A couple of days in the bush

Maybe rolling into camp is a misnomer. We drove off the main road, through the bush and got to the main gate. I was in the back section (we had split into two groups of four vehicles each) and the guard at the gate waved us through. A guy in a Land Rover came to lead us down the road to the camp where we were staying. Now the road is not really a road, its the bumpiest, most corrugated, rutted piece of hard packed mud I have ever seen. After following this mess for about 14 km., we came to a fork in the road, and as Yogi Berra said, when you come to a fork, take it. So we took it.. It looked a little muddy but at the direction of our fearless guide Andrew drove straight in, following the guide's tracks, and I wisely followed his. About 20 yards in I felt the truck starting to sink, so I stopped. Actually the truck stopped by itself. I looked in my mirror and Goldie was in the same dire mire. Turns out that the first four trucks had been sent to the wrong camp, and the next four had been shown the mud. After a lot of expert input from everyone, we were towed out. We found out that the mud had been prepared for us as a special parking lot because they were worried that the trucks wouldn't fit into the regular lot.

After all of the excitement we settled in and in all honesty, it was a really nice place, with a terrific pool and fire-pit, and a small waterhole where a bunch of animals came to drink. The next morning we went into Etosha Park proper, leaving at about 6 and driving until about 11:30. It was good to have someone else do the work, and the game was very good. We saw a big herd of elephant in addition to the run of the mill stuff like wildebeest, impala, kudu, wart hogs, duiker, steenbok, and Jarrett's favorite, dozens of giraffe. After a strenuous afternoon of sleeping by the pool, we headed out again for a sundown drive, this time on the lodge property.

 




Seems like its quite a big property, in fact its bigger than Etosha Park at about 34,000 hectares which I think is about 85,000 acres. It was far more leisurely than the morning and again we got lucky, stumbling on a lion and lioness with very full bellies lying at the waterhole. It was quite disgusting how nonchalant they were about keeping all of the other animals from their evening drink, just by being there.








When we got back we found another problem with the trucks ( besides the fact that there were clear lion tacks on top of the tire tracks, which meant that someone had been curious). One of them had developed a slow ( actually not so slow) leak in one of the front tires. Since our camp didn't have a compressor, we had to figure out the logistics of leaving it at a camp that did, and then getting it to a repair shop early the next day. Because we had a long drive planned, we ended up having Goldie drive it to the repair shop at 6 am because no-one else wanted to forfeit breakfast, and the rest of us left at about 7:30. We hung out in Tsumeb for a couple of hours and then got going. In the course of all of this I discovered something quite alarming. For 42 tires on the trucks, we didn't have a single spare of any kind, nor did we have a jack or a wrench, so if we get a flat on these miraculous roads in the future, it's going to be interesting.

The drive was long. I had forgotten how driving long roads like this, which stretch to infinity, can tire you out. Every time we needed to fill up with diesel, this parade of trucks pulled into a gas station to the bewilderment of the locals. Every time we stopped it took about half an hour to get filled up, and then of course there are trips to the shop to buy pies and water and soda. Everyone was consuming huge amounts of liquids because it was hot and there was no air conditioning in the cabs. The water bottles  heated up within about an hour so that you ended up drinking hot water just to keep your mouth moist.

There was one additional hazard for us. You see when you drive an unregistered vehicle in Namibia you are not allowed to carry passengers or freight. We knew this because on our first trip we had been busted for it. (This is why you need to read the first blog). Not every vehicle had a radio which is a mixed blessing. I didn’t have to listen to Allan and Johnny bickering with Goldie commentating, but I also had no idea what was happening. Our game plan was to have the vehicles with no passengers go first to let us know where the roadblocks were, and then when the second group was approaching, the passengers would jump into the back seat and hide until we had gone through. Very cloak and daggerish, but it generally worked. I was in the back with Roy driving, and I pretended to be asleep in a very abnormal position. That worked, but unfortunately he had decided to test the cops’ power of observation even further and ran the stop sign. So he got a ticket, but fortunately no points on his license.

Anyway the drive was relatively easy and we got to Rundu in mid-afternoon. Its exciting to see how these old military towns are being developed. In this case the major step forward was the installation of a large traffic circle in the center of town. This is a great idea and I hope they finish it soon, because in order to do it the authorities just closed all four major roads leading to the intersection and left it to the drivers to find their way through the local properties. Detour signs and forethought are both clearly in short supply in Rundu. Peter and Johnny were apparently shouting over the radio not to worry because they would soon find the way on the GPS. Right! One would think that they had learned that a GPS map is not necessarily correct in Africa, particularly when roadwork is being done.  Obviously we got lost and so in the middle of the construction zone Goldie stopped his truck, jumped out and hailed a taxi, and asked him to show us the way to the hotel. I think that in order to prevent a lynching he took us to the hotel.

It was not a fancy place with the rooms being a little Spartan, but the view was staggering. It overlooks the Kavango River and you sit at their pool and look out over the water and Angola. There was a woman sitting on one of the tables gazing out, and it turns out that she had been in the South African military a while back and been stationed at Katima Mulilo. Her husband was buried there and she had gone back to look at the old base and find his grave. Not much was left of either one.

View of us with Angola on the right background and Namibia left

As someone said later, Angola is an amazing country with huge natural resources and unlimited potential, just waiting for someone to come along and develop for the locals. They certainly haven’t shown that they are doing it for themselves. The plain next to the river is totally devoid of any cultivation despite being extremely fertile ground. Just seems like a huge waste. The surprising part of the whole thing was the food. Dinner was excellent as was breakfast and they even packed us lunch for the road. The pool was a little suspect with tiny little white things in it in abundance, but we figured that it was probably safe, and since it was about 90 degrees, we were in. What a luxury a pool is when you have a day’s worth of grit and dust and sweat caked on you. We liked it so much that we stayed there after dinner, drinking, smoking cigars and Jarrett and Jackie making a huge whirlpool.