Moving Forwards and Looking Back

After a much needed day taking a breather in Etosha we headed straight across to Grootfontein to visit our friends Theuyns and Thea. Winter was definitely behind us now, summer was slowly creeping up and with it the temperatures

The thermometer in Henry hadn´t reached 50 degrees for almost a year and now we were suddenly at our all time record.

As I drove we were climbing big hills with bush fires burning the grass verges on each side. With searing outside temperatures and heavy climbs we knew Henry would be struggling. But I was still surprised when the air con suddenly started blowing roasting hot air at us. And out of the corner of my eye I was sure I saw the needle on the temperature gage start to wobble. In a Landrover, if that needle moves upwards it´s game over for the engine.

I immediately pulled over and James got the engine management app up on his phone – poor Henry´s engine was at 109 degrees, one more degree higher and it would have blown. We looked at each other in dismay, we had narrowly avoided another disaster but how much more stress was Henry going to throw at us?

James started talking about UniMogs, he was ready to throw the towel in with Henry, he needed an easier life than this.

After a few minutes to let the engine cool down we carried on, driving much more slowly, and finally arrived in Grootfontein in no mood to be sociable with friends. We decided to have lunch in town and settle our frayed tempers before going to the farm. Some nice food, a cool drink and some shade had the desired effect and by the time we arrived with Theuyns and Thea we had smiles back on our faces

It was wonderful to see everyone again, it had been six months since our last visit. They were all very sympathetic to Henry´s woes but counselled us that the Namibian summer heat frequently caused such problems and it didn´t mean there was anything wrong with the Landrover itself. They took us to a few hardware stores to try and find a bigger housing for our raised air filter to allow more air to circulate through but to no avail. Instead James spent the next day cutting the fins out of our existing housing to improve circulation as well as removing the seed net and number plate from in front of the radiator. Anything to keep the engine cool in this heat.

We were treated to wonderful food and great company for three fabulous days and on the second night were delighted to see the heavens open and a much welcomed torrent of rain cooled everything down making for a beautifully cool and fresh morning the next day.

We spent much of our time chatting about farms, farming and land ownership laws. No-one felt it was right for us to buy a farm now if we still wanted to travel – Theuyns and Thea have difficulty going away for more than a few days at a time. In fact at one point Thea grabbed my hand and pleaded with me not to tie ourselves down as she couldn´t bear the thought that our wandering spirits would be trapped in one place.

One of their neighbours used to work in the government before he retired and they took us to meet him and his wife on our last day.

When we arrived we found the most amazing house and garden we had seen in all our time in Southern Africa

Sitting on their veranda surrounded by trees and flowers I suddenly felt as though we had been transported back to one of the finest country gardens in England. It was like a different world from the bare sand and yellow grass that so defines this country

Josh and Maria were as amazing as their garden. Very quietly spoken but incredibly knowledgeable, considered and thoughtful. Josh himself spoke very softly but we quickly realised that straining our ears to hear his words was well worth the effort. We would ask him a question about life in Namibia or the government´s view on certain aspects of foreign ownership of farms and initially his reply seemed to be on a different subject. But as he developed his train of thought we realised he was approaching the question from an angle we had not considered and giving us a much deeper and more thought provoking answer than we would ever have contemplated.

I am not sure I have ever met anyone like him before in my life and I felt both honoured and a little awed to have been able to spend time with them.

As we prepared to leave Grootfontein I couldn´t shake the feeling that we were not just saying goodbye to our friends but to the whole of Namibia. The challenges and ties of owning a farm had settled firmly on our shoulders and the desire to have a simple life and keep travelling was getting stronger than ever.

I had never felt so conflicted in my life, suddenly we wanted two lives and they were not compatible. We had to make a choice and I was beginning to realise that the choice had already been made, it was just taking a little time for it to sink in.

As we hugged our goodbyes I felt tears prick my eyes – my heart was breaking at the knowledge that we were leaving behind everything we had come to love so much – our friends Theuyns and Thea, Kobus and Marissa, Gerhard and Phillazie, everyone at Urban Camp, the whole of the beautiful south and the country that has felt like home to me for 25 years. Would we ever see any of them again? As we climbed into Henry to drive away there was an empty, hollow pit in my stomach.

The road north took us to the town of Rundu on the western tip of the Caprivi Strip. As we drove we overtook one of the ubiquitous white Hilux rental cars driving behind us. The tourists inside were clearly inexperienced on the Namibian dirt roads and I felt myself wondering what they saw as we both drove through the same part of the world.

Did they even know they were driving through Ovamboland or did they have no clue about the tribal culture or structure of Namibian society? Did they know that the Ovambo people are reputed to be hard working, loyal and successful in business? Had they ever heard of the Ovambo Chief who rules this area with a firm but fair hand? Did they notice the pristine, well built thatched homes and the children walking down the roads from school with their clean, crisp uniforms, the smiles and chatter? Did they understand and love Namibia and its way of life at all or were they just on holiday driving through Africa feeling like they were on a different planet?

