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Let’s try this again…

*the internet here is not good and I’m sadly unable to upload photos. I’ll update when I get a chance, but for now, this is what we’re up to.

October 18th – 22nd, 2021

Here we are, back in Namibia again. Last time we were in Namibia it was March 2020 and as you recall, not a good month for international travel. Then we left under the hurried threat of covid-19 closures, catching the last commercial flight back to the states. This time we hope to do better.

Ngepi

I write you from the very spectacular Ngepi Camp on the banks of the Kavango River in far northern Namibia. Even though Windhoek is a fine enough city, by the time we were done with all our chores we were really itching to get on the road and to some wilderness. We made a big push and drove the ~935km to Ngepi from Urbancamp in about 10.5 hrs. This may seem sort of ridiculous but was totally worth it. We arrived at campsite No. 6 on the banks of the river to comfortable temperature, antelope grazing on the opposite bank and birds everywhere, it was magic and totally worth making the long drive. 

Just that evening from our camp chairs we saw waterbuck, bushbuck, wart hogs, river otter, hippo, crocodile, a host of birds, impala, and a very active bushbaby. We heard it had rained heavily the night before, and all the animals and birds were active, the temperature exceedingly pleasant, and a nearly full moon rose from across the river from camp. We grilled chicken and portobellos over the fire, had ice cold beers from our fridge and were elated, feeling that we had really started our journey. 

*birds may or may not be limited to: crested barbet, cape turtle dove, African skimmer, Egyptian goose/duck (depending on who you ask), African Jacana, blacksmith lapwing, black winged stilt, some sort of heron very far away, red billed spur fowl, starling (meeves?), meyer’s parrot, paradise fly catcher, a yellow bird that might be a weaver, or something else, grey lourie, arrow marked babbler (?) and a bunch I couldn’t identify. It is birding mayhem here, like being in an aviary. They were coming very fast this morning, so much that I couldn’t keep up. Still though, not too shabby for a very amateur pair of birders.

To get here we had to make a series of sprints, a sprint to leave home and a push through the logistics of Windhoek. Let me catch you up… 

The day before we flew from the states was a big day. Getting ready for leave for almost a year turned out, to the surprise of no one but us, to be more work and more complex than we initially thought. We blithely forged ahead, but it has been stressful getting our stuff packed and getting out of the house between many heartfelt good byes.

Windhoek and Urban Camp

Seeing the wide expanse of acacia plains from the air was wonderful, we were back in Africa. After so much anticipation and planning it hardly seemed real. 

When you land in Windhoek there is no jetway, stairs are wheeled up to the aircraft. I like disembarking this way, as you instantly feel the weather, the temperature and smell the smells. It was a bright sunny morning and we kept grinning. 

The grinning didn’t last long, as it was cold enough that my teeth almost started chattering. Cold? Even though October is normally the hottest month of the year, it was less than 50° F. I had been wearing just a t-shirt on the plane, and walking across the tarmac I was freezing. Later the taxi driver confirmed it was very unusual for this time of year.

We had a good chat with the Taxi driver on the way to the vehicle storage place. He said tourism is picking up in the last month, but is still much less than before covid. He also volunteered that he was vaccinated, and that anyone can get vaccinated that wants to in Namibia. There are a lot of vaccine conspiracy theories circulating, leading to hesitancy for some. He also said some employers are mandating it, but also organizing vaccinating for their employees. 

The cruiser was ready and waiting for us, keys in the ignition. Manfred was off with other customers somewhere and this displayed a curiosity we have experienced frequently in Africa. Reputedly Africa is full of scams and corruption, but we have found many times that we are simply trusted to pay our bill. In this case we had a significant repair bill from Manfred’s shop, and we could have easily have just driven away without paying. 

After about 30 minutes or so we had loaded our luggage and were standing around wondering how to pay Manfred when he finally rolled up. We paid him for the storage, 400 NAD/month, and then asked if it would be alright if we did an electronic transfer later for the mechanic fee. He said no problem, and off we went. Another example of the trust we have been extended many times.

Being back in the land cruiser was great, the rumble of the 4.2 straight six diesel, shifting through the gears with the low down torque and just being on the road again, even if just the road from the airport, was great. 

We had a list of things to do in Windhoek, so right out the gate we started with a few stops. First we went to the Offroad Centre 4×4 shop to pick up a new auxiliary battery, as we knew that ours was shot last time we were here in 2020, and no doubt almost 18 months in storage was the nail in the coffin. They were able to quickly install the battery and kindly took the old one off our hands for disposal. 

After that we made a quick stop by Bushlore to pick our Carnet de Passages en Douane, aka carnet, or CPD.It had been couriered to their office from Johannesburg. The CPD is required to take the vehicle into Kenya. More on this in the section at the end.

Urban Camp, chores & the solar saga

After the flying and all the running around we were getting tired and we made our way to Urban Camp, where we have stayed several times before. Urban Camp is a little oasis in the Eros neighborhood of Windhoek, with campsites and nicely furnished safari tents if you don’t have your own camping gear. It also serves as a convenient logistics stop for many a long haul overlander, as well as the numerous self drive rental vehicles that are ubiquitous in Namibia. 

