6 September

You may have heard me talking (writing) excitedly about the ‘wilds of the north’. Well we have reached them.

We drove north along a major road for many hours until we reached a veterinary control post. Just as the guidebooks described the land use changes incredibly dramatically across this boundary. The huge commercial cattle ranches that allow a lot of wildlife to co-exist with cattle disappear and are immediately replaced by small subsistence farming and tiny thatch-hut circular villages surrounded by villagers herding their flocks of goats. The roadside is filled with fresh fruit for sale and wooden carvings. Children play football on the gravel bare-foot after leaving school. Adults with babies on their backs carry large containers of water on their heads and pound grain with heavy wooden sticks. Suddenly, we are in an Africa recognizable from movies and Oxfam commercials. 

The vegetation is greener, with palm fronds instead of thorny acacias. There is flowing water and shallow streams as well as marshes and wetlands. I feel like we have reached a tiny paradise, as we are camped on a pleasant grass field along the banks of the Kavango river. On the opposite bank is the country of Angola, we are almost too afraid to look. 

This is the river that we will eventually rejoin in its delta; the Okavango. In the rainy season it flooded many meters higher up the bank had submerged towns. Namibia had to prepare temporary evacuation camps as people were displace by the water.

To get here we passed one military checkpoint. The car in front was showing their ID so I began to reach for our passports as the soldier marched up to our window. This is the conversation (E for Emiel, G for Gijsbert, S for Soldier):

S: where are you coming from and where are you going?

G: We’ve just come from Etosha and are heading too Rundu

S: Where are you from?

G: From Amsterdam, Holland.

S: Oh I am also from Holland.

G: Are you?

S: Yes, he knows me (gestures in my direction)

E: Yes, you’re our neighbor

-

S: how do you like the weather? Is it too hot or too cold?

E&G: No, its just great.

S: Okay, you may go.

[Weird?]

Tomorrow we go east to the Caprivi. A land not too dissimilar from where we are now, but well on the migratory tracks of animals in Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) ecosystem. The lack of fences in subsistence lands (unlike commercial cattle ranches) allow elephants and herds of buffalo to trek between the villages. There is little tourist infrastructure and we may begin to test the capabilities of this 4x4. I am excited.

But for now, we are about to enjoy a proper meal at the lodge’s restaurant. And then sleep here on our nice grassy camping pitch with tree shade. A nice change from the gravel fields in Etosha.