Botswana / Namibia - Outback Adventures

You've gotta love the great outdoors!

 

Crossing Botswana, and into the remote southern region of Namibia by 4x4 has made for a very different, but extremely exciting couple of weeks! It has been a complete contrast to what we've seen throughout our African experience thus far, but it has certainly provided some incredible sights and memorable experiences!

Moving on from Victoria Falls, we entered Botswana and worked our way to Maun, the entry point for Botswana’s premier tourist attraction the Okavango Delta. The Delta is a unique ecosystem which we explored on a Mokoro (local wooden canoe), weaving our way through the wetlands, spotting a large variety of bird and animal life including hippos, zebras, baboons, warthogs and elephants. We also learnt that there is not just a big 5 for the animals of Africa. There is also a small 5! We witnessed the Rhino beetle, the lion anteater, and the red winged buffalo. The other two little creatures for the elephant and the leopard equivalents remained elusive!

 

Kicking back in the Mokoro was a pretty enjoyable experience.

Botswana’s people are some of the most friendly that we’ve encountered in Africa and we had a very enjoyable four or five days here before heading across Botswana and into Namibia, on route to the capital city, Windhoek.

With little to no public transport available to Windhoek, we hitched a ride with a very ‘unconventional’ American couple. She had spent her life in the marines as a lieutenant sergeant, had five daughters, was covered in tattoos, sported a ‘hard as nails’ Mohawk and carried a 10 inch machete, almost a carbon copy of GI Jane! He was a lifelong hippy who had seemingly spent the majority of his time smoking the good gear with local Indian tribes in desert lands of India. But somehow, they seemed to get on famously…bizarre! Either way, it was certainly an entertaining 5 or 6 hours listening to some of their stories!

A couple of days were spent in Windhoek relaxing and getting organised. Being advised that public transport around Namibia was difficult, and that our time was becoming limited, we hired a camping equipped 4x4 with intentions of navigating the southern and central coast on a 10 day adventure.

Shane lapping up the serenity of one of our remote desert campsites 

Our first destination was Fish River Canyon, the world’s second biggest canyon. We stayed in the most incredible resort at the southern end of the canyon. There were a host of activities there including a 6 hour hike through the canyon walls, some sand dune running, the ‘Olympic’ size and indoor swimming pools, hot springs and enjoying the views that the canyon offered up! Camping deluxe…This was certainly our style of camping, we could get used to this!!

As yet, we haven’t been to the Grand Canyon but if it surpasses this from an enormity and impressiveness perspective then we can’t wait to get there, as this place was truly staggering!

Shane evidently impressed by what he sees of Fish River Canyon! 

Things then became even more remote and isolated as we headed into Namibian desert territory to a place called Klein Aus Vista. 10,000 hectares of isolated and mountainous terrain that was a hikers paradise. We were in our element! Having adapted to normal camping hours of being up when the sun rises and ready for bed by the time it sets, we set off on a 5 ½ hr hike before the sun reached its peak. The climax of the hike was a climb to the summit that even gave us a few jitters due to its difficulty and steepness. Aurelie’s efforts in overcoming any sort of fear here were extremely impressive!!

 

Aurelie preparing for the next Mission Impossible movie!

We then entered the truly defined Namibian desert of the Namib-Nauklift national park to a location called Sossusvlei, Namibia’s No. 1 tourist location. Having been bemused at how a visit to the sand dunes could be so popular, we quickly realised why it is so popular. This place blew us away!

Some of the impressive landscape that surrounded our campsite in Sessriem

This place really does have to be seen and experienced to be believed. From sunrise to sunset we were in awe of the place. With temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in the shade, the dryness of the desert, surrounded by rocky mountains, sandy trails, scattered wildlife such as an foxes, gazelles and Oryx (which Shane nearly run over! They are massive these things and would have destroyed our 4x4!!), and the towering, ever present sand dunes, it was absolutely spectacular! Words and even pictures simply don’t do it justice.

Shane crossing the hot and dry sand dunes of Sossusvlei

Excited by what lay before us, we arose before first light for a view of the dunes at sunrise. Still very much in a fitness mode, while other tourists waddled there way up the dunes, we kicked off the shoes, and run straight past them!

 

Aurelie posing for the front cover of next month's Running Magazine

We also trekked across remote sandy paths of the desert to Dead Man’s Vlei, a dried up Oasis in the middle of the desert which with the extreme temperatures, we quickly understood how it got its name!

The very unique but very impressive desert valley of Dead Man's Vlei

The same afternoon, we trekked down into the base and through the 2km long Sessriem canyon.

Shane's signature headlock maneuver proved quite effective yet again! 

By the end of our two days here, we were certainly satisfied that we had consumed as much of this places natural beauty as possible. Namibia has certainly risen in our ratings as a destination of choice given before arriving here, we had barely heard of it!

From here, our 4x4 adventure continues up to Namibia’s adventure capital of Swakopmund, then it’s down to South Africa for 5 days before parting Africa for our return to France on the 23^rd April.

