Meanwhile, B has decided where he would like to store the truck and we have booked our flights home. We will spend the next few days clearing out junk, eating up as much of our food stores as we can and preparing the truck for a long sleep, while trying to think positive about getting back here next year. S.
We are still on the same campsite, which has produced some really good wildlife moments. The hornbills are hilarious, as they tap on car windows and mirrors, presumably trying to scare off their own reflections. We have seen a wonderful snake, which people here call a zebra snake (Dug, it's not in your book), which is apparently very venomous and can also spit. It raised up its head and puffed out its hood for us: up until then I had thought it was dead! We have also spent ages watching a lilac-breasted roller chick practising flying and finding its own food. A parent bird comes by every now and then with a big juicy insect or something to encourage it. The chick often sits on the fence only a couple of yards from the truck, so we can use the truck as a hide to watch it. Hopefully we have at least a couple of decent photos. One day we spent ages watching an African Scops Owl that was roosting in a tree above our heads. It was there all day and in the early evening was joined by another. They didn't fly off until it was quite dark. Seeing an owl is always a treat. Then there are the baboons, who come by each day to raid the bins. They are getting quite brave, but not as cheeky as some on other campsites. Annoyingly, they have chewed a hole in my peg-bag while we were elsewhere!
Meanwhile, B has decided where he would like to store the truck and we have booked our flights home. We will spend the next few days clearing out junk, eating up as much of our food stores as we can and preparing the truck for a long sleep, while trying to think positive about getting back here next year. S.
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Friday 19th October: Otavi to Okahandja
We drove hard all morning and arrived at Okahandja, about 60km north of Windhoek. We had an excellent lunch at the Okahandja Country Hotel. Our preferred campsite closer to Windhoek was fully booked for the night, so we started looking at options, but soon realised that we were too tired and eventually decided to stay at the hotel. We had a nice room, with aircon, and it was great to have an afternoon snooze for a change, but overall we agreed that we both prefer to stay in the truck (as long as we can get it cool enough). We worried a bit about the security of the truck, but in the morning everything was fine. Saturday 20th October: Windhoek We looked at three possible vehicle storage places in the Windhoek area, and discussed their various merits. We also "accidentally" popped in to a taxidermist's, which was quite an eye-opener. Obviously a lot of people are still enjoying shooting things. As well as lots of kudu, oryx and other antelope, there were warthogs, a honey-badger, several cheetah, two brown hyena, half a giraffe, half an elephant and numerous elephant feet. Probably other things I can't now remember too. Anyway, on we went to a fourth storage place, where we had booked a camping spot. Quite nice. We had an early meal and went to sleep fairly early too. And it was cold! I had to get my sleeping bag out again in the night, to put it on top of my duvet. That made a change! Sunday 21st October My goodness it was cold this morning, but it soon warmed up. We had a good look at the storage facility and a good discussion with the owner. Ian is never one to rush a decision, so I expect it will be a couple of days before we know which one we will use. In the meantime we are starting to prepare for storage and for going home. The pool at Khorab Lodge Monday 15th Cont'd We had a rather difficult night at the campsite. As soon as the sun went down the air was filled with mosquitos and other insects and we had to shut ourselves in the truck from 6.30pm. This meant we hadn't had time to air it and cool the inside, so even with the aircon on, we had to sit there in our undies, doing internet things until it cooled down enough for us to sleep. We also found that in these extreme conditions, mosquitos were able to get in. We sprayed with "Doom", but still got bitten during the night. The worst night of the trip. Tuesday 16th October Sadly, the storage guy didn't have any brilliant ideas for us, so we decided that we'd run out of options and would have to store the truck in Windhoek 1500km away. We set off with our hearts in our boots, too dispirited even to go and see Victoria Falls. The journey was uneventful, although the guys at the Zambian border were surprised to see us again so soon. At Katima Mulilo it took an hour to find a working cashpoint and then get fuel, so we stayed at the campsite of the Protea Hotel again. After cooking our supper the insects drove us indoors to eat it. Inside the box was still hot, so one of us had to eat our dinner without any clothes on! Wednesday 17th October Katima Mulilo to Rundu. 