Blog

Back Into the Bush

*internet continues to be fleeting, but there are some photos here at least. Posting now and hope it goes. I am posting in a hurry so please forgive typos… We are having a great time!

October 23rd – 25th, 2021

Ngepi Camp turned out to be the medicine we needed. Waking up in the morning here was remarkable, with the birds very active. I was woken by some incredibly loud cackles from red billed spur fowl having some sort of disagreement, and after that we had a lazy morning of watching birds, wildlife, and having what we refer too as “fancy” breakfast. 

One minor puzzle we had yet to solve was the best way to make eggs in camp.  For practicality sake we eat hard boiled eggs often on game drives. But in camp it’s nice to have a fried egg, but our stove even on it’s lowest setting is too hot. Combine this with trying to make toast in a pan and it’s never really been our forte. Until this morning, where we went with the “toad in a hole” method, cutting out a circle in our bread to crack the egg into. Here’s to small victories, they came out just right.

Not feeling pressured we spent the day putzing around the cruiser and repacking for our upcoming guests. We are meeting our good friends Pete and Melissa in Livingstone next week, and we all need to figure out how to squeeze into our vehicle together. After some organizing it was starting to look like it might be possible. We were thankful to have our 270° awning, a recent splurge we added to the cruiser, which allowed for some packing in the shade as it heated up through the day. 

Thorough hot, sweaty and ready for a break we took advantage of Ngepi’s unique “pool”. A square dock in the river with about a 4 meter opening in the middle, the same river that is teeming with crocodiles and hippos. This square is caged on all sides, so one can safely swim in the river water. It was wonderfully cool to swim in the river, and a nice change to a pool, to really be in the environment. 

After that we enjoyed a couple very frosty Hansa draft beers from the bar (30 NAD) and took care of a few digital chores with a weak cell signal. “For my security”, Chase bank has delayed or cancelled my wire transfer to pay our mechanic bill in Windhoek, which is getting increasingly annoying. Still was unable to resolve this.

The next morning we left Ngepi fairly early, but not with our up before the sun game drive urgency that we usually do. I suppose something about knowing that we have a months of game viewing ahead of us took away some of the pressure to get into the park at the opening time of 0630. 

Our speedy version of breaking camp includes putting away the tent, making coffee and tea, brushing our teeth and that’s about it, which takes about 25 minutes if we’ve done what we’re supposed to do, put everything away the night before. Lazy breaking camp takes about an hour.

None the less we did manage to get packed up and started before 0700, driving the 7km of packed sand to the main road, and a few kilometers of gravel road before getting to the gate 20 or 30 minutes or so later. 

Entrance to Mahango cost a very reasonable 250 NAD total for two people and the vehicle. They have changed the fee structure so that you can use your permit for Mahango on the other side of the river in the Buffalo Core zone (the western zone adjacent to the Kavango River) of Bwabwata National Park on the same day. Two parks for one fee, a great deal. There are also new facilities at the entrance of both parks, with maps, signage, and toilets all looking very organized.

There is also borehole water available at the Buffalo Core entrance that we were allowed to fill our water tank from in 2019.

Mahango National Park is modest in size, but has a nice riverfront drive. Lions are seen, but rarely, and other than that there are the usual suspects of warthog, various antelope, giraffe, elephant, ostrich, and a whole lot of birds. We also saw two nile monitor lizards, including one that climbed a tree. I had no idea they could do that, and I’m not sure he did either because we watched him cling to the trunk for a few minutes, as if he was wondering how to get down. After a while he sort of figured it out, but it was not graceful, making me think that tree climbing is not a regular pastime for these large and prehistoric looking lizards.

Mahango is well known for a large and lovely baobab tree at one of its picnic sites, which has sadly died and fallen down. The ranger at the gate remarked that between covid “and our baobab tree died”, It has been a tough year, and indeed it was sad to see the downed tree. We have a photo of us in front of the same tree from 2013, the first time we ever did any self drive safari.  

