Southern Africa 4x4

We slept with elephants and hippos through our 2 weeks along the Caprivi Strip (Mamili, Mudumu, Susuwe, Mahongo). Highlights included working up the courage for successful water crossings and seeing a herd of over 120 elephants arrive at a beach for a drink. In Divindu, we patiently awaited the delivery truck (delayed because it ran out of diesel) and we have never been so excited about cabbage and apples before.

In Khaudom National Park, we ploughed through sand as our bakkie, the Persian God, became the Persian Guzzler. Elephants seem to trash the plumbing system every 2nd night at Khaudom Camp in search of better quality water.

We shopped with vigor in Grootfontein buying up a month's worth of groceries for our upcoming Kaokoland expedition. At the nearby Hobas meteorite, the world's largest surviving meteorite, we got over our initial disappointment of its smallness (1 X 3 X 3 metres) to star gaze from atop it (camping nearby). No little green men arrived, however it is possible that we were abducted by aliens and our memories were wiped clean.

Opuwo is the main and only town in Kaokoland. It is a dusty frontier town with small shops and maize beer a big seller at 10 cents US a jug. Over dressed Herero and bare breasted Himba collide with the advancing world in Opuwo. It only lacks three headed creatures to be a movie set for a Star Wars outpost.

Kaokoland (NW Namibia) itself is one of the last African wilderness areas. It is an arid mountainous region lightly populated by subsistence living Himba people. It is endowed with an extensive network of rough 4X4 tracks and some sensational landscapes. We set off into the hinterland with 275 litres of petrol and 10 litres of boxed wine.

Epupa Falls features an excellent campsite beneath the makalani palms alongside the Kunene river. The falls area is incredibly atmospheric but the real action is the village bar where Himba congregate nightly.

Van Zyl's Pass is a well known 4X4 destination for South Africans. It is a testosterone experience: a very rough track, bare breasted Himba women, accompanied by cold beer and meat from the cooler. We are obviously short on testosterone as we found the going tedious at times. We did one 33km section in 7 hours including our road building efforts. However, the rewards justified the effort.

We stomped about the Marienfluss and Hartmann's valleys. Rocky mountains and outcrops emerge from seas of yellow grass. Sand dunes and sea mist are curiosities. Mosture seeking bee invasions of campsites are unnerving. At times the flies can drive a mad person sane.

We wandered off and on the map through lonely spectacular country. Desert giraffe awaited us, desert elephants pulled down our laundry line at Puros and accorded us a 2 trumpet salute along the Hoanib river. Kathy and Addy pressed onto the German bakeries of Swakopmund while we lingered in southern Kaokoland.

We sat through the daily sand storm at Armspoort and walked towards the Skeleton coast and walked some of the hills around the Hoanib river. On our exit route along the Ombonde river bed (more giraffe and elephant), cold weather froze our water bottles proving the tropics are not always hot.

August is a busy month at Etosha National Park. The first reaction of every tourist, ourselves included, is to reach for the camera when confronted with about 1,000 animals crowding the Okaukeujo waterhole at mid-day. The Halali waterhole features a nightly theatre production like no other. Actors emerge from the darkness onto the lighted stage (waterhole).Rhinos spar, elephant herds chase rhinos off, lions chase hyaena, hyaenas chase lions and the leopard looks disdainfully up at the audience. During the lighter moments, the sharp flatulence of the rhino contrasts with that of the elephant, a deep, bubbly rumble. We were tempted to stand up and provide a standing ovation many a time.

Whilst we watched Etosha lions for hours and waited patiently at zebra crossings, the real Etosha action was the August influx of European visitors. The Italians sported the latest in safari fashion and we marveled at the dazzling array of photographic equipment all competing with the best animal show in Africa.

Colgate brand battery operated tooth brushes emit a frequency that can attract bats in Etosha. They like to land on the brush end which can be dangerous when that end is in your mouth.

BOTSWANA

We ground through a sandy track to visit the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana's highest mountains, measuring a whopping 420 metres of elevation. The Tsodilo Hills are to the bushman what Ayers Rock is to the Australian Aboriginals; the sight of the first Creation. Amongst the dust, heat and flies we admired the appealing minimalistic rock paintings, primarily of animals but also including human representations such as "the dancing penises".

We restocked in Maun (Mau-oon) for a trip into the Moremi Game Reserve which juts into the Okavango Delta. We camped wild before entering the reserve and in the process we spooked a herd of 25 giraffe. Lions prowled and roared very nearby so we put the fly on our tent (lions generally don't attack what they cannot see). Our prudence paid off; we stayed dry on the first thunderstorm of the season that drenched the region. These were auspicious signs: Moremi always surprises and seldom disappoints.

Moremi highlights included:

• watching a hyena clan giggle with delight and finish off an impala skeleton faster and noisier than you could eat a bag of potato chips.

• a very testy pair of elephant bulls with attitude charged us for 300 metres forcing us into a hasty retreat in reverse along a winding, sandy track. We were not sure if that close-call fell into the category of good stress or bad stress.

• We unknowingly followed a closed road into a testosterone world of tricky water crossings and we threaded our way through a herd of 60 elephants only to find the way impassable. We doubled the excitement by retreating through the same crossings and elephant herd.

• We had been assigned campsite #4 at Third Bridge. We did not know that "everyone knows that you don't take #4 or #5 because that is where the baboons sleep". Our tent (fly on) and bakkie were bombarded early in the morning. Elephant dung in the wheel wells is one thing but baboon poop on the tent roof is quite another thing.

• We watched 2 cheetah gorge themselves on warthog. They eat quickly. You could imagine a chetah mother telling its cub "don't chew your food or the hyaena will eat your dinner".

