Our African Road Trip

Our African Road Trip

In May we realized that there was going to be no school during the three week period between the second and third school terms.  When our son Devon arrived to spend his summer (our winter) in Africa, we decided to take a road trip with him to see more of this part of Africa.  So out came the travel books and maps and we began looking into accommodations and places to visit.  Gradually, a route and schedule came together.  The trip would take us all the way east-west across the southern African continent through four countries.  We had most but not all of our arrangements settled when our June 23^rd departure date arrived.

The first glitch came the morning of our departure.  Devon and I had gone to Pretoria the previous day and picked up the rental car – a nice compact Nissan Micra - and were all set to leave early the following day.  We had read that it was critical to have yellow fever vaccination proof with us but while I was gathering up our passports they were nowhere to be found. Then we remembered that Peace Corps had the documents, called the medical office and detoured thru Pretoria to get the papers.   So our trip got off to a late start.  The funny thing is we never had to show the documents at any border crossings.  Ugh!

Day one took us 400 miles north into Botswana and about halfway to our first destination – Victoria Falls.  We stayed the first night in a small guest house in Frenchtown and dinner was fast-food pizza since we were so tired we did not care.  Food improved as the trip progressed.

Day two took us further north in Botswana through vast unpopulated areas.  At one point we stopped to watch three or four elephants grazing in the bush alongside the road.  The terrain was the typical flat African landscape with small trees, thorny bushes, and dry grasses.  To our surprise and good luck, the secondary road we were driving towards Zambia turned out to be a smooth paved highway with only a few potholes. Devon was able to make good time cruising along at 120 km/hr (75mph) as we travelled 350 more miles towards the border.

The border crossing from Botswana into Zambia was the strangest circumstances we encountered during the entire trip.  As we drove down a long hill towards the ferry that would take us across the Zambezi River and into Zambia, we passed a mile lineup of lorries (big trucks) parked alongside the road.  A nearby bridge crossing the river was closed forcing these trucks and their drivers to wait three days at the border for the ferry.  We passed through the Botswana checkpoint without a problem and arrived at the ferry landing where we were approached by a couple of friendly Zambians.  They indicated we’d probably be sleeping in our car that night due to the typical delay but they would be willing to help expedite the paperwork and get us on our way before dark.  Not relishing sleeping in the car, I took them up on their offer in spite of Merideth’s skepticism.  Long story short, we eventually got through the Zambian crossing after paying five different fees (visa, police, ferry, extra car insurance, and something else) but it cost us $600.   It should have costs $300 but when it came to converting our South African Rands to Zambian Kwacha, the friendly Zambians quoted an exchange rate that favored them.  By then it was late, we were frazzled by the turmoil of the ordeal, and we just wanted out so I paid them and drove off for Livingstone. Only later we realized we’d been robbed.  Naturally, I heard a much deserved “I told you so” from Merideth.  Devon was so mad he wanted to go back and beat up the crooks.  Getting tricked and robbed at the border cast a shadow over the trip.  Eventually we were able to file it as a very bad travel experience.  We made four other border crossings during the trip and none of them were expensive or chaotic. If you are going into Zambia, avoid the Kasane crossing.

We then stayed at the Jollyboys Backpackers in Livingstone for three nights.  Victoria Falls is on the Zambezi River about 10 km south of Livingstone with Zambia on one side and Zimbabwe on the other side.  We visited the falls on the first day seeing it from the Zambian side.  Victoria Falls are gradually cutting out a series of narrow canyons from softer limestone rock that runs across the river channel. As the Zambezi River water pours over harder rock, it erodes the limestone and makes the falls.  We were able to hike down alongside the falls inside the canyon where the mist and cascading water creates its own rainfall.  Luckily we brought along our raincoats so we stayed dry.  It was a good time of the year to visit because the river was flowing high filling the falls all across the face of the falls.  

The highlight of our Victoria Falls visit occurred on the second day when, following the advice of the owner of the backpackers, we took a guided trip in a powerboat down the Zambezi River to Livingstone Island which is a small island right at the top edge of the falls.This spot is where the local Africans took David Livingstone to first see the falls. The locals called the falls the “Mist that Thunders.” Once on the island, we put on raincoats and made our way over to the edge of the falls.With the guide firmly gripping our arms, he took us one by one out to the very edge of the falls where we could look over into the roaring water and the plunging mass of water below.Every so often the mist would part letting us see down to the bottom of the falls 300 feet below.It was a 30 story drop to the bottom.One missed footstep or overeager lean might have caused a slip where the unlucky tourist and guide would be swept over the falls to certain death.We felt fortunate to have the opportunity to stand and look over the edge of one of the most amazing waterfalls in the world. Below you see the three of us with Victoria Falls in the background.