The rest of the morning we continued to see a wide array of birds, modest wildlife and had a nice drive. It was our first of what will be many game drives, and we loved being back in the dust and corrugations as much as the the animals and the vistas. 

Mahango is a beautiful piece of wetlands and riverine woodlands. Wildlife is easy to spot, but not as productive from a game standpoint the headliner park in Namibia, Etosha. The Buffalo Core side of the river is bigger and has more tracks to explore than the Mahango side, with some deep sand and supposedly the rare sitatunga antelope. We have been there before in 2019 and decided to press onward this time. I would recommend the Buffalo Core and Mahango pair of parks to anyone, particularly now that you can use the same fee in each park. With two days (or maybe two nights if you game drove on arrival and departure days) you could explore pretty much every track in this pair of parks.

After the morning drive we still had a fair way to travel for our evening’s destination, Mudumu National Park. We made a fuel stop in Divundu. The market adjacent to the Shell station has been upgraded since we were last there, with spiffed up ablutions (5/5 on the gas station scale, which has more modest requirements in my view) and maybe a better selection of goods inside. You can buy beer and not very good meat pies here too. 

Heading east we crossed the strip part of the Caprivi Strip, a perfectly parallel swath of land that reminds me, in shape, of the Oklahoma panhandle in the US, except Namibia has sort of bump on the end that includes the small town of Kongola, Mudumu and Nkasa Rupara/Mamili National Parks, as well as the regional hub of Katima Mulilo. 

Bwabwata is fairly monotonous but pleasant, with a nearly perfectly straight road stretching the 190 or so kilometers. The eastern portion of Bwabwata is called the Kwando Core area, with the part in-between being a multi use game area with a lotta bush, and a few villages and small holding farms.

Arriving at Mudumu there is an incomplete new entrance facility on the east side of the road, and no sign as where to get park permits. I think the sign pointing off to the west has fallen over, as there is a sign if you are coming from the south. In any case, the office is marked on the map and we checked in, finding ourselves in the park ledger as one of only three vehicles in the park. 

Mudumu National Park has three unfenced campsites, I think the only unfenced camps in any Namibian National Park. And, I can hardly believe it, there is no additional fee to camp here and you cannot reserve the campsites, it’s first come first serve. Thus for the spectacular bargain of 500 NAD we go two nights of unfenced wild camping along the Nakatwa Lagoon in Mudumu National Park. Hippos wheeze-honking, birds chirping, cicadas humming loudly and an absolutely incredible sunset.

Right around sunset we also heard lions calling, deep low down grunting roars, the first for us in two years. We are back! What a fantastic welcome. That night we made up a new meal to add to our repertoire, fajitas. Though served on rice instead of tortillas, as tortillas are hard to come by in Africa and I didn’t have the heart to attempt making them. 

It was hot so we skipped having a fire that night and had dinner at sunset. As darkness fell the local trop of baboons came over to investigate, getting closer and closer the darker it got and it was starting to feel sort of ominous. The ‘babs’ as we sometimes call them, can be quite aggressive, but this group was more curious, I’d imagine that the low volume of campers has kept them at least somewhat wary of humans. After they’d closed in close for a good look they left us alone.

We went to bed early and it was hot that night. I tested out the 12v fan I brought for this sort of occasion. The tent has a 12v cigarette lighter plug in it for this sort of thing, and the fan draws only .18 amps on low. It was wonderfully cooling, but a bit louder than I hoped and we couldn’t hear the spectacular sounds of the bush very well, so after cooling off a bit I turned it off to listen to the bush symphony. What a great place.

The next day was spent in the park, game driving around. No luck on finding the lions, though we did see their tracks, including the tracks of one very large male. I forgot to take a picture. The area between the lodges and the ranger camp seemed to be the most productive for game, and that is where we saw the lion tracks. 