• We were fortunate enough to find a leopard early one morning. We followed him and watched him mark his territory by scratching and spraying before he climbed into a tree for his sleep. Despite his beautiful appearance, we concluded the leopard is not much different than a tom cat.

We stopped in at the Boteti River and prowled with a pride of lions by night. Sheila complained that we saw more lions than porcupines on our night drive. Further down the road at the Khama Rhino Reserve, we watched a cheetah mark his territory also like an alley cat. So, save your money and stay at home and watch your neighbour's cat hunt birds and spray your car tires!

SOUTH AFRICA

As we left the bundu and returned to civilization, our driving speed increased, farms and fences appeared, as did towns and traffic. We left the tropics. We immediately missed the night time sounds of lions roaring,hyenas whooping and jackals yelping. So, we headed for Botsalano game Reserve, our last taste of the Kalahari.

Botsalano Game Reserve is a small but beautiful breeding reserve for many animals including plenty of rhino and heaps of black wildebeest with their long flowing white tails. We braced ourselves for the week-end rush only to discover that we were it. Sometimes the rhinos grazed around the campsite. David Attenborough may have walked with dinos, but we walked with rhinos.

Keeping with the dinosaur theme, at Rustenburg Nature Reserve, we called it Jurrafic Park as we entertained a couple of giraffe at the campsite. We were once again the only visitors to the reserve. Where is everyone? At work?

FOR THE RECORD

2002 tent nights: 161 (270 nights in the Marmot Equinox tent, zippers going but it is still hanging in there).

Kilometres traveled in the Persian God: 18,000

African mammal species seen: 74

For the next segment of Africa, we parked the Persian God away and rented a mini van. We picked up jet-lagged friends Andy and Laura at the airport and headed for Pilanesberg National Park where we pitched our tents in a busy week-end campground. Our virgins-to-Africa friends saw their first lions and rhinos the same day. Andy managed to get some good giraffe nostril photos with his "thing" sticking out of the window. We mean Andy's photographic "thing" and not the giraffe's "thing". Pilanesburg was "stinking" with rhinos; at one point the road was obstructed by two rhinos going for a leisurely stroll and we could not get around them; "get out of my way!". Elephants, rhinos and lions on the road all make a safari a challenging undertaking. We also introduced them to "chasing lions"; that is when you are watching two rhinos mating but someone tells you that there are lions 10 kms away, "under a big tree", so you drop everything, drive at top speed and see many big trees but no lions.

The gourmet meals continued through relaxing Lapalala Wilderness where we all shoved our hands into the mouth of a black rhino (what were we thinking?); the teeth are in the back so it does not hurt. Further down the road and lacking 4X4 excitement, we drove over a high bridge that had been closed for structural reasons. The huge cracks did not put Andy & Laura off who seemed to accept traveling with us as reckless abandon.

We arrived in Kruger National Park in the middle of a school holiday so people watching was as rewarding as animal viewing. They experienced their first lion "scrum". That is when the viewing vehicles outnumber the lions by more than a ratio of 2:1. South Africans act civilized during a scrum and there is an etiquette. On a few instances, "you are supposed to be watching the lions, not the other people" was heard. Yeah, we saw all kinds of animals, but the icing on the cake was a leopard "scrum". That is something worth seeing. The leopard was invisible to us.

Andy and Laura continued their trip "chasing leopards" in Botswana (they were succussful) while we jumped in the Persian God and headed toward the coast (Kwazulu-Natal). Ithala Game Reserve had a great, quiet campsite with sleeping bushbabies, impala, warthogs and even passing giraffe. Giraffes look really tall when you are lying in your tent and one walks right by you at night. On on driving occasion, we had a 2,000 kg male white rhino disappear from view. We could not see him over the hood of the Persian God. Sheila was convinced he was going to put his horn through the radiator. Glenn thought Sheila was over-reacting and that the rhino was only going to horn the tire (we had two spares). As it happened, he simply peed on the tire and continued on his way.

Mkuzi Game Reserve had a waterhole that was a photographer's wet dream. The hide which extends over the water, is constructed to allow people to sit and watch hundreds of animals come for a drink just a few metres away. We blew the film budget. Warthogs wallowed, a herd of 5 rhino appeared and the camera ran out of batteries. Getting close to a boomslang (Africa's most poisonous snake) was cool too!

We have been to some places with great sounding names like Mpandamatenga, Nxai Pan (the x is a "click"), Otjiwarango and Chimanimani. Mtubatuba topped the scale for us; we were invited to visit and stay on a sugar cane farm. That was a delight. We were thoroughly spoiled by our hosts Murray & Nicky (Central Kalahari 2002).

Over at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, it was more snorting rhinos, but we headed for the coast. Verdant Cape Vidal features a magnificent coastline and spectacular beach. Buck wandered the forest and we even encountered a cobra on the forest floor. Both the rare Samango and the more common Vervet monkeys played in the trees. The monkeys were artistic masters: they created diversions and opportunities to feed themselves, compliments of the campers. Our banana and grapefruit indicies took a beating but it was entertaining.

We returned to Johannesburg to stay at Bonzo's (john and Ilse work and ensure that he gets his "walkees"). after all those months in the bush, we got pretty excited about watching a movie on the big silver screen and eating our dinners inside. We put the Persian God up for sale and carefully screened prospective buyers. The PG sold off, and it was off to Malaysia and Thailand....

FOR THE RECORD (Africa 2002)

2002 tent nights: 184

Kilometres driven: 25,000

Mammal species spotted: 80

African Nights: 233