Thread: who's in Africa?

Namibia has vet fence (foot and mouth disease) checkpoints. You can only take meat from the "clean" side to the "dirty" one, and not the other way around. Includes frozen meat and meat products too IIRC.
If you've planned for it its not a drama - its only a big deal if you happen to have stocked up on the wrong side and get all your meat confiscated
Rumour has it that the level of confiscation matches the state of the checkpoint's freezer and what is planned for dinner over the next few nights.
That was certainly our experience They confiscated steak, but not the sausages...

Apparently elephants LOVE oranges and have been known to pull vehicles apart to get them out so leave them off your shopping list. We passed on the orange juice too - just in case!

Definitely need to experience the Okavango from the water. We did a Makoro (canoe) trip out to one of the islands for a couple of nights. Just a basic tented camp with drop loo and shower bucket but fully catered with guided walks etc. Can be done cheaper if you self cater but we decided it was too much hassle to carry camping gear for the whole trip for just a couple of nights (as well as the rooftop tents).
We also did a sunset cruise/tour in small boats from another location which was magic.
Although we didn't do it ourselves, I reckon Tangus suggestion of the luxury fly-in splurge in this area would be awesome.

Avoid driving at night if at all possible as there are lots of hazards - wildlife, local pedestrians and vehicles, and the roads themselves.

When you look at the map of Botswana you'll see that all roads lead from the border to Maun and there isn't really a major network of roads outside of that.
We drove up from JHB and crossed the border at Martins Drift crossing, then to Maun with stays at Khama Rhino sanctuary, the Makgadikgadi Pans and Central Kalahari on the way.
Our vehicles were handed over at the hotel in JHB in the morning. It was a thorough handover and took over an hour. Our first night's camp was just over the border in Botswana which was a mistake. We were very unfamiliar with everything and pushed for time and ended up at the border crossing on dusk, stupidly got separated from our other vehicle for a short period in the dark and still had about an hour to travel to camp. So much for not travelling at night!
Luckily it was a private camp and there was a security guard on the locked gate so we could get in.
If doing it again I'd definitely plan a light day for a first day and conservatively plan to arrive at that night's destination around 3pm.

From Maun we worked our way up through Moremi and Chobe parks to Kasane. Those parks are only single lane bush tracks (not roads) so slow going, and you need to allow plenty of time for wildlife - either to watch/enjoy them, or to wait for them to clear so you can proceed. We spent a week beetween Maun and Kasane. Could be done in less if on a tight schedule.

Something else to note is that most of the parks are pretty strict about opening/closing times, and you're not allowed to drive around inside them between dusk and dawn. If you're pushing for time there's not an option to phone ahead and request a late checkin, nor is it an option to bug out before dawn for a big day's traveling.

When planning I tried to build in a couple of nights in the one spot every few days or so for a couple of reasons:
1. It gave a buffer to rejoin our schedule if crap did happen and we got delayed somewhere.
2. It allowed the opportunity for rest in case anyone was struggling with the schedule or sick.

I also tried to arrange things so we didn't have long days end on end. Our longest day was 900k's from Ngepi camp on the Caprivi to Okaukuejo Camp in Etosha NP. That was a solid day that unfortunately had to include a diversion for meat shopping after our vet checkpoint visit. Despite leaving early, we only *just* made it before the gates closed.
The floodlit waterhole at Okaukuejo is awesome - don't miss it. Camping is in a fenced compound and a bit ho-hum, but the waterhole is a must-do in my book. Try and spend a couple of nights if possible.

Generally I aimed for around 500k's on road transit days as it left enough time to stop and look at the sights on the way. Seemed to work out pretty well.
Inside the parks the best guide for travel times are the Tracks4Africa maps (T4A) which have realistic travel times compiled from data provided by 4wd community.

Steve

Big Thanks to SteveG for meeting with me and lending me maps and guidebooks.

Airfares and car-hire are now sorted.

110 PUMA SW with 2 rooftop tents, fridge, recovery and camping gear, they even include in a sat-phone.

The route / timetable is mainly sorted, just to fill in the gaps.

