Mr and Mrs Three Dawg's African Adventure

[spoedvark]

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Enjoying  :ricky: with you!

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[evansv]

:sip:

 

[Three Dawg]

Ran into some of the 4 x 4 mob we met at Kalmanjab at Kunene.  They dished out a couple of ice cold beers from their onboard fridge to refresh us as we pitched the tent.  Cheers!

The sunsets over the river were lovely, and there were a good mix of people, including this bloke....

I'd spotted the KTM logo on the back of his 4x4 rig so naturally asked if he rode.  No, came the answer, but my brother in law competes on them.  Oh yes, and who would your brother in law be then?  Alfie Cox, as it happens. ;D  Hi Kevin!

If you are staying up that way I can recommend doing a rafting trip on the river.  There are some pretty decent rapids and once through them it is very pleasant paddling along.  The start point was 10km upriver along a sandy track.  I tried not to think of doing it on the GS in a couple of days.

As most will know, the Himba are the indiginous people in the area and the lodge offered a trip to see a Himba family.  I was a little unsure about this as I kind of feel like we'd be gawping at them in their stone age lives, but the lodge owner told us that they'd been working with this family for thirteen years and it was well worth doing.  OK, we'll give it a go.

There were only six of us, one family from Holland and ourselves, a perfect number, with a guide from the lodge.  The family we visited were very relaxed and we were shown how they live, some of their important posessions and told about their lives.  It was a fantastic experience.  Some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but worth a look anyway, I think.

 

When we got back we joined the lodge owner for a spot of monkey paintballing. ;D

The lodge owners told us of a couple of guys on 1200Gs (Italians, I think) who set off towards Epupa from Kunene River Lodge.  One of them had a bad fall and broke his leg.  The other guy had no chioce and left his mate and both the bikes and walked back to the lodge.  Which took about a day and a half.  By the time rescue could be organised the guy with the broken leg had been on the ground for three days.  Local Himbas brought him water, but it must have been unbelievably uncomfortable.  He was brought back to the lodge in a bakkie, and in the mean time some South Africans arrived who went up to where the bikes had been abandoned and rode them back.  Wonder if the guy with the broken leg ever got back on a bike..? 

 

[Poena]

Nice, enjoy reading it

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Great ride you two are having, we really enjoyed the Kunene RL when we were there a year ago.

Thanks for sharing.

:thumleft:

 

[The Badger]

Well done and thanks for a superb RR  :thumleft:

 

[Crossed-up]

That poor guy with the broken leg!

Enjoying your report. Thanks.

 

[Hinksding]

Go Geezah!

 

[adamktm]

Sub  :sip:

 

[Three Dawg]

Cheers lads, glad you're enjoying it.  I realise it may be a bit short on derring-do, but I suppose it shows that you can do a tour and the touristy safari stuff on a bike without having to resort ot a 4x4.

Anyway, we were sorry to leave Kunene, and I was even sorrier that we had to ride the shitbox road out to Ruacana, picturesque though it was.  There was more sand than I am comfortable with, including a nasty section where the road was washed out and we had to cross a small river upstream.  Still, we managed to get through everything, although I suspect it wasn't too pretty to look at sometimes.  That was, until I dumped it in spactacular fashion in the only puddle in northern Namibia.  I saw the damn thing under a tree and though I'd given it enough leeway, but the back wheel slipped down its steep side and over we went, catching my sore ankle again.  I've fallen off various GSs several times and never hurt myself once, but that was twice now I did my ankle in, and I reckon the culprit was the extension plates for the pillion pegs which came with the racks.  I can't be sure, but they're coming off anyway.

The bike was a bit bent this time, with the right hand bar sticking up at a jaunty angle and the cylinder head protector mashed, but a little muscle applied using the plug spanner as a lever got things more or less straight.  Not a trick I'd like to try with an alloy bar, I suspect it would have broken.  The most galling thing was that the road improved hugely immediately after the puddle...

Anyway, that may explain why I didn't take any photos on the way to Etosha, although apart from the huge number of shebeens (The Fly Emirates bar or the BBC Entertainment bar anyone?) there wasn't much to see.  After an overnight stop at Ondangwa (the Airport Lodge, not a bad place to overnight) we reached our next three night stop, Onguma Tamboti Camp at Etosha.

Now this is a great campsite.  Each pitch has it's own kitchen and ablutions and the main building is very pleasant.  They have a small shop and do food.  Best of all there is a stoep where you can sit with a cold one watching the animals at the water hole.  It's about 2km down a track by the C38 Namutoni entrance to the park.

We did a sundowner, of course.

Etosha is a fine park, and we were lucky enough to be the only people on our drive.

Great to see both black and white rhino in one day.

Good few ellies around, this one came pretty close.

This little fella looked quite cuddly...

Not many lions about, but we saw this male.

And of course plenty of antelope, giraffes and other stuff.  

