The Vuvuzela Diaries

Finally we get home…. and its great to be here!!

Our ‘return to civilisation’ celebrations were slightly spoilt by an unpleasant exit from Angola. The car was clearly not as impressed with 2 tanks of the cheap ($0.3/l) Angolan diesel as our budget was and shook like a rattle snake every time we tried (unsuccessfully) to accelerate past 60km/h.

To add to our grief the Angolan customs chap refused to sign out our carnet on the basis that ‘Angola is not part of this treaty!’. When I pointed out to him that it had already been signed three times by Angolan officials (twice in Cabinda and once on entry to Angola proper) he helpfully suggested we head back up to Luvo, our point of entry 5 days drive away and ask them to sign it for me. Hopefully the AA will be understanding.

Namibian border formalities were pain free although it took a while for the border guards to understand why as South Africans entering from Angola we didn’t have Namibian exit stamps in our passports.

Night one was spent at Ondangwa Rest Camp where we enjoyed rump steaks and Tafel lagers before being lulled to sleep by the locals playing “Delarey” till 2 in the morning. Welkom tuis.

Due to time constraints we spent only a night in Etosha at Okaukuejo. Its a phenomenal game reserve.. lots of game, excellent infrastructure and great service. The camps were also completely chocka with Saffers with new Prados and double story tents on top of their trailers enjoying the extended school holidays and we started to miss the delapidated, shot out, disorganised and deserted West African parks.

On day 3 the Engen diesel began to kick in and we hit 100km for the first time in a while so our scheduled stop at Toyota was cancelled and we headed into the Waterberg instead. We camped at one of the three secluded sites at ‘Anderson camping’, definitely the nicest camp site of the trip, ably assisted by some good South African wine and Namibian steak on the braai. Throughout Namibia we were impressed with the quality of the accommodation at all levels which I suspect surpasses even the high South African standards.

After a night with very hospitable friends in Windhoek we collected my brother and niece at the airport and headed west to the Skeleton coast. Xaragu made a fantastic relaxed 2 night stopover with petrified forests, ancient rock engravings and lots more to keep us entertained. From there we moved into the heart of the Skeleton coast and stayed at Terrace Bay. The scenery was epic and the dunes as impressive as anything we had seen in Morocco.

On the way back to Windhoek we enjoyed Cape Cross (home to 200 000 seals), Swakopmund and a fantastic farmhouse at Etusus Lodge.

In Windhoek we were reunited with Chippy who had taken the easy route down from Morocco.

We spent our last night of the trip on the banks of the Orange river with South Africa squarely in sight.

Wedged between the Kalahari and the South Atlantic, Namibia enjoys vast potential as one of the youngest countries in Africa. In addition to having a striking diversity of cultures and national origins, Namibia is a photographer’s dream – it boasts wild seascapes, rugged mountains, lonely deserts, stunning wildlife, colonial cities and nearly unlimited elbow room.

Despite its harsh climate, Namibia has some of the world’s grandest national parks, ranging from the wildlife-rich Etosha National Park in Northwestern Namibia, to the dune fields and desert plains of the Namib-Naukluft Park in Western Namibia. Windhoek, in the Central Highlands, is the country’s geographical heart and commercial nerve centre, with an ethnic mix of people, while surfers and beach-lovers won’t want to miss Swakopmund.

Namibia is one of those dreamlike places that make you question whether something so visually orgasmic could actually exist. Time and space are less defined here. Landscapes collide. Experiences pile up. Watch a lion stalking its prey on a never-ending plain in Etosha. Fly down a giant dune on a sandboard. Spend a night alone in the desert under a sky so thick with stars you can’t differentiate between constellations.

Thanks again to Lonely Planet!!

More a geographical concept than a fully fledged nation, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaïre) is a bubbling cauldron of untamed wilderness carpeted by swathes of rainforest and punctuated by gushing rivers and smoking volcanoes. Rendered almost ungovernable by the central administration in Kinshasa, the country remains closed to all but the most brave-hearted travellers. The nation’s history reads like something out of Dante’s Inferno – from the brazen political folly of King Leopold of Belgium to the hideously corrupt ‘kleptocracy’ of maverick megalomaniac Mobutu Sese Seko, and the blood-stained battlegrounds of Africa’s first ‘world war’.