 

When we were escorted back from the brink of the falls, we were presented with a table with a white tablecloth set in the shade alongside the river where we were served a delicious breakfast.  It was elegant and we enjoyed the experience immensely as we ate while listening to the sound of the falls in the background.  We did not want to leave when time came to get on the powerboat that took us upriver to the launch site.

Livingstone is a somewhat rough town so we were glad to leave the next morning bound for our next destination in Botswana.  We drove west through Zambia and then into the panhandle part of Namibia called the Caprivi Strip.  The next border crossing into Namibia went well and we drove the length of the Caprivi Strip which once was closed to travel because it was a war zone.  By afternoon we crossed back into Botswana and drove south to our stay at Mbiroba Camp.  This area contains the Okavango Delta which is one of the largest inland river deltas in the world.   The Okavango River flows east between Angola and Namibia and spreads out into a huge delta area in Botswana where massive waterways and wetlands are formed with the river eventually disappearing. Devin had booked our stay at this camp because it was run by and benefitted the local people.  It also sought to preserve traditional values by supporting local boatmen who travelled the delta in their mokoro boats.
Our way to Mbiroba Camp took us across the Okavango River on a four car ferry.  Since rural areas only take cash payments, we first detoured to the nearest town’s ATM to stock up with Botswana pula.  We caught the last river ferry of the day at 6:30 pm.  As we headed south from the car ferry, the road soon turned to sand and gravel and our speed dropped to 40 km/hour.  The camp was 100 km away and in short order it was dark.  Luckily, we had offered a lady stranded at the ferry a ride to her village so we knew as we were on the right track and not lost.  There was no traffic and the countryside was pitch dark.  At one point we got stuck in loose sand but with a little pushing were soon freed.  At another point we came across a stranded bakki (pickup) loaded with passengers suffering from engine troubles. We had no tools so we could not help them.   The road went on and on, it got later and later, and we grew more and more exhausted and nervous about whether we’d make it or be forced to sleep alongside the road.

Eventually we dropped off our passenger at her village and continued on down the road totally exhausted and wondering how many hours we would have to bounce down this dark rough road. After 2 ½ hours of agony, we finally reached the village of Seronga and made our way to Mbiroba Camp where we woke the night watchman and were escorted to the thatched cottage where we stayed.  There is no electricity supplied to Mbiroba but they do have a diesel electrical generator that they run for a couple of hours in the evening.  We were so tired, we just dumped our stuff on the floor, washed up, and fell into bed.

The next morning I woke up before the rest and wandered across the camp to check out the river.  There I spotted a hippo grazing nearby in the river.   When Devon booked our stay, he arranged for us to take a trip into the heart of the delta in a mokoro which is a traditional flat-bottomed narrow boat piloted by an oarsman who stands in the back using a long pole to propel the mokoro through the delta waters.  We took a transport truck south from the camp to the launch site where Merideth and I rode in one mokoro and Devon in another.  The pollers were local men who had grown up travelling the delta in mokoros.  The trip went through long stretches of branchlike channels where the water flowed clear and cool.  Reedy areas separated the narrow channels as we were polled out further into the delta.  Here is Devon in his mokoro.

After two hours, we landed on an island. At the island we started walking with our pollers acting as guides as we searched for animals.  It wasn’t long before we came across a group of elephants grazing peacefully as pictured below.  We were careful to keep our distance and had a good look at this herd of about a dozen animals.

  As we moved around the elephants, one of the guides stopped short and, after a whispered discussion with the other guide, turned us around and lead us back the way we had just come.  Once we had retreated out of earshot, he explained that up ahead he had heard a lion roar and it was wise to turn back.  As we continued on another way around the group of elephants, we heard what sounded like a dog bark and spotted a wild dog not far in the distance.  As we stood there watching this single dog, other dogs began to appear as they became aware of us.  These other dogs started to separate from each other and moved to encircle us.  Wild dogs are some of the best predators in Africa and are known as skilled hunters.  Not wanting to become their next hunt victims, the guide lead us away.  We were thrilled with these three encounters especially welcomed the move to avoid getting too close to the lions and wild dogs.

The island we were on is in the middle of the delta and was once used by locals to graze their cattle.  Conflicts between the wild and domestic animals resulted in the Botswana government building a fence to separate the animals.  However, the fence was soon destroyed by the elephants and use of the island by locals for grazing cattle stopped. 

The guide showed us some large tunnel burrows dug into the soft dirt at the base of some of the larger trees.  He explained these were dens that were shared by two different animals on the island.  By the day the nocturnal hyenas slept there and at night the warthogs took up residency after the hyenas went off to hunt for food.

