From Namibia to Samiba via Khaudum
The rainy season this year lasts an exceptionally long time and so on the first day of the trip we have to cross water again and again. Some trucks and minibuses are standing in the flooded areas and have to wait, but we can pass without any problems with the Landcruiser. At the Waterberg, a great view opens up over the now green bush landscape and we enjoy the unusually colorful Namibia. Good tracks take us to the Nhoma Camp on the edge of the Khaudum National Park, probably the most deserted park in Namibia in the north-east of the country. A tour with the San makes us realize again how unimportant telephone, internet and other technology are - for the people here, the bush is like a supermarket, they find fruit, natural remedies everywhere and make traps and everyday objects from the simplest of materials. Apparently poor, they give us an absolutely happy impression.
As we approach the park on a side track, we get stuck in a muddy depression and it takes 3.5 hours to free the car from the dreaded black cotton soil, an almost clay-like soil... After a lot of shoveling, we are saved by a cooking pot that we put under the HiJack to prevent the jack from sinking... As the park is not maintained, we then have 25 kilometers of densely overgrown track ahead of us, only the GPS shows us where the track can be seen in the dry season and we can only move at walking pace as we have to keep removing branches from trees that elephants have knocked down from the 'track'. It takes us 8 hours to reach the camp and we cover a distance of 64 kilometers that day...
The Khaudum offers us solitude - we are the only visitors in an area of 4,000 km² and drive over 150 km of deep sand before we have asphalt under our tires again. In the evening, the roof tent is not just a place to sleep - the tent offers us a mosquito and dust-free area - and that is really worth its weight in gold - especially because the lantern in the camp keeps attracting praying mantises, mosquitoes and other visitors.
The Caprivi Strip is our last leg of the journey before we reach the border between Namibia and Zambia. We set up camp one last time right on the Zambezi and end our journey to explore the north of Zambia and Malawi in July.