When I was planning, I told my girls we could stay at a lodge every 5 nights for a bit of a break. Well, that can't happen in Botswana. I found a nice Safari lodge, family rooms were $7,500USD per night! A cheap lodge was over $130 per night per person! Even camping gets to around $100 per night, by the time you pay National Park fees.

That means that the week scheduled for northern Botswana is a blank, while I still conduct some research. The car hire guy, who drives a lot through southern Africa said South Africans can't afford to holiday in Botswana either.

Mud map of proposed route attached.

That looks magic.
A boat trip from Kasane on the river is a must.
I particularly enjoyed Moremi and the Chobi River area. We were able to do night safaris there but it was with an organised tour.
There is a seal colony at Cape Cross if you haven't seen large numbers of seals.
Make sure you go to the Gem museum in Swakopmund.
There are a lot of flamingos at Walvis Bay. (They may be seasonal)
And the sand dunes at Sossusvlei are spectacular.
Fish River Canyon is another must.
Enjoy!

Cheers,
Russ

That's a pretty good circuit. I'd try and get to vic falls if you can as you're so close. Then come down through hwange and back into bots through the pandamatenga gate if it's open.
Or head to main through Chobe/Moremi. Stay up on the river in chobe and then savuti.
Nxai pan is also good if you go via Nata.
I assume you're going to break up those legs? They are pretty long and driving at night is a no in Botswana as animals and people are on the road and you'd be lucky not to hit one.
I'd try and stay at Halali in Etosha. Otherwise steveG has covered most of the places I would recomend.
Definitely worth doing a morkoro trip in the swamps.
And as Steve said ngepi is a good place to stop on the Caprivi strip leg.
I would also try and head to one of the camps in the tuli block on the bots/SA border. There is a cheap one there that we saw leopard at.

Southern Africa 2012

A trip I did with a mate in 2012.
I'll be back over there in August this year as well.

If you decide to include Victoria Falls in your itinerary, make sure you don't miss the Dinner & Drum Show at The Boma Restaurant. A very entertaining night where you are encouraged to join in and where you'll be able to sample most of the African cuisine, including game meats - surprisingly, I found warthog one of the tastiest.

We spent eight weeks there in 2012 with two other couples. A three week tour from Cape Town to Victoria Falls via Sossusvlei, Etosha etc. And a two week tour through the Serengetti and the Maasai Mara. Toured Zimbabwe with a Zimbabwean friend and relaxed on the beach at NE Zanzibar to fill in time between tours. Absolutely unforgettable trip. Must get onto sorting my 10,500 photos.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

If you decide to include Victoria Falls in your itinerary, make sure you don't miss the Dinner & Drum Show at The Boma Restaurant. A very entertaining night where you are encouraged to join in and where you'll be able to sample most of the African cuisine, including game meats - surprisingly, I found warthog one of the tastiest.

+1 for the warthog. It is delicious.
If you want a couple of pics of Vic Falls to help you decide just holler. We did the helicopter flight and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cheers,
Russ

Thanks guys, yes Vic Falls is definitely on the list, GoogleMaps gives a finite set of destinations for planning now (I miss the old version), so the finer detail is lacking from the mud map.

Nxai Pan was on the list too, a firend has since suggested I go via the north side of the pan and go to Makgadikgadi pans and Maun via Gweta. There's a campground in Gweta where Meerkats come to breakfast, which I think is a high priority for the kids.

I was crunching numbers, and the return leg from Fish River Canyon (Namibia) via Windhoek to Johannesburg is 2,100km. A trip to Cape Town, then through Lesotho and onto Johannesburg is 2,600km. So I may plan an alternate loop back.

The rough planning has me at Fish River Canyon with 6-7 days to spare, so I have time to delay longer at destinations, make up for delays, or add newly recommended points of interest to the trip. It's only 1,200km via Hwy to Johannesburg from Fish River Canyon if I do somehow run out of time.

Still trying to research cheap camping in the Okavango, camp sites (for a family of 5 plus car) are up around the $300 per night.