The Caprivi Strip and Beyond

After two months we had left Botswana and found ourselves back in Namibia – we were beginning to feel as though the country was pulling us back every time we tried to leave!

But this was a completely different part of the country. The Caprivi Strip is a long finger of land protruding from ´main land´ Namibia straight to Victoria Falls where four countries meet – Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. When I first came here in 1999 the civil war was still raging in Angola and the whole of northern Namibia was out of bounds, including the Caprivi. Land mines and gun fire ruled and tourists stayed away. So this was new territory for both of us.

Being in the north, the Caprivi is hotter and more humid than the rest of Namibia and with more water even than northern Botswana. The Chobe River separates it from Botswana in the south east, the Zambezi River separates it from Zambia in the north east, the Kwando runs up the middle and the Cubango on the western edge creates the border with Angola.

We hadn´t really known what to expect here but what we found exceeded all our hopes. It is a stunning part of the country and with so many rivers the whole place was very like one big Chobe Riverfront.

As we crossed the border we immediately felt like we had come home. We drove through pretty, clean villages and farms – everything seemed right and very familiar

Even the occasional wait to let the local wildlife pass!

Our first stop was the area capital of Katima Mulilo. It was a nice town, not huge but we were able to stock up on food and wine. We searched for a printing shop to print out photos of Henry, a requirement for the Angola border crossing. The first place we found had a very old printer and the prints were not good enough for official purposes. They sent me across the square to another place who had much better equipment but their wi-fi was very slow meaning it took ages for images to be sent from customers to their computer and from their computer to the printer. I sat waiting for half an hour, third or fourth in a queue. One by one, as the other customers were slowly given their print-outs the owner waived the charge to apologise for their wait. He can´t have made any money that morning at all but smiled to me when I pointed that out and said he was investing in the future.

I had been there for 45 minutes already and James had been waiting in Henry outside the original printers the whole time. He didn´t know where I was and I started to worry that he would be worried so when the owner´s young son came in from school and started running errands I asked his father whether he could run to James and bring him here. He showed the boy the photos of Henry on the computer and pointed to where James was waiting with him in the distance. The boy memorised my message and ran off. A few minutes later James and Henry came driving slowly to the shop following the little boy who had a big smile of achievement on his face and a small tip in his hand.

The photos turned out well and were not at all expensive. I worked out how much the owner must have lost giving his other customers theirs for free and made up for it in a big tip. He smiled at me again – the future he had been investing in had been closer than he had thought!

We headed to our first Caprivi campsite, a community-owned place right on the river. We had private ablutions and a great view

We saw plenty of warthog scurrying around

And there was some strange splashing late in the evening which we never got to the bottom of.

We cooked pizza in the frying pan, a new experiment which worked well, even if the pizza needed a heavy duty knife to cut through it!

It was very relaxing but there was not much to do nor were there any other people around to chat to other than two members of staff who spoke very little English and kept themselves to themselves.

So when, after two days there, we arrived at our next chosen campsite to find it was exactly the same set-up on the same river, just with larger pitches, we decided not to stay but to find something a little more lively. We had spent so much time in the middle of nowhere over the last few weeks we were both starting to crave some human company and a bit of civilisation.

We carried on west to the next campsite on the list. This one was owned by a large organisation called Gondwana who run a number of lodges and campsites in Namibia and generally have high standards. When we arrived it was just what we had been looking for – like Chobe Safari Lodge it had a professional reception area, restaurant and bar and offered boat trips, mokoro rides and a variety of other water-related activities.

So we were gutted when we found they were fully booked up. Gutted and very surprised, this was a first on our whole trip so far! They were very helpful though and gave us their telephone to call a number of other campsites, recommending three different ones in the vicinity. Eventually we found one which was suitable and available. We said we would probably come back the next day when they had a pitch available and reluctantly left.

The new campsite was only half an hour away and as soon as we arrived we realised we had fallen on our feet. This place was far smaller and more personal than the larger, Gondwana lodge and we were greeted by the manager as she held a baby tree squirrel in her hands trying to get it to feed. The owner came over to chat to us and welcome us and we immediately felt at home

The bar area was gorgeous

With beautiful views across the river plains

And when we were taken to our pitch it was enormous and private with our own clean ablutions

And another fabulous view

We quickly made ourselves at home and decided to stay indefinitely!

Hippo and elephant surrounded the place and we heard both at close quarters regularly during our stay.

The wi-fi in the bar area was just good enough for me to finally complete and upload all the documentation required for our Angolan visas and there was much excitement as the applications were successfully submitted and the screen told us to wait for confirmation as to whether we would be accepted.

