20 July 2007
The latest installment of my Victoria Falls road trip covers day 2: the road to Ngepi Camp. After Laura and I left the little private game park at Otjibamba, we headed northeast towards the Caprivi Strip. Caprivi is a little strip of land that looks like a handle connecting Namibia to Zambia and Zimbabwe. It’s a completely different area of the country, having been added/removed a couple of times during the colonial era. The drive up also took us through the Kavango Region, which is where one sees the transition from Southern Africa to the more typical picture of “Africa” we most imagine. The homes near the road are no longer made of brick, corrugated steel and/or wood. Almost immediately mud huts appear on the side of the road—and all villages seem to be built just off the main road along this route.
As you cross Kavango, there is a very big urge to drive faster than the 120 km/h (75 mph) allowed. The road is very straight, and the chance of coming across traffic police very slim. However, I mentioned the settlements near the road earlier, and they come with an inherent concern… living, breathing road obstacles. Now in Namibia no one seems to have much use for sidewalks, or just staying out of the street in general, so I’ve been conditioned to keep an eye out for people while driving. Though it is a completely different ball game when you’re speeding down the highway at a rate that would send a human cart wheeling to almost certain death upon impact. And people are just the tip of the iceberg. After that you’ve got goats, donkeys, dogs, sheep and cattle—each of which I almost hit at least once along the way. I’m glad we haven’t designed cars that are truly smart yet, because our little Toyota Corolla probably would have turned tail and run halfway to our destination. But Laura and I were resolute.
The late start from Otjibamba after our game drive, combined with a grocery stop in Otjiwarongo (where we scored a cooler for pretty cheap) made for an adventure trying to get to Ngepi before dark. Driving at night is not a good idea in this part of the world, mostly because of all the animals wandering around in the road, so I put the pedal to the medal as the sun began its descent to the western horizon. We had stopped for fuel and some sandwiches in Rundu in the late afternoon and thus energized we were on a mission. As it turned out, I got to watch the sunset through my rear-view mirror and we were forced to navigate our way to the camp in moderate to complete darkness. We made most of the journey without incident, but the last 8km (5 miles) were on a sketchy dirt/gravel/sand road and that was an adventure. We managed not to get lost, though. Neither did I hit the drunken woman stumbling aimlessly through the night along our road… but that was a close one. A washed out earth bridge threw us for a loop, but our little Japanese off-road champ saved us. (I hope no one from Thrifty Rental Car is reading this.) Finally, we arrived at our destination.
Checking in was a classic Namibian scene:
“Hi, we have a reservation.”
“Um, we don’t have anything listed for that name. Did you confirm your reservation?”
“Well, I called and reserved. The lady told me I was all set.”
“But did you confirm?”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Well, she must not have written it down.”
“Sweet.”
“You’re lucky, though. We do still have an opening.”
So just like that we were booked into the same tree house bungalow I had reserved 3 weeks previous.
As you cross Kavango, there is a very big urge to drive faster than the 120 km/h (75 mph) allowed. The road is very straight, and the chance of coming across traffic police very slim. However, I mentioned the settlements near the road earlier, and they come with an inherent concern… living, breathing road obstacles. Now in Namibia no one seems to have much use for sidewalks, or just staying out of the street in general, so I’ve been conditioned to keep an eye out for people while driving. Though it is a completely different ball game when you’re speeding down the highway at a rate that would send a human cart wheeling to almost certain death upon impact. And people are just the tip of the iceberg. After that you’ve got goats, donkeys, dogs, sheep and cattle—each of which I almost hit at least once along the way. I’m glad we haven’t designed cars that are truly smart yet, because our little Toyota Corolla probably would have turned tail and run halfway to our destination. But Laura and I were resolute.
The late start from Otjibamba after our game drive, combined with a grocery stop in Otjiwarongo (where we scored a cooler for pretty cheap) made for an adventure trying to get to Ngepi before dark. Driving at night is not a good idea in this part of the world, mostly because of all the animals wandering around in the road, so I put the pedal to the medal as the sun began its descent to the western horizon. We had stopped for fuel and some sandwiches in Rundu in the late afternoon and thus energized we were on a mission. As it turned out, I got to watch the sunset through my rear-view mirror and we were forced to navigate our way to the camp in moderate to complete darkness. We made most of the journey without incident, but the last 8km (5 miles) were on a sketchy dirt/gravel/sand road and that was an adventure. We managed not to get lost, though. Neither did I hit the drunken woman stumbling aimlessly through the night along our road… but that was a close one. A washed out earth bridge threw us for a loop, but our little Japanese off-road champ saved us. (I hope no one from Thrifty Rental Car is reading this.) Finally, we arrived at our destination.
Checking in was a classic Namibian scene:
“Hi, we have a reservation.”
“Um, we don’t have anything listed for that name. Did you confirm your reservation?”
“Well, I called and reserved. The lady told me I was all set.”
“But did you confirm?”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Well, she must not have written it down.”
“Sweet.”
“You’re lucky, though. We do still have an opening.”
So just like that we were booked into the same tree house bungalow I had reserved 3 weeks previous.
