Friday, 4 August 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 - Day's 1, 2 & 3

Aye Aye Captain coming aboard

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Day 1

Following a frantic last day in Knysna from haircuts to buying and collecting a second spare wheel organised by our good friend Harry we managed to get underway by 07h45 a minor miracle in itself. Wanted to pick up some biltong and dry wors at the Biltong shop in Plettenberg Bay, but we were too early, who buys biltong at 08h30 in the morning anyway.

We made good time getting to Port Elizabeth at 10h00; we took the coastal road to East London going through Alexandria the home of chicory, but did not see any growing a bit like hops in George? Then through Kenton and Port Alfred a lovely part of our Eastern coast line.

Kei River Mouth

I had set the Garmin for the shortest route and the Garmin lady took us via Kei Mouth Ferry, however on the way we come around a corner and lo and behold there is a complete Boeing from Eish Airlines which Denise captured on film. The route saved us a lot of time at the princely sum of R80 to cross on the ferry, the alternative route would be through Butterworth and then through Kentani to Qoloro Mouth where Trennery’s hotel is situated. It is over 30 years since I last visited this part of the world and from my failing memory it has not changed much at all, we were told that it had changed hands a few times, but it was clean, comfortable and just as Kim remembers we had an awesome seafood buffet consisting giant prawns, oysters, calamari, mussels, rock cod and more. You can eat as much as you like, it was a veritable feast that we and a coach full of German tourists enjoyed.

Sleep evaded us at first could it have been too much rich food I wonder?

Boarding the Kei Ferry

The pool at Trennery's

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Day 2

Denise was awake at 05h00 and by the time I awoke she had worked out how many tap mixers, shower heads, basins and sinks we needed for our new home that as I write is being built all because “Greg the Builder” note that it is no longer “Bob the Builder” had intimated that he would need this information before we got back, guess tonight it will be plugs and switches and their exact location

We had a leisurely breakfast and travelled up to Butterworth on the N2 and on to Idutchwa where I needed to get fuel and Denise wanted to use a toilet, first petrol station was Total and we could not get access so we tried BP and they said there was no water so off we go back to Total and after some considerable manoeuvring we got to the pumps. My last experience of this town was when I collected my General Manager from East London to go to Umtata, now called Mthata, he was starving so we called in at the Kentucky, but to do so you had to cross a stream of sewage flowing down the road right outside the Kentucky, needless to say our hunger pangs left us in an instant.

The small towns in the old Transkei have not changed much, you could be anywhere in Africa, throngs of people crowding the streets showing no concern for vehicles, taxis hooting and very loud music emitting from them and the sidewalk shops, competing for the loudest rendering of local tribal music, vegetables for sale on the pavement along with second hand clothes and shoes and a host of other items as well as pavement special dogs everywhere. This is the real South Africa not the westernised towns a lot of us live in.

They are rebuilding part of the road from Idutchwa to Mthata it said 17kms, but it must have been 50kms it certainly felt like that, it was stop and go and one had to be careful you did not get a huge boulder dumped in front or on your vehicle as they were loading the trucks right alongside the part of the road you were travelling on. Some 10kms from Mthata we turn of to Coffee Bay, if we thought the N2 was hairy, this road was quite scary very twisty, very busy and it was not only the traffic you had to worry about there were cows, dogs, goats, sheep, donkeys and horses all seeming just there for you to test your brakes and nerves, have to hand it to Denise she handled a very difficult section with aplomb cannot say the same for me.

Coral Tree in full bloom at Trennery's

We finally got to the Ocean View Hotel at 13h30, had a light lunch of fish and chips and went off to see the Hole in the Wall, it had to happen, as it does on every big journey we make, we got conned into letting a guide show us the way, the young man’s name was Joseph and our first impressions was that he was a very likeable young man, I tried to get him to tell me what he wanted for his services, but he would have none of that he said we will talk when we get back from his tour, another young man said he would look after our car whilst we went sight seeing, all seemed OK until we were nearly back at the car when Joseph said we must pay him now as he did not want his friends to see how much he was paid so I said what is the fee and he said R150 each for a one hour walk to the Hole in the Wall and back, I asked him what he had been smoking and offered him R100 for both of us, which I still considered too much. He was not happy with my payment of R100, and then his buddy wanted R50 for making sure our car was safe while we were away, I said a car guard in Knysna would look after my car all day for R5, I offered him R10 but be refused, so in the end he got nothing.