I realised I was getting very protective of Namibia and the wonderful people who make the country what it is – how far we had travelled and how much had we come to understand about the world by simply staying put for long enough to see the reality behind the headlines. Two years in Africa and many months in Namibia had taught us to throw away the destructive and limiting narrative that the Western world likes to tell about the ´Dark Continent´ and lift our eyes higher to see beyond it to the beating heart that makes this part of the world so compelling.

We drove slowly to keep Henry´s engine as cool as possible and that was fine with us – the longer it took to drive this last stretch of Namibia the better. We arrived in Rundu, on the northern border with Angola, made a quick stop at the supermarket and found a lovely campsite for the night

We had a neighbour who we were sure was a long way from home!

We took advantage of quick wifi the next morning to get some films downloaded on the laptop over gorgeous views across the river

But a momentary lapse of coordination had me knocking our burner over whilst making a cup of tea and scalding my hand on the boiling water. Fortunately the lovely staff came to my rescue with a pint of ice!

Somewhere in our minds a clock was ticking loudly as our visas were running out so we continued our journey east that afternoon to the next campsite. It had good reviews and had been active on Facebook until very recently but we hadn´t been able to get in touch with them at all so were not sure what to expect.

When we arrived it was very remote and we were the only visitors there – but the owners welcomed us warmly and seemed thrilled to have guests. It was all very low key and very beautiful, nestled at the bottom of a steep hill overlooking the river

But we weren´t quite so keen on the neighbours here as we had been at the last place!

As the sun came up the next morning the light glanced off the water and fractured in the blistering haze of the rapidly approaching summer. My photos needed no special effects or photoshopping to look quite otherworldly

So far, since leaving Grootfontein, we had simply been travelling north and east, retracing our steps from nearly six months ago back to the border with Botswana. We had stayed at lovely campsites and enjoyed the remote and solitary scenery but not done much with ourselves other than close the gap between us and Zimbabwe. The next stop was to be a campsite we had liked coming in the other direction. We had decided to stay again and this time treat ourselves to their boat trip down the river.

We arrived slightly later than planned and the boat was just about to leave so we jumped out of Henry, grabbed cameras, hats and sunglasses and ran down to the river. After a few long hours of driving we could have done with some time to relax but the trip was well worth the rush

We glided seamlessly along the river

Past sausage trees bulging with their fruit

And before long saw a herd of buffalo on the rivers edge. Our guide pulled the boat onto the bank and told us all we could get out for a closer look. Many of you know my feelings on buffalo – grumpy and unpredictable creatures more than capable of pounding a person into the ground should the desire take them – so this was not where I was going to stand anytime soon!

I satisfied myself with a few photos from the safety of the boat!!

Time seemed to stand still as we drifted past pods of hippos

Herons swooping by

And fish eagles in the far distant trees

Kudu grazed at the water

And tiny bee-eaters perched on branches all along the bank near their nesting holes

As dusk started to settle a herd of elephant wandered down for a drink

And a fabulous monitor lizard appeared out of his hole

looked around for a few moments

then dashed off

There were a lot of hippo on the river and our guide showed no fear at all as he steered the small boat closer to them then we have ever been to these aggressive and notoriously dangerous creatures

They eyed us suspiciously

And frequently sank below the surface only to appear thrillingly close to the side of the boat, often making one or more of us jump out of our skin as they came up snorting loudly far too close for comfort!

But they ultimately decided the boat was too big for them to take on and satisfied themselves with their usual displays of aggression and challenge – the famous hippo yawn….

One of which was really very impressive

We drifted along for over two hours as the sun sank lower towards the horizon

Before eventually turning round and slowly making our way back to camp

It had been a glorious afternoon and we headed back to our campsite feeling as calm and happy as we had been in a long time.

We clung on to our new-found sense of peace as our journey along the Caprivi Strip neared its end. We arrived in Katima Mulilo at lunch time the next day and headed to our last Namibian campsite

The whole area around here is geographically as far away from Windhoek as it is possible to get whilst still being in Namibia and both the landscape and atmosphere of the green, water-bound eastern tip of the Caprivi are equally far distant from the deserts and grassy plains of ´mainland´ Namibia

We had been travelling from Grootfontein for just under a week and the slow change in the landscape was just what we needed to allow ourselves to adjust to our post-Namibia lives.

Not least of all the changes we were facing was the re-emergence of the tortuous mosquito. At this campsite they buzzed around us everywhere, the air thick with them, the constant drone of their wings grating on our ears. The cool, dry winter of Namibia had given us a welcome respite from the pesky things and their return was a sure sign that things were about to change.

We used up the last of our Namibian data downloading more films, spent our last few Namibian Dollars filling up with fuel and dragged our hearts, minds and Landrover to face the border with deep breaths and thumping hearts

This was it, the time had come and we couldn´t put it off any longer. We started the engine, set the sat nav and before we could even take a breath Namibia was just a memory and we found ourselves hurtling down the transit road through Chobe National Park in Botswana for a short hour-long hop towards Zimbabwe…..