They have a restaurant, bar with very cold draft beer and a small pool. Wifi available for guests in the pool/restaurant zone. In the evenings the bar is a popular place for Windhoek locals. 

Around the compound are thoughtfully designed bathrooms (no trip report is complete without the ablution report!), with great outdoor hot showers. Nicely tiled indoor showers are also on offer for those that prefer to shower inside.  I give the ablutions a 5/5, but mind you I am not that picky. You are forewarned.

We are comfortable at Urban Camp, and it was great to settle in to familiar surrounds so we could get organized to head off to the Zambezi region (aka the Caprivi, though the reasons for the name change remain unclear to me) as soon as we can. 

After a very frosty victory beer the days started to melt together, unpacking and repacking the cruiser, trying to figure where all the stuff we brought would get packed away, provisioning, and getting organized. 

I was starting to think we had brought too much stuff. When we were packing we were a little frazzled, and when presented with a decision we erred on the, ‘bring it, we’ll figure it out when we get there’ side of things. Now that we are here, it seems like a lot of stuff. After a lot of cleaning and organizing things started to get tucked away into their spots and it seems like maybe this might actually work

We also noticed that our solar panel didn’t appear to be charging the auxiliary battery. After some poking around with the multimeter I was worried it was dead, but by the time I reached this conclusion I couldn’t repeat my test as the sun was too low. I wanted to measure the DC voltage out of the panel while disconnected one more time before making the call that we’d have to sort out a replacement panel. Some internet research indicated that fried diodes in the panel are common, but on this panel that is a sealed unit, so no cheap fix this time around.

Though we were really excited to be on the outset of our trip, all the packing and organizing and dealing with solar panels was starting to feel like we were doing more of the same logistics and planning we had been doing from home. That combined with jet lag and we were getting a little worn out, and ready to leave the city as soon as possible.

We did enjoy a nice breakfast at the restaurant, though due to covid Urbancamp isn’t offering their really great breakfast buffet they used to have, and instead you order at the bar and they bring it to your table. We accomplished a few digital chores and I already got back an email from National Luna (makers of our MPPT solar charge controller, packaged into the DCDC charger) on some solar troubleshooting tips. 

Sure enough, I confirmed the panel was dead. To Jenny’s chagrin this meant we got to spend a lot of time talking electrons and whatnot, which is not a favorite hobby of hers. After calling around a bit Offroad Centre, said they no longer deal with flex panels since they had so many issues with them, but that they could replace it with a glass panel. 

They only had 90w panels in stock, and since I’d already been mulling upping our solar capacity we went for two 90s, giving us a total of 180watts. That should be plenty for our relatively modest needs. We run two fridges that each draw 2.4A when the compressor is running. The small 15 liter fridge is in-between the seats for drinks and we can turn off anytime we’re worried about not having enough charging capacity. 

Offroad Centre was able to squeeze us in for the installation the next day, adding an extra day in Windhoek. Though we wanted to be on the road already, it did take the pressure off a bit. 

We provisioned at the Super Spar in the Grove Mall. Pro tip: we know from before that if you use the outside parking area has parking that is high enough for our vehicle. A surprising amount of parking areas in Windhoek are limited to 2.4 meters, and the cruiser is 2.5 meters or so, making finding parking stressful. We still have PTSD after our incident in Botswana. 

We stocked up on things harder to find further north. Black beans, coconut milk and some gluten free goods for our gluten challenged (can I say glutard?) friend we’re meeting in Zambia. Also the staples, eggs, peanut butter, cheese, beer, biltong, chicken and some veggies. There is a fruit and vegetable stand near Urban Camp, so we went light on the freshies to go there later.

After all this we treated ourselves to a dinner at the famous Joe’s Beerhouse, where I had the Namib Trio of Kudu, Springbok and Zebra, where Jenny went all in on an enormous Zebra steak. Feeling very satisfied we collapsed, with a plan to bring the vehicle in for the solar panel install first thing the next morning.

Which we did, dropping of the cruiser and taking a taxi back to Urban Camp, we find ourselves with a forced day of leisure, giving me time to bang out this not too exciting blog post.

In closing

All this seems very mundane when compared to our lofty aspirations of exploring backwater dirt tracks and wildlife viewing. But when we’ve told a lot of people about our trips we frequently get asked, “How do you even do that?”, Well, here it is folks. If you find this interesting let me know, and if not I promise I won’t be offended if you don’t need to hear about the intricacies of finding ≥2.5m parking spots in Windhoek and other similar fascinations.

I’m also going to be adding a section to each post that I used to call “Logistical Notes”, but that is too boring, so I’ve retitled it, “The Nitty Gritty”. This will have technical notes for those that care, but stuff that might be boring to most. It is hard to know where to draw the line, for example, I couldn’t bring myself to move the solar stuff down there. 

