Southern Africa (Namibia - Sambia - Botswana)
June/July 2003

Africa - a completely new experience. Africa - a continent for thinking energizes. Africa  - adventures and a fascinating animal world.

We started with the only jumbo jet of Air Namibia from Frankfurt to Windhuk. We, that are Dirk, Alex, Christian and me. Arrived in Windhuk, we took over our car, a Land Rover Defender. We were inspired by this extremely durable car and the ingenious roof tents. Then it was called to fill up the refrigerator and we drove direction Downtown. The most important was to supplement the supplies of Windhuk camp - nothing is worse than thirst. Against noon we started to the north. Our first destination was called Grootfontein. We reached the town in the dark, altough it's not recommended to drive in the dark in Africa cause all the animals. We barbecued and spent the first night in the tent. The roof tents were very much roomier and more comfortably than I thought, however we froze with temperatures around 7°C. It was winter. During the day the temperature reached chubby 25°C and we reached on good tar roads the Popa Falls in the Caprivi Strip. This narrow region borders to Angola and Botswana and German Ministry of Foreign Affairs warnes to come into this region, however it was completely safe from our view. The Falls were sweet. The River Okavango falls approximately 2 meters into the depth, and it is an idyll. Dirk and I chartered a small boat and set over, in order to see the Falls from the near. A first impression of the beauty of the country. National park are unexplored and if you want to explore them, you have to commit yourself.

We left the Popa Falls and drove east by the Caprivi. The first elephant emerged at the roadside and we saw to Cheetas. However we missed the "normal" animals such as zebras and antilopes. But that should change. We crossed the Zambian border at Katima Mulilo. Here a new world began. The tar roads stopped abruptly and we drove on on a runway, single-lane when you understand what I mean. The Zambian main raods would be a hiking trail in Germany. We needed nearly four hours for the 50km to our lodge. The landscape was wonderful, with an amazing view on the Sambesi valley, however this compensated for the real bad way. The villages with round huts at the edge of way supplemented perfect the landscape idyll. Then we reached the daily objective, our Lodge. ANyway, we couldn't reach the lodge - in the middle on the way disappeared the road in one for instance 10m to broad water ditch. We tested the water depth with a branch and the result was a  depth of more than 1,50m - no chance. Thus we returned to the "main street". Punctually to the sunset we reached the camping site of Eric directly at the Sambesi. We were the only guests and the open air showers and the bamboo-disguised inspired.

To the sunrise the steaming Sambesi and we fascinated stood for several minutes being silent on its bank to the sun in the sky. Then we continued our way. The Sioma NP and the Ngonye Falls stood on the program. After four hours of travel we had to achieve large doubts to reach the points of interest. Finally the ferry had to lie over the Sambesi close before us. But then we saw the sign "Sioma Falls". Where were we? A ranger station gave information, we was at the Ngonye Falls. Although we had driven less we thought, we were lucky to be at the Falls. We had a fantastic view of the Falls and the possibility of visiting the Sioma NP. Unfortunately the park was very animal-poor, but very originally.

After the onight at the Ranger station with our own guard and discussions over the German role in the Iraq war(!), we made ourselves on the way to Mongu. On the way we met many lucky waving people, all seemed to be pleased. Just beautifully. Then a white farmer told us that the road was briefly inundated behind the ferry to Mongu. But we "probably" would stand it with our car. "Probably" - that meant cause our air cleaner sat in the back. The alternative was to drive two days completely again back. Thus we continued to the ferry. This was still drivingefficient, but dangereous for life...  Then the advised inundation, we had had to drive through 20 meters by 1,30m deep water. First we let another car pass to see what would happen, afterwards we dared the attempt. The cameras were put upward and we drove in the water. Unfortunately we had forgotten to close the ventilation flaps underneath the windshield. The hood was completely under water and we had the half of the Sambesi in the car, but no matter, the car it created forn things like this. The road led far by the Barotse Plain, the flooding area of the Sambesi, which stands a half year under water. Many villages stood at the edge of the road - wonderful.

Mongu was not a very cosy town. But here we could exchange our dollar in Kwatcha and fill up the supplies. We were inspired by the tar road in the Kafue NP. The animal wealth increased: Elephant, Antilopes, Dig Dig's, hippos, wart pigs and Tse Tse flies. Also we got first bites. They do pain, but were harmless. The first Lodge at the Kafue was a camping site with flair. We stood 800m away from the main house, alone in the wilderness. Many noises at the night, with all the sounds of the elephants. In addition I thought the first time about the standard living in a third world and ours. It was very different... The Lodge had placed someone to us. He watched out the whole night for us. The people in Zambia have average monthly wages of 30 US$, and we had the double annual salary per person with us for this vacation. This topic and handling humans busy me smoothly two days. But I considered afterwards, it is better to make vacation in Zambia and the people indirectly earn money by tourism.

On the upcoming day we drove in the Kafue NP to the Lufupa Camp. After three hours dirt road  we reached the place. On this absolutely gigantically at the Kafue River convenient camping site we remained two days. We became acquainted with Stefan and Barbara from Frankfurt, which for us should become still important, because on the second day our Land Rover had starting problems. We participated in an evening and a morning safari and saw leopard, lion and an elephant. It impressed me totally to see animals, which you see otherwise only in the zoo, in wildlife here. Especially when we saw also a leopard on the hunt as well as the sweet lion children, simply cute. We were completely closely to at nature and also still completely alone. Incomprehensibly!

