D&D in Africa

Right now I’m sitting on the patio in front of an old colonial mansion that once was the home of the owner of the Satemwa Tea Estate. Today the mansion is for rent and offers super relaxing stays in the middle of rolling hills on the flank of Thyolo mountain that are painted in a lush deep green colour by the thousands and thousands of tea bushes. We drove down here from Cape Mclear yesterday where we have spent the last 4 days chilling at the beach, snorkelling and diving in Lake Malawi. We met a bunch of Medicine Students from the Netherlands and England and it was great to meet some fellow travelers. I liked the place in Cape Mclear a lot because the lodges are scattered all along the ca. 5km long beach and are fully integrated into the local village of Chembe. So you could sit on the terrace, sipping a cold beer while watching local fishermen tending to their nets, women washing clothes and children fooling around in the clear waters of the lake. One time we were relaxing at the beach and suddenly we hear singing and chanting from nearby. I went over to see what was happening and found a large group of women of all ages singing and dancing to the rhythm of the drums. Upon asking I learned that they were welcoming some people from a nearby island who bring wood for the festival to the honour of a local chief that was to take place the next day. I could make out the boat of the woodgatherers in the distance, slowly ploughing forward. It was terribly overladen with stacks of wood and people and had hardly any freeboard. Just before they reached the safe shore the inevitable happened and the boat sank! The passagers jumped overboard to swim the last few meters, towing the flooded boat behind. The little drama did not worry anyone and instead of the boat to come to the singers, the singers just moved along the beach a little to go welcome the arrivals.
Of course the lake itself is also a great attraction and the National Park protecting the area is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The lake is one of the largest in Africa and in its waters 508 species of fish in all colors and shapes have evolved, many of them endemic to the location. We discovered the underwater life on a kayaking and snorkelling trip around one of the nearby islands. We also splurged a little on a casual dive to explore the deeper areas and found the famous Mouth Breeder Fish that keeps the small fishes in his mouth for protection. At night we would hang out with the Meds and enjoy the tropical climate with a few drinks at the Gecko Lounge. The four days were super relaxing and a great change from our usual fast moving routine. I’m looking forward to the beaches in Mozambique where I want to do some more diving.

Fishermen on Lake Malawi

Fishing Boat – The lanterns at the back attract the fish at night

Children from the Chembe village

Turquoise waters with millions of colorful fishes at Otters Point

Fish Eagle

Sheraz and Elfrieda on our kayaking trip

The welcome dancers

Silver waters

Sewanga Tea Estate

Our very own mansion on the Tea Estate. And we had our own cook!

Getting to the next country of our trip proved to be quite a challenge. It started with the hell road between Mfue and Chiapata to get from South Luangwa to the border. I had a bit of an upset stomach and the bumpy ride did not aid my wellbeing. At least I knew what to expect and Dinu was nice enough to take over my part driving. Shortly after Chiapata we reached the border and exited Zambia without problems. We moved over to the malawian border offices and handed our passports to the immigration official behind the counter. He quickly flicked through the pages and handed it back to us whith the question: ‘Where is the visa for Malawi?’ We answered that we were informed that we could buy it at the border and that we would like to do just that. Without comment he pointed to a faded and torn notice hanging on the window of the counter. In short it said that no more visas would be issued at borderposts… ‘Great…’ He informed us that we would have to go to the ‘nearest’ embassy to apply for a visa there, but near meant almost 600km away in Lusaka. I honestly thought we were screwed, but after overcoming the fist shock of the prospect of going back to Lusaka we put our money on the fact that you can always talk about anything in Africa. We begged for some kind of an exeption, a provisional visa or something, just anything to get us in the country and avoid having to drive back to Lusaka (which would have included another 300$ pricetag for entering Zambia…). The official was hesitant, called us to the back into the office and said he needed to consult with his fellow officer. At that point we were getting quite certain that we could do some dealings here. After a lot of talking, apologizing and arguing for our case we managed to score a temporary entry permit under the condition that we would get a proper visa in Lilongwe the next day. At least we were allowed to enter the country and wouldn’t have to drive back to Lusaka! Dinu completed the Customs procedure to get a temporary import permit for the car and off we went. As in Zambia one has to purchase a third party liability insurance in Malawi. Not that anyone could ever make any claims for it, but you have to have it anyway. We read in our guidebook that the premiums were much lower when the insurance was bought in the main centers instead of at the border. So it came that we drove by the shacks of the insurance agents waiting just after the border and headed toward Lilongwe. But of course it cannot be that simple… A few kms inland we were stopped at a police checkpoint. The officer, of course, asked for our insurance. We showed him the third party insurance we had got in ZA, which is also valid for Malawi, and said that we would get the Malawian insurance in Lilongwe. That did not satisfy him: ‘It is an ofence to drive without insurance in Malawi. Your car is impounded and you are under arrest.’… Great… We tried to play nice, apologized and offered to just drive back and get the insurance, surely then there would not be a problem. Not so in his view… He wanted to ‘escort’ us to the insurance agents and said that the offence of driving without insurance would not go away. We returned to the insurance shacks where an eager broker was already waiting with a sly smile on his face. I would not be surprised if he called us in to the police… We got the insurance, offloaded 7000 Kwatcha and drove off again. We hoped that we could now talk our way out of being arrested. Not a chance, the guy was relentless and his sarcastic cheerfulness drove me nuts. I asked what the fine would be that the court, of which he constantly talked, would dish out. I tried to get an estimate of what a ‘spot fine’ (read bribe) could be. He seemed receptable to my offer to pay the ‘fine’ directly to him and we settled on 35$ if the matter would be resolved. Welcome to Malawi, having been arrested for the first time in my life and nearly loosing our car to some underpaid but overconfident police officer.