510km. We almost stopped after 430km, but the campsite we tried was a bit tired and already had lots of insects around at 3.30pm, so we drove on. The receptionist at Kaisosi River Lodge was extremely surprised to be seeing us for the third time! We cooled off in the pool and watched a thunderstorm over Angola. In the end we also had dinner in the restaurant as cooking after dark has become a bit of a chore now the insect season is here. Thursday 18th October Third day of travelling hard. Rundu to Khorab Lodge, just south of Otavi. 350km, with a lunch stop at the Purple Fig Bistro in Grootfontein. We both had "avogado" coffees, which were fabulous! They served ice-cream and a flake in the mug, with a separate jug of espresso to pour on top. Definitely the best coffee of the entire trip. This afternoon/evening we seem to have found ourselves at a lodge with a very nice garden and lovely pool, super staff and a well-thought-out camping spot. The drinks are cheap too. There's almost no-one here, so we had a very peaceful couple of hours swimming and reading by the pool. Saw a gorgeous new sunbird, which I still have to look up. Hoping to reach Windhoek tomorrow. On the technical side - the axle mod is working well, the right front portal is using no oil at all (it's the one with the mod applied, the left one is "pumping as usual"). A more permanent solution will be built soon - watch this space. Sunday 14th October Crossing the border from Namibia to Zambia was fairly straightforward. The whole thing took about two hours, which we thought was OK. There was quite a lot of admin to do, and various sums of money to be handed over, but people were chatty and helpful, which made it all seem less stressful. It may have been helpful that we crossed on a Sunday. We then drove about 100km to Kubu Cabins, where we were camping for the night. It was a bit tricky to site the truck, but after a bit of faffing around we got settled and met the other campers - a group of South Africans. The campsite was on the banks of the Zambezi again, this time with Zimbabwe on the other side. Campsite staff suggested we might see some animals on the far bank in the Zimbabwean National Park, but the SA group told us that there had been poachers shooting on Friday night and since then there hadn't been any game around. A shame. Apparently 3 elephant had also been shot very close to the campsite a week or so ago. We have been hearing a lot about how poaching of rhino and elephant is still going on at quite a rate, also other species such as pangolin. The poachers seem so determined that it's difficult to know how they could be stopped. The poaching of rhino in southern africa seems to be getting out of control after many years where the populations had been stabilised through huge efforts. There is a lot of effort being put into combatting it - see: http://www.stoprhinopoaching.com/ = reading the "tickertape at the top gives an idea just how bad the situation is getting. At this rate there won't be any wild rhino left in a few years - and all because of human greed. Anyway, we spent part of the afternoon at the pool, as usual, and started spotting some birds, including an African finfoot, which I was very pleased about. Back at the camping area, the SA group offered us some space on their braai, which was great as we didn't feel like getting our own fire going (lazy again). They showed us some of the things they were cooking, including whole mushrooms with butter and honey, which were delicious! It seems you can cook anything on the fire, as long as you have enough cooking foil (and patience). Monday 15th October I got up very early and went to watch the sun rise over the Zambezi. It was a wonderful huge red sun which rose in classic style with a thorn tree silhouetted in front: very dramatic. I enjoyed the peace and cool air, watching the water and the birds. After a while B came to tell me that I had missed 3 hippo in the water by the campsite. Oh, well! We packed up and got going to the place where we had been hoping to store the truck. There we found that the entrance to the facility was too low! Oh, bother!!!!! Now what to do??? Again! The person we wanted to talk to was away until tomorrow, so we decided to stay nearby and return the next day, with our fingers crossed that he would have a good idea. We had to try several campsites before we found one we were happy with, then went into town to sort out a few bits. Back at the campsite we had an overpriced late lunch and a very good value beer in the shady restaurant. It's noticeable that Zambians are different from Namibians, but it's hard to put your finger on what the difference is. Weds 10th October: In order not to let the entire day drift by again, we set off early into Mahango Nature Reserve, the little one we had already scooted through a couple of times. We saw a lovely hippo, and four elephant – one of these was having a good old scratch on a big tree. We also saw lots of lovely birds, of course. The afternoon was spent in and around the pool, deciding what to do in the absence of a reply from the RAC. We decided to head for the Zambian border, as having crossed this before returning to Windhoek could potentially make life simpler with customs rules etc.
