Namibia - 1st month

As mentioned in the previous blog-entry being in Namibia is like being back in civilization and vacationing in any other tourist destination. We can get money again, there are many hotels/lodges/campgrounds, each town has a decent supermarket and anything you need it can be found in the bigger towns and they speak English!!!. However keep in mind that Namibia is huge and with only 2 million people, the towns are spread out, so you can drive for hours or days (depending what area of the country you are visiting) before you get to a decent size town.

Our first stop was Odangwa, together with Oshakati designated by the current government as the next economical center of Namibia. These towns are in the north of Namibia and the current president is from the area. We actually almost got arrested because of the president. On our way from Oshakati to Odangwa we did not get off the road quick enough when some police cars came from behind us. We slowed down and gave them plenty of room to pass. But when we did not get off the road they came driving next to us and indicated that we had to get off the road. So we did, also because we noticed that all the locals went off the road. We still did not know why, was there a new oil crisis and they did not want any cars driving around anymore? When we pulled over we asked a local and he told us that the president had attended a birthday party and was on his way back to the airport. And yes a couple of minutes later some big SUVs came racing by. We waved to the president and we are very proud to say that he waved back to us. He did not stop nor did he slow down for us, but we think that it was because he was about to miss his flight, so he was excused.

Any way we stayed a couple of days in Odwanga to resupply Rosana’s food storage compartments, buy little things for the car, look for a place to refill the gas bottle or LPG tank (was not possible), get the computer fixed, catch up on e-mails etc.. We stayed at Odwanga rest camp and enjoyed some nice dinners and biltong there.

After a few days we drove into Etosha where we spent 12 days driving from waterhole to waterhole watching animals while having breakfast, lunch and coffee with freshly baked caked. Yes, all from our mobile home!! Rosana was wondering if a cake was ever baked while watching some elephants drink and play at a waterhole…

Below there are some of the pictures from the animals we saw in Etosha. For more pictures go to the page "Photos/Info - Per Country" from our main page then click on Namibia

"These trees are bloody far away"

With Sonja and Jeroen at the Etosha pan

"I own this waterhole"

Grumpy black rhino chasing away zebra

It was great as always. Already on our first full day we saw lions for breakfast, mating leopards for lunch and cheetahs during sundowners. We also treated ourselves to a stay at Dolomite camp at the western end of Etosha. You are only allowed to drive in that area if you have a reservation for the lodge. We wanted to leave Etosha on the western exit because it was closer to Kamanjab where there is someone who claims that he is an expert in Unimogs.

The drive in the western part of Etosha was nice, there was a waterhole every 10-15km, although some of them were dry, and we saw lots of animals. Dolomite camp is set on a hill and our chalet had a beautiful view over the plain and we could see lots of animals.

Dolomite Camp

The next day it was an easy drive to Kamanjab, where we stayed for almost a week. The owners of the Campground/lodge Oppi-Koppi are from Belgium/Holland and they let overlanders stay for free. We had a nice campsite all the way at the back of the property with a covered area, braai, water, light and electricity and a very clean ablution block with hot showers.

We spent a day at the Unimog garage where we had the car checked and some minor things fixed (splitter gear, leaking oil pump, leaking wheel hub, new brakes). The rest of the time we spent reading, being lazy, cleaning the car, installing 12volt charger in the box, re-sealing the bathroom, fixing the heater in the box etc.

After this relaxing week it was back to the bush. We spent 6 days in the Palmwag conservancy area and drove from Palmwag to Sesfontein. It was very nice, the nature is very rugged desert terrain but with animals (we saw black rhino, desert elephants, kudu, springbok, steenbok, gemsbok, giraffe, mountain zebra, baboons and jackals). We heard lions but we did not see them. It was all wild camping, we stayed in some amazing spots, and best of all we hardly saw any other people. The first three days we saw two cars, the last three days we did not see anyone.

Damaraland

Viewing deck

On the last day we found the desert elephants

After we left Sesfontein we stayed at a campsite in the Khowarib Canyon. We had a nice spot with a view of the river (although after the drought in Namibia it looked more like a creek).

The next day we wanted to take a shortcut back to Kamanjab by following the Khowarib river upstream. Normally we ask locally about the condition of the road, but this time we forgot (well… Marc actually did not want to ask anything… as always), mainly because the road was on a map and it was numbered. However, after about 2 km we had a river crossing with a very steep and bad uphill on the other side. You can see on one of the pictures below that the Unimog was on three wheels.

"Put your tyres in the air"

Duma goes anywhere

 It was very slow going the next three kilometers as well and then the riverbed widened and was one big hardened mud pool with deep tracks and low trees. We had difficulty finding the right track and after about half an hour Rosana had enough because at this speed it would take us three days to cover the 70km to the main road to Kamanjab. So we decided to go back to the lodge and inquire about the road. At the lodge the owner asked whether we did the river crossing? yes we did, did you we get past the steep rocky part with deep drop off? yes we did, did we get to the place where the river bed widens and you have all the deep tracks? yes we did. OK then you have driven the worst part of the track. So back we went to find out that we had turned around only 100 meters before the roughest part of the trail finished. We lost about two hours but at least Marc had a fun time driving (Rosana, not so much)

Towards the end of the trail in the middle of nowhere there was a veterinary gate where they check for meat and dairy products. We knew about this so we had removed the meat from the freezer. It is just incredible that they have this checkpoint in a place where there are maybe two or three cars a day passing by.