I suppose it could have got nasty, but let it be a lesson to you if you ever want to see the Hole in the Wall, it is easy to find just follow a well worn path, and you cannot go wrong. I later find that the Hotel charges R200 per person to take you there and back (14kms) for a 2 hour trip so I guess Joseph thought he was giving us a bargain.

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Day 3

Denise at The Hole in the Wall

After a good nights rest we are having breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean and Denise, my personal hawk eye, spots two whales frolicking and travelling up the coast line fairly close to shore, now we know we are going to have a fabulous holiday. I have the pleasure of doing the first drive today and I have to say it was far easier going back uphill than Denise’s journey the day before downhill. We make good time to Kokstad where we leave the N2 for the Drakensberg to be exact Bushman’s Nek a little south of Underberg. I was a little unnerving as there was a massive veld fire on the mountains ahead and it appeared it was in the direction we were heading. After losing our house and all we possessed to the Knysna fires we were not keen to go through another experience. When we get to the resort we ask what is happening and the receptionist was unaware of what was happening on her doorstep and nonchantly told us we had nothing to fear as the Park rangers would soon get it under control, we certainly hope so, but the smell of smoke brings back vivid memories of the 7/8^th June 2017.

We have had a game of putt, putt adventure golf and we hope to try our hand at bowls tomorrow. We have a two night stop here and then we travel to Johannesburg where we are looking forward to seeing family.

Denise and Alan with Joseph doing the photographic honours, at a price

Beautiful sea views at Coffee Bay

Hole in the wall with waves rushing through

The Boiling Pot near Hole in the Wall

The real Africa

As if we have not seen enough fire, National Park Rangers got this under control quite swiftly

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 D Day + 7

Right on our doorstep at Storms River Camp

With all the excitement of the fire and its consequences I forgot to record a trip we did to Storms River in the Tsitsikamma some 100kms from Knysna, the purpose of the trip was to celebrate Denise’s birthday on the 4^th June. On earlier visits we said it would be nice to spend a weekend, and so it turned out to be. We had a chalet right on the sea side well within the sound of the sea breaking on the rocks, which at time sounded like rifle shots, it is amazing that something so loud and violent looking can have a soothing effect. We undertook walks along the coast line, which were quite strenuous, but very scenic and our walk to the waterfall is part of the Otter Trail. All I can say is I do not think we will be doing the Otter Trail in its entirety any time soon, if ever.

We spent two nights at the Storms River Camp and we would certainly do that again.

This was the Waterfall we walked too very little water which is the state of affairs
along the garden route at present

Birthday Breakfast for Denise

Our friends Roger and Julia Hogarth have been very good to us, they brought down to us just about all the safari gear we need for our Southern Africa trip and as a result our cash flow will not feel the strain of equipping the vehicle with recovery gear, compressor, tools and a host of other items that we have not needed on earlier trips, but we all know that when you do not go with it, that is when you need it, so a huge thank you to Roger and Julia.

It is only one week before we commence our journey and we are starting to get excited, it will be wonderful to get away from Knysna as all anyone wants to talk about is the fire and all we want to do is move forward.

We are just waiting for the Insurers to come back to us with a final offer as we rejected their first offer, but it is a matter of negotiation and we are sure we will have an acceptable offer within this week. Our selected builder is ready to start we just need one more plan to be stamped by the Knysna Municipality.

We thought when we built our last house in Johannesburg that we would never build again and we never wanted to. It is back to visiting; tile, bathroom fittings, furniture, appliances, carpets, pots and pans, eating utensils, glasses, crockery, stoves, ovens, fireplaces etc, etc suppliers in Knysna where the selection is not great or George which has more shops and variety, thank goodness Denise has taken control of most of these aspects.

