It’s not quite as drastic as ‘dead or alive’, but perhaps wanted in Namibia all the same. And it just applies to Sharon.
Since driving in Namibia we have come across many Police road blocks with Stop signs. It seems they are a dime a dozen and at first we stopped at them all, waiting for instructions which were not always forthcoming, but when they were it was just a wave from a cop in a roadside hut to drive on. That is until Sharon did not come to a complete standstill.
At one of these Stop signs a few hundred km’s north of Windhoek she just slowed way down, looked for the cop’s attention and moved off in 1st gear thinking that he would wave us on as normal. Not the case – he pulled us in and started the interrogation. Perhaps this is where he got confused and annoyed. Female driver speaking with an Irish accent, driving a South African car in Namibia, holding a British passport and a Kiwi driving licence, but now resident in South Africa, married to an English man. He couldn’t quite follow the trail of a global citizen!
Anyway he demanded an instant N$150 fine, but when Sharon demanded a receipt, his name and ID number he changed his tune. He apparently tried phoning and making radio contact with some of his colleagues somewhere, but to no avail. He told us that at the next road block they would be waiting on us and we would have to pay the fine there. Strangely enough we never came across another road block, and touch wood the Namibian Police Force have not yet tracked us down, but if anything changes we will let you know!
We have just driven out of Etosha National Park in north Namibia having spent the last week living the wild life there.
We got there a bit later than we had first anticipated due to our few car delays and then our change of plan to attend a local air show (more in a minute). We had wanted to get to Etosha before the rains came as apparently the game viewing is much easier and our car is only a 2 wheel drive; we made it and in fact there is still not much sign of rain.
Camping in Etosha National Park
Etosha is a massive natural salt pan and the place is just teaming with game. We camped at three different camp sites and just drove ourselves around the park in the mornings, swam in the afternoons, and then either did late afternoon drives or just sat at the camp site water holes (which were flood lit for night time viewing) to view the animals. We know how to live the wild life!
It was magic. We just loved anticipating the surprise of what we might see every day, and we were never disappointed. We saw dozens of giraffe, hundreds of zebra, springbok, oryx and impala, herds of wildebeest, several elephant, a few rhinos and lions on a daily basis. We did spot a couple of the smaller wild things and perhaps a bit too close for comfort. We had a snake go under our tent one night, and this morning Dave spotted a scorpion just as he was packing up the tent!
(We do hope to download some photos onto the blog site at some stage, but it is time consuming at internet cafes – perhaps when we settle back in SA we will get some organised.)
Otjiwarongo Air Show
Back to the air show. That was our first change of plan, and what a result it turned out to be. Dave had made email contact with some paragliders, and to cut a long story a wee bit shorter we ended up meeting up with them to see if he could get a flight. We had a great few days and got involved with helping set up and do things at the air show which was a fund raising activity for REST – Rare and Endangered Species Trust – with particular emphasis on the Cape Griffen Vulture of which there are only 12 remaining in Namibia.
Unfortunatley Dave did not manage to get a flight (condidtions were not right at the right time), but we had a great 4 nights eating and drinking at REST and met some lovely people and hope to meet up with a few of the flying guys again in South Africa.
Well here is a first, I have actually been allowed to write a Blog post! No doubt my wife will complain about it’s content, spelling and grammar. But here goes.
Despite only having made our rough travel plan 3 days ago it has already changed. Having been in touch with a member of the Namibian Paragliding Association to find out about possible flying sites, it transpired that there was going to be an airshow this Saturday in a town close to where we were. There are hangliders and paragliders here for the week, so we have decided to come and stay here – Otjiwarongo, for the weekend.
It seems that the conditions might be a bit strong for me to fly, the hangliders said they have been going up and down at up to 6 metres a second, which is fairly extreme. They seem like a nice bunch so it should be fun. Also there are some gliders here from SA so should be able to get some good contacts for future flying.
