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Doornrivier - (Zeerust - South Africa) Kalahari Rest - (Kang - Botswana) - Ngepi - (Namibia)

We were fortunate enough to be invited to join a group of friends we met through the Land Cruiser Club to go an a tour with them. They had never been with us before so the risk for them was very high. They did all the booking and all we did was follow along like we used to when we were children when others had arranged everything - it was great. ("it was great" is my overall feeling it must be remembered.)

The people who came along were:

Retief van der Reyden

Desiree van der Reyden (booker in chief)

Chris Ziady

Ina Ziady

Sylvia Bishop

and me

We like to leave a day earlier whenever we go to Botswana and stay over at Doornrivier at Andre and Mariesa van der Merwe's place the night before. This makes the journey for us considerably shorter on the second day and I do not like to race from home. (Retief was a very good leader and he always kept to the speed limits which made the trip pleasant.)

It was good to see Andre and Mariesa again and we spent a restful afternoon there and lit a warm fire that night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Wimpy in Zeerust - another regular thing.

The plan was to be at Kang on Saturday evening 28 August 2010 where we would stay at Kalahari Rest Lodge and have a sit down dinner prepared by others.

When we refueled petrol appeared below the filler pipe but it being Saturday the garage was closed so I decided to pretend I had not seen that and if I had the amount of fuel was insignificant and the loss would have no significant impact on the journey.

Then Retief and Desiree arrived and had coffee. Chris and Ina had heard of the fuel bit and pressed on ahead.

Through the day we traveled without Chris and Ina - who we met at the lodge when we arrived. I took a picture - this is important to do early as everyone tends to smile early on - and this can not be guaranteed later.

Chris and Ina, Desiree and Retief, and Sylvia at Kalahari Rest Lodge (S23.52177 E22.60789).

Sunrise at Ngepi (S18.11686 E21.67027) from our camp site.

The path to our camp site at Ngepi

The others camped some distance inland.

Christopher - ornithologist and master of the makoro. (He delivered me and Sylvia safely back to the camp after an expedition to Popa Falls.)

Chris and Retief - the girls had gone to check on breakfast - note the cameras I had to compete with.

Pel's Fishing Owl which Sylvia found above a dead fish at Buffalo Camp opposite Ngepi. This caused great excitement. For those of you that are illiterate in ornithological matters this fowl is rare! Wikipedia offers the following information:

The Pel's Fishing-owl (Scotopelia peli) is a large species of owl in the Strigidae family. It feeds nocturnally on fish and frogs snatched from the surface of lakes and rivers. The species prefers slow moving rivers with large overhanging trees to roost and forage from.[2] It nests in hollows and the forks of large trees. Though two eggs are laid, only one chick is raised.

It is found throughout a large part of sub-Saharan Africa, but it is generally rather local, uncommon and absent from drier regions. Adults are rich ginger-rufous with dense dark bars to the upperparts and scaling to the underparts. The two related African fish-owls are smaller and lack the dark barring and scaling (though they do have dark streaks below). Juveniles are more uniform buff than adults. Unlike the eagle-owls, the ear tufts of the Pel's Fishing-owl are barely visible, giving it a very round-headed appearance.

Buffalo Reserve in the pretty scenery.

A closer view of the tourists.

A red flower that struck my fancy.

A scene on the Kavango River. (I have been told that Tracks4Africa and Streetmaps are living in the past and that the "O" has been dropped from Okavango - Thank you John Thome and Johan Kriel.) Home of birds, fishes, crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

An arboreal crocodile.

The sunset cruise down the Kavango River.

The sunset over the water we set out to view.

A Sausage Tree Flower - Wikipedia has this to say. I hope that at least someone looks at this informative site.

On a "bird walk" (You get up very early and walk.) Sylvia poses beside the water which contains unknown animals.

Formation of geese seen on aforesaid wander.

Sylvia and I were considering moving but land is not for sale in this area to foreigners. (I enquired discreetly as I liked the setting and only minor alterations would be required to be comfortable.)

Red seeds that I thought were pretty.

A scene - I was told a few months ago this area was all under water .

We have agreed to travel amongst the aforementioned hippopotamuses and crocodiles - and no indemnity forms were required for this trip as you either returned or did not.

At the calm Kavango River side - advisable to stand back from the water.

Popa Falls or Popa Rapids (As described in Tracks4Africa) which look far more impressive from a makoro. I am told on good authority that the reason you do not dangle any body parts in the water - especially here - is that crocodiles wait for fish below the falling rapids. I shall not explain any further.

Rock Pratincoles which we were told had just arrived and supposedly we were the first people to see them this season.

There are three falls or rapids at Popa and this is one of them.

Makoro master - Christopher.

An attention grabbing scene - believe me it is when you are in a makoro.

Very acute attention grabbing - the white bits are dangerous tusks.

These two leapt out from the side - prior unseen - but now gazed at in horror. As usual I missed the action.

This look is one of deciding whether to sort us out or not. Fortunately he decided that if we just left he would be happy. (It is a sign of my enormously competitive nature that I was able to hold the camera fairly steady - aim and press the shutter thingey. I wanted the picture badly.)

On reflection this was by far the most dangerous occurrence on our entire trip.

Statistics on those "lost" (euphemism) in the waters of the Kavango are scarce and I would suggest this is so as not to put off any would be tourists. (Incidentally Retief who constantly gave the impression of being well read and well informed declined the makoro trip but he was kind enough to allow Desiree to join us.)

Khaudum was next - yippee - however there was a small problem. There was very little fuel at Divindu (the fuel filling up place 15 kilometers away). They had run out of unleaded and I took 180 liters of lrp for the first time ever. Retief had a bad problem as he had a catalytic converter. But the decision whether to do what I had done was taken from him when all fuel ran out.

On the morning we had to leave for Khaudum the fuel arrived an there was great joy all round.