We have just had 10 days of the Oyster Festival here in Knysna and it was fairly busy, we did not even get to one event, the nearest we got was to eat some oysters when we had dinner with Roger and Julia A fair number of B&B’s and Guest Houses were lost in the fire, but we believe the attendance was quite good judging by the number of vehicles on our roads and we got snarled up in one of the running road races, which was very well attended, of course touring the devastation caused by the fire was on the to do list of a lot of visitors.

We are having our “Christmas in July” event on Sunday at our good friends Billy and Anne McClelland who also lost their house, but are renting on Leisure Isle, which is much more spacious. There were 10 of us in total and it exceeded our expectations, the only downside was the landlord of Billy and Anne's house had not reactivated the TV and there was the British Open Golf, Tour de France and a host of other sports, but all was not lost it got activated at around 3.00pm. At least we were not distracted by the sport whilst having a traditional Christmas lunch. The Christmas in July has become a bit of a tradition so we had to keep it going, fire or no fire, TV or no TV.

We spent two nights at the Storms River Camp and we would certainly do that again.

We have just had 10 days of the Oyster Festival here in Knysna and it was fairly busy, we did not even get to one event, the nearest we got was to eat some oysters when we had dinner with Roger and Julia, a fair number of B&B’s and Guest Houses were lost in the fire, but we believe the attendance was quite good judging by the number of vehicles on our roads and we got snarled up in one of the running road races which was very well attended, of course touring the devastation caused by the fire was on the to do list of a lot of visitors.

We are having our “Christmas in July” event on Sunday at our good friends Billy and Anne Mc Clelland who also lost their house, but are renting on Leisure Isle, which is much more spacious so there will be 10 of us in total and we are looking forward to that event. This occasion has become a bit of a tradition so we had to keep it going.

This week and next week will be about tying up loose ends for our trip like ordering Pula for use in Botswana, putting all our travel documents together, last minute purchases, getting a nice new cage for Snuggles (Our Parrot) sorting out his accommodation and we think we will be ready by the 1^st of August, well we have to be.

Part of the rocky climb to the waterfall

We will try to keep in regular contact on our trip, so please keep following us.

Saturday, 1 July 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Planning Phase – D Day plus 30 Days

The Great Knysna Garden Route Fire June 2017

I thought I would have a problem with news from Knysna 3 weeks ago, how wrong I was and our preparations for our Southern Africa Safari 2017 have by circumstance become more complex and a good deal more urgent.

The circumstance was the fires that raged along the garden route and the devastation they wrought on places from Wilderness to Thornhill just West of Port Elizabeth, it is difficult to describe the events starting on Wednesday the 7^th of June and our photos do not fully show the tragedy that resulted from a “perfect fire” We have been in drought conditions for the last 4 months and as a result the vegetation was very dry helped along with a lot more days than normal of berg winds (hot winds from the North) over the last few months and these conditions were coupled on the 7^th June with gale force winds.

Dr Guy Preston, PhD (Environmental Science) Deputy Director-General: Environmental Programmes, Department of Environmental Affairs stated that “in 72 hours 10,000 hectares and in excess of 500 structures in the Garden Route were burnt, some houses simply reduced to a heap of rubble and vast swathes of pine plantations burnt.

1. The regional drought conditions,

2. The fuel load in the environment and suburbs,

3. Topography of the area,

4. Hot ambient air conditions,

5. The speed of the wind reported to be between 90km/hr and 100km/hr with gusts up to 110km/hr. Like a bellows, winds of this speed can fan a fire and superheat it in excess of 2000°C which is exactly what occurred on the 7^th June 2017.

Each of these conditions would contribute to a fire, indeed the combination of two or three conditions would generate a formidable fire, but the combination of all five factors produced a historical fire”

We still do not know what started the fire but whatever it was it had the perfect setting for the disaster that unfolded, fires were still flaring up 3 weeks later and many have lost their houses and all their possessions and regrettably we were one of the unfortunate victims of what can only be described as a catastrophe. The very sad part is that we hear that 45% of those who lost homes were not insured.