So the future plans are to be in Etosha National Park on Monday and stay until we get bored of looking at the wildlife. I should mention of course that we were in Waterberg PLateau National Park for the last 2 days and we did one guided game drive. Saw countless Giraffes including some baby ones which were very cute. It looked like that was going to be all for awhile but at our second and last waterhole a herd of Buffalo came in for a drink followed by a couple of Roan Antelope ( which apparently are quite rare). So that was a good start to our game watching although we were hoping for a couple of Rhinos.
Well thats about all from me for now, might be quite a long time before I’m allowed to write again but it has been fun.
We are now in Namibia, and it just goes to show that if you keep somewhere on your ‘list’ long enough you will eventually get to it. Sharon has had Namibia on her ‘to do’ list since she last lived in South Africa 15 years ago!
The drive across the Trans Kalahari highway from Botswana to Namibia was uneventful, but successful as we arrived safely having avoided the ostrich, goats and warthogs. And we managed to cope in the heat, but only just! We were very glad to reach the town of Gobabis, and Ernie’s B&B with ice cold drinks.
We tried our best to make conversation with the locals at the bar, but whether it was something we said, how we said it, or maybe even how we smelled, they were clearly not interested and continued speaking in Afrikaans. At one stage during the 20/20 cricket game between SA and NZ we thought they might throw us out! We decided it was best to watch the end of the game in our room.
We have spent the last 3 days camping just outside of the capital city (and maybe only city in Namibia) of Windhoek and today have come into town to get some more information on the rest of the country. It is a little like getting blood out of a stone, but we think we have enough now to continue on our trip.
We plan to head north from here to Etosha National Park, then work our way down the west coast and central areas to the south of the country before going back into SA . We are guessing about a 5-6 week trip.
A lot of the time we will be camping in national parks so access to internet will probably be limited. We will aim to update the blog as often as we can and check our emails. Our SA phone does not work in Namibia. Until the next time…
That was a slip of the tongue from Sharon as we crossed the border from South Africa into Botswana! What she really meant to say was ‘look at the baboons in Botswana’. And to emphasise she in no way was talking about the cross-border and customs officials. There were actual baboons crossing the road in front of us.
We managed to leave Johannesburg last Thursday, a bit later than we had wanted to. We had to wait for a border letter from the car insurance company, which as it turned out we were never asked to produce! Chico, our car, got a clean bill of health that morning and let’s hope it stays that way. The drive was easy and the roads were in pretty good condition. We just had to watch out for the animals – mostly baboons, donkeys, goats, cattle and loads of ostrich.
We were only crossing through Botswana to get to Namibia so we only stayed there one night in a place called Kanya. We had no idea of where to stay before we arrived. We had found two hotel names listed on an obscure website, so stopped and asked a Kenyan lady where they were. One was no longer operating, but she very kindly led us to the other one which turned out to be fine.
The first palaver we had was with paying on credit card. The receptionist didn’t really know how the ‘chip & pin’ type cards worked. It looked like the card got swiped twice, but it was hard to tell as there was no paper in the machine!
The second palaver was dinner. The meat was a bit tough and Sharon had a choking attack in the dining room, but the locals were concerned and all willing to help. Thankfully the Heimlich (not sure how to spell) manoeuvre was not necessary.
Friday was to be our long day of driving so we wanted an early start. First stop was the ATM machine for some cash where the machine swallowed Dave’s bank card!!! The bank was not open and the security guard said it would be another hour or so before we could get help. But we were in luck this time, a very nice gentleman from the bank came out about 10 minutes later with Dave’s card so we were able to get a move on.
Considering we were only in Botswana for less than 24 hours, we haven’t got much room to comment, but the people we did met were more than helpful. In fact the customs/border officials on the way out of Botswana were the nicest either of us have ever come across! When Dave signed the form as the Customs official instead of the tourist they even joked about it!
We will keep Botswana on our ‘list’ and will try and get back there some day.
What a difference a day can make! We are happy to say that our second welcome to South Africa was a much more hospitable one.