To celebrate, that evening we had a couple of gin and tonics with the manager and owner and to my surprise a lady called Lisa Hanson turned up. Lisa is apparently a good friend of the manager and pops in regularly to have a glass of wine with her. Lisa was also a founding member of the Africat Foundation at Okonjima in the 1990s which, as some of the more avid readers may remember, is the place which first inspired me to want to make my life in Namibia working with big cats. After my first visit there over 20 years ago I had become a member of Africat and Lisa and I had corresponded extensively trying to set up fund-raising activities and find a place for me in their organisation. The conversation between us had stopped quite abruptly and I never understood why.

Having now spent an evening with her face to face I have finally found an answer to that question – she married into the Hanson family who owned Okonjima and around the time we were corresponding she and her husband were going through an unpleasant divorce which led to her leaving the Foundation. Is it strange to think that had her marriage lasted just a little bit longer my life may well have been very different…..

The next morning we woke up to find a very strange addition to our sleeping quarters. Sitting above us in the seam of Henry´s roof lining was an ominous construction

It hadn´t been there when we went to bed so something had been busy above our heads whilst we slept. This, to me, looked like something a spider would build to house its eggs so I quickly left the premises whilst James went about removing it as carefully as he could, levering it away from the roof with a screwdriver.

Fortunately it was empty, and strangely rock hard

When we showed the picture to the campsite manager she said it was probably a half-built egg sack for a bee. That´s ok, I can live with bees busy above my head whilst I sleep… anthing, as long as it´s not spiders!

We were feeling very at home here but I have come to realise that almost all campsites, no matter how lovely, always have one downside. At some it´s mosquitoes, at others high winds, some have parachuting caterpillars or sand that gets everywhere. The lovely campsite at Somabula in Pretoria was almost perfect but the ablutions block was spider-central.

At this campsite the downside was ants. Thousands and thousands of teeny, tiny ants only about 2mm long. They got everywhere. As soon as you put something down they swarmed on it – plates, bowls, the cooker, shoes, Iphones. They crawled up your feet and somehow managed to get as far up as your arms. They didn´t bite often and the bites only hurt for a few minutes, but it was enough to start becoming a nuisance.

So after two days we decided it was time to move on. But as we tried to check out we found that their card machine was broken and we realised with a sinking feeling that we didn´t have enough cash to cover the bill. The owner wasn´t at all concerned, he suggested we drove into the nearby town and met him at the supermarket where there´s a cash machine. Trust is a thing out here – either that or they figure it would be hard to hide in a 3.5 tonne, silver Landrover with his name splashed all over his roof!

It was a Saturday so the supermarket closed at 1pm and it was now already 12:15pm so we dashed off to do some shopping and sort out the money. He was waiting for us at the check-outs telling us all the cash machines in the town were either broken or out of cash but he had organised with the owners of the fuel station for them to give us cash-back.

We headed over with him and they were kind enough to give us all their cash in return for buying one can of Coke and making the rest up on our credit card!

Nowhere sold data though and we had run out so we resigned ourselves to being out of internet land for a few days until we could get to a bigger town.

Our next stop was a campsite in the middle of the Bwabati National Park. I had chosen this one as friends in Namibia had said it was about as wild as you can get with animals regularly wandering through your campsite. We had been unable to get hold of them to book in advance so were very relieved when we arrived to find they had one pitch left.

The place was fairly basic but right on the Kwando River and the two hour drive through the park to get there was beautiful

I gazed out over the river watching two hippos being remarkably lively

And as we set up camp we heard elephants moving around in the bushes around us.

That afternoon we went for a game drive around the park and found the Horseshoe which seemed to be the main attraction here. There were a herd of elephant drinking

We approached a little closer and found an official hide where we could get out and watch for a while on foot

As this herd moved away back into the trees, two more elephants came up behind us to drink further down the river. It was all incredibly beautiful and tranquil

Suddenly a troupe of baboons marched up

Some of them got so close they made me jump as they tore out of the bushes next to me

But they only wanted to get to the water for a drink…

Albeit not always so elegantly!

That night I woke up around midnight unable to breath, my nose was completely blocked. My head felt dizzy and my stomach was sick. We had been in a high malaria risk area for a few weeks so being groggy from tiredness that was my first thought. I didn´t get much sleep and the next morning I felt even worse.

The lodge didn´t have testing kits but did say they could call a doctor from Katima Mulilo if I needed one. I decided not to jump the gun too soon but we spent the day on camp with James cleaning Henry and me dying in a chair in the shade.

Later in the day a German couple from a neighbouring pitch came to visit. They stayed and chatted for a few hours.

Whilst they were there we were joined by another visitor

This one busy trying to push the trees down!

That evening, as we were sitting by Henry watching a movie, we heard more rustling and snapping of branches even closer. By torchlight we saw the culprit only about 3 meters away from us so decided an early night was the safest course of action!