On a positive note, if there can be one, is the incredible support given to the garden route communities by individuals, companies, charities, churches of all denominations, municipalities and the Western Cape government, aid has simply poured in from all over South Africa and beyond, so much so that it has restored our faith in humankind.

Denise has come up with a perfect analogy for how we feel at present and it goes something like this:-

“I equate this disaster to a unwanted pregnancy and as pregnancy's go you will suffer from morning sickness, indigestion, uncomfortableness and cravings that cannot be satisfied, as well as labour pains when I come to term (opting for an epidural) I know that I will get over these conditions and blossom again there will be periods of great excitement, wonder and awe then after 9 months I will give birth to a new life a wonderful gift and I will give thanks to one and all”

A little about our own personal experience; we played golf on that fateful morning and had enjoyed the challenge of playing in the wind, that had not reached gale force, but made golf very interesting. At the end of our round we sat chatting over a glass of beer watching the heavy smoke that was building up in the West and particularly on the West Head and then we noted fire had broken out on the East Head. As we drove home we could see this was not a small fire like we had witnessed a couple of times over the last couple of months, which helicopters carrying large buckets of water had put out in a few hours. On arriving home we could see the fire had reached the area around the Montessori School and we were later to learn that it had jumped the Knysna River. The fire we are told started in Rheenandal and had come down towards Westward Bridge and the Red Bridge where we are told it jumped the river assisted by what were now gale force winds.

I was intent on watching South Africa play cricket in the Champions Tournament, but always had one eye on the fire that was spreading at an alarming rate towards the West and looked like it would miss us. Denise, ever practical said we should pack a few essentials and Snuggles our African Grey Parrot in the car all the time believing it was just a sensible precaution and we would be back in our home later that evening, how wrong we were.

The flames were over 30 metres high and they travelled along the top of pine trees at over 100km/hr

Our neighbour came to the door and told me I had 90 seconds to evacuate and if I did nothing else get my car out of the garage, I thought his timing was an exaggeration until he told me he had the ex Fire Chief was in his car who had told him that when the fire reached the Old Cape Road it would roar up the ridge due to the high wind speeds. I went back into the house to get more feeding bowls for our parrot Snuggles, not exactly an essential, and as I got into my car embers and ash were falling on me and the car, the ex fire chief was wrong it took 120 seconds.

We spent that night at Karen’s Guest House along with 7 others friends, but we could see the fires coming down from Pezula Estate and a friend, Billy McClelland, and I went out to assess the evacuation points they were asking people to go to, which was an exercise in futility as nobody had a clue. We then decided to go to our homes in Eastford Glen and Vale to see if they had escaped the fire, but sadly they had not and we had to take the bad news back to Denise and Anne.

We were fortunate to have Michael come down to give us any assistance we needed and the very much needed morale support, and our friends Billy and Anne were also blessed when their son Colin and his wife Andrea flew down to support them.

Of our group only Billy and I lost our houses, Ivor lost two vehicles and a boat with all his fishing gear and Kevin and Jenny were happily surprised to find their timber home in Paradise still standing when they went home, as was the house of Susanne, who Denise evacuated from Eastford.

To say we have been fortunate would be the understatement of the decade, firstly we have our lives, secondly through my brother-in-law Cedric, a Pastor, putting our fate on Facebook a member of his congregation in Witbank offered us his holiday home in Costa Sarda and although Karen, my daughter, told us we could stay in the Guest House we felt the offer from Cassie and Sanel was a no brainer what with many events like the Oyster Festival coming up and the guest house fully booked in early July. We are eternally grateful to Karen, Cassie, Sanel, Cedric, Loraine, Harry and Liz Mike and Dee, Billy and Anne, Colin and Andrea, Lorenza and Wiseman to name but a few.

We are also very relieved that the fire hit Knysna in the day as if it had come in the middle of the night the casualty’s would have been very much higher than the 9 lost lives reported.

