It was a long drive on gravel roads from Windhoek to Sesriem, the gateway to Sossusvlei (a desert pan) and the apricot-red sand dunes, including the famous Dune 45 — so-called due to it being 45km from the camp. Along the way, we stopped off for apple pie at the ‘village’ (read: petrol station and […]

Today was a very exciting day. For today was the day that we collected our rugged Nissan 4×4 off-road, modified for African camping roadtrips, complete with two roof-mounted pop-up tents! For those who care about cars, the features and gadgets are as follows: Nissan 2.4l Hardbody high-clearance pickup truck with hard-enclosure over the boot-thingy. Two […]

After returning the Mercedes to Windhoek, we’ve had a few days in Namibia’s captial city whilst we wait to pick-up the 4×4 and start our tour. We’ve made good use of the well-stocked supermarkets, fast internet and cafes in town, and relaxed in the sun at the hostel where we are camping. It was a […]

Riaan from the Cymot camping store in Windhoek very kindly (and professionally) fixed our broken tent pole. No longer do I have to duct-tape the whole thing together each time we want to put the thing up. And it certainly works better than the plastic inside of a cotton-reel that we tried. Thanks Riaan, kudos […]

You may recall that in Zambia I spent a long time scouring local markets to purchase a wooden giraffe – a replacement for my original giraffe, bought in 2000 and subsequently broken by my clumsy dad (I know, I know the earthquakes were really to blame dad!). Dave and I spent an even larger part […]

Whilst we still had the services of our Mercedes hire car which we used to travel from Maun, Botswana to Windhoek, Namibia, we took our first self-drive safari in the Daan Viljoen Game Reserve near Windhoek. Humans notwithstanding, there are no predators in the reserve and so we were able to walk around quite freely […]

We took advice from a number of overland truck drivers and tour leaders, locals and fellow travellers about our options for getting from Maun, Botswana, to Windhoek, Namibia. Flying is the most popular way, but the tickets are about US$300 each. With four of us, chartering our own aeroplane with pilot wouldn’t be that much […]

Everything takes much longer than one would imagine over here. As an example, let me share with you today’s task, which was to organise a 4×4 camping-car for an imminent tour of Namibia. We are currently in Botswana, the car-hire firm is based in Namibia, next door. Our mobile phone does not work in Botswana […]

I’ve already been to Botswana once before and not visited the Okavango Delta, so this time I didn’t want to miss out on this highly regarded natural site. Whilst some tourists take a scenic flight over the delta to comprehend is sheer size, I prefered to get a little closer to the waterways and take […]

We needed to get from Kasane, the gateway town to Chobe National Park, to Maun and the Okavango Delta. We were told that it could be done on public transport, although any further details were sketchy at best. The early bird catches the worm and we packed-away our tent in darkness at 04:20 to get […]