The Nitty Gritty

The Flight

Namibia currently only requires PCR tests within 7 days, but they update their covid protocols on the 15th of each month. As we were flying on the 16th I felt there was a chance they would switch to 72 hrs, as most other countries are. We scheduled quick result PCR tests the day before the flight and had our results the same day, for an extra fee of course. We saved digital copies on our phones, along with photos of our vaccination cards, as well as physical copies of everything.

Our route was San Francisco – London – Frankfurt – Windhoek. The San Francisco airport was fairly empty. Mind you SFO’s international terminal is rarely overcrowded, but it felt sleepy this time around. 

Before arriving at the airport we started checking in online from home, and it felt like I was filling out a job application. Upload copies of our passports, our covid tests, our vaccination cards. The route is checked by the airline, and it automatically prompts you with additional forms to fill out based on your layovers (London, Frankfurt) and destination. All pretty remarkable actually, and it seems to actually work. 

A huge shout out to the person who checked us in at United, he was the most helpful airline person I have had the pleasure to interact with, ever. He made sure our travel documents were in order.

This is the longest I’ve not been on a plane since I was a kid and it was novel to be in the airport again. SFO now has a nice outdoor patio where we sat and ate, enjoying a bit of last minute not masking before 30 hours of mask wearing.

We lucked out and the United flight was pretty empty. The other two flights were fairly full and uneventful.

Windhoek immigration and customs had a long queue, with covid test results checked thoroughly. Only one of the two “required” covid screening forms (the one with the blue outline) was taken at the Health Inspection station before immigration. Our travel health insurance and itinerary were not checked, even though officially I believe this is a requirement for entry.

In the airport while we waited for our taxi we managed to get some Namibian dollars at the ATM. Note, the FNB ATM max withdrawal is 2000 NAD, the other one, Standard Bank, allows 5000 per withdrawal. 

Sim Cards

We also both got SIM cards for our cell phones. Contrary to what I had read before, you do not need a passport to register a phone number and new SIM. Using a package recommended by the MTN staff we each got 3 gigs of data + 700 MB for WhatsApp, valid for 7 days, total a 65 Namibian dollars each, or $4.50 USD. Getting the package that expires after a week is more cost efficient than the one that last a month, and you can just re-up if you need after the 7th day. 

The Carnet de Passages en Douane

The existence of carnets in general is of diminishing importance in international travel, as less and less countries require them and will issue instead a temporary import permit (TIP) at the border. However Kenya does require them. Until recently Kenya would allow visits for up to 14 days without one, renewable, however reportedly this is no longer possible. 

To obtain a carnet you have to provide a cash deposit based on the value of your vehicle to the issuing authority. The issuing authority is located in the country the vehicle is registered in, in our case the Automobile Associate of South Africa. After paying a fee of 6000 ZAR and the deposit AA South Africa issues the carnet to use, valid for one year. Each page of the booklet is for one country. Each page has three coupons. One for customs upon entry, one for customs upon exit, and the third one we keep. Customs in turn match up the two coupons and then they have a record that the vehicle came and went and no import duty is required. If you illegally sell the vehicle and they only have the single entry, then they submit it to AA South Africa who pays the duty, and you lose your deposit. The third coupon is to resolve disputes, as you have evidence you came and went. 

After the booklet is full or your year is up you return the book with all entries made to AA South Africa and get your deposit back, less the 6000 ZAR fee (about $413.80 USD at current rates). If this seems a bit convoluted, it is compared to the TIP alternative. However it does provide recourse for countries that have high rates of vehicles, often stolen, being brought into the country and sold illegally, and as long as it gets us to Kenya then it is alright with me. 

We’ve also been told that it smooths border crossings and makes them much faster, though in our experience getting a TIP is no great hardship and is also not expensive. In many countries they are free, and mostly they seem to cost between $15 and $50 USD per country. No doubt the CDP allows for greater freedom, but it certainly comes at a steep cost. 

How did I learn about such things? A lot of time on the internet. And it’s not quite as esoteric as it sounds, for example, my employer needs carnets for some of our specialized high value assets that are occasionally shipped around the world.

Water

I filled our water tank from the camp water and found that the charcoal filter I’d brought for drinking water has the wrong threads, and none of the handful of adapters I have will work. This was disappointing, I had been trying to up my water game a bit. 

Typically we only treat the water if it’s suspect. I wanted to start out right after everything had been sitting for so long, so I dosed the tank with Katadyne Micro-Pur Forte treatment powder. I had to order this from Europe as in the states it’s only sold in tablets for treating 1 liter at a time. We have tried Aqua-Selvo in the past, which works but we didn’t like the taste, though we still have some if the mirco-pur stuff doesn’t work out. 

First pass and we are happy with the Katadyne Micro-Pur, which comes with a little dosing spoon to scoop out the powder in 1g increments, which will treat 100 liters of water. Our tank is 60 liters (or 67?) so I used ⅔ of a scoop. We also have some Katadyne Anti-Chlor, which you can put in a water bottle to neutralize any chlorine taste. So far the taste is palatable, though not undetectable, and the anti-chlor does help a bit. 

Next time around I’ll give the full low down on the solar setup and Ngepi Camp.