Arid Eden

Arid Eden

Just Now Stories is living up to its name - or not, depending on ones interpretation of Just Now. Since our arrival mid April, we have covered many 1000km’s through some spectacular deserts and hair raising passes which I would gladly exchange for the endless miles of bone shattering corrugations! The Beast - aka Mikes indomitable land cruiser, and Mikes driving, negotiated it all without so much as a flat tyre!

Having decompressed from our mammoth flight, and knocked a mild dose of covid on the head, we departed only a few days late on our first Big Adventure, to Namibia, the far north and Cunene River. This required driving across Botswana, and we took the opportunity to squeeze in a few Not To Miss detours. Planet Baobab being the first - a very eclectic little place just north of the vast Makgadikgadi salt pans. The resident pack of meerkats were completely enchanting, however the swarms of mosquitos were less endearing - though possibly more delighted with our visit. We detoured past the iconic Baines Baobabs on our way to Maun, made even more special by the hundreds of flamingos filtering their way around the Nxai and Kudiakam pans which were drying up fast. There has been very late rains here, and the weather has been rather New Zealandesque it has to be said - with a number of cold windy and generally inclement days. Not on this trip to Namibia though, where we had perfect weather - mild, sunny and dry. Excellent for travelling in. Botswana is vast and very very flat. The roads riddled with cows, donkeys , goats and horses. The Tswanans are Very Compliant with covid regulations - and it was not unusual to pass someone, walking alone, in the middle of quite literally nowhere, dutifully wearing a mask. Complete opposite in Namibia, where I am not entirely sure they every really wore masks, as they look quite surprised when asked if one was required.

Windhoek was our key spot for gearing up for the expedition, getting supplies and organising ourselves. Made a bit trickier by having to duck and dive around multiple public holidays. Our first Big Day of driving was getting the trip north over and done with as quickly as possible - Windhoek to Ruacana. 900 Very Boring kilometers (like driving through an endless episode of Binga or Kamativi) so there is good reason to get it over with. Its tarred all the way which is a redeeming factor. Ruacana is a bit random as there is the town (which apparently has fuel but we couldn’t find where), which is not on the main road, there is also the Ruacana border post and Ruacana dam, which is in Angola. After 800km of very flat scrubland, it was spectacular to drop down the escarpment with the expanse of the Cunene River valley stretching across to the mountains of Angola. Although a river valley, it was still very dry and arid, except for the riverine margin which was defined by the pale silvery green of the Makalani palms, and dusty green of Winter Thorns. And the heat ramped up by a good 10degrees. We stayed at a very rustic rest camp, right on the shores of the Cunene river, for a couple of nights. We took ourselves off for a hike up one of the tributaries - unfortunately Mike was suffering from a nasty abscess from a spider bite on his calf so was keen to take it easy. His intention was to just pop back to Ruacana to fill up with fuel - this turned into an ordeal and a 300km round trip.

We were expecting a torrid road along the Cunene to Epupa - reinforced by the fact that none of our maps (bar the tourist map!) indicated that a road even existed, let along passable. We girded our loins, expecting some heavy going and planned to stop at a campsite half way along. The road turned out to be one of the better ones in all of Namibia! Thanks to a new mine that has just opened up in the region - the road was revamped about 12 months ago.

We reached Epupa on schedule, and checked into a Most Excellent RestCamp/lodge. It had a beautiful crystal clear pool - a tonic after a week of dusty roads and rest camps . The falls are simply outstanding - we didn’t really know what to expect… imagine all the most beautiful water falls you have seen, and arrange them amongst multiple chasms and gorges of huge burnished basalt rocks, that look like they were cast in a bronze foundry having been polished by 100000 years of water and sand. The highlight for me was an island right in the middle of one of the main falls, completely inaccessible, and populated with 7 enormous baobabs - each one well over 1000 years old. The one in the middle, on a flat piece of ground, had its autumn colours, all oranges and golds making it shine like the tree of life, there in the middle of the island surrounded by huge cascades of water, and these burnished rocks.

After a couple of nights we pushed on for the next stage which was the Marianfluss - a valley that runs up the far north western region of Namibia, accessed by the notorious Van Zyls Pass. This pass is to driving what French Pass is to boating in NZ! The access road, if you could call it that, was exceedingly challenging, it took most the day to go 100km. We camped in a dry river bed that night, which was a real highlight - literally in the middle of nowhere.

We took on the pass the next morning and it certainly did meet expectations - trecherous, boulders the size of car wheels, alarming drop offs and some interesting gradients! But by taking it slow and steady we reached the bottom without incident, and with much celebration! We were not sure what to expect from the Marianfluss, was it going to be a verdant valley saturated with water and full of animals? It is in fact a vast desert valley stretching north to the Cunene River and Angola, in every shade of red imaginable - I wish I knew enough words to describe the colours! It was dramatic. There had been rain earlier in the year the first for 7 years which is extreme, even for that part of the world, and there was a fine veil of golden grass spread across the flat expanse of the valley. The Himba people populate this region, and live a nomadic lifestyle looking after their cattle. They are relatively untouched by western / modern culture, and we soon became accustomed to seeing them striding around in loin cloths, intricate beaded adornments and wonderfully elaborate hairstyles. The women coated in a red pigment making them glisten. Initially I thought about how outlandish and other worldly they looked, till I realised that we were the ultimate aliens, shooting past in our vehicle looking no more surreal then an extra terrestrial space ship.