We were soon back in the mokoros and headed back to camp stopping off for a brief swim in the cool delta waters.  We stayed another day at Mbiroba during which we went into the village in search of petro (gas).  Eventually we were directed to a house in the village where in a shed out back a young girl poured 10 liters of petro from a 55-gallon drum and siphoned it into our car.   This gave us enough gas to get back to the nearest petro station and was the most unusual gas station we’d ever seen.

We were impressed with this part of Botswana because it seemed like it had not been affected by modern life.  The villages conformed to our preconceived notions of rural African villages.  The homes are constructed with mud walls and roofs made from thatch.  They use materials only available locally.  Most homes had no electricity and water appeared available only from distant taps.   A lot of the homes had corrals for their cows made from reeds and other local materials. There are very few cars anywhere.  In the larger villages we saw a number of modern schools many which included teacher housing.  The delta people get by farming in a subsistence manner because there is no industry or jobs in the area.  Here is a typical home we saw with mud walls, thatch roofing, and a reed corral.

On June 30th we drove on into Namibia to a town called Runda where we stayed overnight at a lodge along the Okavango River just across from Angola.  The highlight of our stay in Runda was a visit to the market where Devon bought a locally made axe and knife.  He wanted to buy one of the spears for sale but at the time we wondered how he could fit it into his luggage to be taken back to the US.  As we slept that night in Runda we were able to hear the Angolans across the river celebrating Saturday night with music.

Our next destination was a day’s drive away from Runda to Etosha National Park in Namibia.  This park is part of a pan which is a large flat area that becomes flooded during the wet season and dries out the rest of the year.  It has now been preserved as an animal reserve.  Unfortunately, we arrived without a reservation but, since it was Merideth and my wedding anniversary, we decided to treat ourselves.  We ended up staying the night at a beautiful place called Mushara Lodge.  We booked an afternoon game drive into Etosha Park, ate like kings, and slept the night in luxury and comfort.  The game drive consisted of riding around in the back of an open sided safari vehicle during which we saw some elephants and other animals but were generally disappointed by seeing so few animals.   However, dinner was delicious and our anniversary was made special by the very nice place and being able to share the occasion with Devon.  We felt like 1%ers. Here we are outside our cottage with me holding up 3 and 4 fingers for 34 years of marriage.

 

 From Etosha it was a two day drive to our next stopping point at the Atlantic Ocean.  We had seen in Lonely Planet a hot springs resort located about halfway.  However, when we reached the place we discovered it had gone out of business two years ago. (Thanks Lonely Planet!)  So we pushed on searching the map for a possible stopping spot and finally deciding to try a place called Ameib Ranch.  It was getting late in the day as we found ourselves driving down another gravel road way out in the veld hoping to find someplace decent to stay the night.   We eventually reached Ameib Ranch which turned out to be a charming 100 year old place.  It was once a German outpost which has now become a guest ranch.  The owners also rescue abandoned cats (there were at least 50 wandering around).  At the time we were the only guests.  Dinner was delicious featuring grilled gemstock shot by one of the owners. The area was surrounded by towering mountains popular to rock climbers and other outdoors types.  The morning we left we went on a hike to visit a nearby cave where there were paintings by the Sans (indigenous) people and to another place called The Bull’s Party where giant round boulders as big as a house as pictured below were scattered and amazingly  balanced throughout the area.  At Ameib Ranch we felt we had discovered a diamond in the rough.

Swakopmund was our next stopping point.  It is located on the Atlantic Ocean and is known as a popular vacation, shopping, retirement, and recreation spot for Namibians and for Germans as well.  Namibia has a lot of German influence because many Germans emigrated there before WWI.   We stayed in Swakopmund for three days to rest up.  The highlight of our stay was booking a trip to snowboard down the giant sand dunes.   The weather was cool and since the Atlantic here influence by the cold Antarctic current, swimming was not possible. 

We were ready to leave Swakopmund behind on July 7^th and head off towards a place to the south called Sossuviei famous for its red sand dunes.  After a night in a guest lodge along the way, we got up early and spent several hours hiking up these red sand dunes which are known to be some of the tallest dunes in the world.  Here is a picture of the dunes showing some wild ostriches in the foreground.  Previously we had hiked up to the top of the dunes shown.

 

We were soon on our way to our next stopping spot, a town called Luderitz.  We travelled down long empty stretches on Namibian gravel back roads with very little traffic.  The scenery was interesting because it varied.  It wasn’t all sandy desert as we were led to believe from the travel books.  We would go for long distances crossing flatlands then suddenly come onto some hilly areas and then pass through into the open vistas again.

It was getting late and we again found ourselves getting car weary when we pulled into this tiny town called Helmeringhausen. This town had about 200 yards of paved road with a single hotel, one set of gas pumps, and a small grocery store.  There was no electricity since the town was too far from the grid.  They used wind and diesel generators.  We stayed the night at the hotel and were the only guests except for a few people camping.  The place was very nice because it seemed like an oasis of comfort out there in the middle of nowhere.  We had lucked onto something good and were grateful for another good night’s rest.