Now we have to shop for everything required for our trip in a month’s time, the list goes something like this:-

Additional Spare wheel, Recovery equipment, Compressor, Tools, Jerry Cans (Fuel and Water) Storage Containers, Shovel, Axe, Clothes, Shoes, Suitcases and the list goes on. Luckily I packed our passports, vehicle registration papers, camera equipment, title deeds for the house, insurance file, computers, portable hard drive and although we felt we would be going back to our house there must have been something in our sub conscious that urged us to pack what we did. Some residents stayed and fought the fire and we wondered if we could have done so, but with both power and water cut off it is doubtful we would have been successful and could have died in the attempt.

We have decided that we will rebuild the house and we will be positive and start to rebuild our memories and next months trip will be a happy start to new memories. Having said that we both often remember something else we will never see again. We have battled to get a full night sleep, the mind just races away often about silly things.

I have to share one more event coming out of the fire, our African Grey parrot did not stop feeding his face for two weeks and basically until the smell of smoke had largely dissipated, Denise says it must be the smell of smoke that triggers animals to eat as they know food may be hard to come by, I think it is a highly probable behaviour.

One thing we do not have to worry about is what clothing we should take on our trip we just take what we have, it will all fit into one suitcase.

All we can hope for now is that the insurance settle with enough for us to rebuild, so far they have come to the party and have been very considerate, if a little slow, but as one of the Insurance staff said this is a very complex claim and it will take a little time.

I will post more often now that we are into the final 30 days of count down.


Only 3 house below us were gutted

The remains of our house and virtually all our possesions and memories

The house after the fire from the North West

A view from the North

A view from Cassies and Sanel's looking straight at the Heads

Thursday, 25 May 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 – Planning Phase – D Day plus 70 Days

Can you believe it only 70 days to go before we start our next adventure, still a lot to do and prepare, but so much can only be done a week to 10 days to go, at least that is my theory.

I need to book “Salama” our car, in for a service as I do not want what happened to a family that was on our last Namibia trip with us, he had his car serviced the day before leaving Potchefstroom for Namibia and 200 kms down the road his wheel fell off causing an accident, he had to hire a car to join the trip, seems the garage did not tighten the wheel nuts properly, guess who will be checking his wheel nuts before departure and when "Salama" comes back from service.

A 3 wheeler from way back

AJS 650cc 1975 model

We have had a hectic time of it in our sleepy holiday town, Knysna, and we need a small break before the Oyster Festival in July. As I mentioned in my last post we had a vintage Car Festival, which included motorbikes and latest models of cars, it was fascinating, as you walked around you would hear comments like “My Dad had one of those and at the time it was “The Car” then there was “Look at that engine it was so simple even a fool like me could fix it” and one lady commented on seeing a 1920 Ford “you wouldn’t find me dead in that” I was also guilty looking at a 1970 AJS 650 Sports Twin I told Denise I had one of those, exactly the same colour, I must say it looked very puny against a 1000cc BMW of today.


BMW 1000cc Sports Model

Brought back many memories this AJS 650cc Sports Twin

Denise and her MG choice

We spent a couple of hours viewing these fantastically well looked after vehicles and some looked like they would be a good investment IF you could pick them up cheap and fix them up to manufacturers specifications.

I think this was a Sunbeam

Denise said I can have a motorbike as long as it has 3 wheels

Then we had the Pink Loerie Festival and if you are into that sort of thing it was the place to be with lots of events for all the LGBTI participants I include some photos from the web sites. Google tells me that LGBTI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (Questioning) the latter, it states, are not sure of what they are.

Whatever takes your fancy

Knysna supports everything that brings business to the town

Two of the lovelies attending the Pink Mardi Gras

The eventual winner overall

Then we had the Speed Festival over 3 days known as the Jaguar Simola Hill Climb they race their cars up Simola hill for 1.9kms at an average speed of 181.456km per hour, the winners time in qualifying in a 1989 Dallara T189 single seater sports car (Formula 1) with Andre Bezuidenhout behind the wheel. You had a Nissan GTR doing it in 39.892sec and a classic car, a Chevron B19 turning in a time of 42.795sec. I am told that it was very well organised and the petrol heads got more than their share of adrenalin. I am including a couple of photos of the cars to get you drooling if you are into cars and motor bikes old and new.