Martin’s new ‘Casino’ Watch

Nice furniture, but unfortunately too big and heavy for us to take home

I kinda had enough for the day and was happy when I could throw myself into the hammock at the hostel in Lilongwe. Tomorrow we would have to go to the Immigration, the Mozambikan Embassy and the Toyota Dealer and it would be another stressful day. Getting the Visa for Moz was a breeze, very nice guy doing our visa express for the price of normal delivery time. But the immigration of Malawi was utter chaos with running from one desk to another, getting a stamp here, paying something there and always waiting in between. In the end it took us three hours to get the Malawian visa and cost us astronomical 70$ each! Luckily the service on the car went well and nothing needed major repair. At the end they even whashed the car! Anyhow, I was ripe for the island and eager to hit the road to the lake.

Since we had already spent a lot of time at the lake Kariba, we decided to only spend one night near Lower Zambezi National Park. It turned out to be very hard to anyway and the canoe tour we originally had in mind would have been very expensive. Never the less I really wanted to do something on the mighty Zambezi and so we drove to the confluence of the Kafue River and the Zambezi where a Lodge offers camping. We also booked a Fishing Guide and boat for the afternoon. We drove out to the Zambezi and started to fish for small fishes which would then be the bait for the Tiger Fish that we were after. But because our worms were not very good, really small and thin, we only had lots of nibbles but no real bite. In the end the guide caught one and we could start to fish for Tiger. We let the boat drift along with the current and fished along the way. On the shores of the river people were busy washing clothes, small children played in the water of a little side stream and fishermen in traditional dug out canoes crossed our path. We also saw many hippos that grunted when we drifted past and here and there a croc slid silently into the water. On a small reed island in the middle of the river we spotted a herd of Elephants that indulged on the reeds. Unfortunately the one bait fish was all the fish we were to catch. I had one bite from a Tiger Fish but it did not hook enough and got away. The mighty river, the landscape and the wild game made up for it though and we were quite contempt when we drove back to the campsite. Tomorrow we had a very long drive to Petauke in the east of Zambia ahead of us.

Returning after a fruitless fishing expediton… at least the sunset over the mighty Zambesi was breathtaking!

We left early and made our way up to Lusaka. We saw the tanker again that we had already seen when we came down as it was just beeing pulled out of the trees on the steep valleyside. Crazy these truckdrivers…
In Lusaka we stocked up on food, money and supplies, tanked for an enormous sum and were off again on the Great East Road. The condition of the road was good and we made good progress. We planned to head up to Petauke where we would decide which route to get to South Luawanga. It was a very long day driving the 550km up from the LZ and when we finally pulled into the only Lodge in Petauke it was almost dark already.

Pulling the truck back up…

Luangwa river (note the car wreck of someone thad did not make the curve…)

Two boys selling big bags of charcoal for cooking along the road.

One of many bushfires we passed that day

Driving at night is nothing special in Europe but here it is outright dangerous. It’s almost impossible to spot potholes, there are always people walking or cycling along the side of the road, livestock can cross anywhere and truck drivers seem to think its fun to drive with no lights on. We were exhausted from the long drive and just wanted to eat and go to bed. Then came another T.I.A. moment when we had just sat down in the restaurant and got the menu. Zack and the lights were gone – power outage. At least they were still able to cook and so we had our first candlelight dinner in Africa . The lodge does not offer camping officially and so we had to camp on the carpark. Next tu us another Hilux was parked and behind it someone had also pitched a tent. It belonged to a Geologist who searches for minerals in all of southern Africa for mining companies. It was interesting to talk to him and he had a few good stories from far off places. He spends lots of time in Mozambique for work and so he was an excellent source of information on road conditions and attractions. He also recommended us not to take the Petauke road to South Luawanga but do the road via Chipata instead. Last time he travelled the Petauke road it took them 10h, they were going convoy and the road was really bad. Facing the prospect of having to wait for up to a week for help should we break down on that road, we decided to go via Chipata the next morning. The road from Chipata to Mfue and the park is a pure nightmare, the worst road by far we have seen until now. We praised the strength of good ol Rafiki that took the hits from massive potholes and bumps like a champ. After more than 100km we stopped in a small village to buy some fruit from the market. Suddenly Dinu notices that we have a flat back tire. We got the local ‘Tyre Mending’ guy working on a bicycle under a tree nearby and he was able to find the hole and fix it. As usual in Africa all we needed to do was to have the necessary parts to fix it, they new how but did not have the material. Having missed one hour we carried on into Mfue and Flad Dogs camping where we set up camp under a shady tree directly on the banks of the Luangwa River.

Some dudes under a tree fixing our tire.