In the morning the German couple gave us details of the campsite they were heading towards saying that had been many times before and could highly recommend it. I looked it up and it was part of a lodge which offered boat trips and a three course dinner cruise which appealed to me so I gave my best pleading look to James and we agreed to meet them there later.

I was feeling very much better by now and decided I had probably just been very dehydrated – dehydration in this sort of climate can be quite dangerous and is something to take very seriously. I made a mental note to drink more water as we were travelling closer to the equator and into hotter and more humid climates.

I went up to the lodge to pay our bill and also to ask for some advice. I have ongoing problems with my ears which need regular maintenance and although I would normally expect to be able to go 6-12 months between treatments, travelling in hot and dusty countries seemed to be shortening that timescale to just 3-4 months. It had already been 4 months since I last had them done back in the UK and they were now so bad I could barely hear out of my right ear and I could feel pressure building up making my head ring. I had never had treatment outside of the UK before and didn´t even know if it was something that was done in Africa. But if it was, Namibia was quite likely to be somewhere I could find a doctor to help. The friendly staff gave me details of a private doctor in Divundu, a large town four hours away but in the direction we were heading.

We drove straight to the town with no more stops along the way and stocked up on food, cash and – finally – data. Being back on-line was a relief, it´s far more difficult navigating and planning when you don´t have the endless power of the internet at your fingertips! We then went on a search for the doctor.

We found him quite easily, everyone knew about the private doctor and gave us directions. We walked into the clinic and I was overjoyed to find that he did indeed offer the treatment I needed.

I sat down in his surgery and the first thing he did was to poke the long, sharp pointy end of his syringe straight into my ear drum. It was extremely painful and also very dangerous. I flinched away and he laughed telling me to sit still. I was very nervous at this point. Even more so when he forgot to put the dish under my ear and I was soaked to the skin with water. And by the time he declared himself finished nothing more than a few specks had come out of my ear and it was clear his treatment had failed.

I wasn´t about to complain and I certainly wasn´t going to insist he tried again! I paid the bill and ran out whilst my ear drums were still in one piece.

We joined our new friends at their campsite and booked the dinner cruise for the next day. This campsite, like all the others in the Caprivi, had a gorgeous view over the river

But was otherwise quite disappointing – it was a little run down and the sinks had no water for washing up. Plus I also almost got stuck in the toilet when the lock refused to turn which is never going to endear me to a place!

We spent the evening surrounded by hippos in the bushes by the river and I heard lions roaring in the distance as I was waking up in the morning. But all in all, between my ears and the campsite I was not in a happy mood. James was also increasingly unhappy as we were having yet more problems with Henry. This time it was not a Landrover problem nor even a mechanical problem. This time it was a problem of power.

We had bought a new auxiliary battery in Cape Town less than 12 months ago to replace our original battery when it had started to degrade to the point where it was unable to hold its charge. The new one had been smaller than the original but the best we could find. Unfortunately it had not been up to the job and after only a short time our constant draining of it powering the fridge, the water pump and charging all our electricals had worn it out far faster than we would have expected.

We had reached the point where even having our solar panels out all day or driving for hours on end was not sufficient to keep the fridge cold or allow us to charge even one IPhone when we were stationary for more than a few hours.

We typically bring spare parts and upgrades back out with us when we visit the UK but big batteries are not something we could take on an aeroplane. So whatever the solution was, it would have to be sourced from here and that limited our options. At least we were in Namibia where most things could be found eventually – if we entered Angola without resolving this problem we would be a lame duck.

The husband of our new friends turned out to be an electrical engineer and so James asked him whether he would help test a few things. He was delighted to help, electrical engineering being his hobby as well as his job! So the next day our plans to visit Popa Falls were put on ice and James spent all morning with Heiko testing for battery drains, measuring how much our various devices drew etc.

Although James finds this sort of thing interesting he had got to the point where he was pretty sick of Henry´s issues and would far rather have gone to visit a waterfall.

I was equally sick and tired of our plans constantly being cancelled because of Henry issues. But what could we do? If we left things as they were we would very soon end up with no fridge and no water pump.

So I went up to the restaurant area to use the wi-fi and post a blog leaving James to his investigations. Gabi joined me and Heiko stayed to enthusiastically provide advice and guidance to James. Eventually, in the early afternoon, the boys joined us for a late lunch and a debrief. There was no parasitic draw and all the devices were using no more power than expected. The only conclusion was – the battery was defunct.

The general consensus of opinion was that a standard AGM battery simply was not up to the job. If we were to continue to be self-sufficient we would need to upgrade to expensive but far more powerful lithium batteries. But where on earth could we source them over here? Not to mention the entirely different set of chargers and controllers required to manage a lithium battery.

Concerned but never defeated, we joined the dinner cruise early in the evening and it was magical

We drifted along the river towards a small island watching the wildlife as the sun was setting.

