Jean is doing the laundry, Sean is typing the E-mail, and 3 metres away the Okavango wends its way Northward – yet another shitty day in Paradise.
The Tribe has found yet another really lekker spot.
We left Windhoek and headed North East and as we did, we realised that, although the desert is very beautiful and dramatic, we are both bush babies at heart. The passing scenery changed from ranching savannah, to thornveld, to bushveld dotted with palm trees. The downside of course was that there were a lot more people. The first day we passed through the towns of Okahandja and Otjiwarongo, both quite attractive and relatively affluent – quite a contrast with the South. We spent the night in Grootfontein in quite a pleasant little transit park with access to a swimming pool and shady grassy sites. Next day we headed for Rundu. About 130 k out the wealthy farmland stopped abruptly, and we crossed over a gated cattle grid and security point. From here on it was constant rural villages and commonage, not unlike the Great North Road in North Zambia. This is/was obviously a buffer zone for the Angolan Border. We didn’t drive into Rundu itself but the petrol station outside was a hive of activity with people trying to sell us anything from bows and arrows to taped music. Not unpleasant or threatening though. (By the way, fuel prices in Namibia are very reasonable Diesel R 1.92 a litre) That night we experienced our first river camp at Nkwazi, about 20 k North of Rundu. Very pleasant at R 20 per head with a site on the river overlooking Angola some 100 metres away, and a small pub to wash the dust away. By this time, we decided that without a doubt the bush was for us, and we were really excited about getting to Popa Falls.
Popa Falls is the only place that we have booked thus far, and luckily, we only booked for 2 days (at R 80 per night). We say luckily advisably! We got there to find that reception was a desk under a tree. The main reception building burnt down in April, and nothing has been done about it yet, not even clearing the rubble. The camp itself is a dusty parking lot with narrow sites that we needed to reverse into. This took Sean half an hour to do and effectively undid 3 months of relaxation. Never mind, a few cold beers and some muscle relaxant put it all right again. The Falls themselves are pleasant but cannot be seen from the campsite – All in all, a disappointment.
Popa Falls. Ngoa Bashie camp on far side of the river.
So we decided to do some exploring. One of our neighbours, who helped Sean soothe his nerves after the reversing fiasco, was Berry Irvine, an old Bothie Boy and ex Pilot from East London. He told us about a fishing camp down river, and a German couple told us about a joint venture with the Caprivi Bushmen across the river.
We went and had a look at the latter first and found it to be really nice, with bush sites overlooking the river and priced at R 20 per head. Then we came and looked at Ngepi – and we’re still here and likely to be for a couple more weeks apart from a couple of ventures into the more remote bush without the van.
Our campsite overlooking the Okavango river.
Ngepi is about 6 k down river from Popa Falls, and is everything that we had hoped for – also at R 20 per head. It is 4 k off the main dirt road which was a little hairy with the caravan but not too bad. All the sites are on the river bank. (The photo, below, of passing Watus – dugouts – was taken this morning from the door of the caravan). The lavatories and showers are beautifully designed and in roofless reed walled enclosures – the hand basin in our shower is fixed directly onto a tree and the shower is surrounded by shrubs. Truck expeditions use Ngepi as a stop-over for their trips into the Okavango Delta, but the place is so well designed that, unless you go down to the bar (Yes, a bar too!), you don’t come across them.
Watus being poled upstream.
Hippo abound, and there is a troop of about 50 very noisy Elephants across the river. We were sitting the other night doing nothing in particular looking at the stars, when we became aware that we were listening to the sound of heavy surf. Which was strange, cos there ain’t no surf in the Okavango. It was really loud and then we realised that what we could hear was the sound of 50 elephants wading in the shallows just down river.
There are a few canoes here, but Misafi is definitely, as the only power?? boat in the immediate vicinity, Queen of the River, as she thunders along using all 3 horsepower against the current. We keep a wary eye on the Hippo but are pleased to report that they accord Misafi the respect that she is due – so far. There are Tiger Fish in the area, but they’re elusive. Sean first tried his luck at Popa Falls and, after catching various sections of Africa, ran out of lures fast. Jean to the rescue and we now have an irresistible combination of spinners made from beer cans, and fillets of sardine from the local Portuguese store. Oddly enough we still haven’t caught anything, but that can only be because the fish don’t know what they’re missing – it must only be a matter of time.
Next to the store down the road is the Post Office. One room, one postmaster come whatever, and one telephone. You join the queue and when you eventually get to the front, the postmaster dials the number you give him and passes you the handset. Another call? No problem but back to the end of the queue. On the wall a notice proudly boasts that “Television Licences may be paid here”. Not bad considering that we have to drive 200 k to Rundu to refill our gas bottles.
Ngepi does not have a phone, but we have found a Lodge down the road that will allow us to use their phone on a one-off basis this afternoon to send and pick up E-mail (we decided that our chance of doing so from the post office was rather remote.)
Tomorrow we leave the van here and head Eastward through the Caprivi Strip and then South on primitive road for about 80 k to Mamili National Park where we will camp rough in the bush for a couple of days. It’s a triangular area called Linyanti that encroaches into Botswana with the Kunene and Chobe rivers acting as natural borders. Should be good.
Then next week sometime we may actually cross into Botswana and do a Mokuru – dugout – trip into the Delta.