POST23 SOLO8 - ELEPHANT KINGDOM (BOTSWANA): Days 176-182 of 273, 6-12MAY16, 1,521km to total 30,038km, Tsintsabis NAMIBIA (Country 16) to Kasane BOTSWANA (Country 18)

5 PLACES VISITED:   NAMIBIA: 1) Rundu.   BOTSWANA: 1) Maun, 2) Okavango Delta (Ditshiping Island), 3) Ditshiping Village, 4) Nata, 5) Kasane.

7 OVERNIGHTS:   BOTSWANA: 1) Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m), 2) Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m), 3-4) Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m), 5) Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m), 6) Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m), 7) Room at “Thebe River Safari Campsite”, Kasane (Elev 918m).

5 RUNS:   NAMIBIA: Tsintsabis.   BOTSWANA: Maun (2), Kasane (2).

31 UNIQUE WILDLIFE:   BOTSWANA: 1) Elephant, 2) Zebra, 3) Giraffe, 4) Fish Eagle, 5) Hippopotamus, 6) Impala, 7) Wildebeest, 8) Black-headed Iris, 9) Sacred Iris, 10) Buffalo, 11) Falcon, 12) Yellow Horn Bill, 13) Warthog, 14) Striped Mongoose, 15) Lion, 16) Red-billed Francolin, 17) Guinea Fowl, 18) Baboon, 19) Reed Cormorant, 20) Egyptian Goose, 21) Crocodile, 22) Spoonbill, 23) African Jacana, 24) White-faced Wisdom Duck, 25) White-faced Vulture, 26) Blue-breasted Lilac, 27) Cattle Egress (bird), 28) Kudu, 29) Red-billed Hornbill, 30) Crested Francolin, 31) African Data (bird).

BLOG POST TRAILER:

Welcome to my 78th country of BOTSWANA and Solo Trip 8 that adds one more night to the fabulous Chobe National Park. In this blog I also break through the 30,000km mark! This post continues the wildlife theme and features two very good encounters: one on Ditshiping Island in the Okavango Delta and the other in the Chobe National Park. BOTSWANA has more elephants than any other country in the world. Put simply, it is “Elephant Kingdom”. Elephants here are also the largest since food and water is plentiful and disease is lower. In fact elephants migrate here under their own steam from all parts of Africa. Current count is 120,000 and rising. Not bad for a country of only 2.1 million people! Many of the local tour guides mentioned that culling was not too far away - there has been too much damage to farm grazing and growing land and even village hut dwellings.

We entered BOTSWANA after bush camping near a giant Baobab Tree, which is not only the symbol of NAMIBIA but present all over Africa. The one we saw had a trunk, 20m in diameter and 5m tall but these babies can reach 30m trunk and 10m tall. Ours was 1000yrs old and the record is 5000yrs old. Amazing. Maun (Pop 50,000) is the gateway town for the entire Okavango Delta which covers an area of 18,000 sqm. It is the result of two huge inland rivers, the Okavango and Thonge colliding together and forming a network of thousands of watery channels. This is not swamp. This is not wetlands. Just rivers colliding producing veins of water channels. Strange. The whole truck group left Andi/Grant to travel via a large ute and an open-cut canoe called a “Mokoro” to a magical place called Ditshiping Island. A covered oasis under tree and bush. It is an “island” by virtue that it is surrounded by channels.

The whole delta is like this except for many areas where there is open water or large lakes. The mokoro itself used to be made from a tree of the same name but nowadays they are all fibreglass. U-shaped and flat-bottomed with high walls to keep the crocs at bay and prevent water from splashing in. They are propelled by a person standing at the rear pushing them along with a long wooden stick with a “y-shaped” fork called simply a “pole”. Hence the term “poler” for the driver and “poling” for the action. Poling is sufficient because the channels are very shallow and the mokoro is well-suited to these channels because it can glide over reeds and obstructions without getting stuck. We had a total of 11 polers including four female cooks. They loaded and unloaded all our gear but we did the cooking. They cooked for themselves. Travelling through the channels is very relaxing. No engine sounds. Just the sound of the breeze through the reeds and the plopping sound of the water against the dipping pole.

The weather was perfect. Blue skies, 25C, gentle breeze, dry and a gentler non-burning sun. Our island was only 2.1km from where the large ute dropped us off but it took close to an hour to get there. The drive alone was 3hrs from our camp in Maun so we were glad to get there and relax. The best thing about the delta and this style of trip is the walking and canoe safaris since there are no roads or cars. We undertook four walking safaris and one mokoro safari over the three days and two nights that we were there. For walking we split into 3 groups, each with two guides. The most prominent animals were elephants but we also saw plenty of giraffes, impala and kudu. On the sunset walk we also saw two hippos submerged in a lake - my first. Very exciting. I wanted to see them out of the water but we did not get this chance on the delta. We also got within 100m of 4 hippos in the Mokoro. The guides were very cautious around the hippos.

There was a baby amongst them and both mum and dad are known to charge the mokoros with no warning. This is what makes the hippo the most dangerous of all the African wildlife. No warning. The highlight of the stay came when one of our walking groups were chased by three male elephants! They had stumbled upon a family in the bushes that contained a baby. They say they were terrified but I say they were very lucky to have that experience - I was insanely jealous. This is was my primary mission and again it was down to the luck of the draw! From Maun the truck spent one night in the bush before arriving at Kasane, the gateway to the Chobe National Park. I had other plans. I decided to travel to Kasane immediately and spend an extra night there having heard the opportunity to see buffalos up-close, hippos out of the water and leopards. These were the three things I had yet to see on the wildlife front. Tim and I caught two vans over 6.5hrs to get there. We stayed at separate places, not resorts as there are no hostels in Kasane.

They were lavishly appointed and a welcome break from tents, dorms and simple rooms. The resorts were right on the Chobe River which borders with Namibia and further downstream meets the Maitwngwe River which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because these two rivers meet or intersect each other (criss-cross), they form a border for all four countries - there is a large diamond-shaped sand bank at this junction which is actually “no mans land” for all four countries. This is the only place on Earth where four countries meet! I passed by it when I entered Zimbabwe. Sadly you cannot actually visit/step on the diamond sand bank because it is inaccessible and controversial - the locals at the border post told me that there has been constant problems with its governance. Many have used it to cross borders diagonally giving rise to confusion about which country has the right to prosecute.

The town of Kazungula sits very close to this geographical landmark. Kanas itself is a very lacklustre town and completely undeveloped considering the resorts and national park that it is meant to showcase. All the resorts organise their own safaris and my early arrival there meant that I could do a sunrise safari before the truck arrived whereupon I did a sunset cruise safari on the river with he rest of the group. This is what makes Chobe unique. You can see most animals from a boat or a jeep.

The sunrise jeep safari was fantastic. In 3 hours we saw 23 different kinds of animals. By contrast, we saw only 8 from the boat. There is a good reason for this. The boat was simply too big and too slow. It was designed for overland trucks and thousands of screaming teens.

The resorts on the other hand, hire very small aluminium runabouts that seat 10 on one row of seats running the length of the boat. This means you can photograph left or right without obstruction and they are fast! You cover way more ground and therefore see much more.

I thought the sunset cruise safari was included in our trip cost but it wasn’t - if I had known this I would have organised my own via the resort. We live and learn. I would get more shots at this in my own Solo 9 trip to Zambia (next post).

The one delight of a big boat was the ample space and open top deck allowing me to wine, cheese and olive under a setting sun whilst watching the hippos and elephants eating water reeds in the river. It was a magic atmosphere that afternoon. Sadly no hippos out of the water and no leopards. I did see my buffalos and very close - one down, two to go. From Kasane we headed to Victoria Falls only 80km away, the name given to the mighty waterfalls and the town right next to it in ZIMBABWE. The subject of my next post... 

BLOG POST DETAIL:

DAY 176 of 273, Fri 6MAY16, 447km, Bush Camp “Giant Baobab Tree” 42km east of Tsintsabis (Elev 1186m, Run11) NAMIBIA to Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m) BOTSWANA (Country 18). Today was BOTSWANA day. Everyone was excited about a new country even though we all liked NAMIBIA very much. It was my favourite to date given its incredible landscapes. We set off at 7:30am and the drive was fairly ordinary in the morning. We headed east then north east to enter the strange thin pan handle known as the Caprivi Strip. The landscape before the handle was very flat but full of trees. Back to the bush. No more desert. We stopped in Rundu Near the start of the (Caprivi Strip) for my cook shop and to spend the last of our Namibian Dollars.

The drive out to lunch and beyond was till flat and bushy but now we noticed a return to black thatched huts and even some food stalls on the roads - classic Africa had only sightly returned. The border was easy. Just 30min to get through both sides. The clocks went forward one hour in BOTSWANA (same time as SOUTH AFRICA).

BOTSWANA was more like West Africa - more smaller villages with thatched roofs, smiling, yelling, waving children. The good news was no garbage. Everything still had the neatness of NAMIBIA. The road was not as good. We camped right on sunset - a little later than usual. We could hear a lot of donkeys wailing nearby. Roberto, Riza and I cooked tonight and it went well except for the “gravy” that we tried to make with gravox - turned out like glue! No more gravy attempts for us! It was definitely cooler and a little moist at night. 

DAY 177 of 273, Sat 7MAY16, 340km, Bush Camp 8km south-west of Shakawe (Elev 985m) to Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run1) BOTSWANA. What a fabulous sunrise. Textbook African sun - big red ball of flame rising on a horizon with the outline of umbrella shared trees in front. Pop-up was covered in dew but inside it was OK. We did brekkie - I remembered thinking just how easy it was after all this time. Cook group was now almost enjoyable since it was something different to do on arrival. I was OK. On arrival at a campsite I always had the choice of running or blogging or talking. Most people just set up their tents and sat around on the stools talking. Time was now starting to pass quickly. Today was 175 days on the truck! In another week I would close out 6 calendar months on this trip. Amazing. The two-thirds mark at my door step! Even our geographical movement on the map was more visible than the west. We were already half-way across the west-east breadth of the continent and a fair way up from the bottom. In a few days we would really start to move north. Cairo was still too far away for me but it was featuring more and more in our conversation. Before I know it, I would start thinking about booking my return airfare. Still too far. I had to get back to my focus on today and on my 78th country BOTSWANA!

Our morning drive was cool and quiet. It was jackets and blankets for everyone. I decided to work on my film since I was up to date on the blog. Still desperate to find internet so I could publish Post 22. Every town from now on, I planned to run around like a maniac to find internet just like I had done in the west. The landscape was the same as at the border. Flat and very bushy with lots of trees. We saw many donkeys on the roadside - some wild some carrying people and goods. Donkeys seem to be characteristic of this area. By lunch the sun was burning hot and the bush thinned out. The road also improved. It was a good day for me as I got back into the swing of my film and managed to sequence GUINEA and get to a total of 28min for the first 1.5mths of my trip.

Our first stop and experience of BOTSWANA was the town of Maun (Pop 40,000) which is the main tourist base for the Okavango Delta. A simple place full of supermarkets and even a KFC! I was on a mission to find the internet cafe that I saw coming in. I did but it was lousy. No way I could load my blog - kept timing out. All I managed to do was to answer a few emails, not even all of them. I was now getting desperate - would I ever post blog 22? If internet was bad in town, what chance did I have at our campsite tonight! As we drove out of Moan at around 4pm, I noticed more stray donkeys on the side of the road! Was BOTSWANA to become “the land of donkeys” for me? Is this how I would remember it? I hope not! Our camp was only 15km out of town but it took a while to get there due to the sandy road leading to it. On arrival we were briefed on our two night “mokoro” (dug-out canoe) to a small island out in the middle of the Okavango Delta. I just managed to get a run in before last light at 6:30pm and was very glad that I could notch up my 73rd country run. After dinner I grabbed my laptop and headed for the bar where the WIFI was located and held my breath (expecting nothing). To my HUGE surprise my blog went up in minutes! All the emails that I could not send in town just disappeared and I was in business! What a HUGE relief. I was not only posted but rang mum and several of my friends - reception was excellent! I was happy again! It turned out to be a fabulous day. Film, blog, run, calls - what more could I ask for...

DAY 178 of 273, Sun 8MAY16, 84km, Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run1) to Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) BOTSWANA. Today was DELTA day. After a fabulous sleep we all gathered at the truck with smaller packs and the truck’s eskis full of truck food. A diesel truck with huge tyres and two long covered benches at the back came by to pick us up. Off we went (without Andi and Grant). Cool morning with blue sky. I sat in the cabin along with Tim wh along with Denise had returned to the truck at Maun. We drove only 80km towards the north but half of it was on a very soft uneven track resulting in close to a 3hr drive. We only stopped once for a pee break. The landscape remained flat but the spread out trees and bushes were soon replaced by grassland, long reeds and palms. The area soon resembled a typical swamp land or wetland area.

