NAMIBIA & BOTSWANA
TRIP REPORT: PART 2
By Bert Duplessis
Damaraland Tented CampThe next destination, Damaraland, was very dry and rather hot, but we were successful in finding the desert elephants in the Huab River Bed, which made it all bearable. Encountered a group of 7 of them, quite testy they were too, and not at all happy with the noisy second vehicle driven by the chap who looks so much like Chris Rock (unfortunately I missed his name, he referred to 'seeing' something as 'making' it...). One cow in particular showed her displeasure in no uncertain terms, giving us a nice 'mock charge' with trunk raised and ears sticking way out - much appreciated by the photographers. We stopped at a discreet distance from the animals and observed them for probably half an hour or more, as they went about feeding and dust-bathing. At one stage it was interesting to observe two young elephants taking a nap, lying down on the sand. Apparently they take turns snoozing.
This elephant cow in the dry Huab River bed near Damaraland Camp did not take kindly to our presence. Camp managers Andrew and Sharon and the other folks at 'Dam' Camp were so friendly, we were like old friends after just two days there. What a place, the mind boggles at such a moon landscape, but the people are for real and so is the food. Talk about visions of my childhood with roast chicken, 'pampoentjies with peas', not to mention Malva Pudding. Practically brought tears to my eyes, especially being served in Afrikaans. Again, we were treated to an energetic after-dinner singing and dancing display by the local staff, who seemed to enjoy it every bit as much as we did.
As I said, Damaraland was hot. Fortunately our tent (#7) was the closest one to the plunge pool which we used - a lot! I even saw a life bird there; my first one from a prone position... A Great Sparrow. Kathleen and I went on two long late afternoon runs here, which was certainly a singular experience. She kept thinking we were going to bump into a Black Rhino (we should have been so lucky...) but all we saw were Ruppell's Korhaan. Nothing wrong with those - another lifer for yours truly!
Ongava Lodge & Tented Camp, Etosha
The final stop - fittingly - is the luxurious Ongava Lodge, which is every bit the equal of MalaMala Main Camp in terms of level of comfort and amenities, complete with air-conditioning and mini-bar. The main lodge is really striking and there was so much activity at the waterhole that we didn't really need to undertake the all-day game drive into Etosha (but we did it anyway and saw two cheetah and hundreds of springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest, giraffe, steenbok, warthog and a nice group of elephants). We saw literally dozens of waterbuck at the lodge's waterhole (and this was February!), as well as zebra, black-faced impala, warthogs, red hartebeest and amazing birdlife. I would love to be there in the dry season, it must be hopping.
A view of the look-out point at Ongava Lodge, which is situated adjacent to Etosha Game Reserve, not far from Okaukuejo Camp. A highlight at Ongava was finding - on foot with our guide Festus - a group of four White Rhino. They lived up to their predictably docile nature by just grazing away and slowly moving off, so I ended up with lots of slides of four behemoths successfully concealing themselves behind small bushes. The food at Ongava was most definitely the best on the entire trip and the entire dining experience there was first class. Lianne and Johan and everybody at Ongava Lodge, especially Colin and Julia, took excellent care of us. And thanks to Thys for showing us those lovely big Mopane worms - what a treat. As I already mentioned above, I fell in love with the lodge - it was 'so' nice to have electricity and air-conditioning (us city slickers can hardly fall asleep without something humming in the background). Our guide Colin needs a medal for his driving back to the lodge on the afternoon of 'the' storm. He drove a very long way in a totally exposed position, soaking wet and in a howling wind with no regard for his own comfort. Exemplary behavior under exceedingly adverse conditions.
The following day, Colin took us 'next door' to inspect Ongava Tented Camp - we would definitely like to stay there next time around. Very compact, with everything one could possibly want on this earth within spitting distance: a bar, a pool and a waterhole! Well, almost everything.
Windhoek
Our longer than anticipated stay in Windhoek was quite an experience. Hilltop House - the newly renovated guest house where we spent two nights - was delightful, definitely a 'Wilderness Safaris' kind of a place and we have already booked some guests there. Co-managers Andrew and Melissa could not have done more to make us feel like very special guests and we will miss Sunday's sunny disposition. He mixes a mean lemonade on the rocks! As for dinner at Joe's Beer House, we did what every good tourist should do and ordered a great big slab of grilled Gemsbok steak medium rare - delicious. By the way, we now know that Windhoek is a red meat eating, serious drinking, heavy smoking kind of a town. Imagine the looks we got when we asked to be seated in the 'no smoking' area. "Say again?" We also got to run along Nelson Mandela Ave. right up to where it joins up with Sam Nujoma Rd. If running can be politically correct, this was it.
Courtesy of Air Botswana (who unceremoniously and with hardly any advance notice canceled our flight from Windhoek to Maun, Botswana), we made an unplanned 2-hour visit to Zimbabwe which cost us a cool US$260 each for the extra flight to Victoria Falls. What a bummer! When you're in Africa, always reconfirm your flights at least two or three days before departure.
Our Sefofane pilot Molupo (who flew one of the two Cessna Centurions on the Bonwing trip) got us everywhere in good time, safely and conservatively, just the way we like our pilots to do things. Very meticulous about that 4-minute cooling off period for the turbo, is Molupo. His plane will stay safe for a long time. Good job. (To be continued)
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