That night found us on the shores of the Cunene yet again, but even more arid and dry, making the river seem quite incongruous as it flowed, full, through the rocky dry and dusty terrain. We returned the way we came, then diverted towards the Purros region, via Red Drum, hoping to spot a desert elephant ambling along on its spindly legs (a specific adaptation to desert living). It would have made a very Dali-esque picture if we had managed to find one - marching along on those legs through the dramatic vast reds and oranges of the desert, struck through by ridges of mountain ranges in purples, umbers and blues - rather like ships on an ocean. The landscape would have been quite hypnotic, with its ever changing kaleidoscope of colours if it were not for the relentless corrugations keeping us firmly grounded in reality.

Purros, when we found it, hidden in a labyrinth of thick fine sandy roads, was one of the most desolate places I have experienced, it seemed to comprise entirely of tyre repair shacks, and one shop. Late afternoon, flat, dishevelled, and everything coated in a find talc-like dust on account of a persistent wind that blew through. There were copious adverts for campsites, mostly in the aforementioned sand and dust labyrinth, none of which had ablutions or water. There was one lodge, set up on the rocky hillside behind the town, and like we are finding everywhere in Africa - exorbitantly expensive. Like +US$1000 a night per person. The budget/mid range options are practically non-existent, Africa very soon will only become accessible to the ultra-rich. We decided to push on and try our chances in Sesfontein. It was not far and we felt we were reaching ‘civilisation’ after the last 1000km. Unfortunately the road between Purros and Sesfontein was The Worst stretch of road on the whole trip, and took ages with some pretty technical driving. Sesfontein was an improvement on Purros, and despite the late hour we found a place to stay, and having collected a nourishing meal of goat stew with fetkooks, we enjoyed one of the best, albeit tiny, showers of the trip.

We had to start turning our minds to our return, and only had a few more days of exploring so decided to push on and base ourselves at Palmwag for a couple of nights. Palmwag is an oasis in the middle of the region and a lovely place to wash off all the dust, but also get deep into the hinterland, looking for rhino. Best done with a organised outfit and after 4 hours of very technical tracking (its easier to find whale shark off the coast of Australia) a splendid black rhino was located in the shadow of the ubiquitous Euphorbia Demerara that is the only green that exists in the ocean of reds and burgundy’s of the basalt bedrock. Its more a pale silvery green, then a refreshing bright green. And deadly poisonous. It was quite overwhelming to see this creature, unspoilt and untouched by humans (either in its defence or offence). A three year old male, that will live (if its exceedingly lucky) for another 45 years in this arid eden in splendid isolation given black rhinos, especially the males, are solitary beings and fiercely independent. We were rather subdued and introspective for the rest of the day, but such a highlight to end on.

3 full days of driving to get back to Bulawayo, well Francistown for me, Bulawayo for Mike and Jono and we had dropped Heather at Windhoek airport on the way as she needed to fly to Durban. With the unexpected highlight of enjoying Kalahari Truffles at the Thakadu campsite in Ghanzi (Botswana) , both as truffle starter, and then as a sauce on our steak - our timing for the season was perfect (a bit like Bluff Oysters). I rendezvoused with Georgie and Nev in Francistown (Botswana) as they had been invited by some great friends of theirs to visit their camp in the Tuli region - the Pitsane conservancy. Sorely tempted, Jono err’d on going straight on to Harare and spent some good quality downtime for the next few weeks with his mom, Ruth, who at 85 still lives in splendid isolation and fierce independence in the decayed eden of Zimbabwe (rather like the black rhino).

Georgie Nev and I met up with James (my brother) and the Curries, at the Pitsane airstrip deep into the Tuli block. Our guide met us there and we followed to the camp which turned out to be right on the shores of the Great Grey Green Greasy Limpopo river (and there was indeed a few fever trees surrounding it*), very near the confluence with the Shashe river which runs along Zimbabwe’s eastern border. Its very remote - basically the far south east corner of Botswana and one of the few genuine wilderness areas. The only artificial light that can be seen, when standing at the highest point of the area, is the light on top of the head gear of the giant Venetia Mine in South Africa. Lions, elephant, antelope of every shape and size, piles of giraffe, bat eared foxes and honey badgers were highlights but the best of all was being together again after 4 years with both brother and sister and in such a unique place.

Returning to civilisation 6 days later via the dramatic Solomons wall, a quick stock up of supplies in the comfort and convenience of Botswanan super markets before heading back across the border to Zim, specifically the farm in the Marula district, where we stayed for the next 2 weeks - bar one excursion into town to sort some stuff out and attend the funeral of one of the regions legends. These two weeks were the much needed refreshment of the last few years, time was spent mainly cycling all the tracks through the farm and exploring the kopjies and dwalas - there are so many, it would take a life time to explore them all! Its a good time of year for this, being cold the snakes are (mostly) in hibernation!

The next part of our travels have started, with an expedition up to Vic Falls with Ashleigh who flew in a week ago. We spent two nights at Ivory Lodge on the edge of the national park and had a most remarkable elephant encounter - words don’t really do justice - but hopefully the attached images give a slight insight! Yesterday we collected Tracy, (Ash’s best mate) along with the indomitable Ruth at Vic Falls airport, and after a few more days exploring around here, we will head off for some adventures in Hwange national park.

With that I will sign off here and get this posted whilst enjoying the best Wifi connection we have had so far on the trip!

I will make every endeavour to post shorter, more frequently!

(Ref Rudyard Kiplings Just So Stories “how the elephant got its trunk”)

I will add more photos shortly