We are worried about Orphea. Despite the service that Julian did on her, she is still running very unevenly at speed, as if she is starved of petrol. Therefore, we are back to our old routine of starting really early in case of a breakdown.
So it is then that we get on the road just after half past 6 with the sun still hardly above the horizon! Our destination for the day is the Planet Baobab campsite just outside the little village of Gweta. It is just over 200 km away and the main reason for us wanting to stop there is the fact that from there you can arrange trips to the Makgdadigadi Pans, a huge expanse of nothingness described by our guidebook as “like nothing else on earth”.
Another reason for our early start is also because it seems that Orphea goes better when she runs cooler. In fact, the going is not too bad at all as we speed through the slightly cold morning air. Some ostriches along the way try to keep up with us, obviously without any success! We are also surprised to find two giraffes really close to the road munching on leaves high up in the treetops!
It is at this last stop to take pictures of the giraffes that we notice Orphea’s inability to idle. Every time we start her and let go of the throttle, she just splutters to death! Luckily for us the campsite is just on the other side of the village, now about 10 km away. Slowly and with the throttle wide open whenever we approach a stop, we finally make it to the reception of Planet Baobab.
As the name suggests, the campsite has quite a few of these unearthly looking trees. Without any leaves and looking like they are all dead and dried up, the Baobab tree fits in perfectly with the surrounding desert-like landscape! It is barely 10:30 am but already the sun is baking down on us with great ferocity, making us feel really relieved when we notice the huge swimming pool next to the campsite!
Over lunch we discuss the various options for excursions to the surrounding area, including the pans, with James the manager. Very honestly he warns us (when we checked in he also warned us against a noisy party that will take place tonight as it is Independence Day in Botswana!) that due to some unexpected rains a few nights ago, it is actually impossible to get onto the pans as it is too soft. Since the excursions are a bit pricey (as is most things in Botswana!), especially if you can only go to the edge of the pan, we decide to just go to the smaller Nxai Pans that is also a lot closer. So, with this planned for 4 pm we have the rest of the afternoon free to relax!
With 4 other tourists we get ready for our excursion. Our mode of transport is the requisite open-back 4×4 and eagerly we stretch our necks over the sides, ready to spot some animals!
Maybe we are too spoiled by now, but to say that we were not impressed with the termite’s nests, various types of birds and horses at the watering hole, is an understatement!
What were really interesting though, were the different types of animal bones that fossilized into the rocks around the watering hole in the pan. Elephant tusks and rhino horn are amongst these together with some rock tools that our guide tells us date back nearly 20 000 years! Despite the lack of animals it is still nice to walk around the deathly quiet veld as the sun slowly makes its way downwards into the tree lined horizon!
With the sun gone (we are certainly spoiled with stunning African sunsets!) we start to make our way back. When it is completely dark the guide hands a powerful spotlight to one of the passengers and with this we spot some glowing eyes in the bushes. This turns out to be an African Wildcat that quickly disappears into the undergrowth at great speed! This together with two Kudus close to our campsite are the only real animals we spotted, but it still was a nice outing, first under the late afternoon sun, then under the amazingly clear, star filled sky!
Back at the campsite the Independence Day party is in full swing! The music is pumping, the beer flowing and the local Botswana people are clearly enjoying themselves. We quickly go for a shower and then return to have dinner and celebrate a little with the crowd who is clearly here for a late night!
It is great to see, as we are sitting around the fire, how black and white dance together to celebrate the freedom and success of this great country! As for us, unfortunately we must leave them to it in order to get a good night’s rest, since tomorrow we will continue our journey in the direction of Francistown close to the South African border.
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Posted by transafrica 
Thursday: It’s an early one. 5 am to be exact! After going to so much trouble to get a trip into the Delta we don’t want to risk missing it by turning up late!
The one and a half hour journey from Maun to the Delta is occasionally interrupted by KB, our driver, stopping to point out something of interest to us. Big is our surprise when he stops right next to a cemetery! It turns out to be quite interesting though as he explains how, in Botswana, it is a form of respect to build a small canvas shade canopy over the graves! He also explains exactly how big a problem Aids was, and still is today. At one point even, a big debate raged in parliament over whether people who died of Aids should be buried in the ground as it was believed that the disease could be spread in this way!
As we are getting closer and closer to the Delta, the signs of human habitation get less and less. We eventually reach the veterinary checkpoint at the buffalo fence, a huge barrier between wild and domestic animals stretching for thousands of kilometres from here all the way to Namibia. This is of course to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease, something for which the Botswana people have an almost obsessive fear!
The puller is the man in charge. Using a long pole he pushes it into the ground and sort of push/pull the canoe forward. The mokoros don’t really look very strong and stable, but we were reassured somewhat when Lee tells us that our new, fibreglass model doesn’t leak like the wooden versions!
