(our route for the day, driving from Botswana into Namibia into the bit of land known as the "caprivi strip"
On our last morning at Nxamaseri lodge, we were taken out on one last boat ride to search for some elephants. They apparently can be spotted about 1 hour and 30 minutes away, so we woke up early and were off by 7am. No elephants were to be found however, but the benefit of being up so early was that the birdlife was quite active. We saw flocks of birds swoop up and down and it was quite magical.
It was getting warm, and after a bit of searching, only elephant tracks could be found. It was a bit disappointing but it was nice to be out on the Okavango Delta again. We decided to head back to the lodge for lunch before we checked out. I had been falling asleep on the way back and the combination of the warm sun and the early morning had made me quite tired. I was looking down at my phone when I heard my dad cry out and a split second later I was flung head first to the tip of the boat! We had somehow missed a turn or something and crashed into some reeds. For a moment I thought I was about to be flung into the croc-infested water, but I landed safely on the boat, with both my phone and camera intact. I am not entirely sure what happened to our guide, perhaps he was sleepy, but I was quite shook by the incident (which has since resulted in a large bruise on my thigh). The boat and everyone in it was fine however, just a bit confused and shaken (ie. me).
The damage[d reeds]
We returned back to the lodge, packed up, and had lunch, before departing Nxamaseri by boat. It was a very pleasant stay on the panhandle of the Okavango Delta, in a very serene and beautiful location. Soon enough we were reunited with our car, which had been taken care of for the past two days by locals, before heading further north into Namibia.
The border post was not very far from where we were (as we were in very northern Botswana), and within an hour we were stamping out of Botswana and into Namibia. I’ve done quite a few overland borders in Africa, but doing it with a car is a bit more difficult. Getting out of Botswana was easy, but getting into Namibia a bit more time consuming. We had to pay $259 Namibian dollars (259rand/$26aud) to bring the car into Namibia, but the guy didn’t have any change so he spent a little while searching for some. We waited around for a bit while my dad decided to declare the bottles of cider he had in the backseat. There were about 3 cases in the back seat, which definitely exceeded the 1L you are allowed to import into the country. The border officials looked at it and didn’t seem to care however, just said it was small amount and we need not bother declaring. The guy never found the $41N change either and was not very confident about finding any. But we got into Namibia and drove straight into the Mahango Game Reserve, which begins immediately after the Namibian border.
We spotted a few warthogs and other animals as we drove the reserve before exiting out of it. We were headed to Ngepi Camp for the next two nights and the plan is to spend a day driving through game parks here, before driving across the Caprivi Strip (which is part of Namibia and has Angola on one side and Botswana on the other) to Kasane, back into Botswana.
We followed the signs into Ngepi Camp which was on a long, curvy and sandy road. It’s a nice lodge on the Okavango River and our campsite overlooks it. The campsite is a bit of a walk from the reception area however, where you get wifi. Started to unpack, when dad suddenly realised that his laptop was back in Botswana … we drove back to reception (because it's quite a distance to walk from the campsite) to try and figure out what to do, with ideas of shipping the laptop back to Australia rather than attempt to cross the border into Botswana and back into Namibia again. As we were trying to get into contact with people and figure out what to do, a lady from reception came up to us and asked us if we forgot anything … someone from Nxamaseri had gotten into contact and a guest who had been staying there with us was going to be driving past the next day and would drop of the laptop! That was a massive relief and would save a lot of hassle (since being in Africa my dad has already lost and recovered his passport … travelling without my mother is not good for him ... or has it just been travelling with me?…).
Dinner that night was rice and veggies in a kind of risotto that wasn’t really risotto. This campsite didn’t have a table and we don’t have a proper light still, but we managed to make do. The plan tomorrow is to wake up early and head to the Mahango game reserve and spend the day searching for animals.
The open air toilet at Ngepi camp...
Tent set-up
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