Bunch of fat Hippos lazing about in the murky waters

Luangwa River

Flat Dog Camp is a cool place to stay because the campsites include a wooden platform high up in a tree where you can put up the tent. Because our tent is fixed to the car we took out the mattress and put the moskito net over it. It was great to sleep in the tree right under the stars. During the night Hippos and Elephants walk through the campground and you can hear them chew on trees or sausage tree fruits. One time I woke up in the middle of the night, finding Dinu already wide awake next to me. He whisperd exitedly: ‘An Elephant shaked the tree!’ We listened into the dark, hoping the Elephant would not tear down our hideout. Everything else was quiet and we could hear the wheezing sound of the air blowing through the trunk ot the nightly visitor standing right below us. This was just one of several experiences with the many Hippos and Elephants that roamed the camp at night. Flatdogs als has the nicest security guards. We met Edwin the fist night of our stay. They have a very hard job, starting at 16.00h and going home at 7.00h. We talked to him about his job, his family and our trip. Since we had again a lot of whashing to do we inquired if maybe his wife would like to earn some money by doing our washing. To our astonishment he offered to do it himself, saying that it would be boring during the night anyway and that he liked to do washing! And so we awoke to the smell of a full load of freshly washed clothes hanging on the poles underneath our camp in the tree.

Our Camp in the tree.

The specialty of South Luangwa NP is are the walking safaris. Here it is possible to explore the park and the wildlife guided by a game ranger and watched after by another ranger who is armed. I was very eager to do such a walk because we have always been driving around parks so far and I liked the idea of getting more immersed in the wildlife. The next morning at 6 am we set off into the park. I joined another group while Martin stayed back in camp to chill for the day. The walk was brilliant with the very competent guide pointing out interesting things along the way. Mostly he talked about small things that would be easily overlooked when driving, such as hyena footprints, dung beetle nests, birds, termites or droppings of various animals. It was fascinating to learn about all these things! I loved the walking safari and right after our return booked myself on the next tour the following morning.

On walking safari in the park

Bushsnake – an avid climber

All in all I liked South Luangwa NP a lot. There is a lot of wildlife almost everywhere, the animal visits to the camp were freaky and fascinating at the same time, the walking safari taught me lots about the african wild and the landscape of the park is breathtakingly beautiful.

Sundowners on an old riverbend

Dusk of the last day in the park

Da die Strecke nach Siavonga am Karibasee ziemlich lang war, entschieden wir uns im Moorings Camp auf halbem Weg zu übernachten. Vor allem die unglaublich schlechten Strassen liessen es nicht zu die Strecke in einem Tag zum fahren.

Der Camping war nichts besonderes und da wir die einzigen Gaeste waren, verbrachten wir den Abend an der Bar mit den Eingeborenen. Schon bei der Anfahrt sahen wir, dass das Haus des Besitzers unglaublich eingezäunt und bewacht war. Der Herr an der Bar erzaehlte uns dann im Verlauf des Abends, dass der Besitzer in diesem Jahr überfallen und umgebracht wurde, weil er kein Geld vorweisen konnte, als die Einbrecher auftauchten. Nach dem Ãœberfall wurden die Täter zwar schnell gefasst, aber anstatt sie ins Gefängnis zu stecken entschieden die “Ordnungshüter” diese laufen zu lassen und aus dem Helikopter heraus zu erschiessen… Mit einem gemischten Gefühl gingen wir schlussendlich zu Bett und probierten zu vergessen, was uns gerade erzählte wurde.
Am nächsten Tag ging es nach nach Siavonga. Auf dem Weg entdeckten wir, dass die zambischen Strassen nicht unbedingt die sichersten sind. Die Mehrheit aller Lastwagen standen entweder am Strassenrand, waren um einen Baum gewickelt oder lagen irgendwo in der Schlucht. Der spektakulärste Unfall, ein am Baum hängender Tanklastwagen vor dem Abgrund hängend, durften wir leider nicht fotografieren. Die Polizei konnte an mir mit der Kamera am Unfallort nicht so viel gutes sehen und so fuhren wir weiter… Aber auf dem Rückweg konnte ich aus dem fahrenden Auto ein Foto machen.

In Siavonga entschieden wir uns für den Eagles Rest Camping. Nicht unbedingt luxuriös, aber dafür schön gelegen, direkt am See. Am späten Nachmittag machten wir uns auf zum Staudamm, welcher den Sambezi staut und somit den Karibasee aufstaut.

#wir sind etwas hinterher mit den Einträgen hier, deswegen den Rest des Karbia Erlebnisses in Kurzform: Wir traffen zufälligerweise auf Jason, dem das beste Hotel von Siavonga gehört und er lud uns die folgenden 3 Tage zu allerhand tollen Aktionen ein: Tubing, Wakeboarding, Essen, Partying und eine Übernachtung auf dem hoteleigenen Hausboot! Es war ein riesen Spass! Thank you again Jason and Crystal, it was excellent meeting you! Die Bilder dazu unten:#

“Last Chance Garage” wo wir unseren Startermotor reparieren liessen

The girls and me

Serious action when Martin took to the reins – check the beer spilling!