Thursday 11th October: On the road by 7.30 am. Not a very exciting road, it has to be said. However, leaving Divundu there's a police roadblock - this consists of a steel gate across the road, a "Stop" sign and a policeman manning the gate. As we got nearer, slowing down, the policeman on the gate opened it in front of us. You'd think "he's letting us through" and accelerate. We didn't - there was a "Stop" sign and in Namibia if there's a "Stop" sign you STOP, even if there's no reason to. So we stopped - the policeman scowled and closed the gate - it was clear he was waiting to catch us out - but we'd been warned about these antics in Namibia. He then did the usual "where are you coming from, where are you going to"....and let us go. There is apparently even a "Stop" sign on the exit from one of the border posts on a straight and clear road with no-one and nothing else around, there's a brick wall next to the sign - and guess who hides behing that wall? You've been warned. Arrived at the Protea Hotel, Katima Mulilo about 12.30. Lawns to camp on and shady trees, next to the Zambezi River. On the way up here we had talked about the possibility of continuing our journey instead of turning back, but this would mean whizzing through the hot bits, thereby missing lots of things we want to do. Hoping to hear from the RAC the next day. We had the 3-course buffet dinner at the hotel. The salad was nice. Friday 12th October: A bit fed up with all this hanging around. B started to pose questions re carnets and customs on various forums that he contributes to, and discovered that “there have been changes at the RAC”...ominous. Went into town in the morning and got the cab air-con fixed, also bought lots of groceries in case we decide to travel on. After lunch we went to the rather drab swimming pool, from which we rescued a near-drowned toad. It was nice to cool down in the water, even if it was a bit scuzzy. Cooked and ate supper on the banks of the Zambezi, enjoying the hippos and colourful birds that are around. Saturday 13th October: Some VERY helpful replies from forum contributors, particularly one called Eric from France. It is wonderful how people are so willing to share their knowledge and experience and be helpful like this. We decided to cross into Zambia, store the truck there and come back to complete our trip next year. Sounds simple, but will probably be horribly complicated. A quiet day at the campsite. Made flapjacks in the microwave to start using up the sugar and butter, as we won’t be storing items like that and I hate to waste food. We also put some tint on the cab side windows to cut down the amount of heat coming in from the sunshine - it looks quite good! This evening the rains started. This is the first proper rain that we’ve seen since before Springbok, more than 3 months ago. We’ve been treated to a display of lightning over the Zambezi this evening accompanied by the occasional roll of thunder. It’s moving away now, but the effect has been a massive drop in temperature, so it’s going to be a comfortable night hopefully. That's it - if we're going to put our new plan into operation, I'm going to have to find a job in UK (or somewhere) for the winter! We've got a wifi connection working today, so I'm starting uploading my CV on all the jobsites looking for a suitable contract role -
The last week has been a bit of a strange one. In spite of our misgivings about having missed the weather window we were aiming for as we headed north, we decided to at least give Botswana and the Okavango Delta a go, especially as some travel friends (Felix and Sandra) were going to a lot of trouble to include us in their plans. We crossed the border last Tuesday, which turned out to be a public holiday in Botswana for Independence Day. The border at Mohembo was very quiet and everything went smoothly.
