• Sunday 07 January 2018. Photos.
    Highlights: Group Dinner

    Today I farewelled amazing Botswana and entered Namibia for the first time. This is the second last country of my 2017-18 Africa Trip and my passport is almost completely full, in fact it is over full as I had to remove the Brazil Visa to make room. I’ll be retiring my passport in the very near future after it served it’s full term well.

    The border crossing took around an hour with the sole Namibia Immigration officer speeding up her process once she saw a huge line forming. Before that time she took a long while to find my Botswana exit stamp which happened to be on the very page she had open when she asked for me to find it, I very politely looked though the passport before coming back to the same page as I don’t think it’s a good idea to make an Immigration officer feel anything but fully in charge.

    The moment we crossed the border it become obvious that we were moving into a more arid country despite the overhead cloud early in the morning. I know a desert is in my near future but first Windhoek awaited. This is the capital city of Namibia but didn’t seem overly big and being a Sunday very little was open.

    Our campsite was near enough to the city centre but no one was exploring given it was 4 pm when we arrived. We went out to a group dinner at a nearby restaurant with most people going the buffet option but I wanted a specific pasta dish. This was a good group occasion as more bonding amongst the group occurred with topics ranging from world politics to hens and bucks night traditions across different countries with the UK experiences being the most eye opening!

    My upgrade for the night was fairly basic to a pre-erected tent with a bunk bed. Unfortunately my initial tent didn’t have power but that was quickly fixed. I did fire off an e-mail asking about the amount I had paid for my upgrades compared to the charges for group members who were doing it on the go. The rooms and tents are fine but it appeared I was paying over the odds, however as at the time of writing this blog in Etosha I can see how at some places I get very expensive upgrades and at others some very basic but it averages out.

  • Saturday 06 January 2017. Photos.
    Highlights: The San people / Bushman Experience

    Today we truly become venturing into more desert areas of Africa as we continue our march further south. We left the Delta Rain Campsite at a late time around 8.30 am as our drive today was only 500 km on great roads meaning we got to our Ghanzi campsite around 2 pm. Boy I wish our travel time per km in East Africa had been similar.

    As we drove further south the landscape continue to change to more arid and hot. You could feel the temperature radiating from the ground every time the wind come around. The Ghanzi campsite confirmed this with the sandy landscape that the tents and huts sat on. Further this campsite only had power running between 7.30 pm and 9.00 pm on diesel fuel, this was off the grid somewhat.

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  • Friday 5 January 2018. Photos.
    Highlights: Mokoro (canoe) ride, flight over the Delta.

    Today we visited our bush camp experience within the Okavango Delta. This started with a 5.30 am one hour bush walk which I decided against doing being so early plus not really wanting to experience a lion while I’m on foot, I know a little weak but an extra hour sleeping felt worth it. After breakfast we broke camp and headed back to civilisation with another mokoro ride with our excellent poler getting both Richard and myself safety back after a wonderful and relaxing 1.5 hour canoe ride back.

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  • Wednesday 03 January 2017. Photos.
    Highlights: Dodging cattle on the highway

    Today we travelled 600 kms to Maun on the outskirts of the Okavango Delta however unlike earlier long distance travels we completed this in around 8 hours. The further south we get the better the infrastructure (roads, toilets, shops) but the more arid the landscape. The days of the lush green scenery are now in the past and the temperature is increasing.

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  • Thursday 04 January 2017. Photos.
    Highlights: Mokoro Canoe Ride, Dusk Walking Safari, Bush Camp under the stars

    We headed out for the Delta at 8.30 am after loading up our gear truck. The drive to the delta took roughly 1.5 hours with the last 25-30 minutes being rough driving conditions as we past though several local villages. At the delta we offloaded our limited equipment and moved to small canoes. Richard joined my for our mokoro ride with our poler being Brandy who took great care of us. The mokoro ride took about 1.5 hours as we gently moved through the small water laneways. We stopped out one point to get out and view eating and relaxing zebras.

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