Niall's Travel Blog

From Etosha we had to cover 1200 kilometres to reach the Zimbabwean border. Since we left Etosha in the evening we set up camp in the town of Tsumeb, a two hour drive away. The fact that I hadn't been able to buy a mat with the tent, the use of a rolled up hoodie as a pillow and the freezing nighttime temperatures were all compounding to make it fairly difficult to get a decent nights sleep and after only getting three hours I woke determined to rectify this. When leaving Tsumeb I stopped in "Pep", the equivalent of Pennys/Primark and bought a pillow, blanket (which doubles at a mat) and, the icing on the cake, a hot water bottle! That night I never slept better!

 

The road towards Zimbabwe gave me my first taste of real Africa as we drove through what seemed like the same village ad nauseum. There were huts made from mud, sticks and straw; animals roamed freely around the village and over the main highway and kids played with footballs made from scrunched plastic bags tied up with string. At the rundu, the last major town in Namibia, we stopped to buy supplies and saw what looked like a hundred strong mob starting to riot but wisely enough we didn't stick around to investigate!

 

Further along the road we stopped to help some fairly well heeled locals with a tyre change (they didn't have a spanner or jack in the car). While Frank was trying to loosen the ridiculously tight bolts one of the guys asked me for my address and contact details. At first I thought this was so that he could send us a present or thank you card but, no, he wanted me to help him get a visa to work in Ireland! (You get a lot of this around here)

 

After detouring to stay in the fantastic Ngepi campsite we start to head back onto the main road when we pass a herd of goats. Slowing down to a stop we let the goats cross the road and when the last one is across we start off again. However, once we started moving one of the goats turned around and ran right in front of the car braking his leg. We wait for the owners to come and half their initial compensation claim to N$100 (about €11). They are still delighted with this and as we leave it looks like the village is gearing up for a feast that night!

 

Driving along the Caprivi strip is quite surreal, it's a thin strip of Namibian territory with the land on our right being Botswana and the left civil war torn Angola! Our final stop in Namibia is at Katima Mullilo, camping on the bank of the Zambezi river. Even the armed guard patrolling for illegal Zambian immigrants crossing the croc and hippo infested river couldn't ruin the spectacular sunset and the mist rolling over the river in the morning.