Right now we are back in Kamanjab, the splitter gear has been fixed and we will head back into Damaraland the day after tomorrow.

Angola Part II

Angola continued....

The next day we thought we could take a shortcut back to the main road. We found a track that was following a dry riverbed through a beautiful canyon.

But after a couple of hours of slow driving we had to give up, it was obvious that the track had not been used for years and the bushes became too thick to continue so we had to turn around. Back at the beach, looking for a lunch spot, the unimog got stuck in the mud that was not visible under the dry sand. Fortunately after engaging the diff locks we were able to reverse out of the mud.
The next two days we drove slowly towards Namib, the biggest challenge being every night to find a nice wild camping spot on a beach. The main road was about 20km inland and there are many small tracks that cut through the hills to the beach.  However these tracks are not easy to drive.  In the end we did not make it to the beach either night. The first night it became dark about 3km from the beach just before a steep descent down the hill. So we decided to camp on top of the hill with a view of the ocean.

The next night was even more challenging when we again tried to follow a riverbed to the beach. The track became rockier and rockier and it was getting late. Again we decided to turn around and camp in the riverbed. However after 20 meters there was this big hiss coming from the back of the unimog and we knew immediately that this meant a flat tyre. The unimog was fortunately on a flat piece of track so it was relatively easy to change the wheel with the help of Patrick and Jeroen. The tyre was ruptured on the side which would mean in Europe and the US that you can throw the tyre away. However later in Lubango at a tyre shop they fixed the tyre and they claim that we can still use it as long as we use an inner tube.
So at the moment we have one complete spare wheel and one spare tyre with African warranty. We tried to buy a new tyre in Angola but they were more than 1100$ (more than twice the price we would pay in south Africa).

The following day we drove all the way to Lubango, taking the spectacular road from Namib that climbs into the Angolan highlands at 1900 meters.

In Lubango we stayed three days, it is a nice city and at 1700 meters it meant that it was not too hot during the day and nice and cool at night. Close to Lubango we visited Tundavala, an old volcanic plateau at 2400 meters with  a spectacular view down a steep cliff to the highlands below.

From Lubango we took the main road down to Namibia. On the way there was an immigration police stop. The guy spoke English and was very friendly. He wanted to know who is paying us to be a tourist. It was very hard for him to understand that people want to visit and travel around other countries without getting paid. Tourism is still at its infancy in Angola. We asked the police man whether we could fill up our cars in Cahama, yes he said there are two filling stations there. Of course when we got there, there was only one gas station and that one did not have diesel anymore. 

When will there be diesel again? we asked. Maybe this afternoon, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week they told us. Ironically, across the street 4 truck tankers with diesel from the same oil company were parked. Apparently they were on their way to the next town.

At Cahama we took a dirt track that takes you to the border crossing at Ruacana or you can take a piste all the way back to the coast to the mouth of the Kunene river. We read in an African travel magazine that this is a very spectacular route. Marc really wanted to take this route all the way but Rosana was done with bad roads, so we agreed that we would go halfway. Sonja and Jeroen were going to join us, Patrick and Martine unfortunately had to go straight to the border since the tyres on their car were too bad for this track.
In the end we did not even make it to the halfway point as both Rosana and Sonja were done with the track after two days. It was slow going, in places very bushy (the unimog broke off many low hanging branches) and in some spots the track was rough and we had to take the same way back. Marc and Jeroen would have liked to continue as the scenery was very nice and as we had some very special encounters with the local Himba people who clearly were not used to travelers. It was very special. The Himba women were very shy at first, even hiding behind the trees. They came out finally and we took their pictures, printed and gave it to them. The best part of this encounter was their reaction to the printed photos.

Baboons in the baobab tree

Decision time: continue or turn around........the guys lost

Himba excited about the polaroid pictures

The border crossing at Ruacana was pretty easy. We were the only people and when we arrived someone had to call the immigration police and a custom officer. So we waited for half an hour.  Jeroen and Sonja did not have an entry stamp in their carnet, so after they received the exit stamp in their passport they crossed the border into Namibia. We still had to get our carnet stamped and they also wanted to check the car on the inside. When they were done with us they wanted to see Sonja's and jeroens car, but they were already on the other side. The customs officer and a military guy were not too happy but they could not do anything.
On the Namibian side all went pretty quickly, except changing money. We still had quite some Angolan Kwanzas left and asked the custom officer if he could change money. After haggling over the exchange rate and him walking over to the Angolan side of the border to talk and negotiate with people there we finally were able to change the Kwanzas. The customs officer wanted Marc to walk with him to th Angolan side to finalize the deal but the military guy who was still upset that Jeroen and Sonja left the country without their car being inspected did not let Marc in. Marc could have shown his multiple entry visa for Angola but decided against that because they probably needed to call the immigration police again. So we gave our money to the Namibian customs officer and he was able to change the money.
After that it was one hour on a smooth and deserted tar road to the town of Ruacana were we felt like being back in civilization, a campground with individual campsites with electricity, water, braai and hot showers. In the evening we treated ourselves to a good meal and nice wine to celebrate crossing west Africa.