We took the (free) Mohembo Ferry across the Okavango and then drove down a reasonable gravel/sand road to Seronga, where we wanted to take a trip in a mokoro (a traditional canoe). Our guidebook recommended the Okavango Poler’s Trust operating out of Mbiroba Camp, so that’s where we went. It was a disappointment: we were the only visitors, the camp and chalets had seen better days, and the price for a mokoro trip was even more than we expected. We should have trusted our instincts and got out of there. But we spent a pleasant afternoon sitting in the shade looking out over the water and enjoying the sights and sounds. There were lots of birds to see, and also cows grazing in the water. It was very nice. Later on, when it got dark, we found it more of a struggle as there were so many mosquitos, and we couldn’t really cool down the inside of the truck sufficiently to be comfortable. On Wednesday morning we met our guide, Lets, at the appointed time, and set off in a truck to Xao to get on with our mokoro trip. It was already very hot but the views across the water were appealing. We put on lots of sunblock and set off. It was absolutely roasting all day long, but truly the boat trip was gorgeous none the less. Lets poled us along at a sedate pace and we had plenty of time to enjoy the water lilies, the bird life, an elephant on the shore and just the feeling of being on the Okavango. There were amazing numbers of African Fish Eagle, and we even saw a pair tumbling in the sky, which was an incredible sight. Lunchtime was a bit weird, though. We landed on an island and had a short “bush walk”. Honestly I had never imagined that it was possible to make such slow progress in spite of seeing so little game. It was absolutely farcical. Then after our packed lunch Lets informed us that we had an hour to rest until we set off again (which was probably a good idea as the heat was at its height). The afternoon ride was even hotter than the morning, of course, but we still had a bit of a breeze from the movement of the boat. The water was beautifully still. When we got back to Seronga the day was spoiled, really, by the extortionate exchange rate that the office gave us for our Namibian dollars, which made an overpriced trip into a complete rip-off. We would not recommend this particular outfit at all!!! The day was capped off by finding an enormous and repulsive spider in the outdoor shower. We were both feeling unhappy for various reasons and decided to head to Drotsky’s Cabins the next day to consider our options. On Thursday we travelled back along the dusty road and on the Mohembo ferry, then turned south to Shakawe, where we were able to get cash and some top-up groceries, before continuing to Drotsky’s. What a contrast when we got there! We found a beautiful, shady pole-and-thatch lodge, where Eileen Drotsky herself greeted us, got us a drink and made us feel very welcome. We also met Jan and Peter Drotsky and Itsaneng, who were all equally lovely. After a very nice chat we made our way to the campsite. It was a bit tricky getting the truck through the trees and we had to cut down a branch that was hanging too low. By this time we were getting rather frazzled and hungry, but help arrived in the form of groundsman Kebotshabe, who leapt on top of the truck, took the saw out of Barney’s hand and soon had the branch down. We had a late lunch. Annoyingly we lost our last piece of cheese (quite a big chunk too) to a vervet monkey. Various campers have been feeding them at the site and now they are a bit of a nuisance. Oh well. We took a map along to the campsite bar at the water’s edge, which has some wonderful carved features, but failed to come up with a plan. We went to bed early but slept poorly due to the heat. On Friday morning we asked Cedric at the campsite office about the possibility of a boat trip – it was looking hopeful, but not definite. We met Adrienne and Darren, two Kiwis happily driving their new Landrover and rooftop tent. We continued to struggle with the heat and our uncertainty about what best to do. In the afternoon we went up to the lodge to enjoy a drink in the shade and cool breeze inside. We had a float in the pool, chatting with Eileen and throwing an empty bottle for the dog to chase. It was a lovely relaxing afternoon, surrounded by the green lawns and taking in the views of the lodge and the river. We talked over our dilemmas with Eileen and she invited us to stay at their house in the Seychelles instead. We got chatting to Francois and his wife, from Cape Town. They were also trying their new car and rooftop tent. After cooking and eating our dinner we went to join them at their campsite and they gave us chocolate vodka (we supplied our last bit of not-as-good-as-you’d-like chenin blanc). We had a very nice time talking with them and went to bed rather late, but at least the box had cooled down and we slept well. Our boat trip on Saturday morning started at 7.15. We shared the boat with the Kiwis and a young Dutch couple