Sunset over Lake Kariba

Martin rockin’ the waves

Airtime for Diego

The whole crew of the Lake Kariba Booze Cruise

Crossing the border proved to be an interesting experience. In the no-mans land on the Botswana side of the river, a bunch of guys wanted to help us with the formalities on the Zambian side for a nominal fee of 20 Rand (ca 3 CHF). At first we politely but persistently refused but after a while we figured it was really cheap and they seemed to know what they were doing concerning the extremely confusing process. We agreed with a guy calling himself ‘Mel Gibson’ (they give themselves english names to be understood by tourists and often choose the names of celebrities, we met ‘Kennedy’ sometimes later ). On the other side they shuffled us from counter to counter ‘sign here, pay here, give them this paper over there’ and in the end we did cross without much hassle. During the process we realized that we had no clue about the exchange rate of US$ to Zambian Kwatcha. Because they paid some things in one and others in the other currency that was important and we asked some of the officials for an estimate. 3400 or 3560 Kwatcha to the Dollar was their answer. When payment time came they first wanted to rip us off with a rate of 2500 to the Dollar! We loudly protested and said we would know our stuff. All they said was that there was a spread between buying and selling course… Of course there is but it is by no means that large. We insisted on a rate of 3400 to the Dollar and it took a looooong while until we had them somewhere near that. It was getting to be a quite uncomfortable situation and in the end we settled for a rate near 3200. You might think why bother, how much money can it be about… Well, entering Zambia set us back a mere 300$… Zambia, we found out, is more expensive than Switzerland. Incredible… Petrol costs 3$ the liter, all food (exept the maize meal that the villagers eat) is outrageously expensive and a 15 minute ‘ultralight’ flight over the Vic-Falls would have been 150$.
We felt a little down because we were ripped off (we later found out that of course the right rate would have been 3400) and drove into Livingston. At the ‘Waterfront’ there was no more space for us so we settled for the ‘Bushcamp’, but for me it added a little to my not so perfect mood. After checking in and settling down a little we set out again to look for a place we could do laundry (handwashing just doesn’t get the white stuff clean…). After asking around for ages we found a place. But hold on for their price: roughly 80 CHF for 10kg of clothes – and that was the discount ‘Backpacker’ Rate. We refused and cleared out to go to the Vic-Falls. We forked over 10$ each at the entrance to the ‘National Park’ around the falls and set of on one of the walkways. Because the dry season is now at it’s climax there was very little water and much of the falls were actually dry! Only further down, where the main falls were on the Zimbawean side could we see some spray mist from large waterfalls. We decided against crossing into Zimbawe to see them because it would have cost 100$ each to do it (30$ Visa for Zim, 20$ entry to the ‘park’ on the Zim side and another 50$ for getting a new Visa for Zambia). Although the falls are not as spectacular with so little water, walking across the edge over to Livingstone Island becomes possible. It’s not quite an official path but lots of people do it. Its quite cool to stand on the edge of the drop to the pool 108m below and imagine the thundering watermasses that drop here in the wet season. We watched the sun set behind the mist of the main falls and made our way back to safe territory and the camp.
We decided against Kafue NP in favor of visiting lake Kariba, so the next day we were to drive to Siavonga on the lake Kariba (just a quick spoiler until I have written the post about it: it was amazing and turned out to be three days of high-life .

Victoria Falls – in the dry season… in the back are the main falls which unfortunately are on Zimbawean territory.

Dinu on the edge of the falls

Diego on the edge of the falls near Livingstone Island

To reach our first destination in Chobe NP we first had to drive 120km over bumpy and windy trails that were extremely sandy at times. But almost before we had really started the day had another highlight in store for us. After leaving the Moremi GR through the North Gate the track runs along the picturesque bank of the Kwai River. Because of some swampy areas we had to do small detours to drive around them and it was on one of these detours that we suddenly drove up to seven Lions laying spread out on the grass! It was two mothers with five young ones in their adolescence. The mothers watched patiently while the young lazed about or played with each other. The morning light was just perfect for amazing shots of the beautiful animals. Game wise the rest of the drive was rather uneventful, some Elephants and Antelopes as usual, but it was mainly the scenery that caught my attention. In the Delta we were mostly driving in quite dense bush or even forests but now on the way to Savuti the landscape opened up into the huge Savuti marshes, which are all that remain from a huge lake that existed here thousands of years ago. As soon as we had crossed one of the sand ridges that used to form the shore of this lake we descended into the Savuti Marshes and the landscape opened to a grassy plain. Sometimes the dry grass on either side of the road was higher than the car and it felt like driving through a tunnel.

The mother keeping a watchful eye over her lazing offspring.

A young male Lion yawning into the morning light

We were lucky to get a Reserve Campsite, not because there was to little space, but because the ranger didn’t seem to be very happy about our request. The day was extremely hot and the sun was baking down on us. I realized that I had drank way too little and had to lay down for a while curing my headache. It was so hot we were sentenced to inactivity and only late into the afternoon we managed to mobilize for a short gamedrive. Savuti is famous for it’s Elephants and we saw a lot of the gray giants. Some were even rummaging around the campsites of some other campers, feeding on trees right next to their tents .

Me on Bushman Hill near Savuti, in the back the dry savanna of the Chobe NP

Despite the soaring heat and the height of the dry season some trees still flowered beautifully

We got up early the next day to tackle another 120km drive to the northern border of Botswana and the Chobe River. Progress was good because the road was much better than the day before and we arrived at the Gate for the northern section of Chobe before lunch. The drive to Ihaha was spectacular. The main trail runs somewhat inland, but small gamedrive trails lead all along the winding curves of the river. The scenery is breathtaking and the concentration of animals is simply fantastic. There are literally animals as far as you can see on either side along the river. Herds of Zebra, Elephants, Buffalos and Antelopes roam the plains and drink in the river. Ocasionally a few Giraffes come to quench their thirst and flocks of birds fill the sky above. The campsite at Ihaha is right on the edge of the river and you can watch game right from the camp. A herd of Elephants passed right by us in the hammocks, only 4m or so away! For me Ihaha was one of the best campsites we have been on so far.