 

[Optimusprime]

Awesome RR Guys - miss you. Thanks for sharing & see you soon(ish)

:snorting:

 

[keithk]

Thoroughly enjoying this report with the great pics Thank you for sharing, I am hoping to head out in that general direction next month . Keep it rolling I like the route you travelled as well.  :thumleft:

 

[Three Dawg]

Going to fast forward a little to get to Zambia.  The run from Etosha to Rundu was pretty dull.  Man, that B8 road is straight, tarmac too.  Bor-ring!  Stayed at Kaisosi River Lodge, which was fine, and ran into Kevin (Alfie C's brother in law) again which was great.  Had a meal that would have defeated even the most dedicated trencherman and drank too much.  Excellent.  Rundu is a hole- security at the gas stations was something I hadn't seen before but we needed to break the journey to the Caprivi.

Aah, now this is more like it.  Nunda River Lodge near Divundu is a great place to camp.  We stayed there on a previous trip and it was still brilliant.  The last time we fell off on the sandy tweespoor (or twaspoor as my GPS voice has it) leadign to the lodge, but this time no problems.  I must finally be learning something about riding on sand! ;D  We just loafed about here for a couple of nights.  No bad thing given the state of my ankle.

Mrs 3D likes sunsets

On the way out we attracted a crowd while I reinflated the front tyre.

Our next stop was Katima Mulilo so that we could tackle the easier of the two borders into Zambia, the other being Kazungula.  Having ridden past the 5km long queue of trucks there I was keen to avoid the ferry crossing.  The Caprivi strip has lots of signs warning of ellies.  Last time we saw none, but this time, hey, what's that on the hoirizon..?

Reckon I counted about 3 dozen.  What a treat!

Aha!

Another rather odd lodge in Katima.  Had the feeling of a place that had seen better days.  The chalets were a symphony in wood.

The owner warned us that we were heading into 'deepest darkest Africa' where chaos rules and nothing works.  He was, of course, a dickhead.

Tomorrow, Zambia. :thumleft:

 

[NoRush]

Following with interest.
:sip:

 

[subie]

Pooooost, pics, stoooorrry  . Come on  :lol8:
:ricky:

 

[Oom Foe-rie]

Whow Mr and Mrs 3 D .............. Nice report with story and photos...........  :thumleft:

 

[Vis Arend]

Pooooost, pics, stoooorrry  . Come on   :lol8:
:ricky:

+1  :biggrin:

 

[Pilchie]

:lamer:

 

[Three Dawg]

:thumleft:  Well despite our host's warning, the border at Katima Mulilo was a piece of cake.  Changed some money pretty quickly at a reasonable rate (I think) and completed just about everything in one room- immigration, carnet, insurance, road tax and ebola check.  Thought we'd aced it in an hour when we got stopped at the gate by a friendly soldier who pointed out that we'd missed some bit of paper.  He wasn't too bothered, but warned us that a picky policeman may use it as an excuse for a fine.  One wierd thing was the number of UK registered vehicles in the compound, including a furniture removals van from Sheffield.   ???  

Next stop: Livingstone.  This was supposed to just be a staging post on the trip as we'd already seen the falls from the Zim side on a previous trip, but it actually provided one of the absolute highlights of the trip, and motorcycles weren't involved at all!

I was expecting the road to be a mess, but it was quiet and mostly in good shape and we made good time to our camp.  We did go out towards the falls and got a couple of pics, but really you need to be on the other side.

Or...

...UP IN A MICROLIGHT!

Mrs 3D was a little unsure about these things, but the look on her face at the end of the flight says it all, I think.

Oh yes, more fun than a fast lap of Silverstone on a Panagale.  This really was properly amazing.  The view over the falls was fabulous of course, but we were low enough to see ellies, hippos and crocs on the islands in the Zambezi.  And like a bike, being out in the open made it all so much more real.  Wonder how much one of those things costs? :biggrin:

After Livingstone we headed north for a forgettable night in Lusaka.  THANK YOU Tracks4Africa for getting me through that city...  We went right past the 'German Residence' but didn't have the bottle to call in on our ambassador friend.

Naturally we saw some truck based carnage on the way, but only had to leave the road once to avoid a head on collision. :biggrin:  This one was right in the centre of a small town.  Truck was going for a left turn coming down a hill too fast, with predictable results.

I'd seen in TV a documentary on ballooning (as in hot air) a place called The Africa House at Shiwa Ng'andu, an Italianate manor built around 1920 which I was really keen to visit.  Anyway, nearby is Kapishya Hot Springs, a lodge with a campsite.  Seemed like a good place to break the journey to the Tanzanian border and soak our aching bones.

The road into Kapishya was great after a lot of tarmac, and we saw a full grown male sable, not a beast I'd seen before.

And after 32km, the hot springs and a campsite by another river.  Very nice, but we didn't know what we had camped upon, did we?

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Great stuff, really like the Microlite flight idea.