We had planned to visit Luderitz because we were told it had German old-world charm and was an interesting place.   On the way to Luderitz we stopped and watched some wild Namibian horses as they came into a watering hole.  They reminded us of the Mustangs in the American West. In Luderitz we stayed in an old house that had just opened up as a backpackers.  The place used to be a private residence and the rooms were large with high ceilings and minimal furniture.  To us, Luderitz seemed more like an old Mediterranean seaside town because with its worn down, shabby, and decrepit buildings   It had little of the quaintness and tidiness of a German village.  One day we took a boat tour down the Atlantic coast to an island that had a population of penguins.

After two nights at Luderitz we decided to move on.  We had planned on visiting the Fish River Canyon which is supposed to be somewhat like the Grand Canyon but then realized the place was going to be hard to reach and we’d only be there overnight.  So we cancelled Fish River and turned our trusty Micra towards home.  We made it back into South Africa the first day and stayed a night in Upington then continued on the next day to Kuruman where we met up with a number of other Peace Corps Volunteers.  These volunteers are serving in the Northern Cape province and are the furthest volunteers from Pretoria.  It was nice for us to spend time with everyone and see what it was like in their area. 

By now we had been travelling almost three weeks.  We were weary of the road.  On the 13^th of July we travelled the last leg driving the remaining distance across South Africa to our village and the comforts of home.  We had travelled 6500 km. This equates to driving from Seattle to New York and then back to Chicago.  We finished our trip feeling we had seen all we had wanted to see in that part of Africa.  And although there were the unavoidable moments of frustration, irritation, anger, shouting, and unhappiness during the trip, we overall got along great and came away with memories we will keep forever.  Our one regret was that Rowan wasn’t there with us.   Devon was able to overcome the embarrassment of a grown man travelling with his elderly feeble-minded parents.  Merideth and I tried to suppress our urge to parent our grown adult son like he was a teenager.  We parked the helicopter (hovering parents inside) and Devon stopped caring what others might think.  Here is a picture of the three of us when we went snowboarding on the sand dunes in Namibia.

 Since returning Devon took a trip by himself to Swaziland and Mozambique.  He took public taxis and buses and stayed in backpackers.  He met some interesting people and had some fun enjoying the ocean and scuba diving.  He did great although when he returned he concluded that it was no fun travelling alone.  We think he gained a lot of confidence in his ability to independently travel.  In Mozambique he had some difficult times and as the result is not apt to return there.  We were glad to have him back here safe in our village and enjoyed listening to his stories about the trip

Even before our three week road trip, Devon had earned his travel stripes by visiting a number of other South African Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs).  They had invited Devon to come visit them so he went out on his own travelling by taxi from one location to another along with other South Africans.  It is rare to find a white person using the taxis but we have found the drivers and passengers to always be helpful and tolerant of us.  Devon spent a couple of weeks leap-frogging from one volunteer’s village to another.  He was able to experience a good cross-section of what the PCVs do here and that was valuable for him as he considers his future.  On his way back one of the taxi drivers invited Devon to drive his taxi for a short distance.  We wrote the story up and it was published in the South African PCV newsletter which provided Devon with a degree of notoriety with other PCVs.

 Last week Devon flew back to Missoula and is settling down for another semester of college.  He told us his trip here gave him a more thorough understanding of the African experience.  Time will tell if Africa will figure into his future or not.

Here in Mmakau we have returned to our routine.  Merideth is teaching English to Grade 7 and the Grades 1-3 and doing a library reading day.  I decided to concentrate on just doing projects at the schools.

For the last month I have been working on the water system serving the mission first by cleaning out the insides of the water storage tanks, repairing faulty valves, and replumbing areas.  For now I am operating the water system which serves about 2000 students.  My plumbing skills have been tested and  I have become adept at fixing toilet tanks so they do not continually leak.   I have proposed to the parish that they automate the controls, meter and charge users for water, and hire an operator.  Since things move slow and endless talk is often required before an obvious decision is made, we will have to see how many of my suggestions are taken up.  At times it can be frustrating.

At the end of September Merideth and I will spend four days in Pretoria for Peace Corp’s Mid Service Training (MST).  It is two days of meetings and two days of medical checkups. Our service ends mid-September 2013 so we have just twelve months remaining.  At times it seems like our service here in Africa has gone so slowly and at other times it seems like it has gone quickly.  We are certain we will be leaving in September 2013 but might not be back to the US until late November because we are planning to do some travelling in Africa before we had back.  We are also looking forward to a post-Christmas trip to Cape Town and the Wild Coast with Devon, Rowan, and Miranda.

And that’s the way it was.