Right then, sorry about that….  I was planning on doing our trip to date on our last post, but we were just too knackered and this blog thing takes a surprising amount of time.  So this is a bit of a long one, as we are trying to catch up!

7^th October

So we set off early again, 6am (this is supposed to be a holiday right??) to try and catch up with ourselves and get to Etosha. 

Henry is driving well (we decide that we needed to name the car, Henry the Hilux!…….it’s the sun, it’s getting to our heads!!...   ) Anyway, 2pm we arrive at Etosha.  We drive around the park and immediately start to see loads of animals, zebra, impala, wildebeest, giraffe and ostrich to name but some of them.

Sometime later check into our Okakuejo lodge (no camping for 2 days!!!.....  Our own shower… luxury!).  The site is set up round a watering hole for the animals, the sun is setting so we dump our stuff and go straight out to see what’s going on.  UNBELIEVABLE a massive herd of elephants are drinking at the watering hole, there must have been over 30 only 50 feet away!  We get very excited.

After cooking on a bbq outside our room we head back to the watering hole for some night time viewing, as it is flood lit.  Lorraine starts to fall asleep, but as she snoozes off some rhino start to come down for a drink!  Amazingly more start arriving, babies and everything!  All in all we count 7, 3 white rhino and 4 black rhino.

8^th October

Early start again, 6am and we go off to where a pride of lions hang out.   Fantastic, we time it just right as they get up and walk straight past the car.  First there were 6 female then 3 male, 3 juveniles and then to our complete surprise 3 cubs walk out of the bush!! Wicked!

  But before I could stop her Lorraine gets out of the car and starts cuddling one of the cubs, then she starts to tickle the tummy of one of the big males!!!........   Come on guys…..  These are HUGE WILD ANIMALS!!!  I know we are city types now, but we are not that stupid!   The doors to the car remain firmly locked!  Very impressive teeth. 

We spend the rest of the day stopping at various watering holes, slowly making our way to back to Okakuejo camp.

 

As we return we can’t help but notice the forest fire that had been burning in the morning on the horizon has now filled the sky with smoke and looks very close to the camp…..  They assure us that it’s all in check and there’s nothing to worry about.   It does make for an impressive sunset though!

9^th October

Much the same as yesterday really, we visit various waterholes on the way to our campsite, Halali, in the middle of the park.    Oooh oooh, we see a leopard drinking.  We take a guess where it might go and drive round the corner down a track and as luck would have it walks straight past us.  (Obviously it was my ancient skills as a hunter coming out!!..... Hay come on…   stop laughing!....  I could be a hunter??!....)

10^th October

We travel over to Namatoni campsite, much the same as the last couple of days.  We have decided that the impala of etosha national park are “too cool for school”, they pay no attention to cars speeding toward them and just cross in front of us…..  Some very near misses as they emerge from the bushes!

Our Retro car, Henry had been driving well……  then he starts to play up……  the temperature starts to rise, slowly at first…..  We keep driving….  2 miles later……  the temp shoots up and we are forced to stop.  Now we are in the middle of the game reserve….   We have seen lots of signs saying not to get out of the car, but what can we do?...  I take a quick look under the bonnet and quickly realise that it is a water pipe that has burst.  So whilst I do a quick repair, involving cutting and shortening the pipe, Lorraine looks out for lions and elephants…..   It’s amazing how quickly one can work under that kind of pressure!!!....   In no time at all, we are back on the road and Henry, like the cat, has used one of his lives….  How many more has he got, we wonder?...... 

 11^th October

Another boring day of driving ahead of us, as we need to travel nearly 650 kilometers north to get into Botswana.  Before we set off we decide to do one last watering hole and see 3 male lions. 

The road north is long and boring.  We stop on the way for some lunch and got talking to some local children who sell us some fruit.  It looks like an orange, about the size of a grapefruit and has an outer layer as hard as a coconut.  The kids show us how to open it….. Inside its brown and looks like a brain….  Still it tastes lovely, although Lorraine still remains unconvinced.

We finally arrive at Popa falls, some 10km from the Botswana border.  We decide to camp next to the river and go for a swim, after some local assured us that there are no crocs in there!.....    Having said that, they were in a boat!

12^th October

We cross the border into Botswana with no probs and head south.  On the way we drop into Tsodilo Hills. We find a local guide who takes us round some cave paintings that are 3000 years old. 

We march farther south to Maun, our stop for a couple of days before our big drive to Zambia. 

On our journey, we figure out that Henry (although having a larger than normal petrol tank) hasn’t got as big a petrol tank as the newer car we had previously……  he can take 100ltrs, but our previous car can take 170ltrs. With come calculations, we decide that the cars “range” is about 600km.   Our next journey is a big one……  800km….. In 4 wheel drive……  in thick sand……   This is the only route north and it has no shops and certainly no petrol stations…..  and the thought of running out of fuel….. isn’t an option!  We pick up a couple of 5 gallon drums and fill them with fuel, just in case!  Any way more of that later!...