Also the sandy tracks here make for easy tracking, even for amateurs like us. Further south in the park, south of the ranger camp and near the campsites, the sand is very deep and soft. Particularly in late afternoon when the sand is hot and loose it is slow going. We reduced to 1.2 bar in the front and 1.5 in the rear and even used low range for a bit. With the right tire pressure the land cruiser marched through it without missing a beat.

We shifted from campsite No. 1 to No. 3 with permission from the ranger (via text, there is one bar of signal on MTN in the park), and spent some time midday lounging on the riverbank, watching birds and soaking it in, we explored south of the campsites. There aren’t many roads south of the campsites and we almost gave it a miss and went back to the central area, but we’re glad we didn’t. About 1 km after campsite No. 3 there is a right turn to a spur that dead ends at the overflow camp. If you skip this right turn and keep going there is a nice two spoor track that looks occasionally driven going near the marsh. Good birdlife, a tortise and a few antelope. We got to the ‘end of the road’ on the map, but the road clearly kept going. Following along we arrived to some beautiful marsh plains adjacent to the lagoon. I imagine they’re underwater if there has been much rain, but the track was clear and views wonderful. 

We saw waterbuck, saddle billed storks, a small group of browsing adolescent male elephant and a few other animals to keep us company. You can follow this track all the way to the park boundary. Beware, I imagine the road would be a disaster when wet.

Returning to camp we grilled chicken and baby marrows over the fire and retired fairly early. Unlike 

To Katima Mulilo

The plan is to head to Zambia and meet our friends in Livingstone no later than the 27th, so we had to get a move on. Needing a PCR test prior to crossing into Zambia we left before dawn on the access road that cuts NE to the C49. Arriving at the tar in short order, right at sunrise (a wee bit early according to park rules, but we received a friendly wave from a ranger), we aired up our tires in the company of a few zebra and roan. 

Even after getting going on the tar we had to stop for a solitary elephant to stared us down and gave us a warning head waggle to make sure we knew who was in charge, and then he sedately crossed the road. Elephants do this often, stare you down and give a head shake, ears full open and facing you with aggression. Assuming you stop and they are satisfied you got the message, almost invariably they will continue on their way, but at a slightly oblique angle away from you, but not so much so that they can’t see you behind them. They’ll swing their head left and right to check on you and make sure you’ve stayed where you were told. Wonderful animals. 

T4A said it was 2 hours to Katima, and with our airing up and elephant stop we were there in 2.5, with a half hour to spare before the hospital covid testing facility opened.

We were curious how the hospital would look and what the scene would be. Arriving through the gate everyone was masked, mostly correctly. There was a, thankfully, empty triage tent, and a separate large army style tent set up for outdoor covid testing. A few benches around with less than a dozen people waiting already. Everyone appeared to be local, or perhaps truck drivers also intending to cross the border, except for us and one other traveler. 

A critical skill on our endeavor is waiting. Africans are excellent at waiting, Americans less so. One must channel your inner patience and serenity and just wait. Whatever you’ve come for will happen eventually. Usually. Except when you need to speak up for yourself or it will never happen. Knowing which situation you are in is not always clear, but this time around it was obvious waiting was what was happening.

Eventually things got moving and we were processed, swabbed and on our way. The Namibia Pathology Institute has recently installed a PCR lab in the Katima Mulilo hospital, so samples no longer need to be driven to Windhoek. This has reduced turnaround times to less than 24 hours, very impressive. Cost was 750 NAD, about $52 USD/ea.

The Air Con

Since arrival in Windhoek our air conditioning has not been right. When turning it on a load squealing noise emanates from under the hood, presumably the belt slipping. After a few seconds it stops, but then every 15 seconds or so, when the a/c compressor clutches in, it chirps and squeals again. Clearly this needed to be sorted out, we were headed to the hottest part of Zambia, the Zambezi and Luangwa Valleys, in the hottest time of the year, referred to by the locals as “suicide month” do the the oppressive heat. The internet reported the weather in Mfuwe (near South Luangwa National Park) as “106°F, but feels like 103°F”! Oh good, it only feels like a 103°F! 