I thought the pace in Knysna had slowed down somewhat, but Denise had other ideas and for Mothers Day lunch we had 3 Mothers/Grandmothers plus two, thank goodness she did not have the view that she would do nothing and the lunch was a great success.

Then on Wednesday the 17^th May, Denise and two of our friends decide it was time for a Safari dinner and we get to cook the main course. The theme was South Africa and we all had a great time, that is one of the advantages of being retired you can have a party on Wednesday and not worry about how you are going to feel on Thursday.

Night skys over Namibia cannot wait

Monday, 24 April 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 - D day +100days

100 Days to go, sounds like Trump and his "First 100 Days" Hey but it will be wonderful to get away from our own political meltdown, no TV, no newspapers, no cell phone, no E Mail, no Face book now how good is that, guess you will only know if you do it and make a vow not to allow any distractions from any of the multi media incursions we endure on a daily basis.

In 100 days time we will hit the road for a 7000km journey through South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and talking of journeys how about this; We were down at Great Brak River visiting my sister Loraine and her husband, that's my Brother-in-Law, Cedric and upon arriving back home in Knysna on Saturday afternoon I get this SMS from a friend who I have not seen for 43 years, Graham Duncanson, we played rugby together for Mombasa Sports Club and Nondescripts RFC in Nairobi, Kenya. Graham is asking us to join him for dinner that night in George some 50 kms away back the way we have come and we declined the invite, but asked him what he was doing on Sunday, he replied he would be in Mossel Bay just 50 kms down the road from George and he gave the name of the hotel and suggested a late lunch which we agreed to.

On Sunday morning we get a message saying he cannot find the hotel, no problem we say, we will go into Google and phone him back with directions, we tell him that from where he is he will have to go back up the road he had just gone down, this is about 12h00 and he says; "oh no I am knackered and need to get some sleep in the afternoon once I find the hotel before we meet up with him at 15h00" Denise and I look at one another and say he has just driven 50 kms from George and his knackered, either he is very old, or he had a heavy night.

The next message is that he is at a different hotel and a late lunch is still on. Well we meet up and I see a sprightly man who has not changed a lot in the intervening 43 years. We are half way through lunch when it transpires that he has been cycling from the UK to Cape Town, now we can understand why he was knackered and why he declined to follow our directions back up the hill to his original hotel destination. He told us he had skipped a couple of countries like Egypt and the Sudan because of unrest, but still quite an achievement at 75 years old and travelling largely on his own. So our journey is not half as adventurous as Grahams.

It is really great to meet up with people that you have lost contact with and taking a trip down memory lane with them. I must add that he had met up with a couple of visitors at his George hotel and had a few drinks until two in the morning so we were right about one of the reasons he was knackered.

Talking of memories and storing them, because, guess what, memories do have a habit of failing us as we age, well some of us. However, we have in the past either using the blog material or a write up by yours truly to record the trip including photo's given them to a friend who produces a wonderful album very professionally done. It beats having photos all over the place on computers, phones, etc: We often look at these travel books and enjoy the trip all over again. Only one word of advise do a spell and grammar check before you go to print as writing up a daily blog post after driving 500+kms a day is just looking for mistakes to happen and they are with you for life so "Edit before Print"

Here in Knysna we have had a busy Eater with lots of visitors/tourists visiting Knysna and the Garden Route we have had everything from Yacht, Running, Mountain Bike and Road Bike races as well as a walking festival. In Sedgefield they had their Slow Festival which was very well supported.

Like many other places around South Africa we had marches on the 7th April attended and supported by the community urging President Zuma to stand down. As a member of the black community said to me "at least Zuma is bringing unity to large portions of the Country"

Some of the marchers on Main Street Knysna


Some of last years LGBTQ contestants

Upcoming we have the following events in Knysna:-

26th April to 1st May: LGBTQ - Pink Lourie Mardi Gras and Art Festival
30th April - Knysna Motor Show - Classic Cars and Motorbikes back to the 30's up to 2017
4th May to 7th May - Jaguar Simola Hill Climb, different categories of cars climb this twisty hill climb of 1.9kms (Last winner took just 38.6sec topping 179.99kms per hour.

