Namibia / Botswana

17 August to 21 September 1984

Journal

Saturday 17^th August 1984

I was working at Optimum Collieries near Hendrina, just south of Middelburg in the then Transvaal. I left Middelburg (where I lived) in the morning and drove through to Kuruman, where I camped at the "Eye".

Sunday 18^th August 1984

In the morning I continued west, and  drove through to Augrabies Falls NP near Upington, where I spent the next night - also camping. I had never had a chance to visit the place, even though I worked for a month or so based in Upington. I found Rosy-cheeked Lovebirds there.

Monday 19^th - Tuesday 20^th August 1984

From there I drove on to Port Nolloth on the west coast, and this was the first time I had visited the west coast of South Africa (by this stage I had never even been to Cape Town). Again I spent two nights there - camping as well.

Wednesday 21^st August 1984

From there I drove up north into Namibia (although at the time it was still called South West Africa, and run entirely by South Africa, so no passport was necessary). I stayed the night at Ai-Ais at the southern end of the Fish River Canyon.

Thursday 22^nd August 1984

I drove along the top of the Canyon to reach the northern end, where the track leads down to the Canyon bottom. Since there was absolutely no-one around, I camped there that night.

Friday 23^rd - Saturday 24^th August 1984

I drove north along the dirt road to meet the main tarred road west to Luderitz. This crossed the Namib desert and was very beautiful. There was a campsite at Luderitz where I spent two nights. During the day I explored the limited area one is permitted to visit around the town - which is surrounded by diamond fields.

Sunday 25^th August 1984

I drove back across the desert to Aus, before taking the dirt road north to Sessreim, where I camped for the night.

Monday 26^th August 1984

I drove down to Sossusvlei and back, and then continued up the Spreetshoogte pass to the Naukluft National Park where I camped for the night.

Tuesday 27^th - Wednesday 28^th August 1984

I then drove south from Naukluft  to Rehoboth, and north to Windhoek turning west to the Daan Viljoen Game Park, where I camped for a further two nights. The day provided some excellent birding.

Thursday 29^th August - Saturday 1^st September 1984

I drove down to Walvis Bay (which was then a part of South Africa as opposed to Namibia), where I spent three nights. On the first day I drove north to Swakopmund and visited some of the inland wetlands. On the second day I arranged the necessary permit and drove south towards Sandwich Harbour.

Sunday 2^nd September 1984

From Walvis Bay I drove north to Swakopmund and then inland on the main tar road, turning off north to reach the Spitzkoppe, where I found Herero Chat. In the afternoon I drove back west to the coast at Henties Bay, where I camped.

Monday 3^rd - Tuesday 4^th September 1984

From Henties Bay I first visited Cape Cross, and then continued north up to Terrace Bay, where one had to stay in the Skeleton Coast National Park accommodation. The next day I spent walking around the area, which was quite beautiful.

Wednesday 5^th September 1984

I drove out of the West Coast National Park via the inland road, and visited the Twyfelfontein rock paintings, the Burnt Mountain nearby as well as the Brandberg and the "white lady". After that I headed east and camped at Omaruhu.

Thursday 6^th - Friday 7^th September 1984

I then drove north stopping off at the dinosaur footprints at Kalkveld and then continued on to camp for two nights at the Waterberg. During the day I walked quite a way up the mountain, and found Hartlaub's Francolin.

Saturday 8^th - Tuesday 11^th September 1984

From the Waterberg I drove northwest into Etosha National Park, camping for two nights at Okakeujo, before moving east to spend two nights at Naumatoni. Plenty of animals and birds were seen.

Wednesday 12^th September 1984

Here I took the one risk of the trip, and drove north into Caprivi, spending the night at Popa Falls. Although technically open to tourists no-one visited the area because of the war which South Africa was then fighting in Angola. At Grootfontein one had to stop and get an army permit to travel into the Caprivi, but I don't remember any problems getting it. In the evening several truck loads of soldiers arrived to relax and swim in the camps facilities. Due to the disturbance I didn't see much at Popa Falls, and didn't intend to stay long.

Thursday 13^th - Friday 14^th September 1984

From Popa Falls I took the road through the Caprivi Strip, which was a reasonable road - good for the army to move vehicles, but not as smooth as I would have liked. However, I traversed the dirt section OK, and was relieved to reach the tar at the bridge over the Kwando River. Unfortunately, the hard surface was enough to drive a nail through the tyre, and I couldn't even cross the bridge before being stopped with a flat tyre (I was later to learn, this is the most common time to get a flat tyre - you pick up a nail or thorn on a dirt road, but it is only driven into the inner tube when the hard tar surface is reached).