who were also camping at Drotsky’s. The boat trip was wonderful!!! Our guide knew where to go and what to show us and we saw a lot of really wonderful birds, including a Pel’s Fishing Owl resting in a tree, and quite a few African Skimmers, some on the nest, two birds I had really been wanting to see. We also saw a good few crocs and hippos. All in all it was magical, and much better value than the mokoro trip we had taken. Afterwards we all sat drinking tea at the bar and swapping travel tips and tales. Nice people. We met up with Adrienne and Darren again in the evening for a chat, after a bit of a wild goose chase with them looking for us and us looking for them. At least we got a night-time cruise on the river in the process! By this time we had made the difficult decision to turn round, store the truck in Windhoek, and call this our “practice trip”. Neither of us is thrilled about this decision, but it’s clear that we can’t cope with the summer conditions here and we need to come back and try again next winter. Fingers crossed that our plan works out! Sunday – back through Shakawe for a few groceries, then back to the border, which again went smoothly. Back in Namibia we made a quick loop through Mahangu National Park, which is tiny. We visited the giant baobab (very impressive) and saw a pod of about 14 hippos grazing peacefully. We also saw roan antelope and sable antelope, which we hadn’t seen before. On the way back to Divundu, we bumped into the Kiwis again, who told us they had reserved us a space at Nunda River Lodge, as it was filling up fast. We arrived there and were warmly greeted by Cameron, who showed us that it was 44C in the shade! No wonder we feel hot! We popped into Divundu to fill up the tank, as there is a big truckers strike on in SA and we don’t want to get stranded without fuel. However, we later found out that this probably won’t affect Namibia, although it probably will affect Botswana, so maybe we would have had a difficult time if we’d continued to travel there. We’ll never know. Monday 8th October. We got a ride in the Kiwi’s landrover into Buffalo National Park, which is another small one nearby in the Caprivi strip. It was a really good visit, as we saw loads of buffalo and birds and three wild dogs, one with a tracking collar on. We were all very happy to have seen them. In the afternoon we had a lounge in and out of the pool at the lodge. Barney and I cooked our supper of bargain price sirloin bought in Shakawe. It was as tough as old boots, so we will try to potjie it and see if that makes it edible. Meanwhile, we noticed some vast cockroaches had come out after dark, so we will try to cook early in future. Then at least we will see which bugs are around. A very hot night. Tuesday 9th October. We are waiting to hear from the RAC whether or not we must take the vehicle out of the Southern African Customs Union before leaving it in storage. Until we know this we can’t really move on (is this a familiar refrain?) as we don’t want to find that we have gone in the wrong direction and track back before tracking back again. Luckily this is a very nice lodge with a gorgeous pool and river view. The only problem is that the internet is very unreliable. Said farewell to the Kiwis this morning. They are off into Namibia to avoid possible fuel shortages in Botswana, so we may catch up with them in Windhoek later. A slow day, made easier by some clouds, which kept the heat down. Health warning - this post is about truck stuff!
While we were waiting in Kamanjab, I decided to do something about the portal axle oil pumping (both front sides have been pumping between 50 to 80ml through the breather into the front axle per day since we got here). I've had several ideas how to deal with this, but have been thwarted by what is available locally. Looking through what I already had "in stock", plus what the hardware section of the Shell garage shop in town had, I came up with an "African modification" - this consists of 2 banjo unions, some shielded fuel pipe, insulating tape, jubilee clips and wire wraps. Basically the portal axles are gearboxes with two large gears, the upper one sitting on the axle, the lower one driving the wheel hub. These gears sit within a housing which is quite a tight fit around the gears. sounds like a gear pump? Well it is - and there's a pump outlet in the form of the breather pipe which is right at the top of the housing and leads into the main axle. This is a known issue with this type of Mog - some do it, some don't. I didn't detect much pumping in UK, until just before we shipped the truck -the change may have been due to the new oil type I filled the portals with, or different journey types. The rate of pumping seems to depend to some extent on driving speed - my plan was to keep speeds below 70kph and therefore avoid oil loss. Throughout the trip I've been checking each portal every travel day before setting off and keeping records of oil loss, distances, speeds etc. Interestingly, even keeping