On the road of discovery, things just keep getting better…LG!! 

Malawi/Zambia - The Falls and All!

The only way to really see Victoria Falls…

 

It’s been another big, but stimulating couple of weeks! We’ve finally made our way into to Southern Africa. We spent more than a few days enjoying the relaxed and idyllic surroundings of Nkhata Bay in Malawi, before working our way across Malawi and Zambia to Livingstone, the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls.

Following our relaxing week in Zanzibar, we decided to make some inroads into our travels by going directly from Dar Es Salem in Tanzania and into Malawi, a significant 1000 odd kilometre journey. We were told that this required a 12-18 hour bus ride (fair tolerance level, but remember, this is transport in Africa!).

After a 4am start, a night in a very dingy guest house, an 8 hour wait at the Malawian border, we finally arrived at our Malawian destination of Nkhata Bay some 2 days later. Given between us, we have the patience level of a formula 1 driver, we were very much at the end of our tether.

Fortunately we awoke the next day to a little hidden gem overlooking Lake Malawi called Nkhata Bay which quickly evaporated memories of the journey to get us there!

The beauty that greeted us we steppd out of our bungalow in Nkhata Bay

 

There was a hint of a hippie atmosphere around the place but it couldn’t have been more peaceful. We even considered growing dreadlocks to fit in with the local crowd! Each morning we were presented with a gorgeous and refreshing view, local fruits, freshly made bread and jams and good local coffee…happy days!

The lake itself was a gigantesque aquarium in which colourful fish could easily be spotted from the waters edge. It also provided a host of activities such as kayaking around the hidden beaches and inlets around the lake, incredible snorkelling from the doorstep of our bungalow, perfect walking trails, the local 100 odd step challenge which we used for our intervals each morning and the opportunity to climb Bunghulu Mountain. From the summit we enjoyed 180 degree views over Lake Malawi and could even see Mozambique raising up on the other side.

Aurelie powering through the seemingly tropical waters of Lake Malawi

We befriended one of the local guys, Benson, a self proclaimed ‘artist‘! With little interest in his local crafts, we told him that we were more interested in trying the local food. He said he could help us out here and told us to be at his place for a BBQ lunch of freshly caught fish accompanied with the local staple food, nshima (pounded maize meal - Aurelie’s favourite!). 

As per local etiquette, no cutlery was provided. The whole neighbourhood cottoned onto the fact that we had purchased some fish and therefore there was a free feed on offer. It's funny how quickly the locals pop up when there’s a free meal to be had!

 

Typical local Malawian dish of fish from the river served with a bit of nshima...delicious!

 

The meal was followed by a local game of bow (cross between chess and checkers). Benson was supposed to be the expert and provided a quick run down of how to play, Shane proceeded to win all the games convincingly. We thought that his obvious appreciation for ‘Bob’ Marley (which he called his smoking habit!) that may have affected his ability to concentrate.

They say when you like a place stay there, and our 2 day interlude in Nkhata Bay quickly turned into 10...the joys of travelling with a little bit of time up your sleeve!

It was however time to move on and Victoria Falls awaited. Bypassing Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, we continued straight on to the Malawian / Zambian border. We crossed the southern part of Zambia, spent a night in Chipata, 2 nights in its capital Lusaka, before arriving at Livingstone, the entry point to view Victoria Falls.

More through luck than any sort of ingenious planning (although Shane claims otherwise!) it was Easter Sunday when we caught our first glimpse of the falls. Baboons welcomed us as we made our entry to the park, we could hear the thunder and feel the spray of the falls as we approached. The falls are so powerful that the spray creates an immense cloud of mist raising over 400m into the air. We were advised to hire ponchos before going any closer. Good advice as we were then suddenly hit by a torrent of water coming from the mist, feeling like a bucket had been tipped on our heads. Those who decided they were too cool for ponchos or were maybe a bit more adventurous got drenched and were looking at us with envious and superior looks.

Arrival at Vic Falls (quick happy snap before being drenched by the spray of the falls!

The Victoria Falls spreads over 1.7km separating countries Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because of the thickness of the mist and resultant limited visibility, the vantage points from the ground simply did not do the falls any justice. We addressed this gap by jumping onto a micro flight, a little flying machine that looked like it was straight from the 19^th century.

Microlight flights that were fortunately alot sturdier than they looked!

 

Aurelie’s legs shook as the micro flight took off, Shane being the epitome of stress free attitude probably did not even notice that the machine was rising off the ground (all a facade!!). The flight delivered 15mins of pure wonder. Once the adrenaline rush was tamed, we were finally able to admire the immensity of the falls, the grandeur of the Zambezi river and the beauty of the scenery. The pilot was even pointing to what seemed to be miniature elephant, giraffes, zebras and hippos. This was one of those experiences that seemed so surreal that it was hard to take it all in! Definitely a must do and the only real way to see the wonder of Victoria Falls.

Incredible sight of Vic Falls in all it's glory!

 

From here we move on to Okavango Delta in Bostwana, and then into the Namibian desert.

 

Fun and games continue!!