Overland Tour from Cape Town to Victoria Falls or Hippo-Hippo

06.04.11 - 26.04.11

The first day included a visit of koi san bushmen sanctuary near Langebaan. Here we enjoyed the first lesson and clicking exercises in the bushmen language and habits of the Koi . The group we are travelling with consists of approximately 20 people - including a crew making a promotion video, a swede, some dutch, 1 wine making student from New York and despite this being the tour without a german speaking guide most of the group came from Germany and Switzerland.

Already on the second day it was clear that getting up before sun-rise at 05:30h would not be uncommon at all.

Having crossed the South African – Namibian border at Orange River we had the opportunity to enjoy the scenic route including short strolls in the desert. Here we experienced that we were not able to locate our camera cover we left behind in this extreme environment – orientation being almost impossible. At the end of the day first insect fights between grass-hoppers and armed ground crickets could be observed at the showering facilities after sun-set. At the same time it was obvious that some of the group were less comfortable with these palm sized creatures.
The scenic route continued and to our excitement the first animals could be seen along - snakes, sprinbocks, zebras, massive ant hills and huge bird nests. Early in the tour it was obvious that the desert would not be as dry as expected. It was repeatedly told at every stop that it had not been raining as much in over 30 years. In the meantime the murder game took its toll – the first victims died without the murder being discovered. As well the first scorpion were found in the camp-site …

The itinerary in the meantime did give us the possibility to discover the 2^nd biggest canyon of the world (Fishriver Canyon), sun-rise on the top of Dune 45 and to enjoy in real the desert scenery of the movie “The Cell” (Sousousvlei). Having enjoyed as well the smaller Sesriem canyon we had the first real bush-camp experience – no running water, no arranged toilet facilities, lots of insects and more and more difficult to put people at ease with having more and more armed ground cricket and others around …The following morning we started out with a walk guided by a former tracer with military background. It was getting harder and harder to remember the factual based presentation he gave – nevertheless worthwhile remembering were the details about the lives and animal-like habits of the bushman. We arrived in Swakobmund being a town influenced from german colony times to experience for 2 nights a real bed;-))



Beside that we got stuck with the truck, had a punctured tire, ended up doing some sand-boarding and with the given wind forecast to sneak in a kite surfing session with 30kn in Walvis Bay. The next evenings after sun-set the full moon provided moonlight shadow sceneries worthwhile remembering.

On the way to the different National parks the Etosha, Okavango Delta and Chobe we learned more about local culture and habits via dancing and singing performances. As well we enjoyed a personal visit of a Himba village - 25 orphans, 10 children, 25 women, 6 men living here permanently in the traditional way.

We visited Etosha national park for 2 days. The amount of rainfall made it possible for the animals to drink almost anywhere in the park. Having said this, the expectation to see animals at the waterholes were not very high. But what we saw was absolutely splendid during the game drive with our truck - close-up of giraffes, spring-and steen-bocks, oryx, zebras, wildebeests, jackals and last but not least 2 leopards and flirting rhinos. Accompanying all of this were the present mosquitoes at night, funny dreams and smaller skin irritations probably caused by the malaria medication we now took since a couple of days.

Before entering Okavango Delta in Botswana we stayed in Windhoek to take on new fellow travelers and to enjoy a common dinner in joe's beerhouse including crocodile, ostrich, kudu and chicken meat. We started the Okavango Delta stay with a scenic flight in a 6 seater aircraft giving us a first impression of the present wildlife as well as the landscape of the Delta before going wild camping for 2 nights in the delta. What was different to the previous safari was that the game could be spotted during extended walks nearby our camp-site. We had the opportunity to see elephants, wildebeests, zebras, hippos and giraffes at ground level making it even more special. By now we know again another bushman recipe for poison, what plants are taken instead of feathers to make a pillow and why elephant and hippo poo look different.

Approaching Chobe National park hereafter we were already experiencing good view of elephants along the national road. The boat cruise itself into the park was spectacular as we saw more and more hippos but even crocodiles, buffalos and elephants were not too shy to turn up. It is worthwhile mentioning that we were accompanied of several boats each carrying around 60 passengers. All of them were “chasing” for the best view of drinking animals. Saturated with impressions of wild life we failed to pay the game drive in the morning and missed the only animal missing to complete the big five experience – the lion.



Hereafter we crossed the nearby Zimbabwean border and concluded the tour viewing the screamingly loud and wet Victoria Falls, shopping on local craft market, drinking the first alcoholic drink for the past 20 days and having a extensive massage.

All in all it was this overland tour was exceptionally good!