’t have the Sony on me.
Our next night was a camp on the Cubango River at Mahangu Safari Lodge near Divundu, Namibia. This is where we left a crazy dry region for a wet one, almost anyway. Still had a hot dry drive the next day, with a vehicle break down, but we are camped on a huge river full of actual water. Something we didn’t have in the rest of Namibia.
The safari “drive” for this area was a river cruise, which I think was in the morning and included a breakfast on the boat. As usual, wildlife did not disappoint. For me it was all about the birds for which there were many, but we also got our first up close encounter of hippopotamus and a water buffalo!
The next day morning we crossed into Botswana and had a long hot drive down the south west side of the Okavango Delta. It was rather flat and boring until we blew a tire on the bus. Luckily drivers in this region are prepared to make fixes themselves. Between the farmer from Alberta, and the driver they made quick work of the wheel swap and we were back on the road in no time.
We entered the city of Maun, which was the largest city we’ve seen in some time. Another secured camp with a pool, beer, and food! We had some time to relax at the Sedia Hotel in the morning as some folks went on a short flight over the delta. Not us though. Too much money for that one. By late morning we had a 5 hour drive into the delta in an open safari vehicle. It was a rough ride. The “African Massage”, as they call it. Before our arrival at the Khwai River View we made a quick stop for a little wetlands tour from a type of dugout canoe. It was a great opportunity for many bird sightings!
And back in the safari vehicle as our drive was not over yet, but close. We arrived at Khwai River View for a two night stay in the Okavango Delta! This camp was nice! Big social area, big table for eating great food and the tents for sleeping were nice too. Each one had it’s own washroom and shower out the back of the tent. We were treated like royalty here, and on top of that we kept going out on more safaris to see animals!
The highlight here was the hyena den. Obviously the guides knew where the den was, and saved it for the end of our stay up here so we would end of a high note before the drive back to the Maun where we would meet our tour truck and head on to our next destination, which I think was Nata Lodge in Nata, botawana. It is in this area where we would finally get to go onto the salt flats!
Back on the road again, this time to Thebe River Safaris in Kasane for our accommodations and another boat tour on the Chobe River to see another crazy round of wildlife! Although this area was a bit different. We felt there were far too many tour boats following wildlife too closely. it was one of those weird tourist experiences that I would not like if it was in our neighbourhood at home. Unfortunate the economy runs on tourism in all the areas we visited and this is the cost, including the drunk tourist that jumped out of the boat and onto land to run at some water buffalo.
The next day was a land based safari in the area. To be honest the animal sightings were incredible, but we were getting a bit bored of all the lions, elephants, warthogs and so forth, but this was a day for a new exciting animal! The leopard! On our last safari too!
The next day we travel to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to finish up the trip with a stay with accommodations at Explorers Village. It was a touristy city for sure. White people walking around everywhere. Vendors everywhere. We took a walk down to the falls and paid a high price of about $60 to walk on the path above the falls. It was spectacular, but I think I expected more. I expected a trail full of stairs and birds, but that’s not what we got. Just a walk along the top. Great views to wrap up our trip!
The next day we got a shuttle to the airport to start our journey home, but not without a full day to wander around London. My first time there.