We headed to Zambezi Auto City, recommended on the iOverlander App. They are a large shop on the edge of Katima Mulilo, and remarkably they had us sorted out in less than an hour by re- tensioning the belt. We had tried this, but had used the incorrect technique and it didn’t work. Proper method applied, we were on our way with blessedly silent cool air flowing.

Camp and the bee eaters

I had read that the largest colony of southern carmine bee eaters nest outside of Katima Mulilo, something like October and November, we had a great opportunity to check them out. To facilitate this we stayed at the closest camp, Zambezi Mubala Campsite, a Gondwana property.

For those that do not know, Gondwana is a sort of Namibian safari chain, more upmarket than NWR, but not anywhere near Wilderness Safaris or someone like that. 

Zambezi Mubala is more expensive than other nearby camps, $19 USD/pppn. They have a small gift shop, bar and restaurant with a deck over the river, pool and camps on grassy lawns and private ablutions, power point and washing up area for each campsite. The amenities are excellent but the whole thing lacks character, or maybe it was just compared with Ngepi, that is bursting with it. 

Additionally the river bank is being eroded and has understandably been reinforced with sand bags, however this does detract a bit from any remaining wilderness feeling. To cap it all off there is a large water pump running 24/7 a little bit down the river, I assume to feed the adjacent rice project. 

The ablutions were fairly well sealed against the abundant insect life, which I appreciate for taking a shower at night when the lighting can attract the hordes, but the downside of this is if you use any of the freely available hot water in your shower it turns the shower block into a sauna. The second you turn the water off from your refreshing shower you are immediately hot and sticky again. Ablution score, 4/5, functional but no charm. Water from this camp is directly from the river.

I will say that the bird life is amazing here. Bee eaters and grey louries, black eyed bulbuls, arrow marked babblers and who knows what else. We also saw the crazy looking Schalow’s Turacou, but I was unable to get a photo of it. What a great looking bird.  

Our only chance at the bee eaters was this afternoon, as the new day we would head across the border. The camp offers a 3 hour birding excursion for about $37 USD/pp, “leaving at 1500 and returning at 1730.” Which you will note is not 3 hours. Asking if we could drive to the colony, as it appeared we could on our map, they said, “The road is not good.” We thought that sounded interesting, so off we went to give it a try.

The road to the bee eaters is narrow two spoor track, but nothing technical, though there are a few narrow spots where we got some bush stripes. Apparently the birds have abandon their former nesting ground and moved west, so we back tracked and found them about 100m south of the road.

Walking out near the nesting ground we sat down and the birds started to ignore us. It was quite hot, but as we waited the later in the afternoon it got the thicker the they congregated, and we could see them even way off in the distance hundreds more doing graceful pirouettes in the air. The massed in near by trees too, harassing each other and adjusting their roost. Occasionally something would spook them and the air would fill with a thousand carmines, and shortly afterwards they’d resettle in the trees, on the ground, chirping and singing at each other.  I must have taken a thousand photos, mostly terrible and out of focus. Even at 1/2000s shutter speed the wings were a blur, but I couldn’t shoot any faster in the late afternoon light. I still managed get some pretty good ones I think.

And we were all alone. It’s quite a spectacle and well worth the time. I’m sure coming with a guide or with the lodge would also prove fruitful, but we did enjoy our independence visiting them.

Returning, we had a fairly decent pizza on the deck along the river and called it an evening not too late. The next day would be a border crossing and the infamously bad Shesheke – Livingstone road. We met a couple in Mudumu that had just spent six months driving to Uganda and back and said that was the worst road they’d driven the whole trip. We will tell you about it next time.

The Nitty Gritty

Ngepi Camp 

80 NAD pppn, with a 100 NAD fee if you park on the grass. They really don’t want you to park on the grass. Very cold draft Hansas were 30 NAD. Firewood, allegedly higher priced than the local norm as it is only collected from dead & downed mopani trees, was a very reasonable 15 NAD per modest bundle. Exchange rate at time of writing is 14.something to $1 USD. 