The open truck dropped us off at open area containing 14 mokoro and 11 local “polers” who would load and unload all our gear and propel the mokoro using a long pole with a “Y” shaped end. We would still do the tenting and cooking. We met our leader Waco who introduced us to his staff. He then summarised what we would be doing and some hints and tips on safety. It was not long till all the gear was in the mokoro along with two of us in each one. Our camping destination was in the bush on Ditshiping Island. It took the mokoro one hour to get there but it was only 2.1km away. The reason is that the poling action is slow and it takes time to navigate the many narrow channels full of tall reeds. We also stopped to the photos of the lily pads, flowers and surrounding bush. The “delta” itself is actually caused by the collision of two rivers inland, the Zambezi and the Maitwngwe. The result is a split of the two rivers into hundreds of main channels or waterways and these subsequently split into thousands of smaller one metre wide water ways.

The result is not quite a wetland or swamp but lots of channels or veins of water snaking their way through grassland bush. These channels also form hundreds if not thousand of “islands", i.e., pieces of land surrounded by channels of water. We stayed on one of the bigger ones, called Ditshiping and it even has a village on it! Our campsite on Ditshiping Island was at the end of one of the channels. It was an idyllic spot, a labyrinth of trees creating one huge shaded area, almost like a cave. There was a central clearing for the campfire and an overturned mokoro served as a preparation table for food. We all pitched our tents under select trees and I chose to put up my pop-up at the furthest edge where animals are known to walk past at night - I needed some action! We then made lunch and went for a swim and poling lesson! The channel lake was only a short walk next to our campsite. Six of us went along with two of the guides to watch out for incoming hippos or elephants which use it regularly. You can see the giant elephant footprints and poo leading from the water’s edge into the bush.

The water was a pleasant 21C and a little murky but clean. Then we took turn poling two mokoros that were brought their by the guides. Hilarious. It is bloody hard! Hard to keep your balance and hard to keep the mokoro straight! Nevertheless it was a great way to spend the hot afternoon. I had a small kip at about 3pm and woke to the sound of people yelling my name. An elephant was passing 60m from my tent! I could see it clearly through the trees but I do not think it saw me, so I stayed in my tent and put on my GoPro just in case! Was this the chase I had been waiting for? Sadly no. The beast wandered away. It caused a lot of talk. At 4:30pm we split into 3 groups, each with two guides and went for a sunset safari walk. Spotted individual animals but not a lot of herds. Our guide and overall leader, Waco, together with Jeremy at the back, was quite knowledgeable about the wildlife and the bush. He identified many footprints and told us interesting things about the animals.

For example: an elephant such bad eyesight that if they do not smell you from far away they can literally stumble upon you before they see you - this is why so many elephants charge cars and people. Elephants also have a very bad digestive system. On average they consume 170kg of grass (common reeds and blue rush) every day and expel 150kg of it as poo - only 20kg is actually retained! No wonder there is so much elephant poo in this place! Elephants also change all their teeth once every ten years and this drives how long they will live since sooner or later the last set of teeth will fall out and NOT be replaced and the animal will die of starvation. Amazing. Giraffes have huge hearts - the biggest of any animal in Africa so they can pump enough blood up that long neck to the brain to enable the animal to keep alert and eat. At night a Giraffe will lay its legs and body down but its neck stays upright at 45 degrees so that the heart is not flooded as it works at a constant rate to pump blood to the head. A darker skinned Giraffe indicates an older animal - the darker it is, the older it is!

Giraffes also have an incredible tongue to cope with the thorny acacia tree that they eat. Their tongues are like a thick rubber brush that can twist its way forward around an acacia branch missing the thorns and ripping off all the small acacia leaves and then recoil backwards dragging all the leaves into its mouth. It does eat the thorns and the thorns cannot penetrate the tough tongue. It is like a corkscrew action - fascinating to watch and amazing that the tongue was specifically designed for this tree. The good news for the Giraffe is that no other animal can eat these leaves given the thorns so they have them all to themselves and Africa is covered in Acacias. I enjoyed these details. The highlight was watching two hippos snorting from beneath a large water hole in the glow of a setting sun. Just in time. My first sighting of a hippo in the wilds of Africa. All I saw was the head and jaw open a couple of times but not in time for the camera - I would have to wait for another opportunity! The evening was a lot of fun. We all cooked and cleaned together and shared our food with the guides and polers who also had their own. Then came the story telling. Each of the guides entertained us with their “close encounters” with the wildlife. These guys (even the 3 women who accompanied them to cook) learned to pole as early as 5-6yrs of age. Most people were tired from the sun and walk and retired early so I watched a movie in my tent. 

DAY 179 of 273, Mon 9MAY16, 0km, Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) BOTSWANA. One or two howling Hyenas stirred me from my sleep. I looked up and saw the stars and decided to put down my head and not look at my watch. The wind blew for most of the night stirring the many leaves of our home canopy - it sounded like rain drops and was very soothing. It was not cold at all. Dry and comfy. The sleeping bag remained unzipped. Most people had brekkie at 5:30am but I decided that sleep was more important and woke at 6am to make the 6:30am sunrise walking safari.

It was a four hour walk including a visit to Ditshiping village. Instead of individual animals we saw herds of elephant, giraffe and wildebeest - they looked spectacular running together, making lots of noise and kicking up the dirt. That was great but no hippos or buffalo - we would target these in the afternoon mokoro safari. We also saw lots of Aardvark holes but not the animal since it is nocturnal. The visit to Ditshiping village (Pop 406) was easy going. Most dwellings are round huts with walls of sticks and termite mound material mixed with mud and thatched conical roofs. All are surrounded by a talk fence of dried ticks tied with rubber string from old tyres to create a “back yard” and “outdoor kitchen”. Waco took us to one of the huts where we sampled some “maize beer”. This batch was 24hrs old, milky yellow and 3%. In other 24hrs it would hit 6% and its drinkable best. After 3 days it reaches 9% but is very bitter so most villagers will finish off a 5L batch in 1-2days.

A few children came to meet us on the main road (sandy track) and they were very cute and friendly. Did not speak much English. We evens topped at the only shop in town - a very small box-shaped kiosk made of concrete blocks and a tin roof. We bought some biscuits and coke to fuel the local economy! Waco then explained that most of the villagers grow maize and corn and have formed a co-operative to try to sell the excess for income. The village also has a chief who heads up 10 citizens in a “trust” that looks after common works in the village much like a local council. Income is from tourists like ourselves. The villagers do not farm or shoot animals since it is not allowed but they do eat plenty of fish. A simple life and a simple existence. When we returned to camp at around 10:30am the other two walking groups had returned and we swapped stories over a campfire cuppa. I could not believe what I heard!

Theresa’s group had been chased by 3 male elephants!!! I died. Why was it not my group I thought. They had stumbled upon a heard of elephants in thick bush (did not see them) and there was a baby amongst them. Not good. The three male elephants simply wanted them away from the baby and they were only 50m away when the elephants started to move toward the group. The lead guide yelled “run”, “run”, “run” - and they did. Initially for 20sec and then stopped. The guide kept yelling “run”” and they went for another 20sec! Heart pounding stuff according to the group - everyone was genuinely scared. I was supremely jealous that it was not me. No-one had time to film it so that was my only consolation - I was happy however that at least one group got to experience this once in a lifetime event and that they got back safely to tell the story! Wow. What a story. Here I am thinking that all the cautions that the guide gave us when we first arrived were just part of a Hollywood act but in fact it is for real! Once I was over my jealousy, I made another cup of tea and sat in my tent to blog for just an hour.

During my morning safari I managed to convince Waco to take me and anyone else that was interested back to the water hole where we saw the hippos yesterday arvo. Only Thierry volunteered to join me so off we went. Sadly the hippos were not there. According to Waco, they may be territorial but they d move if they feel uncomfortable or they run out of food or water. Waco reckons they were uncomfortable with us yesterday and moved. Waco also mentioned that hippos only switch locations at night and that they can walk up to 30km in a single night! Amazing. Saw two groups of elephants on our back and arrived just in time to join the others for another swim.

This time I did a few laps but it was too hard to do my usual 1.5km because it was too shallow and people were poling in the middle. I returned to my tent to work on my film. By the time our 4pm afternoon mokoro safari came around, I had completed clip sequences for Mali and Ivory Coast. I was now up to Ghana and extremely pleased. The afternoon mokoro cruise was terrific. We journeyed further upstream of the camp and it was only 30 minutes before Waco spotted a hippo. He then led each mokoro into a larger open water hole and we went crazy with our cameras.

Many of us climbed onto the reeded banks to get more stable and higher shots. There were 4 hippos in the water, mum, dad and two adolescents. They were 100m away and just kept just their snouts and the tops of their heads above water - not so good for the photos and film. They were constantly submerging themselves and rising to expel the water in their noses and take a breath. Waco explained that hippos cannot swim or float. They prefer to stand on their legs or keep hopping around in deeper water. They cannot breath underwater so they hold their breaths - sometimes for up to 2min. I was wondered when we would see our first close-up hippo out of the water - maybe in Chobe but this was a good start. We then cruised to another island and climbed on top of a huge termite mound to watch the sunset. Spectacular. The cruise back only took 20min. I then helped prepare dinner. We all joined in the cooking and cleaning and made light work of it all. Then a pleasant surprise. The 11 poles all put on a traditional local song and dance show around the campfire. No costumes, just the sounds of sweet harmony, African-style! The dancing was also very surprising with moves resembling Michael Jackson’s “moon-walk”. Lots of rhythm and style - not just foot stomping. They pulled a lot pf people up to dance with them. The mood was great and many kicked on into the evening including many of the polers. I was in the mood for a movie so I watched The Force Awakens. One more walk at 6:30am tomorrow - fingers crossed for an elephant chase!

DAY 180 of 273, Tue 10MAY16, 84km, Bush Camp on Ditshiping Island 30km due north from Maun in the Okavango Delta (Elev 941m) to Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m, Run2) BOTSWANA. My sleep was terrific. The upside was all the animal and insect sounds including hyenas and lions! The downside is that I needed more sleep. Not because of the sounds but because of the wine! Had a bit too much due to celebrating progress in my film and enjoying Star Wars. Despite this, I was not going to miss another opportunity to be chased by elephants - sleep or no sleep. Only one group of six set outs morning since the walk was optional and most people decided to sleep-in given last night’s festivities. Waco was targeting lions.

Of course he had heard them last night and thought he knew where they were. We headed off in a different direction and enjoyed a terrific sunrise. I reckon there is no such thing as a lousy sunrise or sunset in Africa! They are all unreal! We saw the usual pot poure of zebra, giraffe and elephants but no lions. Waco even heard a leopard but we couldn’t spot it. The walk was very good for me in terms of taking panorama photosof the rising sun against many different types of vegetation. I did not take many animal shots since they further away than Etosha and did not want multiples of the same thing. If I saw an animal doing something strange or there was a peculiar symmetry about the scene then I was ready to shoot - a photo or film, that is!!! We got back to camp at 8:15am with enough time to cook an omelette and pack our things for our 9am departure back to the Delta Rain camp site. The mokoro journey was the reverse of what we had done two sleeps ago except that there was a lot more plant material in the water - our poler, Jeremy explained that this is often caused by the elephants coming too close to the waters edge and dislocating large amounts of material into the channel.

The truck ride home was more interesting and a welcome relief. We saw a large herd of Buffalos about 150m from the road about 20min drive from the mokoros. UNfortunealty they were very bunched up, did not move much and most were behind bushes so the photos were very limited (as you can see in this blog). Even though I had now seen all of “Big 5” African wildlife I still wanted to see buffalo closer up, a hippo out of the water and a leopard in the wild! Only 3 moths to go to give me this - should be plenty! I rode up-front in the truck cabin with Tim and we schemed up an excellent solo trip that could start as early as tomorrow. We both wanted to spend one or two more extra nights in Kasane which is the gateway town to the Chobe National Park - supposed to be the best in BOTSWANA and one of the top 10 in Africa!

