It was a very strange feeling. We were in Namibia, a place we know and love, but we didn’t have any plans. We had visited our friends, been to the coast, seen the mountains, done Etosha and had a fabulous adventure in the remotest part of the country that we had never seen before.
But all of that had only taken a month and we still had two more to go. Namibia stretched out in front of us, the world was our oyster. We could pick and choose where we went and what we did but we weren’t actually making any decisions at all. It was almost as though there was too much choice.
We drove out of Etosha and headed south down the main tar road towards a place we knew would inspire us to relax and make plans – the Otavi Vineyard
We had been many times before and not only is the campsite lovely, the wine fabulous and the hosts welcoming, but they also do a rather nice breakfast
We met the newest member of staff, Corne, who was wonderful. We hit it off straight away and spent many hours putting the world to rights with him
The views over the Otavi Valley were as spectacular as ever
On our second evening we did the wine tasting and, just for a change, were a little tipsy by 8:30pm
The next morning there was a strange banging coming from somewhere around the truck and I searched everywhere for the culprit. It started to feel a bit spooky as the loud ‘bang, bang, bang’ seemed to be coming from nowhere. But eventually I tracked it down to the bin by the camp table and gingerly lifted the lid to see what huge creature was in there making so much noise…
We stayed for three nights, enjoying the scenery and the peace. James took Henry’s back door apart to clean out the lock after all the sandy roads we had travelled – but other than that we did very little
On the fourth day we were up early and setting off for Windhoek. We had our windows open, enjoying the sunshine, when we found we had a visitor on board
Once he had been gently helped out, it was an easy drive down the perfectly smooth, straight tar road and we had arrived at Urban Camp by 2pm where we had a fabulous dinner of Kalahari truffles.
It was another busy three days in the capital city getting things sorted out. I took my camera lens into a camera shop to find out why it had suddenly stopped working only to be told it was damaged beyond repair. I had no idea what had happened to it and was inconsolable – my beloved zoom lens was no more. At least it had lasted long enough to do Etosha.
Henry needed more work. We had his wheels rebalanced to try in vain to fix the steering wobble
Then booked him in with our friendly Landrover mechanic, Ollie, to get the front swivel and seals replaced.
Actually, as always, James was doing the work – Ollie just let us use his workshop and tools again and provided vital consultancy
It was a long and tiring day for James but there was light at the end of the tunnel – we were booked into a posh restaurant for my birthday dinner that evening, a place that had become my regular birthday celebration venue, and it didn’t disappoint
We had another adventure looming on the horizon – it was almost time for our trip to Angola with Kobus and Marissa. In preparation we rushed around the city buying jaffel makers, a new pillow for me, various tools and Henry parts plus of course a boatload of food and beer.
After all that we felt we deserved another evening out so went for a fabulous pizza, ribs and jalapeno poppers with Kristi, the manager at Urban Camp, who had news for us – she had quit her job and would be leaving in September. We were gutted but she promised the move would give her a better work/life balance so she could see more of us when we were in town. Let’s hope that’s true but either way Urban Camp won’t be the same without her.
On our last day, we picked up a beautiful fern for Marissa’s birthday and set off for the farm once again
We had all agreed to leave for Angola on 11th August, and it was now 2nd, so we had nine days to spend with our friends including celebrating both my birthday and Marissa’s.
Despite the sparse population in Namibia, farm life is always very sociable. When we arrived we found a house full – Marissa’s parents, Liana and the two kids as well as her father-in-law Koos. We were all treated to a proper Afrikaans braai
And on my birthday some neighbours were invited round to help celebrate over dinner
The kids, Liarissa and Jan Jakobus, were very shy at first and ran away whenever either James or I walked into a room. But after a couple of days they decided we were all right after all and a day after that I was upgraded to ‘person of definite interest’! For the rest of our visit, wherever I went I kept hearing a little voice calling ‘Tannie, Tannie’. At first I had no idea what it meant until Marissa informed me that it means ‘Auntie’ and was aimed at me.
I had kids on my knee, kids chasing me around, kids creeping up on me and giggling. It was very sweet but also quite exhausting
They didn’t speak any English and I (still) don’t speak much Afrikaans so communication was a challenge – at one point I had to ask Kobus to tell them they had to let me work for a bit. I have no idea what he actually said, but they ran away in terror and I didn’t see them again for the rest of the day!
There is aways plenty of work to do on a farm
Everyday we went out to check everything was running smoothly
In the dry, winter months the most important task is to check that the dams are kept full enough to feed the animal troughs
There was a big problem with one of the boreholes that was overgrown with roots. James, Kobus and Koos went out with the farm staff to try and clear it out but it was no good
Kobus couldn’t leave the farm with this problem hanging over him and our Angola trip was on a knife edge. But in the end a machine was hired and it turned up just in time to get the borehole cleared and the water flowing again.
We originally met Kobus through the Landrover owners of Namibia Club shortly after the accident back in 2022. He has always said that he will never drive anything else but we saw evidence that maybe our love of BigMog was giving him ideas…
My birthday was a wonderful day. It started with presents, cake and a lovely speech from Marissa
I then went out with Tokka to learn how to milk cows
The cows were very calm about the whole thing
But the calves were curious about who this strange woman was underneath their Mum
This first attempt did not go particularly well – milking is surprisingly hard. But my next attempt turned out much better and I got a thumbs up from Tokka which was high praise.