We arrive quite late (in the dark) but manage to find our campsite.

13^th October

Today is our overnight Mokoro Trip.  This is a traditional wooden canoe with a poler guide, who powers you along much like the punters do,  in oxford.  We load up the “boat” and set off into the okavango delta.  As you can see, there isn’t much room for error as the water line is about 1.5 inches below the top of the boat……  don’t rock the boat.

Our guide, Mogale, takes us to an island about 10km up stream….  “this one looks good”…..  he tells us there is no real plan and he just picks an island he fancies!....  we set up camp and have some lunch, whilst we wait for the vicious mid day sun to calm down, before our afternoon punt. 

Oh how we laughed about his graphic stories about having a face off with a pride of lions whilst guiding on foot, some tourists in the delta.  And what fun it is, to be charged by an elephant and having to run for your life……..   Just then there is a loud TRUMPET, a rumble and then a lot of snapping branches….. “it’s an elephant…..”….. no less than 50ft away, just behind the tree at one side of the camp…… our eyes widen with the guide's stories fresh in our mind.   Our cool guide gets up and claps his hand once…..  then says….  “……  I think he is moving away…….   let’s take a look…..”    ……    …….    ……    ermmm…….  …..  ok?.....

We fight our way through the bush and find the elephant has moved away, we are still very close to the camp and the elephant is about 100ft away, walking through the bush. 

It becomes quite clear that we are definitely in the wild.

We take the boat for an afternoon punt and leave it at the other side of the island and walk back to camp……  that’s right walk…..  we see some more elephants on the way but they are quite far from the camp….  But still on our island (by the way, our island isn’t the size of the isle of whight….. it’s about 1km square….not that big)……  at night we cook some food on the open fire.

At about 9pm……   There is a loud snapping of a branch…..  an elephant…..  EVEN CLOSER than the last one…..  BUT IT’S DARK!!!!.....  Lorraine grabs my arm and whisper…   “what do we do?... what do we do????”  …….  She didn’t draw blood, but I do still have the nail marks in my right thigh…..  I offer some empty words of…..  “don’t worry…..it will be fine??...”   I didn’t draw blood, but our guide still has my nail marks in his right thigh……  (it was BLOODY CLOSE!!)

Our guide just says…  “don’t worry…  just stay still, he will move off…..he was just letting us know, he is there…..” 

Shortly after we hear him run off through the deep water, over to the next island.   He was very close this time…..  I'm not sure how much we will sleep tonight???......

14^th October

Very early start 5:30.  We leave the camp and head off to the boat, a short punt to another island. 

“we go and explore now…. A nature walk, yes….” Our guide informs us.

As we trek for an hour or so and see various animals, elephant, warthog and various birds.

Mogale stops walking…..  looks about in concentration and holds his hand up……  “can you hear……  it sound like the wind……  its water buffalo……  maybe 150…….  Come let’s go….”  We pick up the pace and go toward the sound…  (I say sound….  I couldn’t hear anything!...)   we soon get to a patch of knee deep water which has obviously just had a huge herd of animals go through it as the reeds have been all pushed down.

“we follow?....” mogale asks, I think the look on our faces said a thousand words….    “it fine come on….no problem…” with that he takes off his shoes and trousers and starts to walk through the water….  We duly follow.

2 river crossings later…..

Mogale is listening to the wind again……  “it is the sound of the buffalo crossing the rivers…..  we will not catch them…  they are running…. They can run all day….they have a lot of stamina….”

“oh that’s a shame” we say…..  “have we disturbed them….  Is that why they are running……”  

“no no no…..  where you get buffalo you get…….” He stops…..

“ listen……  that sound….. “  we can hear, fairly clearly, a sound like…..   a cow mooing with is mouth shut…..

“……  lion……  that is why the buffalo are running…….”

“…………………………………………………. oh……………..  lion)” I said.

“come, we leave” he says calmly.

Off we go, keeping downwind of the lion, on our long walk back to the boat, our pace somewhat quicker than before.  

On our return we had to go a different way, through some really deep water…..  up to our chests!!!....   (sorry no pics of this as I way carrying my backpack, complete with laptop, camera, passports etc etc…. on my head!!!)

Anyway, after all that fun, we head home collecting the camp as we go.  All in all, a very exciting trip!

That’s it for now guys!!  There is plenty more to come!....  Henry uses up some of his lives and we try to cross some rivers!!......  

By the way guys, please feel free to add any comments at the bottom!....

smiles

Will and Loz