Rare Sightings and Brushes With Death Along Banks of Rivers

watching the savannah-sunset from the platform

And I’m really glad we did.  My impressions of Namibia are of vast, desolate, uninhabitable land with hot sun, and sand that stretches endlessly, undisturbed.  But in the Caprivi Strip, not one, but four important rivers flow, breathing life into the land.  Here, there are green trees, full, lush plants, and flowers of every color.  Here, the air is fresh and humid.  Here, there are animals a-plenty, and people a-plenty, too.  From the moment we crossed the border at Ngoma Bridge, this Namibia – the farthest you can be from Windhoek without leaving the country – felt different.  And I liked it.

our campsite at Nambwa (along the river!)

Bruno came here about a decade ago, during his first trip around the world.  The country had just opened up to tourism, having been closed for years due to spillover from the war in Angola.  When he came here, locals were only beginning to return to abandoned, shrapnel-filled village without infrastructure.  Now, as a result of the new tarred road that cuts across the region, this is the new tourist hot-spot, the “easy” way to get from the main body of Namibia to Victoria Falls or Botswana’s Chobe National Park.  Tourists now fly through the region in their camper vans and overland trucks, tents on the roof and caravans towed behind. 

nice ablution block (beautiful wood sinks!)

There is money to made here, now, but at what cost?  Traditional culture is changing at lightning speed.  Western clothing, modern music, and alcohol are more appealing to youth than straw huts, subsistence farming, and traditional customs; begging for a dollar is more rewarding to kids than going to school.  Traditional Caprivian huts still dot the horizon, but they seem a mere skeleton of their former existence, ready to crumble with the next heavy winds of tourism.

the reason we postponed dinner-prep!

Despite the times that are a-changin’, Bruno and I have had a fantastically memorable time here.  There is only the one tarred road, so getting off the beaten track wasn’t all that difficult.  From the banks of the Zambezi River in Katima Mulilo, we traveled to Bwabwata National Park and stayed in a community-run campsite called Nambwa 4×4 Getaways.  To reach this campsite, one must journey 14km off-road, on pure sand.  In places, the sand was so soft that if you stop, your tires get burried into the sand.  At times, the sand was so deep that your vehicle becomes like a train, unable to take its wheels off the track.  Thankfully, this is not the first sand my tour guide has driven across!  He was so smooth, so confident, and so capable that I felt like a princess sitting on top of a carriage, champagne-in-crystal in hand.

the hard-to-spot sable antelope!

Nambwa Campsite, and the following three days, was a highlight of my Africa road trip.  The campsite was gloriously situated in an oasis of trees along the Kwando River, surrounded by vast golden grassland.  There are only six campsites, each privately surrounded by trees and shrubs.  And the semi-private ablutions were made of wood and thatch and open to the great outdoors.  The sun would rise over our view of the river and set over the grasslands, which we could view from a wooden platform.  Sounds pretty great, right?

watching the elephants surround our camper van…

Well, then, check this out: elephants were everywhere.  In my last blog, I talked about the Elephant Highway in Botswana.  Well, if that was the Elephant Highway, the highway was leading them here!  We had elephants foraging in our campsite every day.  We practically ran into one the first evening!  Later, we played a game of peek-a-boo with one as it circled around our Toyota.  The next evening, I had to postpone dinner preparation because two big males were enjoying the greenery along our corner of the river, not 10m away.  And the last evening, our new – frightened – neighbors pounded on pots and pans to scare off the elephant foraging in their site, and we feared that he might crash through the trees and rampage through our site.  Bruno was on elephant alert that evening as I cooked dinner.

the fruit overflow (a.k.a. elephant-magnets)

Not only were elephants in our campsite, but elephants were all over the National Park.  Our second day in Bwabwata, we decided to go on a little game drive (not easy to do in the sand, so it wasn’t a very far game drive!).  After seeing a few hippos, kudu, and the very rare sable antelope (!) (a large, jet-black, stocky antelope with glorious curved horns), we decided to stop for lunch next to a lagoon.  Over the next two hours, we were constantly surrounded by elephants.  A group would approach from the right, head to the river for a drink, and no sooner would that group drift off that another group would approach.  No less than 100 elephants, by my estimate, and each group accompanied by babies like the one photographed in my last entry.

nervous elephant (one of many!)

Now, most safari-goers would call this experience a safari jackpot, but before you proclaim that we hit the big one, you must know two things: 1) The elephants of the Caprivi Strip are anxious and suspicious of people and vehicles.  This surely comes from a history of poaching, which was ripe in the region during the Angola war (animals here often served as target practice).  Despite your conceived safety behind your metal and glass walls, an elephant can shred a car to pieces if it feels threatened.  2) Bruno and I had stocked up at the grocery store before heading into the bush and had so much fresh produce that I couldn’t fit it all into the fridge.  This meant that we had bananas, oranges, and pears in a box on the floor.  Elephants love fruit (especially oranges) and they have an excellent sense of smell.

ruins of army outpost in Bwabwata

Ok, so let’s do the math.  We have fruit.  Elephants love fruit.  They can smell well.  They are strong enough to plow through a car.  Caprivi elephants are notoriously panicky.  There are 100 elephants around us.

my first cheetah in the wild!

Before heading back to Katima Mulilo and into Zambia, we spent a couple of nights at another campsite called Malyo Wilderness, 24km south of Kongola, and on the other bank of the Kwando River.  To get there, one must pass over a less-than-stellar-looking wooden bridge.  When we approached it, Bruno looked skeptical, but the locals assured him it would be fine.  He took a quick look at it, and held his breath as we went slowly over it.  I didn’t think too much of it, as I feel very confident and relaxed with Bruno at the controls.  But the next day we went back by foot for a closer look and saw that it really wasn’t very well-made at all.  Thin wooden planks placed loosely on top of the frame, which was made of not-that-much-larger planks of wood.  Hmmmm…

Bruno crossing the wooden bridge as I hold my breath!

The morning of our departure, we mentally prepared ourselves for our bridge-crossing.  I offered to “take photos”, but I think I really just wanted to be outside of the car as Bruno crossed, now that I knew how sketchy the bridge was.  I think it was actually worse to watch the vehicle cross the bridge than to be inside the vehicle, as I could see every wooden pole lift with the weight of the tires and I could hear the cracking and crunching sounds.   The Toyoto made it over in one piece – phew! – but not without breaking three wooden planks… Sorry Malyo Wilderness!