Paradise – Chobe River – Game as far as you can see

Herd of Elephants on drinking and grazing on the river

A Buffalo herd at dusk

Unfortunately we could only stay for one night and so we went on the next morning. As long as we were still in the park we followed the game drive paths to combine travelling and game drive. And we got lucky once more! Two large female Lions were walking along the riverbank and then suddenly a male comes around the bush in front of the car! We stayed until the Lion trotted back into the bushes and continued on to Kasane. There we resupplied on food and fuel and continued to the Kazalunga Ferry over to Zambia. Although this is the only bordercrossing from Botswana to Zambia there is only a ferry to cross the Zambezi River! A huge line of trucks, 5km long, extends before the ferry. Supposedly next year they will begin to finally build a bridge, but who knows, T.I.A.

Large male Lion coming around the corner on our morning drive at Chobe River

Rafiki on the pontoon over the Zambezi to Zambia

After spending way too much time in Maun, to fix all the things that were broken from our little excursion into the waters of the Okavango, we were back in the game in the Moremi GR. Again we did not have a booking, but the game ranger at South Gate was sure we would get something at Xakanaxa and charged us for a night anyway. The road to Xakanaxa was much better than to Third Bridge and we managed to cover the distance in about an hour. At the camp we met the game ranger of the camp and asked him if we could stay despite the missing booking. His first statement was ‘You broke the law! Did you pay the parkfees?’ We showed him all the documentation that we had and the proof that we payed for the night. This seemed to satisfy him and he pointed toward a tree close by ‘you can camp there’. That was another easy one . (On a sidenote: Don’t bother booking, all you will here is ‘fully booked’. Just go and enter on a day visit, once in the park none cares what you do. You can camp somewhere at the campsites no problem, either ask, or don’t and just do it anyway. When you leave the park, you pay the parkfees and the campingnights at the gate where you exit. All you have to do, is do it now, as this will all change on Jan 2009 when it won’t be possible anymore to pay at the gate).

Big, gray visitors to the camp

Having spent the morning for the drive to the camp, we were a bit lazy and hung around in the hammocks for a while. A little after our arrival an old Landcruiser turned up and parked a short distance away from our site. I recognized the car as one I had already seen at Railey’s Garage, when we were fixing our own car there. I went over and said hello (We usually don’t meet other people from the camp otherwise (which is strange) because they tend to keep to themselves most of the time.) It turns out they are a couple from the Netherlands and do a one year trip from Cape Town up to Amsterdam. We asked them if they had done any boat or mokoro drives yet and they recommended a boat tour very much. Dinu and I decided that we wanted to do something like that and they said that they would be glad to join in. We went over to the jetty and booked a two hour tour for four o’clock with the sunset at the end. The tour was great, giving a very different impression from the delta than one gets when driving only on the dry roads. We drove through narrow channels lined with reeds reaching 2m above the water and suddenly there was an area with open water again. The driver tried to find animals and we saw a Storks nest and a Fish Eagle as well as an Elephant (!), some Giraffes in the distance, a few Crocodiles that slipped under the water and lots of Antelopes on the shoreline. When the sun set, we were on a wider area of open water and just enjoyed the beauty and peace of the moment. Upon returning to camp we braied once more and had some excellent chicken skewers from the butcher in Maun (right near Railey’s Garage). Later the dutch couple joined us at the fire and the neighbours from the opposite side, two Australian brothers also came over. It was a great night and one of the first where we had a larger group to talk to than just ourselves. The Australians were real rascals, boasting about their almost deadly Elephant encounter or about how they lost a camera in Etosha while chasing a Lion. Definitely some crazy guys but fun to listen to .

Cheeky Monkey in the tree

Okavango Delta cruising

Elephant in the water.

E, V, Martin and I on the roof of the boat.

Amazing sunset over the delta.

Once again we rose early to chase those Lions in the wee hours of the morning. We drove in the direction of the Dead Tree Island since that was recommended in my guidebook. But once we reached the bridge, we had to realize that it has long ago desintegrated and that only a watercrossing a hundred meters further gave access to the island. Taking our previous experiences with the liquid into account, we passed and instead continued along the wet area that was blocking our way. Soon we drove up to a Hippo, that was lazily grazing on the opposite bank – our first Hippo sighting out of the water. They look funny and have strange proportions with the fat main body, short stout legs and their little flapping ears. A bunch of Elephants also showed up and crossed the river in respectful distance to the Hippo. Hippos are said to be the most dangerous animal in Africa and regularly cause deadly incidents with people. Although sometimes Hippos can also be some of the slowest and most inactive animals, which is why we left our example be and drove on, in search of another way onto Dead Tree Island. Our search was stopped by an unpassable mud pool and we turned back toward the camp. On this morningdrive we saw the Tse Tse Fly for the first time. They are feared for transmitting the Sleeping Sickness and great expense is taken toward their erradication. However, they still remain prevalent in small areas of the reserve. Moving objects and dark colors are attractive to them, which is how we ended up with a hundred of the bloody things riding along on our black engine snorkel!
As usual, our day followed our national park routine: We mostly get up by 6 o’clock and leave for the morning drive shortly after, to profit from the cool air and the beautiful morning light. Morning is also the best time to spot the big cats as they drink at that time and might be found returning from last night’s hunt. By 9 we usually return to camp and have a big breakfast with bacon and eggs, coffee, muesli and bread (you have to eat well when outdoors ). Then we chill through the midday heat, read, write for the blog or daze in the hammock. Between 15 and 16h we head out again on an evening drive until we watch the blood red sunset, which are so characteristic for Africa.
This night was no different and we wanted to find some more Hippos along the River Kwai. We found some of them, far away on the other side of the river and not moving. Further on we saw Moore Antelopes and some Crocs. At the end we visited a site called Paradise Pools and I have to say that it does it’s name justice. The atmosphere was magical with the low evening sun casting long shadows on lush grass. Small pools were as flat as a mirror, creating a second copy of the landscape upside down.
We stayed another night at Xakanaxa since we actually had managed to get ONE night booked from Switzerland and we were not going to give it up . We invited E. and V. (the Dutch couple) to share the campsite (which was about as big as a football field!) and so we had another nice evening with interesting conversations on the campfire.