The tree house was pretty sweet, though, I have to admit. It was an open-air room with a couple beds (complete with mosquito nets) and hammock overlooking the Kavango River. The view wasn’t too spectacular when we arrived, being in the dark, but the night sounds were. We could already hear the hippopotamuses moving around on the marshy banks near our bungalow and the birds were still singing on the river.
We had planned on braaing for dinner, but in the dark finding the braai pit and getting it all set up would have been too much of a chore. Plus, the hippos sounded really close and in the dark we hadn’t seen the fence that would have kept them from challenging us for our dinner. So we ended up eating lunch meat, cheese and veggies for dinner… with a couple of Windhoek Draughts to wash it down.
After, we walked down to the communal area where the bar was located in search of the famously friendly bar staff and guests I had heard so much about. We were sorely disappointed. Pretty much everyone ignored us until they went to bed. Then the staff acted put off enough to send us scurrying back to the tree house. Problem was, in the dark we couldn’t find our way back. So they lent us a flashlight and sent their dog to accompany us back. Now this little guy was AMAZING. There are probably 15-20 different bungalows, campsites, etc. at this place, but this dog just kept trotting along past the others, turning occasionally to make sure we were following him, and walked us straight up to our tree house. I’m not sure how he did it—smell, dumb luck or genius—but he almost earned himself a spot in the back seat for the rest of the trip.
It was an interesting night in the bush. I remember having heard that hippos were nocturnal, but I was not prepared for the melee they were bringing into the bushes below our bungalow. There must have been a whole team of them. The sounds were magnificent. After a while of their jostling, wallowing and general debauchery, however, I wanted to shout at them to cut out the racket. I chose not to, though. They are the most dangerous killers in Africa and I didn’t want to have to watch my back while loading the car the morning after.
I set my alarm to wake up for the sunrise over the river the next morning. I found it wasn’t necessary as the first light of dawn came spilling into our tree house and roused me straightaway. Laura wasn’t as keen to be pulled out of bed by Mother Nature, but lucky for her all that was required was to roll over to check it out. I took full advantage, though. Chilling in the hammock was the perfect way to watch the colorful display of sunlight on water, trees and bushes.
We took off from Ngepi pretty early after waking so early. Not much of note happened while packing and getting everything sorted to take off. (Thank goodness I decided not to provoke the band of hippos.) The drive out along the dirt road wasn’t quite as sketchy as it had been in the dark. There weren’t any drunken locals wandering around either. We did have a slight scare when a herd of cattle blocked a stretch of the road. I was sure one of the bulls was going to gore the poor car as they were driven straight past us. In the end, we got a few good pics of them and a story to tell.
The rest of the day was spent driving across the Caprivi Strip. It’s not the most exciting drive, but its beauty made up for the hassle of trying not to run over locals and their pets for the better part of 4 hours. Plus, we were on our way to Livingstone and the magnificent Victoria Falls!
We had planned on braaing for dinner, but in the dark finding the braai pit and getting it all set up would have been too much of a chore. Plus, the hippos sounded really close and in the dark we hadn’t seen the fence that would have kept them from challenging us for our dinner. So we ended up eating lunch meat, cheese and veggies for dinner… with a couple of Windhoek Draughts to wash it down.
After, we walked down to the communal area where the bar was located in search of the famously friendly bar staff and guests I had heard so much about. We were sorely disappointed. Pretty much everyone ignored us until they went to bed. Then the staff acted put off enough to send us scurrying back to the tree house. Problem was, in the dark we couldn’t find our way back. So they lent us a flashlight and sent their dog to accompany us back. Now this little guy was AMAZING. There are probably 15-20 different bungalows, campsites, etc. at this place, but this dog just kept trotting along past the others, turning occasionally to make sure we were following him, and walked us straight up to our tree house. I’m not sure how he did it—smell, dumb luck or genius—but he almost earned himself a spot in the back seat for the rest of the trip.
It was an interesting night in the bush. I remember having heard that hippos were nocturnal, but I was not prepared for the melee they were bringing into the bushes below our bungalow. There must have been a whole team of them. The sounds were magnificent. After a while of their jostling, wallowing and general debauchery, however, I wanted to shout at them to cut out the racket. I chose not to, though. They are the most dangerous killers in Africa and I didn’t want to have to watch my back while loading the car the morning after.
I set my alarm to wake up for the sunrise over the river the next morning. I found it wasn’t necessary as the first light of dawn came spilling into our tree house and roused me straightaway. Laura wasn’t as keen to be pulled out of bed by Mother Nature, but lucky for her all that was required was to roll over to check it out. I took full advantage, though. Chilling in the hammock was the perfect way to watch the colorful display of sunlight on water, trees and bushes.
We took off from Ngepi pretty early after waking so early. Not much of note happened while packing and getting everything sorted to take off. (Thank goodness I decided not to provoke the band of hippos.) The drive out along the dirt road wasn’t quite as sketchy as it had been in the dark. There weren’t any drunken locals wandering around either. We did have a slight scare when a herd of cattle blocked a stretch of the road. I was sure one of the bulls was going to gore the poor car as they were driven straight past us. In the end, we got a few good pics of them and a story to tell.
The rest of the day was spent driving across the Caprivi Strip. It’s not the most exciting drive, but its beauty made up for the hassle of trying not to run over locals and their pets for the better part of 4 hours. Plus, we were on our way to Livingstone and the magnificent Victoria Falls!