We arrived at the camp site just outside Maun at 1:30pm and I took off for a run since at 3:30pm I was due to meet Andi to finalise the sending of my second passport to Canberra to get the Ethiopian VISA while we were in Zimbabwe an pick it up in the capital Harare. The run was great thanks to a cool breeze. Not a cloud in the sky. The whole place shimmering in the midday sun. Lots of cows and goats (and of course donkeys) grazing on the side of the well surfaced bitumen road. On my return I took up the same cabin that I stayed in before the delta trip and showered just in time for the passport meeting. After that I finally settled down to emails and a call to Greece to check on my uncle - he was in hospital due to drain excess fluid and revisit medication due to years of heart condition - just like my father. He was doing well. What a relief. Could not call Australia because they were asleep so I updated all my runs online. At 7:30pm we all sat down to a delicious meal of beef stew with a bean and coleslaw salad - finally, something GREEN! Ate heaps of green beans and carrot. Then an eighties/nineties video show came onto the large screen TV and you had to guess the year each song was released. We even danced to a few of the classics. It was amusing to see some of the younger people not familiar with some of he songs that I had grown up with. Not too sure what time I slept but I was packed and ready for “Solo Trip Number 8” or just Solo8 which would take me to Kasane tomorrow with an extra night there. Just a short solo but it would be followed by a much longer one (Solo 9) into ZAMBIA featured in my next Post, number 24.

DAY 181 of 273, Wed 11MAY16, 566km, Solo8, Cabin at “Sitatunga Delta Rain Campsite” 15km south-west of Maun (Elev 925m) to Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m, Run3) BOTSWANA. Today was Solo8 day. Another opportunity to spend more time seeing Africa on my own. Sadly, Roberto and Riza declined Solo8 as they were watching their budget. Tim however was in but would be staying at a luxury hotel in town. I was bound for the hostel that the truck would be staying at the day after tomorrow since I could hang out with the group and a boat tour was organised to leave from here. I also only pay the difference between the camping fee and the cabin fee making it cheaper than a hotel town. The hostel is close to town but if I found it to be too far away then I would look at staying in a cheap hotel in town. The taxi arrived at 7:30am to take Tim and I to Maun bus station. Beautiful morning with clear blue skies - cool at around 16C.

We got to the bus station at 8am, just in time for the 8:30am 27-seat van to Nata. It would take 3hrs followed by another 3hr van to Kasane. The station was not really a station. Just a bunch of outdoor parking bays with vans and larger buses parked. On each bay were several stalls selling food and drink. They do not look like much but I was amazed with what they sold on closer inspection. I managed to find bananas, apples, 100% juice, coffee and even a peanut butter sandwich on brown bread! All this for the princely sum of $AUD5! A great brekkie in the most unexpected place. We set out on time with only 3 spare seats - all locals and strangely mostly women with some children. No more waiting around until the van filled up like in West Africa. For most of the morning drive I blogged and read up on ZAMBIA. I was keen to go since the truck was not going and I could get an instant VISA at the border given ZAMBIA is part of the Commonwealth. Excited about the prospect of another African country. By the time we reached Nata at 11:30am I had decided which places I would visit in ZAMBIA: Lusaka, canoe safari in the Lower Zambezi and driving/walking safaris in the South Luangwa National Park.

The van for Kasane was there waiting for us at the Shell Petrol Station. We departed close to midday. It was the same size as the one before and equally as crowded. The seats are way too small for most big African bottoms, especially many of the women. Legroom is designed for kids instead of the many tall, lanky men that I saw. The front seats were taken (no charging today) so I grabbed the seat next to the door because of the extra leg room and for my laptop. The 3.5hr trip to Kasane was taken up culling photos and talking to my neighbour, Oabona, a young guy working at KFC in Kasane for the last 8mths. On the way we saw another semi-trailer accident. It was upside down with the cabin lost crashed and all the load of treated logs (probably for poler poles) spread out on the side of the road. The van stopped and everyone got out to have a look. Luckily the driver was intact with only a few cuts to his head and limbs.

The semi had South African plates so I guessed that the driver either fell asleep at the wheel (its a bloody long haul from South Africa) or one of the logs came loose and he lost control. In any case he was OK but the truck was a write-off. We got into Kasane at 3:30pm and headed straight for the Tourist Office. “Brown” was quite helpful in ringing half a dozen resorts. They were expensive, averaging around $AUD120/night. The reason is that there are no hostels, just resorts. I decided to visit a couple of places on foot since the agent had no phone numbers. No go. They were fully booked for tonight. I finally settled on the “Chobe River Safari” lodge for $AUD180/night - ouch - availability drove the price up. Tim went on ahead to the same place since I wanted to pick up some supplies at the supermarket next door. I then walked to the resort since the locals told me it was close. Wrong. I had still not learned my lesson - most locals have no idea of distances - would have been better to catch a cab. The resort was terrific.

Right on the banks of the Chobe River. My chalet was also right on the water - the river was literally at my doorstep! It was now 5:30pm and sunset wa at 6pm so I dropped everything and went on my run. Beautiful. I headed towards the "Sedudu” entry gate to the Chobe National Park. Thank goodness my 5km range got me literally to the gate because I could not run inside. On my way back, several cars honked at me and one with a park ranger in it said “do not run here, too dangerous”. It is only when I got back that reception told me that there were no fences around the actual national park so all the wildlife was free to walk out - not that many do since they are scared of humans but it explains why the cars honked at me and why I saw several Impalas and Kudu cross the road as I was running. It also explains why there were so many Warthogs in town - one literally smelled our feet as we got off the van! It was 6:30pm when I got back and the Choppies (a big Namibian supermarket chain) next door was closing at 7pm so I just quickly washed my face and scrambled over to buy dinner. This was my favourite. Having dinner on my bed while watching a movie is my favourite way of relaxing. The casserole chicken and chips were great. Before eating, I had booked a 3hr morning drive safari from 6am to 9am. Went to bed early, eager to rise fresh for this safari...

DAY 182 of 273, Thu 12MAY16, 0km, Chalet at “Chobe Safari Lodge”, Kasane (Elev 918m, Run5) to Room at “Thebe River Safari Campsite” Kasane (Elev 918m) BOTSWANA. I was lucky to get the whole back seat on the 15 seat, open-air covered Toyota Landcruiser 4WD safari vehicle run by “Bushtracks Safaris Botswana". There were only 4 others on it - a couple from Missouri USA and a couple for Leeds ENGLAND. There was only slight first light as the sun would rise at 6:36am. It was cold. We were given blankets given the open air configuration of the vehicle. We took the same road that I ran and entered the park travelling down a dirt road that was fairly bumpy. Chobe is unique in that you have a lot of land and the riverside to see animals. Most land animals will come down to the river to drink at sunrise and sunset and the water animals (like Hippos and Crocs) will come out of the water to warm up in the sun and then plop back in to eat. Having a river is like having many water holes, all in a row. You can also see animals from a boat on the river which is what I would do later in the day with the Oasis group. We saw animals the minute we hit riverside starting with a young female lioness - unreal. She was right next to the car, drinking like it was her first! She must have consumed several gallons. Perfect for us as she did not move and the pics/clips were terrific. The land was not heavily wooded. Trees of average size spread out and some open plains perfect for viewing grazing animals. We saw many animals for the 3hrs we were there.

Our guide “Innocent” did a good job covering as much ground as possible but did not stop long for photos - you had to tell him not to go! We also made a coffee/tea break under a huge tree overlooking the river - I would have preferred to spend that time looking for Leopards but sadly we did not see any. This is what we DID see in order of spotting: Impala, Lion, Hippopotamus, Fish Eagle, Red-billed Francolin, Guinea Fowl, Baboon, Reed Cormorant, Egyptian Goose, Crocodile, Sacred Ibis, Spoonbill, African Jacana, White-faced Wisdom Duck, White-faced Vulture, Blue-breasted Lilac, Cattle Egress (bird), Kudu, Buffalo, Red-billed Hornbill, Giraffe, Crested Francolin, Elephant. A total of 23 different animals in just 3hrs. This is the advantage of Chobe over Etosha - you would need to do many more safaris in Etosha to see the same range. I was only a little disappointed that I did to see a Leopard in the wild or a Hippo out of the water - this was my aim. Maybe this afternoon. First thing I did on return to the resort was to book an upgrade to a room at the camp that the truck would be staying at.

After this I went for a run into town and beyond and just happened to reach my 5km mark outside the camp that the truck would use today! It was opposite a prison. After my run I called Greece again to check up on my uncle and then my mum, brother and best friend. It was a good internet. At around 1pm I could a share taxi to the truck camp and they had just arrived. I had lunch with the group and told them about the morning safari. I then settled into my room I used the very good camp internet, which was accessible from my room, to research my next Solo 9 trip into Zambia before our 2:45pm departure for the boat safari. The whole group boarded a huge flat double-decker cruiser along with two other overland companies. Everyone brought their own drinks and snacks. The alarm bells went off. This thing would be full of noisy twenty and thirty something year olds drinking and laughing and the boat was so big it would travel at a snails pace  how would we get close to the animals or cover enough ground to see enough of them? It turned out like this. The boat did get close to animals drinking at the river’s edge but it took ages to manoeuvre in and out. All around us were these nifty little aluminium runabouts with one central bench running along the length of the boat seating 10. They were close to both edges of the boat and could take photos in either direction. Best of all these things travelled very fast and got very close up to animals with only the conversation of 10 people. That’s what I should have done. All the resorts could organise these smaller craft at similar cost to the drive safari ($AUD45). The reason I did not do this was that I thought that the boat safari was covered by Oasis. It wasn’t and we paid $AUD30 but it was not worth it.

The proof is in the eating. I saw 23 animals on my morning drive safari and only 8 with this cruise - both for 3hrs. The animals we saw in order of appearance: Impala, Kudu, Fish Eagle, Crocodile, Hippo, African Data (bird), Vulture. I had seen all these animals in the morning except the African Data. Not a great result. I felt that there was no point staying an extra day in Kasane since the morning safari was good enough and my time was better invested in Zambia where I would visit another National Park full of animals. The good news about the cruise was that the scenery was stunning and there was plenty of room to spread out and enjoy wine, cheese and olives whilst watching submerged hippos and elephants munch on reeds in the river. The highlight was sunset and the return cruise. The whole sky lit up with glowing hews of red, orange, yellow, crimson, lilac and blue. It was an awesome sight. The weather was spectacular, cool and dry. Most people had fun because they did had not been on a drive safari to know how many more animals they could have seen. Dinner and afterwards at the camp was fairly subdued and I decided to enjoy a movie in my room. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. Border crossing into ZIMBABWE, visiting the mighty Victoria Falls and organising Solo 9 into ZAMBIA. I figured I needed two out of the four nights that the truck would stay in Vic Falls to do all of this and planned to start my next big solo adventure on Sun 15 May.

PS: A LITTLE ABOUT BOTSWANA:

BOTSWANA is a huge 582,000sqkm in size (1100km tall by 960km wide) but only has a little over 2 million people. The ancient San peoples first came here in 17000BC but most modern locals are descendants of the Tswana tribe that was formed in the 14th Centrury by one of three brothers broke away from their Chief father. The Boers (South African white Afrikaners) claimed land in BOTSWANA from 1820 much to the disgust of the locals and by 1885 the whole area became an English territory as a result of the Boer Ward inc which England was victorious over the Boers and Zulu. Independence came in 1966 and the first President served until 1989. His son came to power in 2008 and the country has very stable government and free elections. Diamonds were discovered in 1967 and De Beers appointed sole processor with 75% of revenues going to the government. Unlike other African countries, this early government allocated 30% of income to education with the rest on health and infrastructure and building up small business for tourism. The government was very successful and between 1966 to 2005, Botswana had the highest economic growth rate per capita in the world!

The government was also very effective at reducing the HIV/AIDS rate by supplying free drugs and condoms. Diamonds are still being mined but since 2009 supplies are now steadily declining. There are three main ethnic groups of “Botswana”: Tswana (80%), Bakalanga (11%) and San (3%). The official language is the local “Tswana” but English is very common. Like NAMIBIA and SOUTH AFRICA, BOTSWANA are big game meat eaters without any specific ethnic dishes. The Okavango Delta and The Kalahari Desert are the two most famous geographical icons with the later occupying 85% of the land mass. BOTSWANA also has mor elephants than any other country on Earth. The Moremi Game Reserve inside Okavango has almost every main African animal in it except for Gorillas. Tourism flourishes here with some of the most luxurious and expensive “luxury campsites” in Africa.

PPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:

African music is the basis of the following music types: blues, reggae, Brazilian samba, Puerto Rican salsa.

POST22 SOLO7 - PUMPER REBORN (NAMIBIA2): Days 161-175 of 273, 21APR-5MAY16, 3,762km to total 28,517km, Cape Town SOUTH AFRICA (Country 17) to Tsintsabis NAMIBIA (Country 16)

18 PLACES VISITED:   SOUTH AFRICA: 1) Trawal.   NAMIBIA: 1) Aussenkehr, 2) Fish River Canyon (Hobas View Point), 3) Naute Dam, 4) Helmeringhausen, 5) Sesriem, 6) Sossusvlei (Dune 45), 7) Deadvlei (Dune 37), 8) Solitaire, 9) Omaruru, 10) Spitzkoppe Conservancy, 11) Uis (Brandberg Nature Reserve), 12) White Lady Rock Engravings (Brandberg Nature Reserve), 13) Kamanjab, 14) Sendelang Cheetah Farm, 15) Halali Etosha National Park, 16) Namutoni Etosha National Park, 17) “Giant Baobab Tree” 42km east of Tsintsabis.

