Tsumkwe Lodge Tsumeb

... is enjoyed watching traditional San

healing dances.

Otjikoto Lake: This small lake became part of Namibia’s history in 1915 when, during the South West Africa

Campaign, retreating German forces dumped their military equipment into Lake Otjikoto, located about 24 km

northwest of Tsumeb. There the armaments lay, undisturbed, until members of the Windhoek Underwater Club

recovered an ammunition carrier, now on ...

... he was picture perfect! One of the other male stood up in the bush and he was just enormous – they were by far the biggest lions I have seen (and I have seen quite a few!!).

We stayed with them for a while and then drove to the waterhole. Here we saw loads of guinea fowl – they were very funny – they would stop and look around and when they thought the coast was clear would run in a straight line behind the leader!
Namutoni, Etosha, Namibia, Oshikoto, Namibia emmaw

... we did in a nightshirt!

After breakfast we packed up slowly and began our drive to Etosha. On the way we stopped at Tsumeb and remembered the Wimpy from our last visit here, so we decide to stop for lunch. This actually sounded better than it tasted and I had the most disgusting strawberry milkshake!! Oh well!

As we neared Etosha we spotted an African wildcat on the verge, but we were driving too fast to stop – hopefully this will be the start ...

... br>As soon as our truck arrived in the area we were surrounded by children wanting to play football and dance and talk. One called himself Michael Jackson, we figured the news probably hadn't reached this outpost of Namibia and didn't have the heart to fill him in. Around the campfire in the evening we sang them a song we had learnt in Zulu and they promptly sang it back to us in English, presumably having learnt it at school - gorgeous.



C.

... quite fast on land. We also got served hippo steak one night but didn't know about it beforehand. It tasted much like veal. There are normally too many hippos on the Luangwa River and some have to be culled every year. The dirt road to the South Luangwa National park from Chipata was partly in a terrible state; so much so that one of our vehicle got stuck in a very large and deep puddle. The tow rope had to come out for the bogged car ...

... Maman/Granny, comme vous devez le savoir nous sommes maintenant en Namibie. Nous allons faire une excursion dans Etosha National Park - notre derniere chance de voir des animaux sauvages en Afrique - cet apres midi. Ensuite nous nous dirigerons sur les bonnes routes Namibiennes vers le sud le long de la cote Atlantique. Notre prochaine etape sera Swakopmund, ou nous aurons peut etre la chance de voir des phoques! Avez vous recu mes cartes postales? Gros bisous

Volgende stop die Otjikoto meer. Ek wou graag by 'n lodge langs die pad gestop het om net 'n drankie te drink, maar ons moet voor sononder binne die panne wees. Die vissies sien jy swem in die water, so die water is helder. Daar sien ek ook 'n vlakvark met die grootste tande ooit. Ons neem 'n paar fotos en val weer in die pad. Etosha wag.

... to eating. Etosha is interesting; it's mostly the normal Namibia landscape, small scrub trees and sand. But in the middle is the Etosha pan, which is a very big, very flat and very dry area, which in extreme flooding, turns into a lake. A cool thing to look out on, hard to capture on film. Next we're heading down to Swakopmund. We've been off the bikes for over a week now; time to get going under our own steam again!

... one just basically wanders around the roads, and side roads, hoping to see something. Etosha could, unfortunately take a BIG lesson from the US National parks on being user-friendly. In a US park, you get a nice info packet when you enter, including a map, and can then go ask the rangers what's happening, where to go to see what etc. There was none of that here; we had a terrible map in the Lonely planet book, and there were no helpful ...

... instead of the usual ramshakle, haphazard lines of wood booths, stalls, or just tables we'd seen everywhere else. Can't stop progress I guess, but I was not a fan. Then on to the Caprivi. This is flatness defined. This is straight roads defined. I started measuring sections and got up to about 15km without a single turn or hill. There were signs warning of Elephants, there were signs of elephants (piles of fresh dung), but we saw only one lone elephant for ...