Cheeky bird looking for food scraps on the campsite

Paradise Pools reflections

The next day had an absolute highlight in store! We left camp early as usual to drive along the winding run of the Kwai River to the North Gate of Moremi GR where we wanted to camp another night before leaving for good. But we hadn’t driven more than a one or two kilometers when we saw a few cars waiting by the side of the road. This is usually a reliable sign for something interesting in the bush. We slowed down and at first couldn’t find what caught their attention. But then Dinu spotted it! The elusive Leopard was laying on one of the lower branches of a large tree right by the track! I was thrilled. Most Leopard sightings sound like ‘we saw it walking over the road 200m in front of us’ and even these are rare. Our sighting was brilliant – the Leopard just kept on chilling on his branch sometimes lazily watching as more cars arrived or people repositioned, to get a better angle for photos. We watched for about half an hour and got amazing views of the beautiful animal. At some point it got annoyed by the cars and cameras, jumped to a treetrunk near the branch, leaped down to the bottom and disappeared in the low bushes.

Mr. Leopard – finally we have seen all of the Big Five!

Giving us the mean eye!

This time it worked – phu!

Further on the way to North Gate we had to face another water crossing. Luckily there were other cars there as well and they could point out the route to us. Dinu waded through on foot and the depth seemed to be ok on one side. I put the car in second low gear and pulled through with a nice bow wave. In the end it was not difficult at all! Happy about successfully passing the obstacle we carried on to the campsite. Getting one of the reserve sites was no problem, as usual, and the guard was very nice. By the time we arrived, it was already very hot so we just set up camp, had some lunch and waited for the heat to recede. On the evening drive we found a whole bunch of the lazy Hippos and watched them for a while. A small Crocodile fled into the water when we drove up. Further along we saw many more small crocs and various birds. For dinner we had some more of the amazing meat we bought at the butcher in Maun (between Railey’s Garage and Railey’s Hotel) and sat around the fire for another wile. Tomorrow we will drive very far through sandy and winding roads into the heart of the Chobe National Park at Savuti.

Hippo risking a big lip

It is now 21.28 h and I’m sitting in front of a small fire at North Gate Camping in Moremi GR. The sounds of the night out here are something that I will certainly take home and remember for the rest of my life. There are crickets in the bushes that don’t make the usual ‘tschirp tschrip’ noises but actually sound like a small one of those wind instruments that hang on lots of balconies in Switzerland (a few woodsticks with a piece of wood in between with the wind generating the sound by making the pieces hit against each other). Just now I heard the laughing sound of some Hippos that must be sitting in the water no more than 50 m away from me. Yesterday we also heard Lions roaring during the night! There is also constant rattling in the bushes around me and I can even hear a birds call in the distance. Near the waters, the frogs are also adding their mating calls to the background noise.
After I went to bed that night there was trippling feet next to our tent when probably a Hyena came forth from its hiding place to see if we had left any foodscraps laying around. Sometimes one can also hear Elephanst grumble low when they walk past the camp.

The sounds of the african night are hard to describe. I guess you will have to come and experience them yourself!

A black heeled Antelope in full jump in front of the setting sun and the Kwai River at Third Bridge Camping.

Aufgrund unserer Notwasserung ging es zurück nach Maun. In Riley’s Garage, welche wir in den nächsten Tagen noch mehrmals aufsuchen werden, wollten wir unser Auto checken und den Kühlschrank flicken lassen. Für’s Auto erhielten wir einen Termin für den folgenden Tag und der Kühlschrank konnten sie gar nicht flicken. Allerdings wurden wir an einen Freund von einem Freund weiterverwiesen, dessen Werkstatt wie folgt aussah:

Hier sollte angemerkt werden, dass dieser fleissige Mechaniker “Enok” eine neue Art Job-Rotation durchführt: Er wandert mit dem Schatten um den einzigen Baum im Garten. Nach drei Tagen hatte unser Bushmechaniker den Kuehlschrank “geflickt”. Er hatte dann wohl keine Temperaturanzeige und Einstellung mehr, auf der Seite wurde allerdings ein Old-School-Drehschalter installiert, der dieselbe Funktion hat.
Unser Auto hatte keine Schäden vom Tauchgang abgekriegt, jedoch fanden wir einige Teile, welche sich auf den Rüttelpisten gelöst hatten und so neu geschweist, gespachtelt oder angeschraubt werden mussten.
Viel schwieriger stellte sich die Reparatur des Netzteils des Computers dar, dass bei der Rettungsaktion nicht als erstes mit von Bord durfte. Nachdem wir fast alle Elektronikgeschäfte besucht hatten, sind wir schlussendlich bei Wizzy gelandet. Dieser konnte nach längeren Dikussionen und mehreren Besuchen einen Standard-Laptop-Adapter (Anmerkung: Die Verkäuferin dieses Adapters, deren Bruder mit einer schweizer Touristin ins Alpenland mitgezogen war, fand ganz schön gefallen an Diego und begleitete uns zum Mittagessen… Diego verzichtete jedoch auf das Angebot für einen interkulturellen Austausch) so umbauen, dass wir wieder Strom für unser Laptop hatten.