Have a Lovely Day

Monday, 10 April 2017

Southern Africa Safari 2017 - D day plus 116 days

The Namib Wild horses waiting for the train at Garub Station

Fish River Canyon

Mine houses at Kolmanskop being reclaimed by desert sands


Dune 45 on the way to Sossusvlei

Vingerklip (Rock Finger)

Petrified forest-Fossilised trees estimated to be 280million years old

I am including some photos of some of the interesting places to visit in Namibia from our 2011 trip.

I mentioned the need to be patient at the border crossings and it brought to mind Kingslaey Holgate's answer to being held up at a border post by immigration/customs officials and I quote him as follows:-

"When I get a stroppy border official I always put on a stut...stut...stutter and you will find the guy wants to get rid of you as fast as possible"

Just picture it, with apologies to anyone who stutters:-

Border Official: Where are you going?

Kingsley: I...I...a...a...am go...go...go...going t...t...to..Lu...Lu...Lusa...Lusa...Lusaka

Border Official: Where are you coming from?

Kingsley: J...J...Jo...Jo...Johan...Johan...Johannesburg

Denise on the Skeleton Coast, Namibia

Border Official: What are you going to Lusaka for?

Kingsley: I...I...Its...m...m...my d...d...daugh...daugh..daughters w...w...wed...wed...wedding.

Border Official: (stamping his papers with undue force) For goodness sake go, go

I may well try it some day perhaps at Beit Bridge on the Zimbabwe border they are always slow and insist on knowing your name and address and the place where you stay, but I will probably get arrested.

I must share a post I saw on a 4x4 web site the other day where it said that at a particular place in Southern Africa had an attempted robbery at a camp site and this is the first reported incident in 3 years, the web site was full of warnings to travellers to avoid this place and this country. A South African citizen posted "one in 3 years, in SA we have 3 a day" The gentleman was understating the facts as in South Africa we have 51 murders a day and 363 armed robberies a day according to Stats SA. I guess what I am saying is there are many alarmist's out there and one should not be unduly worried, careful yes. There are exceptions like right now the Eastern Congo bordering Uganda, and Northern Kenya bordering Somaliland which should be avoided and you can, without messing around with your journey too much.

On our last trip we took in Moremi National Park and it was great, but on reflection I think we saw more wildlife outside the park than in it. There are no fences in Botswana and as a consequencethe wildlife can follow their ancient migratory routes. Today we blame elephants for destroying the flora, but when you allow unfettered movement they are not confined to one area and the vegetation has time to recover. In fact in Botswana you have to be aware of elephants and other wildlife walking down or crossing the road as one would for domestic cattle, goats and donkey's and night travel is not reccomended.

We are going to spend 6 days in the Caprivi Strip which belongs to Namibia and is bordered by Angola and Zambia in the North and Botswana in the South it also has a number of large rivers coursing along the borders and across the Strip namely the Kwando, Chobe, Okavango and the mighty Zambezi. The Caprivi Strip is less than 50kms wide and 300 kms long from Katima Malilo to Andara.

In researching our intended journey I came across some interesting facts, The Strip is named after a German Chancellor, Leo von Caprivi who had visions of using the Zambezi river as trade route from what was then a German territory (South West Africa, now Namibia) to Tanganyika (Tanzania) also a German territory, however, he did not bargain for the Victoria Falls. Von Caprivi did a deal with the British who were the Colonial masters of Bechuanaland (Botswana) to exchange the Strip, which belonged to the British for German interests in Zanzibar and the island of Heligoland in the North Sea and that is how South West Africa now Namibia became the masters of the Caprivi Strip.

There endeth your Geography/History lesson of the day.

It is difficult if not impossible to plan trip that covers everything there is to see and do unless you plan to travel for a year or two, but that is a very good excuse, if you needed one, to go back to Namibia and Botswana. This will be our third trip to Namibia and Botswana and there will still be places we have not been to.

Have a lovely day!