15 OVERNIGHTS:   SOUTH AFRICA: 1) Facility Camp & Rooms “Highlanders”, Trawal (Elev 44m).    NAMIBIA: 1) Facilities Camp “Felix Units” 10km west of Noordoewer (Elev 215m), 2) Bush Camp at Naute Dam (Elev 743m), 3) Facility Camp at "Sesriem Campsite" (Elev 821m), 4) Facility Camp “Solitaire Country Lodge” (Elev 1084m), 5) Hostel “Desert Sky Backpackers Lodge”, Swakopmund, 6-7) Rooms "Eldorado Game Farm”, Etosha (Elev 1153m), 8-9) Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund, 10) Bush Camp at “Spitzkoppe” Conservancy (Elev 1069m), 11) Bush Camp at Brandberg Nature Reserve 7km west Uis (Elev 488m), 12) Facility Camp “Sendelang Cheetah Farm”, 31km east of Kamajab (Elev 1311m), 13) Facilities Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m), 14) Bush Camp “Giant Baobab Tree” 42km east of Tsintsabis (Elev 1186m).

11 RUNS:   SOUTH AFRICA: Trawal.   NAMIBIA: Noordoewer, Naute Dam, Deadvlei (Sussovlei), Swakopmund (2), Outjo, Eldorado Game Farm, Spitzkoppe, Sendelang Cheetah Farm, Okaukeujo Etosha National Park

25 UNIQUE WILDLIFE:   NAMIBIA New: 1) Eoka (Puff adder), 2) Impala, 3) Rock Dassie, 4) Bat Eared Fox.

Seen again: 1) Springbok (Thompson Gazelle), 2) Blue Wildebeest, 3) Burchell’s Zebra, 4) Black Rhinoceros, 5) Warthog, 6) Blackbacked Jackal, 9) Reticulated Giraffe, 10) African Elephant, 11) Kudu, 12) Common Ostrich, 13) Gemsbok (Oryx), 14) Kori Bastard, 15) Springbok, 16) Red Hartebeest (Topi), 17) African Lion (3), 18) Cheetah (3), 19) Lilac-breasted Roller, 20) Cape Crow, 21) Secretarybird.

BLOG POST TRAILER: 

Welcome to the very start of the Cape Town to Cairo, segment of my epic journey and a Greek Easter Special post. This segment is the third of four total segments: UK to Accra, Accra to Cape Town, Cape Town to Nairobi and Nairobi to Cairo. I had already travelled 24,755km and was on track to exceed the 40,000km mark by the time I got to Cairo. I figured I would reach 45,000km but not the 48,000km I had originally calculated. Nevertheless the numbers are enormous and I could not picture the day we would arrive into Cairo - it was too far away and would not do justice to the immediate sights and sounds that awaited us.

This post takes us back up through NAMIBIA from SOUTH AFRICA on the way to Cairo and the only two places that we repeat are Swakopmund and Etosha National Park. For this reason I travelled Solo 7 while the truck was at Swakopmund. Solo 7 fulfils a lifelong dream to hunt in Africa. More on this soon. This is also the post in which a cheetah bites me and scratches me to draw blood - finally I get my mad wish...

Our first night was back at Sparky’s in the Oliphant River Wine Region close to the NAMIBIAN border. Only one night this time but I was able to chat to Sparky about my experiences in Stellenbosch. We crossed the border into NAMIBIA at the same place and in under an hour.

Our first bush camp was at Naute Dam, a huge inland man-made lake used for irrigation (mainly table grapes). I had a morning swim there after my run and it was surprisingly tepid. There is no doubt that the geographical highlight of NAMIBIA are the huge red dunes of Sossusvlei and the dead lake known as Deadvlei with its iconic dead trees stuck on dry white clay with the biggest ochre “Dune 37” dominating in the background. The colours and shapes form an iconic symbol of NAMIBIA present in many documentaries and books. I am sure you will recognise them. We climbed the smaller Dune 45 to watch the sun rise and it was magic. I was lucky to run around the 3.5km perimeter of Deadvlei and back to the truck along a 5.5km sandy road that killed my feet. It was worth it. The scenery is unbeatable! NAMIBIA has many “one-horse towns” for campers. It is a town dominated by one camping lodge often with a petrol station, general store and a few services and farm houses. Tourists will stay here and farmers use it for services. Two such places were Sesriem and Solitaire. Both were unique experiences both because of their isolation and middle-of-nowhere convenience. The days are very hot and the nights cool and dry.

Roberto, Jacob and I jumped off the truck for our Solo 7 adventure on 26 April in Swakopmund as the truck passed through on its way to the seals at Cape Coast to the north. It would overnight there then a return to Swakopmund for 4 sleeps. I used this opportunity to hunt given I had seen Swakopmund on my way south to Cape Town. We hired a manual 1.3L VW Polo to take us to the Eldorado Game Farm that Roberto, Doug and I had discovered on our way back from our Solo 5 trip to Etosha National Park. We stayed at a family run hostel in Swakop that night and headed out at 9am the next day after picking up our car. It was a long drive since half the trip comprised dirt roads to give us new views of NAMIBIA having traversed it multiple times. 7hrs of driving and 1.5hrs of breaks.

I actually ran in Outjo since Roberto had lunch there. Lucky I did because it was sunset when we pulled into Eldorado. We were greeted by lady of the house “Hanel” and husband “Adri” and settled in. I took a room and Roberto and Jacob decided to camp. The sunset was awesome. First time I saw a crimson glow after the sun disappeared. Pity I was not close to my camera when this happened. Eldorado has camping facilities and several rooms set out amongst a manicured lawn and many flowering shrubs.

The facilities are first class. The centrepiece is a stonewalled main dining/living room for guests complete with huge fireplace, a complete stuffed male lion, a female lion rug with head and the stuffed heads of all the game on the farm: Kudu, Elan, Springbok and Impala. All the animals in the is room were shot on the farm. The lions came in from Etosha and Adri has recently installed an electric fence to stop more from coming in. He also warmed us not to go walking by ourselves in the property since there could be one lion left before the fence went up! There is a fully stocked bar and pool just outside the living area. There is also soft grass camping grounds with facilities. Dinner was at 7pm and was absolutely spectacular and the best “off-truck” dinner to date. Halen (the owner wife) and her local staff cooked up a home cooked meal that rivalled Greek Easter coming up this Sunday.

Tender BBQ Kudu fillets, spinach frittata, corn bake (like potato bake except with corn!), beetroot compote, butternut salad, creamed cabbage. Adri (the owner husband) told us that this was traditional Afikaans cuisine and it was spectacularly delicious. I dropped the Kudu because of Greek Holy Week but the vegetarian accompaniment was the best I have ever had. Roberto and Jacob, who are both meat connoisseurs assure me that the BBQ meat and Biltong was the best they have tasted to date. Full marks. (My Impala below)

The best off-truck dinner to date!!! And the main reason is HOME COOKING!!! Eldorado has been in Adri’s family for 78yrs - 4 generations! It is 6,000 hectares or 60 sq km (15km long by 4km wide) in size and has a whole host of animals on it. Cheetah’s, Leopards, Hyenas and Caracals are in huge field enclosures and the Kudu, Oryx, Elan, Springbok and Impala roam the entire property. Adri then introduced to us his 18yr old son Derek and we spoke about the “The Hunt” plan for tomorrow.

Brekkie at 6:30am and on the ute at 7am. We would pursue Springbok from the back of the ute with some bush walking since they are always moving. If we could not get any by noon then we would head to the water hour and let them come to us for a pretty much guaranteed kill. I was so excited! “Pumper” was about to be reborn… READ ALL ABOUT THE DAY OF THE HUNT BELOW AT DAY 168. DETAILS ON ELDORADO ARE AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG POST.

The day after the hunt we loaded our VW with an esky containing 25kg of cut and packaged Impala ready for BBQing on Greek Easter Sunday - instead of Lamb, Impala - after all we were in Africa! The drive back to the truck in Swakop took much less time given that we used more bitumen roads. We left at 10am and arrived 4pm, in time for sunset drinks at Beryl’s with Riza and a great catchup on the latest gossip. Our last day in Swakop was a rest day and I took that time to wash clothes, sleeping bag and prepare this blog post for the internet. We left Swakop on the morning of Greek Easter Sunday 1 May. Over the next 3 days we drove towards Etosha National Park, my third visit but saw some great natural features along the way: Spitskoppe, Brandberg and a Cheetah farm! I had never been away from my family and Australia during a Greek Easter and this experience was strange for me.

What made up for it was the Greek Easter dinner that Riza, Roberto and I out on as part of our cook group featuring the Impala I had bought back! But plans do not always pan out. Our Greek Easter dinner was at a bush camp under the iconic Mt Spitzkoppe, which is actually a series of ochre coloured sandstone peaks forming a “conservatory” or reserve where limited dwellings are allowed. Riza, Sharon, Theresa and I went on a two horse riding expedition to discover and photograph the area. It was meant to take place from 4-6pm but it was 4:20pm when we left and 7:30pm when we got back to camp since one of the horses could only trot along very slowly and there was no car organised to take us the 15min back to our camp from the reception area. This meant that Roberto had to start the cooking and made the Greek Salad.

I was a little pissed off since I was so looking forward but this is Africa and I did enjoy the horse ride and the sunset from the top of “The Arch”. The area is very scenic and colourful, especially at sunset. Dinner was terrific. The Impala was tender and plentiful. Most of us must have consumed at least 500g. The Greek salad disappeared. After dinner Riza and I made Greek Easter eggs (hard boiled eggs dyed red) for lunch tomorrow with help from Andi on the colouring part. Mt Brandberg (Elev 2573m), the highest in peak in NAMIBIA followed the next day. It is part of a huge valley of pink and white granite with a river that used to flow 2yrs ago. After we cracked our eggs at lunch, four of us went on a 2hr trek through “Cheetah Valley”. Talbot was the winner of the Greek Easter egg cracking and I awarded him a one litre cask of red wine.

Our trek led us to one wall of engravings, well preserved in colour and featuring “The White Lady” a famous human figure that is actually a male medicine man chasing a herd of Onyx. The French archaeologist that discovered it in 1917 mistook the penis for a spear! On our way back we saw tons of rodent-like “Rock Dassies” which are actually related to the elephant family. To this day I still do not why! They look like rats!

The greatest "wildlife encounter of the third kind” occurred the next day at a private Cheetah Farm only a few kilometres south of Etosha. I “frolicked” with three cheetahs before going into the wild to film them catch their prey in mid-air!!! One of the cheetahs bit into my arm and I felt all of its teeth - what an experience! This cheetah also scratched my leg with its claw and actually made me bleed - my dream was met - for a big cat to “draw blood”! A thoroughly enjoyable experience and only justified by the photos in this blog post. I returned to Etosha for a third time in just one month, clocking up 8 total days in the park - I am now a veteran of Etosha!. The second truck visit was very good compared to the first. We saw two male lions on the first day and three cheetahs on the second, all in the open and nearby. We saw most of the animals that we had seen going south - this time we were down on birds. Another unique experience was watching hundreds of springbok and zebras marching just 20m past the truck from left to right - looked like one of those wildlife migrations from a helicopter in a documentary. Etosha looked even drier than before. My Solo 5 trip to Etosha was easily the best and unforgettable. Our adventure in NAMIBIA ended in a fitting way - we camped near a giant Baobab Tree, the symbol of this great country. NAMIBIA had made a big impression on me with its striking landscapes, friendly locals and modern conveniences. A very good place for families to visit and easily done on your own. Tomorrow we would enter wild BOTSWANA and start heading into East Africa.

BLOG POST DETAIL:

DAY 161 of 273, Thu 21APR16, 253km, "Hotel on St Georges”, Cape Town to Facility Camp & Rooms “Highlanders”, Trawal (Elev 44m, Morning Rain, Run7) SOUTH AFRICA. Woke to rain and darkness. Would run at the vineyard this arvo instead. Riza and Robert were also checking out today. They picked up a car at 7am and would rent it for the next 7 days to drive to Hermanus and Cape Agulhas that Riza missed out. She would re-join the truck on the 28th April in Swakop. We all drove to the truck at Ashanti Hostel since RIza wanted to drop some gear off into the truck. Arrived there at 8:15am and most people staying and leaving were outside. I settled very quickly using my new system and met the new people before leaving at 9am. There were now 17 passengers but only 14 would be leaving Cape Town, since Riza, Tim and Denise were off the truck doing their own thing.