With ourselves and our luggage loaded we set off into the channels leading deeper into the Delta. It is a massively relaxing way of travelling! With our luggage behind us as back rests, we sit/lie and watch as we overtake the other, slower mokoros. The Delta is different from what we expected. More of a marshland with reeds growing everywhere, giving the impression that it floats on the water! If looked from above you can imagine it being a grass field over which you can easily run.
Near our campsite we find the skull of a buffalo (which would become Heino’s chair!) and this together with elephant droppings tell us that the area has a lot of wildlife.
After lunch and a digestive nap we get back into the mokoro to make our way to the swimming spot. This basically is just an area with fewer reeds and hopefully no hippos!
The water is surprisingly cold but immensely refreshing after the hot sun.
We finally reach the spot from where our walking trip is to start. We start off on a sandy path which later on turns into a path through the long grass. The landscape is the desolated, wild, arid image of Africa that you normally get from the books. Add to this the fact that there is absolutely no one apart from us and you really get the feeling that you are on an exploration trip where no one has been before!
Lee might not be the greatest talker around, but he still does his job professionally. He is very good at spotting animals and would name all the different types of poo that we come across. This might not sound interesting, but for tracking animals it is a valuable skill and fascinating to see how it differs depending on what the animal eats (for instance, the poo of lions will have hair in it as they devour the prey whole!).
With the sun setting slowly on our right side we make our way back to the mokoro. Once back on the water we make our way past the hippos again before we find a quiet spot from where to watch the sun sink into the mist of clouds on the horizon.
As we walk we can see the sun on our right hand side fighting with the clouds to make its appearance!
As we walk onwards we come across the huge tracks of elephants, a buffalo and the very clear paw print of a lion (way too fresh for our liking!).
Walking safaris are great as you get much closer to nature. Having said that, you don’t see nearly as many animals as by car simply because you can’t cover the same distance.
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He did a full service on her as well as cleaning the carburettors. He is not convinced though that this is the cause of her running unevenly as the carburettors were not dirty enough.
In daylight we see the particularity of this campsite and why the guide rates it so highly. Set right on the river, the location itself is stunning but the fact that you can swim in the croc and hippo infested waters makes it even more special! This is done in a big cage with a plank platform reached by a wooden walkway from the riverbank.
The star attraction here is the toilets, though! Built from wood and reeds, it has an open side overlooking the river, giving you possibly the best view in the world as you go about your business!
The men’s toilet is aptly named “the throne” and a chain across the doorway with a sign saying Kings make sure that nobody enters to disturb your privacy. In between the Kings and Queens is also a bath, similarly open to the river in which you can lie and watch the river flow by. Even the other showers set further away from the river are done beautifully from natural, locally sourced products such as logs with the taps in and a shower head made from a bucket punched full of holes!
After more searching and asking around for the Popa Falls, we realize that we will have to make our peace with the fact that we paid 20 Namibian dollars each to see what would be classified everywhere else as rapids and not waterfalls!
Soon after we entered the park we spot a few zebras and ostriches. As we speed along at a very gentle pace Alessandra spots a huge elephant right next to the road in the bushes. So huge and close was it that she thought it to be a statue like the ones you find at the entrance to some lodges! This is no statue though but instead a group of about six enormous elephants crossing the road at their leisurely pace. We stopped not too far away, but as the big bull started to flap its ears, we thought it prudent to move another few meters away!
It is another scorcher of a day! Since Malawi the heat has really intensified and we realize that we haven’t had a drop of rain since Uganda. Although good for doing laundry, it means that there is no escaping the heat and also that the landscape around us is dry with the trees, bushes and grass crying out for some water! The road continues on its flat, boring course and in the town of Gumare we fill up for the last time before Maun.
From the start we can see that Hercules is not as confident as the other mechanics we dealt with. It must’ve been the swearing, grunting and moaning as he tries to reach the carburettor that gave us that idea! To be fair to him though, he is not really a mechanic by profession, but actually a tyre dealer. With the carburettor half out we agree that it might be better if we leave it in until we reach another big town on our way. So, with everything back in place and Orphea running again, Hercules mentions that he has a few 17 inch back tyres that might fit our bike. Sure enough, when we look around his stockroom, we not only see a few, but a nearly new Continental TKC 80 tyre exactly the same as the one we have on now! Hercules kindly offers the tyre to us for free and after 20 500 kms and without a single puncture, our old back tire is taken off and replaced with a new one!
We still plan to move on to Divundu, a town on the end of the Caprivi Strip today, so it is back to Mkusi Cabins to get ready. As we start to pack up Orphea, two bikers pull into the grounds (yet another two KTM’s!). Adin and Carl are two South African bikers who are doing a loop through SA, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and then back to South Africa. Over lunch
The road through the Caprivi Strip is every bit as straight as it looks on the map! Thankfully, there are distance markers very 10 km to at least let you know that you are making any progress! The whole of the 300 odd kilometres only has one petrol station, so we make sure not to miss that.