speed down to 60kph or less still results in pumping - plus we had a seal leak leading us to change it in Swakopmund, this led us to needing more oil for the whole trip than we were carrying. The fully-synthetic oil we are using (Mobil 75w90 SHC-1) didn't appear to be available here, so we were facing the need to change it for locally available mineral oil (and that change would also have meant changing the axle diff oil too as it pumps into it). Luckily we found a Mobil agent in Rundu who ordered some of our oil in for us (after searching for weeks elsewhere), so thus relieved the pressure - but it's still not right having to continually refill the portals (and drain the excess from the diffs every now and again), so a mod wass needed. The portal housing has the breather pipe at the top, a drain plug at the bottom and a fill/level plug somewhere between. In a gear pump there is a high-pressure area and a low-pressure area - by my reckoning the high-pressure area is around the breather pipe outlet and the low pressure area is in the region of the fill plug - so by linking the breather and the fill plug the oil should return to the portal rather than be pumped into the axle - I've tried this on the right hand portal and so far we've got 3 journeys completed - on the 1st it used 0ml, the 2nd 15ml and the 3rd 0ml (the second fill was on a slight incline so may have been misleading) - the left hand portal has continued to pump at around 40-50ml per trip. So it's looking like we may have found a solution - not technically the neatest, but a solution that will work in most circumstances - more testing/measuring needs to be done to really confirm our findings. This solution isn't robust enough for "off road use" as branches/stones could get caught in the pipework and cause damage, but it's easy enough to swap back to the original system when we know we'll be in these situations -and I've recently found what I've been told is "impossible to find in Namibia" - copper brake pipe - which could eventually get soldered-up to produce a more resilient solution. If this all goes well, I'll be modding the left hand portal too after Moremi/Chobe to see if it'll fix that side too. Both tired and found it hard to get going, so we set off rather late from Rundu. Filled up main and reserve tanks in case fuel not available later. We passed through the northern part of Rundu where there is a bright purple building signed "House of Love. Bicycle Empowerment Centre". Not quite sure what to make of that. So finally we were on a road that we hadn't travelled previously. This area has a lot more large green trees and generally looks far more fertile than anywhere else we have seen in Namibia. Under the trees you still see orange coloured sandy earth, though. It's not like an English woodland (well, no reason why it would be). The scenery was much the same for the 207km we traveled, with many small villages. These were mostly build of wood and reeds: smallish compounds with several small thatched buildings within. Perhaps how one might expect an African village to look. We filled up again at Divundu, just to be on the safe side, and I had a quick look in the garage supermarket. Not a great deal of variety in there, but a vast quantity of sugar. After the filling station we turned right at a junction and shortly afterwards started to see the Okavango River. We are camping at Nunda Safari Lodge, which is very nice. After getting rather stressed with all the odds and ends we felt we needed to do, we wandered down to the bar on the river, checked our schedule and decided to stay for an extra night. After 4 days of travel with extra jobs to do every day we had been getting a bit fed up, so a relaxing evening followed by a slower day was needed. We spent a lovely couple of hours by the river, drinks in hand, watching the sun go down and spotting a few new birds, before heading back to the campsite to cook. On the way out of Bush Baby we bumped into the owner, and found out that the vultures we had seen were there because a one-year-old giraffe had died somehow. Very sad!
Fuel and grocery shopping in Grootfontein, but couldn't find my special milk or bread. Uneventful journey to Rundu, including crossing the vet fence and the police check. We saw that there had been many more bush fires up here, as a lot of the countryside was blackened, and in some places still smoking. Found rye bread but no "Easygest" milk in Rundu. While parked someone tried to nick one of the outside lights, but B was in the cab and scared them off with the air brakes. Stayed at Kaisosi again and enjoyed seeing Ronaldo once more. We had a drink in the bar with him and he discussed with us some ideas he has for the future. Hopefully we will stay in touch. Lovely frog or toad in the ablutions - shades of brown. Twister the campsite horse looked interested in our dinner and had to be shooed away. Frustrated to see birds that aren't in either of my books. |
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