On the way from the Kafue NP our battery cooked over. We clamped a pole and hoped it is only water, what was missing to our battery. After a short obligation break we decide to cancel the planned detour to the Lower Sambesi NP. We drove to Lusaka and filled up water. But it did not help anything, in Mazabuka we stopped and bought a new battery. We stayed overnight in the backyard of a hotel. And we met moreover very helpful and nice people. We were really everywhere cordially welcome. Next stop was Lake Kariba. We decided for a detour at the lakeshore. After three hours futile searches, we decided to ask someone. We didn't find the road and people told us, that the road doesn't exist. So we had to drive back and reached Sinazongwe just after the sunset. Our auxiliary headlight illuminated the way. The camping site was once again lonely and we spent the evening at the grill with Windhuk Lager beer.  The artificial lake is giant, but to a large extent unexplored. We enjoyed the view direction Zimbabwe early in the morning and drove to Livingstone. On the way we visited a small village with 16 inhabitants, they were very freindly. They brought us chairs and we conversed about the country, the people and the differnet buildings in the village. It was very interesting to explore this original Zambia. Then we thanked for the nice conversation and gave some T-Shirts and socks to a boy. Approximately 8km before the small village of Batoka wen heared a loud bang and the left rear tire burst. First we had a big fun with this. We photographed the smoking tire and we told eryone, who wanted to help us, "no problem" with a smile. Then we discovered that the nut with the rim lock was damaged. No chance to take the tire off. The crew of a cotton transporter helped us and with united forces. And we finally break the nut. Now good advice was expensive. Christian and I drove with the cotton truck to Batoka and further on with a taxi (1.00 €) to a small town called Choma (70km away). We tried to garages, but they couldn't help us. At an nearby company the boss was for one week in England, so that the mechanic could not help us. Then the taxifahrer brought us to Mr. Brooks. A scottish man with a workshop. It cost us much time to persuade him to give to us some mechanicans. Then we drove back with three more people in Mr. Brook's car. Well, one and a half hours before sunset we were back and started to repair the car. Meanwhile Stefan had arrived and rendered to us mental assistance. Which a coincidence, he had the same way. They tried to chisel off the caked-on nut, but after one hour all of us recognized that it had no more  sense. The nut did not move. The "driver" drove to Batoka to have a beer and find someone with a welding machine. He returned without success. Then the team tried to saw the rim, but also without success. We decided to drive on the rim to Mr. Brooks. After 1km the broken tire tore the brake hose and we had only our handbrake. In Batoka the "driver" found the "welder" in a tavern. He was drunken, but told us, to take off the tire in 15 minutes. So we drove to into a backyard. There it wedged two phases together and began to weld with power. We decided to bring the tickets, passports and cameras to a safe place and I positioned myselves with a fire extinguisher behind the welder. It took 30 minutes and it was 10pm and the tire was off. We were enormous pleased and installed the spare tire. Without brakes we went up to Mr. Brooks.

They repaired the car early in the morning and we drove to Livingstone. Meanwhile we could laugh again. The water-richest Falls of the world inspired us. The Sambesi rushed into the depth. Unfortunately the foam of the Victoria Falls was very strongly, actually unusual for this time. We sauntered the bank along and enjoyed the view in the Falls and the most famous bungee bridge of the world. We spent the night on a lodge at the bank of the Sambesi. Later on, we asked our waiter Adrian for a disco and together with him drove to Livingstone. We were the only white people there and everyone addressed us. All very nicely and the beer cost 30 Cent! There we became acquainted with Justin, which was four years in Germany. Justin knew Nena and could also sing songs, we laughed a lot.

On the upcoming morning we flew with the ultralight aircraft over the Falls. A breath-robbing view opened itself. The Falls from a completely new perspective and then still the complete beauty!

Afterwards we left Zambia and drove to Botswana. We went into the Chobe NP. The civilization had us back again. Botswana is a very modern state and we could buy again everything. Our campsite was in the middle of nowhere in the Chobe NP. This park is completely over-populated with 30.000 elephants. Everywhere are elephants and you must drive very carefully. At night we stood on a down-trampled camping site. Nobody there except we and a lot of elephants. Herds of over 40 animals passed our car at night...

The so called "Mercedes" of the parks lay before us. The Okavango delta is like paradise for animals and we were inspired by the diversity of species and an unbelievably beautiful landscape. We camped in the park under a tree full of monkeys. In the evening at the barbecue hyenas surprised us. Approximately 15 animals placed themselves strategically on us and our grill. With a stone we could defend ourselves and queues the meat down. We decided to go to bed. The invasion followed. The hyenas came and smelled at car and fire. We investigated the delta with a boat and saw many animals...

The last destination lwas called Windhuk. This city offers a lot. It is not large, but still condemns German. There is the "Kaiserliches Grundbuchamt" , the "Alte Feste", the "Tintenpalast", the "Blumenecke" and the "Buchladen". All monuments are in German language and I felt really welcomed. A kind of time journey to the turn of the last century. We investigated the city in one day and enjoyed the atmosphere under blue sky. On our last evening we made a culinary safari and we ate zebra, antilopes and namibian salad. Afterwards I looked several times to the sky and the cross of the south and let the three weeks revue happen again.

Africa was different, arduous and very beautiful. Sure, we sat much in the car, but it was a completely new culture with a breath-robbing animal world. Above all, Zambia inspired me. Much adventure and a mad troop make the whole an unforgettable experience!

Main street in Sambia	Sunset in the Sioma NP	Camping with the Land Rover
The Ngonye Falls	The Barotse-Plain	A Lion in the Kafue NP
Impala	Hippos	Giraffe
The Daktari feeling	The Victoria Falls	Victoria Falls from the air
In a village near Sinazongwe	Water buffalo in the Chobe NP	Sunset in the Chobe NP

Elephants	The Okavango-Delta	Safari-Outfit
Zebras	Christuskirche in Windhuk	Südwester-Reiter in Windhuk

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