Plenty of space on board. I will talk about the new people a little later. The truck was met with rain about an hour out of Cape Town. It was reasonably heavy but short lived. By the time we got closer to the vineyard there was no trace of rain. Just a little cloud and it was much warmer. This area and NAMIBIA have been in drought for a while so I knew we would get dry weather again. Arrived at the vineyard around 2pm and the weather was perfect for a run. Set off immediately. Sparky’s dog Ben came with me. He chased a few cars, 3 other dogs and two squirrels - it was very entertaining! Got back and moved into my upgraded room called “Chardonnay” where I showered and bunkered down to blog, cull photos and demolish what was left over from my Stellenbosch wines. I joined the new group for some pre-dinner drinks at Sparkies bar overlooking a grand sunset. Dinner was fun hamburgers and then it was back to my photos - I was behind on this post and should have had it up tonight but way too many photos to cull. Tomorrow would see us back into NAMIBIA after a stellar stay in SOUTH AFRICA. Cape Town was definitely my favourite city to date because of its physical location and backdrop, the variety of things to do and its good food and low costs. I would come back to Africa to see the rest of SOUTH AFRICA, especially the east. I wondered when that day might be...

DAY 162 of 273, Fri 22APR16, 417km, Facility Camp & Rooms “Highlanders”, Trawal (Elev 44m) SOUTH AFRICA to Facilities Camp “Felix Units” 10km west of Noordoewer (Elev 215m, Run1) NAMIBIA. A great room but a bad night. Another overland truck was camped at Sparkies and some guy from that truck was snoring away World War 3 next door. I did not want to Blutac my ears because I would not be able to hear my wristwatch alarm the next morning. So I compromised. Put them in to get to sleep and would take them out with a night time pee or when I start to store early morning. It worked. Apparently the other truck celebrated someones birthday and they all got wasted. It is a known fact amongst drunks that if you usually do not snore, then you will if you go to bed pissed and if you do snore, you will snore ten times louder on the piss. Enough of snoring. It was one of those mornings that just made you glad to be alive.

Sun shining. Blue sky. Soft glow on the vines. Crisp cool dry weather. Our drive to the border today was identical to the sector we drove on Day 150 coming down. I will not expand on it here. We arrived at Felix Units at 4pm and I took advantage of the change in time (one hour back) to get a run in. It was the very first run in my life where I just had to stop at the 7km mark for a poo. I used one of my arm bands as toilet paper - have spares back in the truck. What a relief. I am usually able to get back in time. I have a special rhythm when this happens but I must have eaten something last night that made this worse. Also my whole routine and diet is out. This rarely happens at home. I poo first thing in the morning and then run - day after day. Have been able to maintain this routine for most of the trip but there have been moments like this one where it is all over the place. Tonight I worked on this post and slept in the office just as I did when we stayed here going south. We received brand new tents at this camp site. Same design but a better and lighter material and powder coated poles. I still preferred the quiet of the office. Fell asleep instantly. (Pictures below are Fish River Canyon in Day 163).

DAY 163 of 273, Sat 23APR16, 270km, Facilities Camp “Felix Units” 10km west of Noordoewer (Elev 215m) to Bush Camp at Naute Dam (Elev 743m) NAMIBIA. Could not believe it. My watch did it again. It changed itself back to South African time. Thank goodness that I realised this because of the sun. The watch woke me at 6:30am but it was pitch black outside. I knew something was wrong because sunrise was 6:15am so my watch had to be on South African time since the time in Namibia was 5:30am which explained the darkness outside.I checked my Mac (because I knew it was on South African time) and behold it said 6:30am, same as the watch. Unreal. I set my watch back to 5:30am and slept for another hour. When I woke a second time at 6:30am it was light outside, I packed and got to the truck at 6:45am - cook group was preparing the 7am brekkie - I got it right! Last time I had only 10min to toilet and get on the truck! The drive north to Fish River Canyon started out with the same landscape we had seen coming south. Brown desert. No green. Distant bare brown dirt and rock ridges. We passed the vast tracks of eating grapes which produced a misplaced splash of green against the brown earth beyond. Then a surprise. The town of Aussenkehr is almost entirely made of cube shaped grass huts and is home to 16,000 who mainly work on the table grapes. It has the most awesome “Super Spar” supermarket complete with ice cream and wines.

Out here? Who would have thought it? Sticked up and arrived at the Fish River National Park gate at around noon. Had a quick lunch at the Hobas Camp ground and arrived at the viewing platform only 10km to the north at 1pm. What a sight. The Fish River Canyon is like a “mini Grand Canyon”. It started forming 350 million years ago and the Fish River itself runs on bedrock that is estimated to be up to 2,000 million years old - half the age of the Earth! The canyon itself measures 90km long, 27km at the widest and 549m at the deepest. The main view point of Hobas is at Elev 860m. No day or lone hiking is allowed since the daughter of the French Ambassador fell and died here a few years ago. Only 5-day guided hikes are allowed from one end of the canyon to the other. We stayed until 3:30pm and drove to two vantage points to observe and take photos. One thing that struck me about this particular canyon is how quiet it was. No sounds at all.

The day was postcard perfect. Blue sky, warm sun and unlimited visibility. Bliss. Not only was the weather perfect but our bush camp was against a huge man-made dam - more like a large inland lake. Perfect. I could clean up after my run tomorrow morning. The sunset was simply divine. The moonrise was the best I had ever seen in my life. The moon rose with a brightness I had never seen before - it was like the reverse of a sunset! It emerged like an animal with fiery eyes peering over a fence. What made it extra special was the reflection of the moon in the water of the dam. Everyone ran tot he truck and started taking photos. I could not reach my Canon S110 in time so I used the SX60 - lesson for me is to keep the S110 with my backup truck hard rive and use it as sunset and sunrise camera. Dan let me use his flip up tent since the night sky was amazing tonight and the weather was warm. There is nothing like staring up at the night sky, lit up by a now Greek Easter full moon - sleep was easy.

DAY 164 of 273, Sun 24APR16, 451km, Bush Camp at Naute Dam (Elev 743m, Run2) to Facility Camp at "Sesriem Campsite" (Elev 821m) NAMIBIA. Up at 5:15am for what was a terrific run. The moon’s glow complimented the soft lilac-blue hews of the coming sun. The air was fresh with a slight breeze sweeping through the semi-arid desert landscape. I did not need a head torch. Off I went marvelling at the vast landscape around me and clear skies above. The Naute Dam was huge but man-made for the purposes of cultivating the surrounding frame - mainly table grapes. Lots of them. The dam swim and bath was even better. The water was fresh but not cold. Easy to wash in it. Felt so clean and so comfortable afterwards that I felt like snuggling up and sleeping on the truck but the views were just too good. Not many towns on our morning drive. Spent the morning on book work and spoke to some of the new people.

Our bid-morning stop was in Helmeringhausen, a one-street, one-hotel town that reminded me of the half-way point town in Texas for Route 66. I enjoyed a coffee in the  Helmeringhausen Hotel built by a German farmer in 1919. Built of grey shale and wood, this hotel and the town are typical of the ranch homes of that era and still raise cattle, sheep and goats today. The rest of day saw me complete my 31MAR16 quarter three book work. Unreal. Free for another three months! It is amazing what the internet can achieve today - think of it - book work in Africa on an overland truck with dust blowing everywhere - thank goodness for “cling wrap” - the MacBook Air 11inch that made this was wrapped in it like a mummy! An Egyptian mummy  just where we were headed now!

Our camp site near the Sossusvlei dunes was magic. Like a desert oasis with a WIFI as powerful as the “almighty Isis incantation” to raise dead Egyptian mummies. Got post no 21 up in next to no time and sent many emails. All over a dry bottle of Rose made here in NAMIBIA. Satisfying. Simple dinner of chicken noodle soup with potato. Tonight Hannes from Iceland explained to me what happened during the financial crisis and the conditions now. One of the main reasons Iceland got into trouble was the weakness of it own currency and its inability to cover or hedge large loans from England. Many Icelandic banks went broke, the Prime Minster resigned and two English banks had to be nationalised to survive. He said conditions are stable now and unemployment is high but nowhere near Spain or Greece. Everyone went to bed early tonight given our 5am departure tomorrow to see the sun rise from the top of NAMIBIA’S famous dune number 45 in a place called Sossusvlei.

DAY 165 of 273, Mon 25APR16, 213km, Facility Camp at "Sesriem Campsite" (Elev 821m) to Facility Camp “Solitaire Country Lodge” (Elev 1084m) via Sossusvlei (Run3) NAMIBIA. Despite rising at 4:30am to a moonlit sky of checkered clouds the night was one of the most comfortable and quiet to date. I was now sleeping in a “mozzie tent” which is a light-weight, auto-pop-up tent with a fine mesh that keeps the insects out but allows you to see almost everything through it. Sometimes you do not even realise you are in a tent but the open air. Only downside is that it cannot keep the rain or cold out so it is only good for warmer, drier nights.

We have had plenty of these and it will probably continue so I bought Chris’s tent from Dan for $AUD30. You simply throw it in the air and it opens up automatically and lands as a tent. Unreal. Packing it up takes practice with some complex folding but once you know how to do it - it is done in seconds. This will come in handy with my morning runs. Time saved = more sleep!!! Dune 45 was only 45km from camp. The drive to it is as spectacular as the dune itself. It is like “dune alley”. The road is straight and black on a wide flat valley of light tan or beige sand and on both sides huge ochre coloured dunes of various shapes and sizes. Dune 45 is quite dramatic rising from 560m above sea level at its base to 668m at the top - an ascent of 108m over 630m that took me 8min to climb. The views are dramatic and unique - I have never seen dunes like these: orange, ochre and some even reddish. The sun rise was nothing short of spectacular since there was little cloud and it was extremely clear.  You could see mountain chains in the distance going for ever…

I spent 30min on the dune before coming down to join the others for brekkie. It was easily the best brekkie location to date. From here just another 25km to get to Deadvlei (which means “dead pan”) and it is exactly that! A dead white bottom lake full of the hardened dark grey truck of dead trees. It is a look like no other. Never seen anything like this and this place is the signature image of NAMIBIA in documentaries, books and magazines worldwide. Roberto, Dan, Jacob and I walked the 5.3km from the car park to Deadvlei itself.

Most people catch the ranger shuttle because there is no road, just a sandy track full of wheel impressions! We also walked around Deadvlei and I then decided to climb the first half of Dune 37 to get pictures of the dead pan from above. Sadly I had no time for Dune 37 which is the highest and longest to climb in Sossusflei but I did have time to run back to the track. I included the complete outside perimeter of Deadflei in the first part of my run - totalled 3.5km. Total run was 8.8km but it was over soft sand and stretched me.

Fortunately for me a passing ranger passed my a bottle of water while I ran - great bloke! I was glad to do the run without stopping and it was the most scenic run to date and my favourite, knocking the “Sahara Dunes run" off its perch! I was so glad that a cool shower was only 35min away. Wasted no time when we got there. Then made a bee-line for the bar so I could ring and book my hunt at El Dorado including the hire car to and from Swakopmund. Roberto and Jacob were in! They would walk with me during the shoot. We also had a second opportunity to photograph and film the two leopards, three cheetahs, two hyenas and three caracals. I was very excited. The drive further north towards Swakopmund was very bumpy and dusty - mostly an ungraded dirt road. We stopped at another one horse town called Solitaire to have its famous apple pie - Roberto had been here twice before on his previous trips to Africa. Then the good news came - we would be staying at the lodge here instead of bush camping! Unreal. The lodge was well set out with bar, a well-stocked grocery/liquor store, ATM and free internet. I had everything I needed and went to work. Booked our hire car in Swakopmund and after dinner made Skype calls to mum and Nick. I was up to date and slept like a baby!

DAY 166 of 273, Tue 26APR16, 250km, TROPIC OF CAPRICORN, Facility Camp “Solitaire Country Lodge” (Elev 1084m) to Hostel “Desert Sky Backpackers Lodge”, Swakopmund (Solo7, Run4) NAMIBIA. Today was the start of "Solo7 - The Hunting”. I was very excited. Got up a little earlier to pack - this was now less then a 5min task given the new-look packing system that I perfected in Cape Town. My orange 40L back pack is now empty. All its contents are in my big pack and they are mainly backups. Most of what I wear is in two mini packs. Packing involves moving 6 key mini-bags from my plastic camping bag to the orange back pack - easy. No packing of individual clothing items - they are all consolidated. This system is similar to the cargo containers used commercial jets - you just move a container with all the individual bags inside. Before leaving Solitaire I visited the famous bakery for a slice of apple pie and a latte.

