Botswana - Tsodilo Hills

Another day another reasonably uneventful border crossing, so far so good - the only minor hiccup was insufficient Namibian funds to pay the road taxes (you need N160, or 110 Pula) but a nice South African man changed some money for us. The other thing of note is that you cannot bring any dairy or meat products into Botswana due to foot and mouth disease but apart from half a pint of milk (which the inspector advised Duncan to drink, so he did) we were fine.

We've been through several roadblocks for foot and mouth (and maybe one for lung disease, they're not very explicit) and I dont quite understand the logic. At each one the Landy gets her tyres sprayed and you need to stand in the shoes you're wearing on a disinfectant pad and also disinfect any other shoes you have. Fair enough for the tyres if you're exiting an infected area, or stopped and got outside the car in an infected area. But I dont understand having to disinfect leaving a clean area into another clean area - and I dont understand re disinfecting the shoes in your luggage when you just did that 20 minutes ago up the road! In each case they checked the fridge and back for meat and dairy products to confiscate so the moral of the story is dont travel with any you aren't prepared to lose.

We're camped in the tranquil bush at Tsodilo Hills, a world heritage site where there are loads of ancient rock paintings.

Rundu

Today we are camped along the banks of the Ovakango river - the Namibian border with Angola.  Coming from an island state, it seems funny to think that those boys we watched play soccer on the other bank as the sun went down live in a completely different culture with a different language to the culture we're currently in.

Actually the north of Namibia is different to everywhere we've been here so far.  To be fair, we've spent a lot of time driving through national parks and conservation areas, but it seemed like the minute we passed through the veterinary barrier we passed from rich to poor Namibia.  Up here on either side of the road there are small communities of half a dozen or so stick and mud huts and the people subsistence farm - it feels very similar to the road up the coast of Mozambique, but with extra cattle and goats on the road.

Tsumeb

After the desert and the dry savannah and scrubland of Etosha, Tsumeb is a veritable oasis.  The main road into town is lined with big palm trees and the streets are lined with Jacaranda trees blooming in brilliant purple.  Add to that general greenery and some Bouganvillea and you start to get the picture.  It seems this town gets a high rainfall for Namibia.

We checked into MouseBird Backpackers and Camping which was very friendly, comfortable and homey.  Lightning and thunder heralded a heavy rainfall (rain, yay!) not long after dark and we sat up until the small hours talking with Paul, a Namibian pharma rep who drove the entire country every fortnight and had lots of interesting things to say about the country he loves.  Just as we were retiring for the night he got a call from his best friend in Walvis Bay - who'd beed tied up in his home and robbed, could Paul come around... (he's okay though).

Etosha National Park

We drove into Etosha late yesterday afternoon and set up camp at the campsite closest to Andersson Gate.  We passed by the camp waterhole on the way to the shop and were happy to see some jackals, an elephant, some antelope and a lone zebra.  As it got dark giraffe came to drink and we were lucky to see a parade of elephants and their young troupe up in line.  Not quite holding eachothers tails, but very close to the Disney picture (actually, Disney has a lot to answer for when it comes to shaping expectations of wild animals).  Later that evening, after we'd cooked dinner, we returned to the waterhole where the elusive black rhino came to drink.  Then another one came and they had a territory standoff.  Very interesting watching (and listening) to the grumpy one complain and stamp his feet to make the other one move.

We were up early for a game drive and although we saw many many zebra and springbok on the plains, clearly all the action was at the waterhole at camp.

Skeleton Coast

After checking in with the tourist office in Henties Bay we started further up the coast towards a 4WD trail into the desert.  We stopped at Cape Cross which is home to one of the largest breeding colonies of fur seal in the world.  There must have been tens of thousands of seals there, some surfing in the waves and diving for fish, others basking in the sun nursing their pups.  One rather large pup I saw had a loop of packing tape tight around its middle pinning the tops of its flippers.  The tape was already hindering the pup's on shore movements and I hope it breaks soon or the pup could have trouble getting food when its weaned in the next month or so.

Just as we were leaving the seal colony, Duncan complained of a migraine so I took over the driving.

Messum Crater

Nothing for miles except another photographer

After a couple of hours slow driving across the alternately rocky and sandy desert (I'm glad I didnt manage to get stuck or puncture a tyre) we came to the Messum Crater which is 20km across.

Swakopmund and Namib Nakluft Park

In Swapkomund we visited the Crystal Gallery which exhibited some enormous crystal clusters found on a local farm and samples of many of the different quartz crystals and semi precious stones found in Namibia - including some amazing geodes of amethyst and citrine.   Driving into town reminded me a lot of driving in the outskirts of Las Vegas - all these new walled housing developments smack bang next to miles of plains of dull grey sand.  It isnt hard to imagine the whole of Swakopmund swallowed up by dunes like Kolmanskop near Luderitz in the future.  The town is right on the seashore and sports many cute historical buildings.

Because we'd gone to Windhoek to get our visas we had not driven up through the desert which was supposed to be a magnificent scenic drive.  So this morning we drove south Walvis Bay to buy permits to enter the Namib Nakluft Park and see at least part of what we had skipped. The road between the two towns runs 30 odd kilometers along the shore with giant salmon coloured dunes to the east and giant crashing surf to the west.
Finding the information centre proved a challenge.  We tried the location given in the local brochure, the location on the map, the location in our guidebook... no luck.  We stopped at the local library where I asked for help.  The tourist information centre had closed down, but if I went next door to the municipal council they had a small one there, the security guard could direct me to the correct office.  I wandered through various corridors until I came to the correct office only to find a notice on the door announcing the occupant was out of office until further notice.    It seemed they didnt want to sell park permits to tourists that badly.  

In the end we decided to stick to the main route through the desert which didnt require a permit.  At the top of the road we stopped to pick up a young irish hitchhiker exploring Southern Africa after a spate of volunteer work in Zambia before returning to commence life as a commercial lawyer in London in 2010.

The variability of the desert is amazing.  It moved from high red dunes to ashen plains like the remains of a fire to swirling pink curves to yellow grassy knolls to black volcanic rock.  Just before we turned back North we climbed up the Kunis pass which featured rocky interlocking spurs covered with fine dried grass blowing in the breeze.  I have no idea how anything lives out there but we saw ostrich, zebra, oryx and lots of springbok.

We stopped at Jakkalsputz campground by the ocean, which reminded me of something out of an American teen horror flick with its abandoned run-down demenour and doors banging repeatedly in the strong wind.  Deciding against camping there we headed another 10km up the coast to Hentiesville, where the campsite unexpectedly had a separate bath and toilet for each pitch!

Usakos

We picked up our visas this morning, grateful they took only one day to process instead of the usual three and after waiting around until 4pm to pick up the Ezi Awn panels from their Windhoek distributor we headed towards Swakopmund.   Because of the late start out of town and a long long run of roadworks we had no hope of making it to Swakopmund before dark so we've stopped at a town called Usakos where the local policeman told us off for not having Namibian plates on the Landy and told us we should head straight for Windhoek to get some.  He hadnt heard of the concept of a carnet de passage but seemed happy to take our word for it when we said we had a permit to drive in Namibia without Namibian plates.  I think he was just bored.