Later in the day three professional horse trainers arrived to deliver a new horse, bought for the kids to learn on. Liarissa was shy and nervous but I had gained enough status by then that she agreed to sit on it and ride up and down as long as I walked with her and held onto her.
The horse trainers were taking two of the farm’s existing horses away with them in exchange and this was when my day became fascinating. One of the horses was tame enough that they were able to get him into the horse box without too much trouble. The other one, however, was completely wild and wouldn’t let anyone near him.
They spent two days with this one, slowly but surely getting him to accept them
I spent hours watching as they took turns gaining his trust, inch by inch, patiently helping him to understand that they were not a threat
This was not ‘breaking’ the horse; this was building a partnership with him. I chatted to the guys for a while about their methods and was impressed with what they do.
Despite being winter it was still very hot out there and at one point James came over and plonked my hat on my head. I also had another friend who was as interested in the proceedings as I was
By the end of the day the wild horse would allow the trainers to approach him and even to put the halter on his nose. That was enough progress for now, they left him in the field and joined us for the evening.
The next day they started again, finding the horse much more receptive this time. Eventually, they decided he was ready to go into the horse box ready for the journey to their equestrian centre. But it was not going to be that easy
Even to my untrained eye it seemed that he wanted to follow them into the box but didn’t know how. The trainers agreed this was the case – he had never walked on a hard surface before and had never experienced the ground sloping up at such an angle. He didn’t know what to do with his feet or how to balance on the ramp
Bit by bit he learnt, appearing to trust the trainers and be willing to follow their lead
It took at least two hours, probably a lot more. I completely lost track of time. But eventually he was in and off they all went
We have since heard that he is doing really well and thriving in his new home.
Life on the farm had fallen into a comfortable routine and being surrounded by endless plains, animals, peace and quiet was food for the soul
But the lure of a new adventure was beckoning and Henry’s carnet was about to expire so we packed ourselves up again and headed back to Windhoek.
There seems to be a never-ending list of things to do and buy and I have never really understood why. But we spent another day in the city getting laundry done, buying radiator clips for Henry, picking up Landrover parts for Kobus, getting Henry’s wheels tracked… the list went on and on.
But at least we had our own private parking space reserved at the outdoor shop
We ended our day in SuperSpar and managed to spend £220 on food. It’s as though we thought they wouldn’t have food in Angola. Back at Urban Camp we spent over an hour trying to squeeze it all into the fridge and food cupboard, ending up with the overflow in our clothes boxes, under the sink, anywhere we could find a spare inch. We may have been travelling for five years but we still haven’t managed to completely kick the consumer habit!
I was up in the dark at 5:30am the next day to get my training done
We did a quick sprint to yet another supermarket to try and find chai tea for Marissa and were back at Urban Camp for 9am to meet them both ready to set off.
It’s a long way from Windhoek to the Angolan border – just over 800km to be exact. If we tried to drive it in one go, it would take around 10 hours. Namibians have a huge capacity for long-distance driving but fortunately for us Kobus decided it would be best to break the journey up.
They had friends who owned a farm in Kamanjab, just over halfway, and they had kindly offered to let us stay the night.
We set off in convoy, stopping in Outjo for another lovely lunch at the bakery before pressing on to Kamanjab to meet Frankie, Antonette and their three children
Frankie is another huge Land Rover fan and we spent a while touring his collection
And it seems as though Landrover lovers and Unimogs have a definite connection
Later on Frankie took James and me on a drive around the farm. It covered 10,000 hectares and was absolutely beautiful with river beds, trees and hills. But I was still grieving for my lens so took no photos
That evening, just after dinner, another member of the family took a liking to James…
It was another early start the next day and more training in the dark
We made a quick stop in Kamanjab town for Marissa to stock up on fruit and veg and then we were off – next stop, Angola.
When we crossed into Angola back in 2023 we had gone through Santa Clara – a large, busy and very corrupt border post. We had needed a visa back then with a letter of invitation from an Angolan. It had all been so complicated and confusing that we had hired a fixer who turned out to be even more corrupt than the officials! So this time we decided to go through the Omahenene border – smaller and quieter but still large enough to be able to deal with Henry’s carnet which was, after all, the reason why we were there.
The difference between our experiences at Santa Clara and at Omahenene was like night and day. The process was smooth and simple, the officials were friendly and helpful and it was all very calm.
Henry’s carnet was properly stamped out and we would have been through the border in minutes except that there seemed to be a problem with the computer system. We had to wait nearly an hour for the vehicle’s temporary import permits but, once it was all done, we sped away feeling very positive.
Our Angolan trip had got off to a much more optimistic start than last time. We also knew where we were going and what to expect so stress levels were low and excitement was high.
Whilst most of the roads we’d travelled in Angola last time had been fairly decent tar roads, we knew that from this border post we had 90km of slow, difficult dirt road to drive before reaching the first town
There was no way we were going to make it in one go, but that didn’t matter at all. The scenery was spectacular
And when, at around 4pm, the majestic Kunene River wound its way into view, we decided it was the perfect place to spend our first Angolan night
This whole area is famous for its picturesque baobab trees
Their huge, gnarled trunks and sprawling branches making them a striking sight against the desert landscape
We pulled up underneath one of the largest we could find, with the broad expanse of the river gently flowing past
It was perfect
We set up camp, lit a fire and plonked ourselves down on our camp chairs, beers in hand, to celebrate our first night. Of course, before long we had an audience but that just adds to the fun!
As the sun went down, we felt as though we had found a small slice of paradise