It was great but not as good as the one from the Helmingshausen Hotel. An early departure today ay 7:30am gave us a fighting chance to be in Swakopmund around lunch time. This would be great for Solo 7. The drive this morning took us through more semi-desert with distant ridges and ungraded gravel roads. Without warning we came to a halt at the Tropic of Capricorn with two signs on the road. Did not expect this since we were on another gravel road when we were travelling south and did not get a sign. Now we have the complete set of pictures and film: the Tropic of Cancer, The Equator and The Tropic of Capricorn all in one continent!

Soon after this we drove through the Gaube Pass and into a valley of shale. Rock everywhere. No vegetation at all. Reminded me and Hannes and Sigrun immediately of the solidified fields of lava just outside Reykjavik. A strange sight indeed. From here all scenery simply disappeared! A vast completely flat desert of dirty white sand dotted with tiny green salt bushes for as far as the eye could see. Reminding me of Western Sahara and parts of Mauritania. Did not expect to see here. You would not want to break down here. No towns and no passing cars! The place was very hot and dusty. After about an hour the air suddenly cooled and I knew that the Atlantic coast was approaching. Boy did it approach.

Everyone put on jackets as we ht the coast at Wallis Bay just before noon. Swakop was only 35km away. It was weird seeing a hot desert suddenly hit the cold Atlantic. We arrived at Swakop at 1pm. Roberto, Jacob and I farewelled our group, again, and headed off by foot to the “Swakopmund Youth Hostel”. It was shaped like a castle, painted yellow and with turrets. No one was at reception. A cleaner told us that the receptionist was at lunch and would be back by 2pm. Jacob and I decided to get some quotes from the place we stayed last time with the group and from another hostel. Got back to the ugly looking, old youth hostel at 2pm and no one was there. We decided to bail and go for the other hostel - at $AUD19 for a bed in a room of 3 was pretty good and it was in a house owned and run by a family. It was excellent. Spotless rooms, toilets, showers and a fully equipped communal kitchen. Nice garden, outdoor furniture, BBQ and recreation room with TV/DVD. Easily the best hostel I had seen to date. After settling Roberto and I went for a run on the main highway towards the south. It was fantastic. The cream coloured dunes on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The road was right next to the ocean. People were even fishing from the road! A nice hot shower was waiting for us and we relaxed in our room with coffee and photo culling. It is amazing how quickly time passes when you are relaxed and occupied and it was not long till we were on our way to Beryl’s for pre-dinner drinks. The conversation was better than the wine. (Deadvlei above and Shale Valley below).

Could have gone on for hours until our stomachs gave us a wake-up call and we headed a few doors down to the Napoli Italian Restaurant where we had enjoyed our “group feast” just a few weeks ago. We had our signature Greco pizza to start with and our Graca dry white. Roberto had a huge knuckle of pork and Jacob a rare kudu steak. I was fasting for Greek Holy Week (this week) and had a plain marinara spaghetti. The conversation continued and we talked about Africa, how our journey had changed us and what we were going to do after the trip. We also talked about our drive the next day and the up and coming hunt. A good start to Solo 7.

DAY 167 of 273, Wed 27APR16, 537km, Hostel “Desert Sky Backpackers Lodge”, Swakopmund to Hotel “El Dorado Game Farm”, Etosha (Elev 1153m) via Outjo (Solo7, Run5) NAMIBIA. Up at a respectable 7am to pack and collect the car at 8am. Swakop was cool and only slightly hazy this morning - not much cloud overhead. I exchanged greetings with my white VW Polo Vivo 1.3L Petrol manual and proceeded back tot he hostel to pickup Roberto and Jacob. Our journey to the El Dorado hunting ranch would take 8.5hrs including 1.5hrs of rest.

We headed north along the Skeleton Coast with the usual cold Atlantic morning breezes invalidating air-conditioning. This happened for 84km until turned inland and travelled along a while gravel road for 230km without meeting a single car or town or soul until we got to a bitumen road at Henries Bay leading us to Outjo. That 230km was nothing but flat white sandy desert. No green. No mountains. We were in a normal car in an abnormal place. God help us if we broke down. But we got there. To that lovely bitumen leading us to one of our favourite Namibian places called Outjo. An outpost town with grace - meant for tired tourists on their way into Etosha from the distant capital of Windhoek. We headed straight for the Guest Hotel to have our cake and coffee.

I figured that it would be too dark and I would be too tired from driving to run in El Dorado so I went for a run out of Outjo while Roberto had his 7 course lunch and supermarket visit. It was a good move. Hot at 3:30pm but a sudden cloud cover cooled everything down and I found myself running in cool conditions until I got back tot he car. Had a quick “portable” shower at the restaurant toilet and it was on the road again for a final 100k stretch into my African hunting paradise! We pulled into El Dorado right on sunset at 5:36pm - I remember the time because that is what my GPS watch told me. Our hosts Adri and Halen greeted us and I settled into my fantastic stone walled room whilst Roberto and Jacob pitched tent outside. The facilities are first class. The centrepiece is a stonewalled main dining/living room for guests complete with huge fireplace, a complete stuffed male lion, a female lion rug with head and the stuffed heads of all the game on the farm: Kudu, Elan, Springbok and Impala. All the animals in the is room were shot on the farm. The lions came in from Etosha and Adri has recently installed an electric fence to stop more from coming in. He also warmed us not to go walking by ourselves in the property since there could be one lion left before the fence went up! There is a fully stocked bar and pool just outside the living area. There is also soft grass camping grounds with facilities. Tents were $AUD12 per night and rooms $AUD45 per night complete with cooking facilities, coffee/tea, aircon and fridge. For an extra $22AUD per day you can enjoy unlimited buffet brekkie and dinner.

The toilet and shower were actually inside the room with a neck high stone wall surrounding them. Very chic. We all showered and met in the bar (next to the pool) to enjoy some cold “Windhoek Malt” beers with Therese and Peter from Elizabeth Bay in SOUTH AFRICA. They were holidaying in NAMIBIA for two weeks and visiting their early twenties son and daughter in Cape Town before flying back home. An enchanting couple that we spoke with at length about the politics and social circumstances of SOUTH AFRICA including the events of 1994 and the “great exodus” of white South Africans to Perth and Sydney. Dinner was at 7pm and was absolutely spectacular and the best “off-truck” dinner to date. Halen (the owner wife) and her local staff cooked up a home cooked meal that rivalled Greek Easter coming up this Sunday. Tender BBQ Kudu fillets, spinach frittata, corn bake (like potato bake except with corn!), beetroot compote, butternut salad, creamed cabbage. Adri (the owner husband) told us that this was traditional Afikaans cuisine and it was spectacularly delicious. I dropped the Kudu because of Greek Holy Week but the vegetarian accompaniment was the best I have ever had. Roberto and Jacob, who are both meat connoisseurs assure me that the BBQ meat and Biltong was the best they have tasted to date. Full marks. The best off-truck dinner to date!!! And the main reason is HOME COOKED!!! Adri then introduced to us his 18yr old son Derek and we spoke about the “The Hunt” plan for tomorrow. Brekkie at 6:30am and on the ute at 7am. We would pursue Springbok form the back of the ute with some bush walking since they are always moving. If we could not get any by noon then we would head to the water hour and let them come to us for a pretty much guaranteed kill. I was so excited! “Pumper” was about to be reborn...

DAY 168 of 273, Thu 28APR16, 0km, THE HUNT. Rooms “Eldorado Game Farm”, Etosha (Elev 1153m, Solo7) NAMIBIA. Today was the day that Pumper would be re-born! It all started at 6am when I literally “sprung” out of bed like the Springbok I was going to hunt today! This was despite the late night enjoying my midnight chat with my brother and best friend. Today I would make them both proud and hunt my first animal on the African continent. Something I always dreamt of doing during my “pumper” days of a pump action Winchester 12-gauge shot gun at the Harris property in Mudgee. Today, Mudgee AUSTRALIA would be re-born as Etosha NAMIBIA and “Green Hills” would be re-born as “Eldorado”!!! I could hardly contain myself. Brekkie was incredible. Rye bread with raisins toast and shredded cheddar, berry yogurt with fresh cut farm grown melon, farm omelette as yellow as the sun and a variety of home made bacon and cured meats to give a brand new definition to the African word “Bilton”. Before boarding our ute, Derek introduced my to “my little friend” for today, a 308 calibre, bolt-action, 5-in-chamber rifle made by a company called Musgrave in South Africa. It was his father’s gun and was 23 years old with a hardened rubber butt. I forgot the make of the scope (Started with a “K”) but it is from Austria. The weight was good and it was equipped with a silencer that greatly reduced the sound and kick-back. A local guy called Matheus (who lived on the farm) was our tracker and driver although Derek seemed to know just as much. Roberto, Jacob, Derek and I climbed into the ute’s tray and Matheus drove.

Our first stop was the practice range, an open area with metal poles holding a dangling metal plate for target practice. I had 5 shots from the tray using different positions approx 150m away from the target. I hit the plate only once with the last shot - I was too excited and moved the cross-hair around too much. Roberto also had 2 shots but missed both. Derek also missed with my rifle but not with his. He adjusted my scope slightly as a result. Then it was on. We drove 5min to a specific corner of the 6 square kilometre property that was known for Springbok. We saw them but they were too far away. '

Derek, Matheus and I got off the ute and walked. Roberto and Jacob stayed on the ute to keep the noise down. we walked for about 30min before we saw them again. I crawled under a low tree/shrub and supported my rifle muzzle between the v-shaped base branches. Derek was behind me. I could see 4-5 in the scope at a distance of about 200m. They came closer but moved sideways towards a storage shed. I asked for a shot. Derek said “no” because there were staff at the shed and the Springboks were too close. Bummer. We walked back to the ute and started to drive again.

Derek called for support. Some time later, Adri drove by and chatted with his son and Matheus in Afrikaans. He had given us another Springbok location. We drove another few minutes and there they were amongst the bushes and low trees. Adri sure knows his farm. Then the fun started. We pursued 5-6 Springbok with the ute and they travelled in an oval loop in front and behind us. By this time it was about 11am and we had made 4 circuits. I dreamt of this moment many years ago when i would hunt in Mudgee on the Harris farm - wild Africa - running around in the sun chasing exotic animals and enjoying the surrounding landscape. I was here. I was doing it. 

Then it came. The opportunity. The Springboks had stopped behind a very thick series of bushes but had not noticed the ute some 200m away. Derek would have liked to come closer but they were stationery. The larger buck was barley visible through the bushes. Derek gave me the all clear since the “looping” could go on all day. They were running us around! I looked through the scope but could not make out the animal. Just a series of brown lines behind the green of the thicket. Derek assured me that the brown stripes was the back of the buck. I remembered Derek telling me at the rifle range to shoot in the area at the top of the front legs - the heart sits between the two front legs at the upper leg joint of “shoulder”. Boy, I could not see this so I aimed at the highest dark band of brown hoping I could hit the animal up high. Derek was also aiming at the same animal so he could bring it down with a second instantaneous shot if my shot was not a clean kill. I squeezed the trigger. I missed.

I saw a small column of dust come up right above the brown stripe of the animal. Derek, who was watching though his scope, ready to shoot, told me that the bullet had passed just over the top of the animal above the front legs - according to him, if I had aimed at the lower band of lighter brown then I would have scored a clean hit. No matter. It was an adrenaline overdose for me. I had not done this for many years. The bad news was that we could not shoot in this area any more since the animals associate the shot with danger but return the next day because they actually forget! Adri confirmed this - there brain of a Springbok and Impala is quite small and not wired for memory. Bizarre. The good news was that we could continue shooting at the water hole but would have to wait for the animals to arrive and it was much more likely that Impalas would appear long before the Springboks. Adri had told me this when I first met him and advised that the Impala is often larger with better meat so I was happy to go for one if it appeared. We drove to the edge of the property, furthest from the house. Surrounding the small water hole were two 10m towers camouflaged with green mesh and set back about 100m. I called them “the execution towers” - a very clean view and sure bet. The main challenge would be the clean shot. We climbed up one of the towers using a ladder at the back. At the very narrow covered top there were four old chairs with a plank of wood in front to rest tour arms.

A small rectangular slot in the mesh supported the rifle and enabled an elevated view of the water hole. We set ourselves up and waited. Derek sat at the extreme right, then me, then Jacob, then Roberto. We had arrived at around 11:45am and it was about 12:15pm when I spotted the first animal coming out of the bushes to my left. I woke up everyone else. They had all fallen asleep!!! We all slowly and silently positioned our rifles and cameras, both ready to shoot!!! I was quite calm from the waiting and my breathing very shallow. For this reason the cross-hair was hardly moving around at all. My position across the opening with elbow on the plank was also very comfortable and steady.