Exhausted
The road is nothing special and even though we pass numerous signs warning us against elephants, we don’t see a single one. It is on this road though that we celebrate Orphea’s 70th birthday (meaning she’s got 70 000 miles or 112 000 km’s on the clock) although she cheated age a bit by breaking her speedometer for 2400 km!
It is early afternoon when we pass over the new bridge spanning the Zambezi river and leads us to the Zambian border post. The heat has definitely increased as we moved further south in the process preparing us for the southern hemisphere summer that we are riding into. We also find it very strange that this border post lacks both the usual queue of trucks and the moneychangers that start hassling you before you even stopped! This together with very simple border procedures means that it is a matter of minutes before we are on the move again towards the Namibian border post about 500 metres further on. Here the same easy, headache-free process is repeated and moments later Heino is finally home!
Bianca and Berend seem very well settled into their lives here in Katima Mulilo with their two little boys. Heino is very happy to catch up with them again as he last saw them in London 5 years ago where they lived together in house share. It is times like this that make you realize what strange paths life takes us on. One minute you say goodbye to someone in grey, cloudy London, the next time you meet is 5 years later in hot, dusty Katima Mulilo, some with children, other just more grey or bald but all hopefully a little wiser!
It has to be said that the first sight of the falls were quite disappointing! Consisting of no more than 3 streams of water trickling down the gorge, it really is not living up to the image we build up in our minds. It is only when you walk further down the path that you get a better view of exactly how awesome this beauty of nature really is!
Stretching about 1.5 km in length, the sheer wall of rock plunges down far below into the gorge where the river then snakes its way out into the open again! It is not as we saw it in the numerous postcards for sale, but it has another, more raw beauty to it that undoubtedly can’t be appreciated when the falls are full. To round off this amazing spectacle, several colourful rainbows decorate the scene into something that without a doubt will stay with us forever!
As we come back along the path over the Knife Edge Bridge, we can see the much larger bridge in the distance that links Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is of course from here that the adrenaline craving freaks throw themselves off, attached to the bridge only by a rope!
After we’ve seen the falls from the front, we make our way up on top of the falls. It is possible to walk here only because the river is so low and it is really fascinating to see the falls from this angle. It is possible to walk on top of the falls all the way to Livingstone Island (it is from here that the famous explorer first saw the falls) but we decide against this as it means wetting our only pair of shoes!
It is at this point that most people would feel that they now have a good idea of what the falls look like. Not Alessandra though! Only if we see the falls on the Zimbabwe side as well will we know what the falls really look like! So, off we are to the Zambian border post where you can get a pass to go on the main bridge connecting the two countries. Heino, travelling on a South African passport, can get into Zimbabwe without a visa and therefore he is sent off, camera in hand, to explore the falls on the other side!
And a good thing it is that he did too! As if to compensate the poor Zimbabweans for all the other problems they have, most of the water decided to tumble down the gorge on their side! We got a glimpse of the main falls from the Zambian side, but standing right before it, getting wet in the spray, is really a sight to behold! Heino, not normally the trigger happy photographer type, simply can’t stop until the memory card of the camera is finally full!
Alessandra meanwhile entertained herself by watching the bungee jumpers. However, this is not nearly enough to convince either of us to attempt this utterly unnatural act of jumping head first from a bridge!
The Zambezi, 4th in Africa in terms of size, has its source in the north of Zambia. From here it crosses the border into Angola before it comes back into Zambia only to then find its way to Zimbabwe, Botswana and finally into Mozambique where it ends in the Indian Ocean! The river is alive with wildlife and apart from numerous species of birds we see elephants, hippos and crocodiles!
As so many times before though, the main event is the sunset! If possible, it is possibly the most orange sky we’ve seen so far and seeing the sun finally sinking into the river is simply unbelievably beautiful!
The cruise lasted more than two hours, but at the end of it we could easily stay for two hours more (of course nothing to do with the free drinks and food!). Back at the campsite it is time for a final chat with Giampiero and Georgio before they get on their bikes and disappear into the night! We really wish them good luck with their tough deadline!
It’s been an incredible day! Waterfalls, animals, an amazing sunset and good company made it one of the best days yet. Tomorrow though, it is onwards and forwards again!
Thankfully the road is paved all the way and about an hour later, after more roads going up and down mountains, we reach the last hill from which we can see the lake. And again we are amazed at the contrast between brown, arid landscape and the deep blue water of the lake! We reach the campsite that according to our guide suits our needs the best and after the usual settling in, we find that we have the whole place to ourselves!
It is a very relaxing afternoon. Reading on the lakeside beach is followed by Heino spending most of the rest of the afternoon perfecting his bomb dive in the pool under the expert tuition of Alessandra! The hot weather makes it a perfect laundry opportunity and early evening is time for a sundowner and pizza in the restaurant. It certainly was a tough punishment for our navigational error!