It was easy to cross from Namibia into Botswana, and I reached the Chobe NP in the late afternoon. The camp site at Serondela was pretty basic, but also a revelation to me in my travels - I was in a National Park with no fence. This meant that the campsite had all sorts of animals wandering through, especially elephants.

On the second day I met up with a Johannesburg-based couple (Graham & Doris Barbor), the wife wearing a cap that earned her the name of Rommel. On the second night we met one of the local commercial tour operators who had 6 customers accompanying him. They were going to be going on to the Okavango by road, and we were all extremely lucky that they agreed to let myself and the other couple follow them in our vehicles.

I remember my stay in Chobe for the incredible numbers of elephants, where herds of up to 1 000 would come down to drink at the river in the evening and one had no choice but to drive through the herd. However, the damage that these herds did to the environment was seen everywhere, but especially in Savuti. Plenty of birds were seen.

Saturday 15^th September 1984

The convoy of three vehicles - my Landrover, the tour guide's Landcruiser and Rommel's Suzuki left the park and drove south along sandy tracks that - at that time at least - needed a guide. We reached Savuti, which was incredibly dry and barren - elephants had totally destroyed the vegetation - no trees were left standing, and most of the the bushes had been grazed to the ground - or ripped out altogether..

We spent the night in a campsite without any facilities, and the guide told us of past problems in the campsite - and that just a month before a German tourist had been killed by a lion in a most frightful manner - she had had a major operation on her jaw, that meant she couldn't speak at all, and while sleeping, had allowed her leg to slip out of the tent. The lion grabbed it and killed her without anyone knowing. Everyone went to camp very warily.

Sunday 16^th September 1984

In the morning, I woke up in my Landrover, and was able to look at everyone shaking, with a pride of lion watching from about 15 metres away. Well, we all survived it - although no-one was able to confirm that the killer lion had indeed been shot. From there we drove south and left the Chobe National Park, and drove straight into the dustiest road I had ever (even to date) experienced. It was impossible to see beyond the bonnet unless one was actually accelerating. This meant it was an interesting drive, but luckily only lasted about five kilometres. However, we were all totally filthy, and the remainder of the day was not too pleasant. We reached Crocodile Camp near Maun in the late afternoon and were then presented by the German owner with a serious problem - did we want a shower first, or a beer? It says something for the state of the road that we all went for the shower first!

We spent that evening quenching our thirst, and were served up with one of the most remarkable drinks I ever (failed to) remember. Sadly I forgot the recipe, but it is the only time I have ever had a single drink and found myself totally drunk afterwards.

Monday 17^th - Wednesday 19^th September 1984

Again, our luck held because the tourists invited to continue following them, and what still remains as one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life followed. The tour guide had pre-booked 2 4-seater aircraft to fly them into the swamps. So we went out onto the Maun runway and found a plane for hire. This cost us Pula 110 each (at the time about US$ 25). For this we were flown out to an airstrip near to the Oddballs camp, and we arranged that we would be picked up in the late afternoon of Wednesday. On arrival at Oddballs we were able to hire two additional mokoros (a dugout wooden canoe holding two people each) for P 20 per day per mokoro, which included the cost of the poler. Government fees on top of this were P 10 for entry, P 2 per person per night camping, P 0.80 per poler per night and finally P 1 per mokoro per visit!

The next two nights we spent camping on small islands without tents (there was no need, and the baggage on the planes didn't allow it). We kept a big fire going each night as we could hear lions around, and knew that they were capable for crossing from one island to another. The three days were over too quickly. For the princely sum of R120 per person for three days - it was an incomparable experience. Even by the year 2000, the cost of such an expedition would be over Rand 1 000 per day per person.

Thursday 20^th September 1984

We got back to Maun at about 17h00 on the Wednesday evening. However, I had a slight problem - my parents were flying out to South Africa, and due to arrive on the morning of Thursday 20^th! So I decided to drive overnight, the first - and last - time I ever tried this. It was an unforgettable experience. On at least five times I had to stop and try and move small herds of cows off the road. I tried nudging them with the bumper, but this didn't work too well, and it was more effective to get out, and shout and kick them to get them to move. With the sixth herd I started to do the same, and was out of the vehicle and in the process of kicking the nearest "cow" when I realised I had made a terrible mistake - they weren't cows but lions. I discovered how quickly I could get back into the vehicle!

By 03h00 on Thursday morning, I was exhausted and stopped beside the road for a few hours sleep. After starting again, I reached the Parr's Halt border post into South Africa. I managed to reach Johannesburg by about 10h00, and was just in time to meet my parents at the airport. I was able to drive them to a friend's house, whereupon I went to sleep for the rest of the day.

On reflection, this was a good start to my habit of undertaking African trips. I don't have a record of how many bird or mammal species I saw on the whole trip, but I know I found most of the endemic species of the areas I visited, and lots more besides.