Six Impalas assembled at the water’s edge and started to drink, constantly looking up around them. Derek whispered “second from left - go”. It was the biggest of the 3 males. The animal was almost side-on. I steadied the cross-hair on the upper knuckle of the front leg as Derek had instructed me. I exhaled, held my breath and squeezed the trigger.

Shot. The animal went down like a sack of potatoes. No movement, no sounds, no twitching. It was 12:26pm. The others ran around like they were confused and then ran off to the right. I reloaded during the commotion but Derek said “that won’t be necessary, the buck is dead - clean shot”. I recall the relief sweeping over me.

I have always only hunted what I am prepared to eat and never want any animal to suffer. Just like an abattoir but out in nature. I never enjoy a kill. I enjoy the silence of the hunt and the closeness to nature. Hunting is not about killing or death. It is about exactly the opposite - life! I also hunt (hardly at all now) to appreciate the value and magic of “life”. In a spilt second this creature turned from a living breathing masterpiece of biological engineering to a lifeless mass of biological material ready to return to the earth. The only difference between the two is “life”. What is “life”? How can we capture it? Preserve it? Reproduce it? And why is it that a human being has the capability to remove life but not to bring it back? These are the questions that confront me as a hunter and as a person. I did not rush down to the animal after the kill. I did not yell and scream.

I patted the superbly shaped and coloured creature on the ground and thanked him for the food he would provide not only for myself but my travelling companions. I remember my dad always saying to me when you hunt and make a kill, thank the animal for providing. In this sense, “kill” is not the right word - “harvest” is the right word. The Impala is a lean mean eating and running machine. It can hold 55km/h for 2min in order to outrun its prey - that is its key defence. In order to do this it has a slender body, incredibly lean muscular hind legs and a bone and joint structure like a kevlar racing road bike!!! The fur has brown, coffee and white bands and is super soft. Derek lifted the animal upright and pointed out the entry and exit wound - the bullet had passed through the exact spot he asked me to target and as a consequence had passed through the heart. “Nice shot”, Derek repeated over and over.

Personally I would have like to have achieved the same in the bush earlier in the day rather than this much easier open shot but I was very happy that the kill was clean and that I could offer my truck companions a “Greek Easter treat”! Instead of lamb, Impala. We were in Africa after all. I was happy to commemorate Easter with my travelling companions in the true tradition of thanksgiving, giving and celebration that defines the Orthodox Easter. Derek phoned for the ute and we arrived back at the homestead around 2pm.

A local staffer called Gideon would guide Jacob to gut and skin our catch at 2:30pm. Gideon had shown Roberto and I the wild animals of Eldorado when we visited during Solo 5 to Etosha. I returned to my room to start cleaning and downloading the many photos and film that Roberto and my GoPro had taken. We all met back in the “skinning room” which I called “the house of slaughter”.

As the shooterI was given the traditional role of making the first incisions  to open up the animal. Jacob then took over with the gutting and skinning. He had never done this before and wanted to experience it himself. This was one of the main reasons he wanted to travel with us. I was glad that he could experience something new. During the next 30min he looked like a man with a mission. A surgeon. Given his heavy framed glasses and intense stares and concentration. Gideon did a great job guiding him through the whole process and make no mistake, Jacon transformed what was once an intact animal into a hanging carcass of fine lean meat. Gideon estimated 21kg of meat from a 55kg intact animal. (Photo below: my lovely Impala catch, fresh and tender!)

Jacob regularly lifts weights for exercise and when he lifted the animal he reckons it could be up to 25kg of meat. Dark meat - almost dark purple. Gideon would now freeze the whole carcass overnight and use the straight saw to cut into steaks and cutlets for BBQ only. Gideon then guided Jacob to run salt on the inside of the skin and set it out in the sun for drying. It would take 4 days so we organise to pick it up on Sunday when the truck would pass right outside Eldorado on its way to Etosha. Jacob was very happy.

It was now time for showers. We were sunburnt, scratched by the many bushes that hit the ute, thirsty, hungry and bloodied from carrying,the animal. We then met in the bar at around 4pm to enjoy some beers and talk about our experience. I also interviewed Adri about the farm in the glow of the setting sun. He is not a talker but seemed to enjoy it. For me this hunt was the realisation of a long held dream and was a great experience on Eldorado - Derek and Matheus had done a fine job.

Although this hunt is my second best experience behind “Nigerian Elvis” it bumped up NAMIBIA to number one overall best country, given the sheer number of fantastic experiences and landscapes that I had expressed in this country. Dinner was another superlative event. The guys had kudu schnitzel but the selection of vegetarian dishes was terrific. Creamed corn and spinach and chips formed the centrepiece. I then called up mum and both Nicks to tell them about my hunt. An experience that will stay with me for a long time… Pumper was re-born!

DAY 169 of 273, Fri 29APR16, 498km, GREAT AND HOLY FRIDAY - GREEK EASTER. Rooms “Eldorado Game Farm”, Etosha (Elev 1153m, Solo7, Run6) to Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund NAMIBIA. What a great run today. I guess the satisfaction of the hunt had a lot to do with it. By the time I sat down to brekkie at 9am, Gideon had long ago finished cutting and packing our Impala into the truck’s smaller esky. He had finished at 7:30am and it was jammed packed! Jacob carried it to the car as a form of exercise and still reckons it was more like 25kg, maybe more! We all paid our bills and congratulated Halen and Adri on a first class experience. I had paid a total of $AUD285 for my hunt including the cost of the animal meat and its processing. Another $AUD67 per night covered my accommodation and all food. Not bad. This was a place I would be very glad to come back to and highly recommend it to others. It would actually be superb for an overland truck. It is only 10km from the Etosha Andersson gate and has animals and activities of its own. Our drive back began around 10am and we arrived at 4pm, much earlier than we expected. We travelled back along a different route so we could enjoy more of NAMIBIA’S fabulous and varied landscapes. our only stop was at Omaruru for a coffee. We were keen to get back to catch up with our fellow travellers and enjoy another Swakop sunset together. Andi and Grant loved the meat and packed it away - it was still very frozen. We would have this meat tomorrow, Greek Easter Sunday and Monday. I would cook on Sunday for Greek Easter and would make a big Greek Salad and buy heaps of tsaziki to go with the meat. Riza was glad to see us and it was great to see “the culture club" reunited. I returned the hire car whilst Roberto and Riza went for a run. Later we made the mandatory expedition to Beryl’s to catch up on gossip! We were all ready for the next instalment of out trip. (Photos below are an early start on Spitzkoppe Daye 171).

DAY 170 of 273, Sat 30APR16, 0km, GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY - GREEK EASTER. Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund (Run7) NAMIBIA. Today was a rest day, wash day and blog day. I got up at 9am and washed some clothes and dropped off my sleeping back at the laundrette to be cleaned. Walked up to Beryl’s for a coffee and toast but for some unknown only my Mac could not access the internet so I tried the German Brewhouse nearby. Still no internet access. Then I remembered the that the ATM guy at Solitaire had fiddled with my TCP/IP settings so I checked it out - it had been set to “Using DCPH with manual setting” - I set it back to “Using DHCP” (automatic) and presto - it worked! I even went back to Beryl’s to check and it worked there too! Called mum, Nick and Bundy and sent a bunch of emails for Greek Easter tomorrow since I would not get any more internet fir 3-4 days since we were bush camping.

I was glad to do this because it connected me to my favourite part of the year - I had never been away from home over Easter in my life! Went for a run when I got back around 1pm and I stacked it! Tripped over a rock since I had to run on the gravel shoulder of the road. Minimum injury to my palms. After a nice hot shower (it was cold outside for the run) I resumed blogging this post and prepared all my photos to add to it in 3 days when we leave NAMIBIA for BOTSWANA. I met Roberto and Riza for drinks and gossip at Beryl’s at 5pm and we all got back at 6:30pm in time to cook the first of our Impala with Jacob. Tonight was a “do your own thing for dinner” night but I had invited everyone to eat Impala. Sadly I could not participate since the fast was still on but a total of 10 people including Roberto, Riza and Jacob partook of the lean dark red (almost purple) meat. We struggled a little with the fire since we had no kindling but I managed to get it going and hot enough for rice as well as the meat. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Impala. I saved the best cuts for tomorrow when we would all celebrate Greek Easter. Only 3 of the 17 people refused to eat the Impala “because of the way it was killed” - no commentary here - I though it fair to mention it and only what was said.

DAY 171 of 273, Sun 1MAY16, 170km, GREEK EASTER SUNDAY. Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund to Bush Camp at “Spitzkoppe” Conservancy (Elev 1069m) NAMIBIA. Today was not only the first day of May but my favourite day of the year - Greek Easter Sunday. A day of celebration, a day of fine food and drink with the whole family. Instead of Greek Lamb on the Spit with family, tonight it would be African Impala on the Fire with my travelling companions. I am glad I could offer something up for Greek Easter. Greek Easter 2016 came to me in Swakopmund NAMIBIA - how strange! I would never have believed it a few years ago! At least we did not spend all day today driving. After our cook shop in Swakop, we left at 10am and arrived at Mt Spitzkoppe (Elev 1759m) at 2pm.

The mountain is very stark, with many exposed weathered extensions and orange in colour. It is accompanied by two other smaller mountains, Pontok and Sugarloaf, one on either side. Together these mountains create a unique landscape of coloured rock of every shade of yellow, orange and red contrasting against a deep blue cloudless sky. Our camp site (number 13) was against some giant sandstone monoliths at the base of Pontok. A small toilet is set up at each site but no showers or power. A private company runs these “camping spots” plus a proper camping facility with reception, restaurant, bar, toilet/shower facilities at the entrance to the “conservatory”. They are in the process of building very fancy, architect designed chalets which will take another 3yrs. It was way too hot for activity so some of the group camped at our spot so that we would not loose it while we rode with the truck back the restaurant. This whole area is called a “conservatory” as opposed to a “national park” or “reserve”. The main difference being that construction can still take place in designated areas. We relaxed over a coffee but it was crap and I had to make it because there was only one lady working and she was overwhelmed by a bunch of tourists ordering lunch.

She was dressed like she was going to church or had just been - complete with a hat! She operated at 1km/h. TIA. Riza, Sharon, Theresa and I had signed up for a 2hr sunset horse ride around the conservatory. At 3:30pm we started to walk back to our camp site since we would be picked up here in 15min but we were incorrectly advised about the distance and the horse riding ute picked us up on the road. Lucky I always have my camera with me! We set out at 4:20pm on five horses. Mine was a eight year old chestnut male called “Tosso”. Not exactly the name I expected or wanted, especially if he got it for a reason! I was proven wrong. He was a gentle natured animal and very responsive. After a few minutes of riding I was reminded of my 3 days of riding in Uruguay where I learned to saddle my own horse and got up to galloping stage. I decided to let Tosso rip a bit and it certainly took me back to that ranch in 2011!

The sun was setting at 5:35pm and by now its soft glow grew on the monolithic mountains of Spitzkoppe creating a serial, relaxing and inspiring environment. We arrived at the famous “arch rock” only 10min before sunset and climbed tot he top for an outstanding view in front of us out to the dead plan flat plains of the Namib Desrt and Spitzkoppe behind us - glowing orange!!! Fabulous. A geographical paradise. From here it was back to the reception area some 4km away. Having left the arch at 5:50pm and riding very slowly because Theresa’s horse was very old, we got caught in the darkness but it was worth it. Overhead the entire milky way opened up with Saturn and Jupiter featuring. The temperature was terrific, like a summers night, with cool dry breeze. We got back to reception at 6:40pm but there was no ute organised to take us to our camp as agreed. By the time one was organised with one of the locals from the Spiztkoppe township, it was 7:30pm when we arrived at camp.

Riza and I were on cook group that night with Roberto so I could make my giant Greek salad and Greek red eggs to celebrate todays Greek Easter. I had the shits. Roberto was a champ. He had already cooked his rice and made my salad. I put my finishing touches to it and then everyone cooked their own mountain of soft, dark red, fatless Impala. It was delicious. I had waited so many days to taste it. Very tender. We ate mainly the leg chops because they were nice and big in size. We still had fillet, ribs and rump to go. We would be eating my little Impala for the next 2 days! What a strange way to celebrate Greek Easter. In NAMIBIA surrounded by the rocks of Spitzkoppe! I even had Greek Easter Eggs to prove it. I made them after dinner. Riza boiled them up and then Andi helped me paint them using a red food dye that Riza found in the cake section of the Pick and Pay supermarket in Swakop. We would have the eggs at lunch tomorrow. Tonight I decided to sleep early given cook group rise and my run at 7:30am. 