In den drei Tagen, welche die verschiedenen Mechaniker brauchten um alles zu flicken gönnten wir uns zum Abschluss einen Rundflug über das Okavangodelta. Der ca. 50 minütige Scenic Flight war sehr schön obwohl die Sicht nicht wahnsinnig gut war.

Vsiting the Okavango Delta and the Moremi Game Reserve are one of the highlights of our trip. The Okavango combines the rains on the Angolan Plain and channels them into the largest inland Delta of the world, the Okavango Delta. Enormous amounts of Water simply disappear, sucked up by the dry air and the desert sand. But before it’s gone the water gives life to a spectacular paradise of plants and animals in the middle of the Kalahari.
After a very early start we arrived in Maun before noon and thus had enough time for internet and shopping. Luckily we found the only place with reasonably fast internet and I finally got to update the blog, sent some e-mails and even managed to have a skypecall. Very importantly we also found a working ATM that accepted our Maestro cards and could draw some cash. After stocking up on groceries, meat and beer we headed over to one of the lodges just out of town to spend the night. The next night would be spent in the park already since we could book one single night in advance for the South Gate Camping inside the park. Access to the Moremi Game Reserve is restricted. Only people with bookings for Campsites or Day Visitors are allowed in. The park fees are very expensive, 290 pula for the two of us and our car per day (that’s almost 50 CHF)! Upon arrival we proudly produced our booking confirmation and got in no problem. South Gate Camp is not exactly a jewel and we were eager to drive deeper into the park and the delta to see some wildlife. The road from the South Gate to the Third Bridge Camping is very narrow with deep sand in some places and it’s extremely bumpy most of the time. We were really slow going and there is hardly any game around on that stretch (probably because at this time of year there is no water there). The 50 km to Third Bridge took us more than two hours! As I said we saw very few animals, a few elephants and some giraffes being the most exiting (of course you always see some antelopes but they have decreased a lot in their ability to exite us ). Once at Third Bridge we approached a South African guy that seemed to be camping there about the whereabouts of the camp game ranger. We wanted to ask the ranger if we could stay the night despite not having a booking for that campsite. The guy pointed over to a tree and said that was the ‘reserve’ camping and that it would be perfectly fine for us to stay as long as we like. The ranger would only come round once a day or so and in his view wouldn’t disprove our staying. With that news our spirits soared because we were very unsure if such inofficial camping would be allowed. And when the guy started to describe the location of some Lions a few kms away (on the eastern leg of the Mopane Drive) that had killed a Buffalo during the night and were now busy feasting on it our day was made. After some lunch we cruised over to the Lions and watched a large male Lion daze in the shade while he was watching over their kill. It was probably to hot during the day for eating and they were merely protecting it from the already present vultures. After watching the lion for a while we drove around for another while and returned to camp just before sunset.

Male Lion laying in the shade keeping a watchful eye over the Buffalo carcass.

The vultures were already there to take their share.

Some black heeled Antelopes on a grassy opening.

A small herd of Elephants crossing the road in front of us.

Dusk over Moremi GR.

After that day I loved Moremi already. It is very different from the experience we had in Etosha. The game is harder to find because there is more water around and the bush is denser with more trees to obstruct ones vision. But driving on the narrow and winding paths that form a dense network all across the park and allow you to go where you want and find your own way just feel so much more adventurous than the gravel highways in Etosha. Also at the Camps – there is no fence keeping the animals away! Elephants and Hyenas are regular visitors at Third Bridge and during the day the Baboons cause trouble. It just feels much less like a Zoo and much more like we’re right in there, in the wild and at the mercy of the forces of nature. I’m loving it!
When we were busy preparing our dinner some of the people of the neighboring campsite came over and warned us from the Hyena that supposedly lost all fear from men and even attacked one of their group the previous night. It bit the grown man in the neck so bad that he had to go to hospital in Maun! Supposedly people had been feeding the Hyena in the past and thus the animal lost its respect and now looks for food around the campsite. We were shocked to hear of the attack and Dinu built a veritable castle around our table with the car as our rear protection, a fire in front and all the boxes we have on the sides. In the end we didn’t even see a whiff of the Hyena that night. What I did see though was Wild Dogs! They are very rare and shy. I was collecting wood just as the sun was going down and saw two heads with very big ears look out from behind the reeds lining the Bridge at Third Bridge. They have a face that looks as if they are smiling and are a really funny sight .

A waterhole with green algae in the otherwise dry landscape.

