The Diviners

B and I have decided to embark on new career paths as seekers of water. We are showing unique skills in this field, and also feel it could offer more flexibility to accommodate our travels.

We had a long drive from Windhoek to Sesriem in the Namib Desert. This is a gorgeous drive through the Naukluft Mountains. It’s dry mountain desert, but subject to flash flood when there is rain in the mountains and the seasonal rivers run over the roads. We drove through a few rain storms outside Windhoek before we reached the gravel C24 highway. We crossed water a few times but nothing much.

Just past the junction of C24 with another highway, we reached a full-on river, with pretty sizable waves and obvious fast current, rushing across the road. There was a transport truck and a few other 4X4 vehicles stopped to wait it out. We waited an hour with little sign of it going down, so backtracked to take the other route via the C24 through the mountains. As it turned out, we had taken this route last year as well. The river and the road kept merging, but nothing like that. Apparently these rains affect the roads 2-3 days in a year, but this was the first time in about 3 years the rains had come.

We finally arrived at Sesriem campsite after dark. We just settled into the tent when the wind came up and the torrential rains started. On other visits to this place, which is serious desert, we were told that it virtually never rains here. Sometimes the canyons and pans fill, but from water in the mountains that rushes in or when the aquifers fill up. Somehow, we coincided with the once in many years rain. Thankfully, it was brief.

Fortunately, we woke up to clear skies that seem to be sticking around. Things are dry and sandy again. This is just about my favourite place on earth, so I’m just happy to be here. It feels good to be hot and dry. The night skies are spectacular, with more stars than I knew could exist and clear views of the milky way.

Coffee with Ostriches

It took days to drive from Maun to our first destination in Namibia. We spent the second night camping at Sun Karros, in Daan Viljoen Game Reserve just outside Windhoek. I was drinking coffee and reading early in the morning and was visited by 2 ostriches, who stood right in front of me staring for a while.

The front fell off, again...

… but just a little this time.

We heard sketchy reports of the water conditions heading into Moremi Game Reserve, but decided to head out from Maun and try to make it to Third Bridge, which had been our next destination after Nxai Pan. The road to the park gate was fine, as the rain had (finally) stopped by the time we left Maun. We camped the first night at South Gate campsite. It’s mostly a layover spot. The highlight here was definitely having a giraffe walk by as I was making dinner. (We saw our first giraffes of the trip on the way in here.  I had been getting worried we wouldn’t see any!)

We took the drier route to Third Bridge, as the usual route was closed due to deep water. We had no issues getting to Xakanaxa, another campsite/gate along the way. We stopped here to use the facilities, but couldn’t get in as there was a large elephant in the way. Between Xakanaxa and Third Bridge, we crossed a lot of small water, and one bigger one that covered the windshield – and us and much of the interior of the truck – with mud. Fortunately that one was caught on video. Third Bridge itself was under water and we came across a truck stuck in the middle and a small army of others waiting. They finally got out, added some extra logs to the bridge, and off we all went.

We didn’t see a lot of wildlife here, and when we did the skies were often grey so we’ve hardly taken any photos. We did have a family of elephants walk through camp one morning, which was beautiful to watch. We also saw some hippos grazing out of the water. After weighing options, we decided the best thing would be to head for Namibia and hopefully drier times. 

 

The usual road back the park gate was open, so we took it. Things were very wet, though we managed to avoid getting stuck. We did not avoid a flat tire. That meant B had to spend close to an hour in the noon sun changing the tire while I pretended to be a meerkat, keeping sentry duty to make sure he didn’t get eaten. When we got out of the park, we realized that all the water had loosened the front end of the truck, so we had to get that fixed back in Maun. He’s still pretending to find it stressful, but B is totally loving this driving.

 

Land of Great Thirst

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We headed straight for the Kalahari Desert, which in Botswana largely consists of Makghadighadi Pans, Nxai Pans, and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. NOTE: The word Kalahari is a San term meaning “land of great thirst.” The rainy season is brief, and frequently doesn’t come at all for several years due to drought.

Our first camp was at Kumaga. We had to take a ferry, which looked a lot like those ramps people use to drive ATVs into the bed of their pickup trucks. We had to drive into the water to get on, and then it hit bottom halfway across and we had to drive off into the river and on to the other side. The ferry man was very helpful though J. Kumaga is a beautiful sight near the Boteti River. In dry seasons, animals come in huge numbers to drink. Before we set up camp, we were greeted with another torrential tropical rainstorm. I made dinner under our tiny canopy with water running up the sleeves of my Goretex jacket. It reminded me a bit of hiking in the Long Range Mountains in Gros Morne Park.

Things dried out a bit the next day and we took a drive through some amazing savannah. Not many animals, though we saw some red hartebeest, which we haven’t come across much, and quite a few steenbok (only slightly larger than the Damara dik dik). There are no hyenas here, and it was interesting to see so many skeletons lying around. Normally, all the bones of animals are eaten by hyenas, which scavenge the leftovers from natural deaths and the kills of other predators. They even eat what the vultures leave behind.

We moved on to our unserviced site at Baine’s Baobabs. The Kudiakam Pan, which was dry and bright white last year when we visited, was now a lake. These pans are clay, and get very slippery and muddy when wet, even if it’s very shallow. Vehicles can sink down and be stuck for days. We had to drive around the edge where the pan meets the sand. We made it, but we couldn’t have passed with much more moisture. B enjoyed the adventure driving, even though he pretended to find it stressful. We sleep under 2 incredible baobab trees. And it poured the whole time. Poured as in the way it does only in tropical places. So, we left a night early and moved on to Nxai Pan, where we were hoping to catch the second largest zebra migration in Africa. (This was a bit sad for me, because hanging out in this huge expanse under the ancient baobabs was the thing I was most looking forward to on this trip. We were also hoping to spot meerkats in Makghadighadi.) The tracks here were extremely muddy, rutted, and slippery, and there was no sign of wildlife. Oh, and it was still pouring rain. We didn’t stay at all and instead headed back to Maun, where I received the excellent news that my dear friend N had gone home from hospital.

When we got to Maun, someone told us that there had been 130mm rain in 2 days. That’s one-third their annual rainfall. We apparently have impeccable timing.

Breakfast at Hilary's

I haven’t posted anything since our first trip to southern Africa over 2 years ago. I was avoiding technology last year, but I think the time has come to tell some more travel stories.

We planned to spend our full 4 weeks in Botswana visiting game reserves and national parks, sidestepping lions and hoping baboons don’t steal the coffee. (The latter almost happened once – I don’t think I’ve ever moved so fast in my life!) Here goes the start of our saga.

First stop, Dubai airport. Odd place. We were expecting luxury and fancy restaurants and fancy everything. There were a lot of shops – mostly to buy watches and jewelry and some high-end clothing brands – but I didn’t see much I couldn’t get at Oakridge Mall. The airport itself seemed to be covered in a slightly grimy film, and there were no nice places to sit or eat.

We happily arrived in Maun, Botswana to our rented safari tent just outside town at a backpackers place. We knew this place tended to attract a few drunks, but it seemed to be more so this time. And it rained torrential downpours, during which the power went out, and they seemed to have almost no food. (We knew the food was bad at this place, but normally they have some!)

We met Dickson from Bushlore in the morning to hand over our amazing bush camping rig. It’s way more organized and easy to access things, and super quick to pop up the roof tent for sleeping.

Finally, the next morning, we settled in for an amazing brunch of homemade bread and vegetable quiche at Hilary’s Café. Bought supplies, went back to Hilary’s for breakfast and a takeout lunch the next day, and were off to the Kalahari.