DAY 172 of 273, Mon 2MAY16, 142km, Bush Camp at “Spitzkoppe” Conservancy (Elev 1069m, Run8) to Bush Camp at Brandberg Nature Reserve 7km west Uis (Elev 488m) NAMIBIA. Riza beat me to it! I was all set to the light the brekkie fire at 6am and it was already going! Riza could not sleep again. She woke at 5:30am and lit it. By 6:30am brekkie was ready - half an hour early! At 7:30am a group of people went on a guided walk of the conservancy and I went on my run! We pulled out at 8:45am bound for Mt Brandberg (Elev 2573m), the highest in NAMIBIA. A quick food & coffee stop in Uis and it was not long until we arrived into the Brandberg Reserve around 1pm.

We had more Impala for lunch and then rested until 3pm when three of us set out for a 2hr walk along Cheetah Valley which leads to the “White Lady” Rock Engravings where the summit of Mt Brandberg is also visible. We walked along the river bed since it has not rained here in 2yrs so access was easy. Most of the surrounding rock is pink granite with white granite and glassy black shale in lesser proportions. There are many fallen trees, knocked over by elephants looking for water as evidenced by their huge trails of pool!

There are some trees with green leaves that add colour to the reds and browns of the rocks. There are many “dry waterfalls”, large smooth curvy rocks lined up like steps. The rock engravings are all on one granite wall exposed to the air (not in a cave). They are between 1000 and 5000 yrs old. The “White Lady” is the most famous but sadly she is a he!

When it was discovered by a French Archaeologist in 1917, he mistakingly figured it for a female figure and named it after a “white European” woman he knew because of the colours of the face and clothes. Turns out that it is a medicine man running towards a heard of Oryx, also visible in the engravings. The only impressive feature of the engravings are the red and white colours still very vibrant and visible after all those years. On our way back we saw tons of small “rock dassies” running around. There use to be a lot of cheetah’s in this valley eating these critters, hence the valley name, but they have abandoned this valley due to the lack of water. Rock Dassies are like large hamsters and actually belong tot he elephant family! Do not know why? They look like large hamsters to me and they certainly have a snout and nose instead of a truck! Boy, some of these scientists are cooky! We camped only a couple of kilometres down the road amongst some trees with Brandberg and its valley clearly visible and providing and awesome backdrop. Tonight we cooked the last of the Impala, enough also for lunch tomorrow. In total this fine Impala provided 5 meals over 3 days for 14 people. Not bad. Tonight was hot so many stayed up later than usual.

DAY 173 of 273, Tue 3MAY16, 214km, Bush Camp at Brandberg Nature Reserve 7km west Uis (Elev 488m) to Facility Camp “Sendelang Cheetah Farm”, 31km east of Kamajab (Elev 1311m, Run9) NAMIBIA. Mt Brandberg looks terrific under the glow of a rising sun. We were on our way at 7:30am and travelled north towards Kamajab along a white dusty road that we had experienced on our solo trips. This was my second time in Kamajab which is famous for its game meats. The Kudu and Oryx from here is so tender it can be eaten raw like sushi! Our first taste of this meat was from this town! Many many older locals had gathered here today. It was pension payment day.

From Kamanjab it was only another 45min to the “Sendelang Cheetah Farm”. Given we arrived at 1pm and our Cheetah visit would be at 3:30pm I decided to run now. Hot but bearable. Ran back through the length of the 7,000 hectare (7 sq km) farm, careful not to run into the Cheetah enclosures by accident! The shower after two days of running without water was fabulous but the Cheetah encounter was even better! Marcos, the middle of the three farm brothers came by with his ute and trailer and scooped us up at 3:30pm, as planned, to take us on the ultimate “Cheetah Encounter”! And what an encounter it was!

First stop was Marco’s  farmhouse where three tame cheetahs meandered through his family and our crowd including woman and children! Just big cats but you still had to take care. Touch only on the head and back. Nothing low. Do not step on the tail. I set to work. I wanted teeth on my arm and I got it to everyones absolute horror!!! The second largest, a female, started to play with me, biting both arms and scrapping her paws along both legs. I felt her teeth on both arms. She left two deep impressions but no good  I was happy. Then she actually scraped my leg and made it bleed - that its! I bled by a big cat - a Cheetah!!!

I was in Heaven - mission accomplished!!! A cat ate me!!! So there. After this things got better. We got back on the trailers and went into the depths of the farm to see the wild Cheetahs catch dead donkey meat in full-flight! It was better than a 3-D movie! A total of 8 Cheetahs sailing through the air to get their piece of existence for the day!  But without being too cynical, this family and this farm has saved several hundred Cheetahs that farmers would have otherwise shot!  Good work! There are a total of 23 cheetahs on this farm and this family has saved hundreds. Cheetahs live 10-12yrs in the wild and up to 20yrs in captivity. They are graceful animals with slender bodies and a magnificent coat. The photos in this blog bare all the witness! Back at camp there was nothing more logical to do than to go to the bar and have a cold beer! Then it was pure photos and blogging to produce this post for upload tomorrow. The only thing more exhilarating than this was the raw Kudo that I had for dinner marinated with fresh garlic. Wow. Raw meat. Not even minced. Go eat your collective hearts out fans of Steak Ta Ta. I worked into the wee hours to  perfect this post which is actually one of my favourites considering the “intimate wildlife photos I got with the cheetahs today”. I slept like a baby with satisfaction...

 

DAY 174 of 273, Wed 4MAY16, 244km, Facility Camp “Sendelang Cheetah Farm”, 31km east of Kamajab (Elev 1311m) to Facilities Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) via Okaukeujo Resort (Run10) NAMIBIA. What a fabulously last night. I put on my Etihad eye shades because I knew sunrise was at 6:16am and I was rising at 6:30am. Temperature was perfect. We were Etosha bound at 7:30am. This was my third visit in a month and will cook up a total of 8 days. I am now a veteran of Etosha. It is a good park. A large variety of animals and easy to self-navigate - perfect for a family who cannot afford multiple organised safaris. Our route took us through white gravel roads and landscapes that looked like Eldorado - flat, low-line scrub with distance ridges. Semi-desert. No towns or stops except for Eldorado to pick up the skin of the Impala that I had shot.

We got there around 11:30am and Adri was there to greet us - we had SMSed him earlier in the day to say that we were coming. Much to my surprise the truck pulled in and drove the 1km from the road to the farmhouse. Only Thierry and Hannes came to see the skin along with myself and Jacob. It was quite progressed. The fur was mainly soft and the underside quite dry. The whole thing was as stiff as a board. Then the surprise. Adri told us that we needed a permit to take the skin out of NAMIBIA. This permit took 7 days to get in Windhoek. Game over. Jacob and I wondered exceedingly why Adri had not told us this when we were last there. A bit disappointing given that we dragged our whole group here but at least I got to say “hi” to Gideon and Derek. It was good too that Andi/Grant had a chance to look over the place for future options. We arrived at the Okaukeujo Resort at 11:45am.

We were lunching here and leaving at 1:30pm so I went into action to post this blog - no luck! The internet provider was down since yesterday night. No internet! TIA! At that moment I decided to go for a run since I would no opportunity this arvo or tomorrow. It was hard. It was very hot and the run was boring because I had to run on the inside of the compound - 4 times. Nevertheless I was off the hook to run and hopefully Halali would have internet for tonight. Our safari from Okaukeuja to Halali was terrific. First thing we saw were 2 male lions under agree about 150m from the truck at our usual favourite water hole of Nebrowni. This is where we have seen almost all of our lions on previous encounters. I did not take many photos since I have so many already - just looked for the odd photo that was unusual - two animals fighting or kissing and of course the ultimate - a kill!!!

The place looked drier than before and the heat and dust came with rage. The new people really enjoyed themselves and it was amusing watching them shrill at the their first sighting of each animal and the scampering to take photos - that was us about a month ago. They were even luckier since there were only 13 in the back and 7 of us were not that active since we had photographed everything before. So only 6 people were active compared to 19 when we went through. Big difference. Saw most of the animals that I listed at the start of this post. The highlight was hundreds of zebras and springbok marching past us from left to right - it was exactly like one of these great migrations that you see on TV! I am glad we got to see that live and literally next to us! It was 5:30pm when we arrived in Halali and I was beat. Still,I picked myself up and my wine, cheese and olives and headed to the water hole to catch the sunset crowd! There was a mum, dad and baby Black Rhinos and it was not long until an elephant joined them. Otherwise very quiet. Jacob came down at 6:30pm to let me know that dinner was ready - a world record time! Tonight we enjoyed the last of our Kudu that we bought in Kamanjab. It was fillet and I ate half blue and half raw. Easily the finest, softest, leanest meat that I have ever had - period! This would be a lasting memory and we would not eat Kudu or Oryx again! I watched a film tonight since I was not running tomorrow and needed to charge my hard cell battery. It was a crap movie but a great night alone - I needed that!

 

DAY 175 of 273, Thu 5MAY16, 247km, Facility Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) to Bush Camp “Giant Baobab Tree” 42km east of Tsintsabis (Elev 1186m) NAMIBIA. Another good sleep but too short. Up at 5:30am to start a sunrise safari through Etosha from Halali to Namutoni in the east. The animals were a little more spread out and at-a-distance today. Our early morning safari focused on Goas Water Hole since the guys book reported some Leopards in this area. Sadly we did not see this shy and hard-to-spot creature - they spend a lot of time in trees! Sunrise was great, happening behind a vast long and thick amalgamation of cloud throwing down rays if “heavenly” light. The grassland also came up golden yellow with hews of green against the blue-grey cloud and golden sun rays streaming down. Quite a site apart from the wildlife. There were also more birds today. We stopped for breakfast just after visiting “Etosha Lookout” where many of the new people took the classic special effects photos - the most clever was 6 of our females running out of an empty Pringles chip container.

On our previous visit, I had gotten Yuki to hold a tiny Doug in the palm of his hand. The possibilities are endless! Then our second stroke of luck came. There were a number of cars parked ahead. This could only mean one thing. Cats. Affirmative. There were three Cheetahs. One under one tree and two under another. They were lying down resting with little movement. Also a bit far at over 200m. Not the best photos but good to see them in the wild.At one stage the single Cheetah stood up vertically using the tree to support his front paws - he watched some Zebra and Ostriches in the distance. It was a good result. Lions on day 1 and Cheetahs on day 2. Pity about the Leopard. Our lunch stop was at Namutoni. Spent only an hour there. Still no WIFI. This is very disappointing. Etosha is a world famous park but sadly not world class.

Not only is there no internet installed in 2 of 3 lodges but the restaurants often run out of food and the small grocery stores are poorly stocked and close before sunset, when people are still out on safari - not good! They need to clean up their act. As we travelled to the east gate I wondered when I would put up this post. We had two days of bush camps ahead and only one smaller town before our next facility camp. I got anxious. My backup was to ask Dan to hotspot his phone - he agreed. We drove due east from the Linquist Gate of Etosha headed for the border at Dobe below “The Caprivi Strip” which is a narrow rectangular strip of NAMIBIA much like a pan handle, sandwiched between ANGOLA in the north and BOTSWANA in the south. An odd shape that was part of a settlement deal with ANGOLA during the South African exodus. The landscape now started to change as we headed east. Less desert and more grassland with trees, even palms.

At around 3:30pm we stopped to pee and collect more wood. Our camp tonight was a bit of a novelty - 700m from a giant Baobab Tree.This tree is the symbol of NAMIBIA and probably Africa. There a huge Baobabs all over Africa. They have enormous solid trunks theat can reach 30m in diameter and 20m tall. They are very resilient trees and can live up to 3000yrs. The one we visited was 20m in diameter and over 500yrs old. Amazing. True time machines. Legend has it that if you drink the juice of its verbs trunk you will gain enormous strength. The evening was very pleasant, cool and dry and we got a great opportunity to chat to Andi about her family and life in NZ. Since Cape Town the weather has been very comfortable and I have been enjoying the pop-up tent immensely. Its ventilation and view of the sky is terrific. This will be great when we get to the tropics again. It is also quite cozy. The biggest benefit is no set up - just chuck in the air and a very quick pack-up - 10sec to fold. This gives me back tons of time. Fingers crossed on this good weather continuing as it did for us in the west. Tomorrow we would leave my favourite country to date of NAMIBIA and head into wild BOTSWANA...

PS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA: 

The most popular non-Western, non-mainstream foods in Africa are: Agouli (large rat-ilke rodent), Giant Land Snails, Mopane Worms (giant caterpillars).

PPS: DETAILS ON ELDORADO GAME FARM: Address: Farm Eldorado, Outfo District, 10km south of the Andersson Gate of Etosha National Park near Okaukuejo and 90km north of Outjo heading towards Okaukuejo, GPS: S19d41m29s E15d93m49s, Owners: Adri and Hanel Pienaar, Cell: 081 302 2290, Tel: 067 33 3421, Email: Chanel@iway.na