102 km in 1st and 2nd gear

April 17After the pictures took hours to upload once again, I will provide them when the network is better!

Nothing is spared on this journey! But let’s start from the beginning:

Yesterday we asked the campsite manager and two young Dutch travelers who arrived from the south at our site about the best route for crossing the Khaudum to the south. Both mentioned the same, slightly longer route of 102 km to the southern camp. So we chose this route for today yesterday.

This morning at 8:30 AM we set off. The sky is cloudy, which we are actually thankful for, as it makes driving less hot. After about 1.5 hours of driving, I take over the wheel from Wilfried. I enjoy driving on sandy tracks. It feels so 'soft' as long as there are no trees lying across the path and I can’t swing into the 'Ghackte' beside the road to avoid the obstacle. Many animals aren’t visible, a few giraffes, some large kudu, a few smaller antelope species, and a completely crazy porcupine that is running about 3 km ahead of us on the sandy track and refuses to leave the road. We can’t overtake it. There is bush on both sides!

We stop and let it run, waiting for a while, but after a few minutes, we catch up with it again - it’s still running along the road! Only after about 3 km, when it looks very exhausted, it turns to the right and disappears into the bushes. It’s probably training for a marathon 😂

We drive for about 2.5 hours when it starts to thunder in the distance, and after 3 hours it begins to rain. Thank goodness it’s not pouring, but it’s raining quite heavily. Wilfried has taken the wheel again. The road is still very sandy at first, then turns rocky, and suddenly a stream comes towards us on the road. It must have rained quite heavily here before, because the harmless puddles that the Dutchman mentioned in the route description have now turned into quite deep small lakes.

With each one, we tremble whether we will make it through. The fountains splash, and more than once our car slides sideways in the middle of the lake, but then recovers and brings us safely to the other shore. It’s a really exciting ride, made all the more thrilling by unreadable signposts and wildly acting GPS devices. Our two valiant men prove themselves as fearless submarine drivers and steer us safely through every deep lake.

After 6(!) hours we reach our destination, happy and exhausted. The campsites are partially underwater. The reception is a relatively new building and there is... you won't believe it... a pool that is being cleaned in the rain by a staff member with a little net to scoop out leaves! We laugh so hard it hurts our stomachs. Such contrasts can only be seen here in Africa! There is a way to a camp that is almost impassable and at the end is a lodge with a pool! We complain to the white (!) camp manager Marie about the unreadable signposts. She says that she has never been there herself and that she will pass it on. It’s no wonder that people don’t know their own access roads - there’s an airstrip here - and Marie was probably flown in! That’s Africa too!

To calm our nerves and as a reward for all of us, I make pancakes with orange jam and serve coffee with it. It’s relatively cool, and Werner lights a campfire while Wilfried heats the Donkey (that’s a wood-fired boiler) so we can enjoy a warm shower.

An exciting day is coming to an end. We have 5 more days here in Africa - what will they bring?