The DRC isn’t all failed politics and wasted natural resources, however. Somewhere in the midst of this proverbial heart of darkness lies a lumbering African giant. With ground-b­reaking national elections in July 2006 giving voice to 60 million shell-shocked inhabitants, a corner may have been turned. Despite early post-election violence in Kinshasa, incumbent president Joseph Kabila took office in October 2006 under the watchful eye of the world’s largest UN peacekeeping force. In some senses, the future can only get better. With five Unesco biospheres, whole ecosystems of teeming wildlife and an estimated US$24 trillion of untapped mineral capacity lying underneath the ground, it goes without saying that the country’s potential is breathtaking.

With thanks to Lonely Planet

So Neil and I decided to hop out the car for a week whilst the others (with two new honorary members, Tony and Ted) headed for Lope National Park. We had a week to kill, public transport at our fingertips and the bags on our backs (or Neil’s to be slightly more precise). We decided not to rough it too much – what is the point on being too hard on oneselves?

Our first stop was Nyonie. After a debacle with the travel agent, and me losing my cool, we managed to book ourselves two nights at the Nyonie Camp and were to be collected from Michelle Marina in Libreville the next day. We were a little apprehensive to see if the booking which was made on the phone in French/Spanish/English was actually confirmed, and were most relieved when we found other tourists at the pier and the boat that was to take us. From here it was an hour’s ride on the speedboat and up the estuary through Mangrove swamps. We were then transferred by 4×4 along a bumpy track through rainforest to reach our final destination – Nyonie Camp. The camp overlooks an isolated beach and is truly stunning. We put our bags in our bungalow and headed for a drink and lunch. The bar was open and you literally helped yourself as you pleased (it was a lucky thing for the owners that we were both fending off stomach bugs, so we couldn’t overdo things) and meals were served with a ring of an old bell from the Titanic and all the guests sat down at a long table to eat their three course meals (with vin rouge, of course – this is catering for the French market).

In the afternoons there were game drives and we were lucky to see some very skittish Forest Elephants. They are much smaller than the African Elephants and tended to hang around the edge of the forest. When we drove up to them, they literally took two steps into the forest and were gone – you could not see an inch of them. The bird life was abundant and we also saw a few monkeys and a host of dolphins frolicking in the waves. The camp gets very busy over weekends and was very festive on Friday lunch – being the only English speaking people amongst about 50 guests was a challenge but we still managed to meet some interesting people.

From here we headed for Point Denis. The ferry also leaves from Michelle Marina, so we conveniently hopped from one to the other and steamed off to Point Denis at 5pm on the Friday afternoon. The guide book advised that all the accommodation was close to each other on the beach and if you weren’t sure where you wanted to stay you could hop off the ferry and choose on foot. This was far from the truth, and whilst all but two of the resorts had closed, they were about 3km from each other! So I sat on the beach whilst Neil walked down the beach and slowly discovered this vital bit of information. We ended up staying at La Maringa, which was actually very nice. The bungalows you stay in are very quaint with en-suite bathrooms and aircon. We ate a delicious meal in the restaurant that evening which overlooks the beachfront and in the distance bustling Libreville twinkles away at night on the other side of the estuary.

After a relaxing day at Point Denis we decided to head back to Libreville and then on to Cap Esterias. We did a quick shop of food supplies, as we wouldn’t be able to get anything once we were at Cap Esterias, and caught a taxi to the outskirts of town. From here we had to hop in to a taxi-brousse, or shared taxi (think Mowbray-Kaap), with our bags and shopping and travel in the dark for about an hour over a bumpy dirt track. Luckily the taxi drops everyone off at their doorstep and as we were the last stop we went round the village dropping everyone off. The guy just before us hoped out, and we noticed that he was wearing handcuffs! He had a policeman with him and then we realised that we were at the local police station – little did we know that this guy was sitting on the seat right behind us the entire journey!

Our last few days we spent at La Maree at Cap Esterias and we partook in the large Sunday lunch vibe that was being served up on the weekend. The weekdays are very quiet without any diners at all (the restaurant is basically closed) and the weekends extremely busy with expats. The owner was very kind allowing us to camp on her property for free and we were very grateful for the amazing location she has which overlooks a beach with a reef that makes a natural tidal pool on her doorstep.

The week flew by and we had some good relaxing time on the beach and at the game reserve. It was great to see Grant, Paula and Tony back in Libreville, along with Maude who we surprisingly missed as we have got so used to living out of the car!