Water at Ngepi camp is directly from the river. This means we are happy to bathe and brush out teeth with it (slow strengthening of the immune system, or foolhardy?), but we don’t drink it without boiling or treating it. 

Ablutions here are all quirky and amusing. Some are lacking privacy a bit, but somehow this all seems to work out. There was a wonderful open air shower near our campsite, or a more traditional closed one if that is your thing. Hot water is a mix of solar and donkey boiler, which you must buy wood for yourself. It was hot and we took cold showers happily.

Bwabwata NP

If you are making the same drive and want to visit the Kwando Core area you can visit the wonderful Horseshoe viewing platform, though when we did so in 2019 there was a proper squall coming through and not an animal or bird was to be seen, all having presumably taken shelter from the weather. There is very deep sand on this route so be prepared to air down. Some of the roads have frustrating undulations from those that have tried to power through with tires that are too hard, resulting in some holes dug in the track.

Mudumu

Evidently they allow the park permit to be 24 hour permits, though I don’t think this is the official rule, as the could have charged us 750 N to camp two nights in the park, that is 250 for the day we arrived, 250 for a full day in the park and 250 for the day we were departing. But they only charged us 500 N.

Of the three sites (and an unofficial fourth overflow site) we found site three and one to be preferable. Site No. 1 is fairly close to the ranger camp, though we heard no noise from the rangers, site 2 is a bit smaller and has shade but not as good a view and site 3 has it all, a view at the apex of an oxbow in the river and a few shade trees. The overflow site also looks good, though there is no bank between you and the river and I suspect animals come through here to drink. All the other sites have a moderately steep bank, so that though animals could maybe drink from here they’d likely go to either side where there is easier access to the water.

Just south of No. 3 is a place that many animals come to drink.

Air-Con

When messaging back and forth with the shop owner and getting the symptoms he said the problem was either the need for proper belt tension, a new belt, or as far as the a/c compressor clutch needing to be rebuilt. We had our fingers crossed for the belt and lucked out. 

The trick that we did not do when adjusting the tension ourselves was to loosen the idler pulley axel bolt before adjusting the tensioning bolt. This allowed the pulley to slide in its track more easily and not bind on the idler pulley bearing. After getting the correct tension he re-tightened the idler pulley axel bolt. He did not use a torque wrench, it was all by feel, but he seemed to know his stuff and it worked, so it was all good by us.

You can read about a similar screeching issue with air-con here: https://landcruiserclub.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=82099 

Also the cruiser had been smoking a bit when driving fast (it’s all relative with the 4.2 1HZ engine) and accelerating. When we first left Windhoek and really loaded up the engine for the first time it was pretty bad, and after a while it was only on hard acceleration. Initially I assumed it was due to the 18 month old tank of diesel we had left in the car, after we had used most of that it cleared up, but not entirely. We also noted that the oil had been overfilled at the last service. The mechanic at Zambezi Auto City took out about half a liter and the issue seems to have resolved itself. We have noticed that frequently they overfill the oil. I’m guessing that they are not waiting long enough for the oil to drain down through the engine.

PCR  Testing in Katima

We got tested at the hospital and received a text of our results by 1700 the same day, very impressive. My impression is that they only accept a certain number of travelers’ tests per day, to make sure that they can test enough people that might actually have covid. We had called the week before to make an appointment, and they took our names and said come at 0830, but when we arrived they had no appointment book. Regardless they sorted us out, as well as five other travelers, who all received quick results.  

There are two other labs in Katima, but at least one of them sends their samples to Windhoek for processing, so results take longer. They are also more expensive. I would recommend the hospital. 

You’ll need to collect the official stamped results the following morning from the laboratory at the hospital prior to going to the border. I’ll post all the border crossing details in a separate post.