The day after we last wrote our blog, our friends Michelle & Peter picked us up from the Basecamp Backpackers in Port Elizabeth. They drove us to St Francis Bay where they had booked us into the most luxurious place either of us have ever stayed. The Beach House was the ultimate in laid back luxury for the next three nights. We felt thoroughly spoiled and enjoyed every minute – sumptuous breakfasts, walks on the beach, and candle lit baths with sea views.
The Beach House DeckThe Beach House BedroomSea Views!Peter and Michelle
This was in stark contrast to the previous two nights we spent at the backpackers hostel with the craziest hosts we have ever met. Franzie and Monica were ‘Basil and Sybil’ to a tee! Franzie was completley interfering and Moncia constantly nagging him, but they did want their guests to have a good time.
We have also had our first experience of a Fair Trade in Tourism accredited operator – we took a city and township tour with Calabash Tours in Port Elizabeth which gave us an insight on how things work; it was a little disappointing, but worthwhile all the same.
We unfortunately had some very sad news in the last two weeks. Sharon’s sister phoned to say that Avis (a good friend and sister-in-law) had lost her mother in the fight against cancer. Then two days later just as we were getting ready to leave St Francis Bay, Sharon’s Dad phoned with the dreaded phone call that wee Eileen (who had been part of the Brunt family for more than forty five years) had died.
The next couple of days for Sharon were by far the saddest she has ever experienced living away from family, feeling so isolated and not being at home where she was needed. It was not possible to get back to Ireland and very difficult to come to terms with the fact that she could not be there to support family and friends. This is certainly the down side of choosing our travelling lifestyle, but we were so thankful that at least we had each other and we were with supportive friends.
Volkswagen Chico
Since then we have bought a car and to be honest not had the best luck with it so far. Let’s face it, it just hasn’t been our week, but DV things can only get better. We bought our little 1995 VW Citi Golf on Friday from a distant referral, but after walking the streets of East London talking to used car salesman, we thought even a distant referral would be better than taking a chance with a complete stranger. One thing we found is that it is very difficult to buy a car without a car – walking from lot to lot is time consuming work!
We also managed to clear our remaining baggage through customs at the end of last week, a bit of a long winded process, but we got there in the end and now have our camping gear and Dave’s paraglider in tow.
Anyway on Saturday we packed up and hit the road at 7am for an early start – 70kms later the car conked out, fortunately at a Shell garage where there just happened to be two policeman shopping for doughnuts and who were willing to help. They tried their best as did another couple of kind motorists, but all to no avail, the little Chico was going nowhere. Eventually the AA towed us back to East London where the mechanic took 10 minutes to fix an apparent simple alternator/battery wiring problem!
At 1pm we decided to stick with our original plan and headed for Howick (Sharon lived here back in 1990!) in Kwa Zulu Natal. Everything was going well until about 150kms from Howick. Sunset followed by thick fog (no more than 2 metres visibility) accompanied by pedestrians, wild animals and vehicles with no lights on the road meant driving was far from a pleasure. All this accompanied by the oil light flashing on the dashboard with not a garage in sight. Needless to say we were more than relieved to arrive with Mr & Mrs de Jong at 8.30pm in two safe, but shattered pieces!
We had a very relaxing Sunday watching Michelle and her horse in an eventing competition followed by time walking with Mr & Mrs de Jong on the completed Sakabula Golf Coursewhich we first saw in it’s infancy some 9 years ago!
Monday ended up being a bit of a marathon drive from Howick to Pretoria – the car did not get off to a good start, but we did make it just in time for a 5pm appointment with Sharon’s new boss at Fair Trade in Tourism. It was good to put faces with names and she now has no shortage of reading and research material to digest before starting work in January.
Right now we are at Michelle & Peter’s home in between Johannesburg and Pretoria getting ready to re-start our road trip. And guess what? The Chico has had to go into the garage for another check up! All being well we will hit the road again tomorrow and aim to cross the border into Botswana. We don’t plan on stopping long in Botswana on this trip as the goal is to get to Namibia and travel there for the next few weeks.
Although we no longer have our lap top (see previous blog post), we are still able to update schindlersinsa.blogspot.com and check emails via internet cafes to keep in touch.
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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