At the island we moored and spent half an hour sitting by a fire sipping wine and beer

We were then invited back onto the boat for a lovely three course dinner.

The bugs were kept at bay by bright lights attracting them to the edges of the boat and away from the guests. It was amazing to see just how many there were!

Eventually we headed back to the lodge and fell asleep with more distant lion roars in our ears.

Lovely as the cruise had been, we had two things going on here. Firstly, the Caprivi Strip was beautiful, there were animals everywhere and the river cruises were fabulous – but we had done all of it. We had been animal spotting for 2 months in Botswana, we had seen hippos, slept surrounded by elephants, cruised along a river twice. How many more cruises or wild campsites did we need to experience right now? Something had happened which I would never in my life have expected – we were animal´d out.

And now we were also perilously out of battery power and something needed to be done – quickly, and certainly before we went into Angola.

So we packed up, threw the itinerary in the bin and headed off for the large town of Rundu 200 km away, the nearest place where we would have any chance of finding what we needed. Enroute we contacted a number of Namibian friends and acquaintances asking for help with where might stock what we needed.

The first suggestion was a solar specialist in Rundu. He could only get things on special order from South Africa and could give no indication of timescales. He sent us to a major chain of builders merchants who surprisingly had the charger and controller we needed but could only get the battery on overnight delivery. Given our low expectations of finding anything we needed here we were pleasantly surprised.

But how often does an African one-day delivery turn into 3 weeks? It was a risk.

So we contacted Christian from the Off-Road Centre in Windhoek – who we had spent hours talking to a few months ago and who had admired Henry greatly. He was brilliant! He had lithium batteries in stock – two different makes, one of which we were thrilled to find was small enough to actually fit in our battery box without too many adjustments. He also had a combined charger-controller rather than two separate devices. They were a different make to the premium brand James wanted but it was a well-known and reputable American brand. James did some quick research and found that this was possibly an even better solution than the one we had been aiming at.

It was 3pm and Windhoek was 1,000km away. And 1,000km in entirely the wrong direction – directly south when we were heading north into Angola. But we had no choice. We set the sat nav and started on a very, very long drive.

By early evening we were passing the large town of Grootfontein where we had spent a few days earlier in the year. We were tired so pulled in at the same campsite we had stayed before. We ate in the restaurant, enjoyed the clean facilities and felt as though we were returning to civilisation after months in the wilderness.

We made it to Windhoek by lunch time the next day, stopped for a quick lunch at the bizarre Smash Burger where they served burgers full of smashed meat – surprisingly tasty but a little strange. And then we headed straight to see Christian.

He had put all the things we wanted to one side and talked us through how it all worked. Many modifications would need to be made to our battery box, wiring and general set-up but it all looked very do-able. Despite being run off their feet with work, Christian kindly offered to do the installation the next day if we could get there for 7am.

We drove straight to our old haunt, Urban Camp, where we were greeted with big smiles and even a hug from one of the staff. Travelling is our passion but there is something very comforting about returning to a place you love and being welcomed back like family.

I spent the rest of the day doing the blog whilst James stripped out the old battery, controllers and wiring in readiness for the next day. We went to bed very late but full of optimism.

We were up early and waiting at the gate of the Off-Road Centre just before 7am. They worked on Henry all day without a break. James worked with them and they let me sit in one of their offices and use the wi-fi to get some admin done.

Finally everything was installed and working by about 4pm. It had all gone remarkably well and we were the proud owners of a new lithium battery and a very fancy solar controller…

Whilst there we also bought a net for the front of the Landrover which was designed to stop seeds from getting into the radiator when driving through long grass – he looked very smart….

We thanked the guys profusely for all their hard work and headed to a nearby Landrover supplier to pick up a new mirror arm to replace the old one which had been snapped in the Central Kalahari bush. Were pleased again to be remembered and welcomed back like old friends.

On a real high we treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner at the Stellenbosch Bistro that we had so enjoyed the first time we were in Windhoek. We got back to Urban Camp where our laundry was waiting for us and where the staff kindly printed out all the documents we needed for the Angolan border – including the visas which had come through a few days earlier.

We were rocking and rolling! We were on top of the world! We were utterly exhausted!

We fell into bed just after 8pm and slept like babies. For once it seemed that everything had fallen into place and there was little left to stop us embarking on our next big adventure.

We had another very long journey ahead of us and we had no idea what to expect when we got there. Angola is a country where the people speak only Portuguese and which sees few tourists. We had heard of its beauty and its friendliness but also of high prices, lack of campsites and a return to a culture much more like West Africa than the very European-style Southern African countries we had become so accustomed to.

It is fair to say we had become soft – getting used to travelling in relatively wealthy, English-speaking countries geared up for tourists and with a broadly familiar culture.  So it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that we awoke the next day ready to head into the unknown….