We got through the night unscathed and only heard Lions roaring in the distance. We left camp just after sunrise to explore the area east of Third Bridge where there is a tight mesh of little pathways and with all the water one can see that we are in a delta area. Despite the early hours we just missed 12 (!) lions cross the road 50 m from where we camped and had others tell us about it. We were a little disappointed for not having seen them but hoped for another chance during these morning hours. After a while of driving around and not having seen very much, a few Elephants two Giraffes, we suddenly saw a dustcloud in front of us. Eagerly to find out more we slowly crawled closer and discovered a huge herd of Buffalos! There must have been at least 200-300 of the huge beasts slowly wandering and grazing at the same time, their hoofs stamping on the dry soil and whirling up the dust we saw from the distance. The large male Buffalos are very large, their horns spreading up to 1.2 meters, and they are considered to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. In large herds thought the danger is not very great and they did seem perfectly at ease. We slowly followed the herd for the next two hours, seeing some small disagreements between some smaller bulls and a limping calf that will most likely be the next dinner for the Lions. After the return to camp it was only just getting 10isch and we indulged ourselves on a hearty bacon and egg breakfast. Over lunch it is best to do as the animals do and hold siesta. We tied up the hammocks and chilled until late into the afternoon. In the meantime a Swiss couple came up to us and asked if we would share our campsite and we talked to them for a while.

Grazing Buffaloes – one of the ‘Big Five’!

The evening drive then brought with it the reason for the end of the title being ‘first try’. Dinu was driving and I was navigating. We were on the lookout for some Hippos which we havent really seen sofar. On our map it had a few pointers to swampy areas with Hippos so I laid out a route to lead to some of these sites. We didn’t have much luck for a long time. Hippos are easily scared and disappear in the water as soon as they hear a car coming. It was slowly getting late and the sun already shone low and golden.

An amazing viewpoint in Moremi north of Third Bridge.

There was one more pool on my map and I was directing us there. Unfortunately the map also indicated a ‘Seasonal Water Crossing’ on the way to our destination. Thinking that it was now the dry season and accordingly the time with the lowest waterlevels we figured we could at least have a look at it. Looking at it, it looked like a walk in the park. We walked along the side of it as far as dry feet permitted and checked the depth – it looked doable. It has to be said that we were both eager to do our first watercrossing since we already turned back a few times before because the way disappeared under the water (only to see some tourbus easily tackling the obstacle). In the end we both decided to attempt the crossing. We recalled what Francois said and put the car in second low range and off Dinu went. I was standing on the side documenting the premiere. At first it went smooth and the car gradually crawled through the deepest part (which by the way was MUCH deeper than we thought…). And then it stopped… Nothing could make the car move up the sandy slope on the other side, the wheels just spun and kicked up water. Everything happened very quickly but i somehow managed to deposit the camera on a dry spot and waded into the waist deep water. I pushed like mad to try to aid our the car on its way. Frantically Dinu tried to put it into reverse and back out the way we came, but to no avail, the car was stuck. By that time I heard Dinu yelling from the inside of the car ‘there is water flowing inside!!’ We both were at a loss for another quick fix and had to face the reality of having a flooded car. SH…!!! I remembered having seen another car a few minutes before we turned off on this perilous path and thought there might be other cars as well that could come to our aid. I ran away saying I would try to get help. I ran for about five minutes until I reached a turn of the road after which a small plain becomes visible but there was no other living sole anywhere (luckily no predators either…). I climbed a tree in the desperate hope to see further and maybe make out another vehicle – Nothing. I realized that we cannot hope to find someone. We were far off the main tracks somewhere on the outskirts of the swamps and it the sun was setting. I ran back to the car, finding Dinu on the roof together with a lot of our stuff that he miraculously managed to save from the floods entering the car. Running back I remembered another thing Francois told us: NEVER turn off the engine while in the water, it is unlikely it will start again. At least we were in luck with that and got the engine running again! Remember the wood we collected? Dinu did remember and placed almost all of it under the tires, having to dive down to reach the bottom!. We already saw ourselves pitching the tent on a car standing in the water up to the doorhandles and this was to be the last rescue attempt. I got in the car and searched for the pedals and the stick in the murky waters. I engaged the differential lock so that we would move even if only one back wheel had traction. I tried to quickly shift between forward and backward gears in order to get the car rocking back and forth, gaining momentum to get unstuck. At first it seemed a futile attempt, nothing moved. But after a while I thougt I felt a slight backward movement. I floored the throttle, the engine reved up and yes we were gaining ground backwards by the centimeter!! As soon as we cleared the immediate area where the car got stuck progress started to improve and I drove the car out onto dry ground. We hardly believed it ourselves that we actually managed to get the thing out of there anymore and were out of our mind of happiness.

First water contact!

Looking good…

Rien ne va plus…

Juhee – we’re out!

The car was still running and apart from having a pool inside it seemed to work fine. Wet to the bone we drove back to the camp as it was getting dark, the sun had plunged between the horizon a while before. In camp the two other Swiss were happy to see us and would not have waited much longer to report us missing. We unloaded everything from the soaked car and did some damage assessment. The car ran relatively smooth, only the ABS lamp wouldn’t go off and we could not engage the diff-lock anymore. Apart from that it seemed that the fridge didn’t make it through and Dinu’s Camera got a good washing too. Luckily we didn’t have all our bagage with us at the time, so that we at least had dry clothes to warm ourselves up again. Dinner was quick and dirty with some pasta to staunch our hunger. We both had a bit of a shock and decided to see tomorrow, when things have dried a little, what to do next.