Cape Town, South Africa to Okavango Delta, Botswana

Tuesday 29th September 2009 - Sunday 11th October 2009
Day 93 - 104

Yes a lot of water under the bridge since we last spoke.

Highlight of the trip so far came yesterday when we crossed the border from Namibia to Botswana and were happily driving along the road when an enormous elephant crossed the road in front of us. Normal road, no other cars around just a big fat (nb:I wouldn't call him that to his face) elephant stopping across the bitumen. 'Cor Blimey' you could hear us cry from our car...or words to that effect.

So last time we were able to get onto a decent internet system we were staying in an Eco Village in Cape Town. It was a nice little spot in the burbs where a lot of students seemed to hang and we were able to pitch our tent and explore the city. All I can say is Cape Town will do SA proud as the hosts of the World Cup 2010. Beautiful looking city and surrounds and the Green Point Stadium is coming along a treat.

I don't know why we persist with mountains though. It was too windy to climb Table Mountain which we were gutted about. The Cape Doctor, as it's referred to was too strong blowing away the smog from Cape Town's skyline. You couldn't even access Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for many years which we were again disappointed about, especially because we've been listening to the Walk to Freedom audiobook narrated by Lethal Weapon's Danny Glover in the car.

We loved Cape Town but it was good to get out of city and into the African wilderness as we head into the Northern Cape which was a stunning driving through orange tree plantations and wineries heading into scenery not too unlike Australia's Red Centre. No people, no cars just us and stunning scenery. We had one stopover at Springbok before crossing the border into Namimbia. Here we felt we had the country to ourselves with only 1.8 million inhabitants compared to South Africa's comparitively colossal 47 million.

Our first day in Namibia was quite eventful. We crossed the border, visited the second largest canyon in the world, saw an ostrich running full pelt alongside us as we drove, spent most of the day on dirt road, drank shots with some locals at a German bar in a random little town, stayed overnight at one of the most peaceful campspots I've ever stayed at and saw one of the most dramatic sunsets.

The following day after the Chelsea Liverpool game I sat at a bar drinking alongside the locals who were talking footy before heading to a local eatery that was blasting out Richard Ashcroft and where we had an amazing steak dinner. Where else could we possibly be but Windhoek, Namimbia's capital. OK, points I missed here were the steak was cooked in bamboo shoot sauce, the locals were talking footy in their local dialect..I could only understand the odd word like Gerrard and Droggy and the beer was Hansa, the local tipple. I still can't explain Richard Ashcroft though!

Next up was Swakopmund, billed as Namibia's extreme sport capital...only set in sand dunes. I don't know whether we were missing a trick or something but the place was like a ghost town. However, unique setting where the dunes of the Namib desert met the Atlantic Ocean and a friendly guy we got to know running the campsite based on the beach.

Our next night was the highlight of Namimbia for us camped out in a small community campsite well off the beaten track underneath the stunning Spitzkoppe Mountain Range. The rock formations were a lot like Uluru, that burnt orange colour and soft smooth rock in curvacious shapes all around us. Needless to say we got another mindblowing sunset.

It was then onwards to a sort of DIY safari at Etosha National Park in northern Namibia which allowed independent travellers to choose their tracks for the day, pick a campsite and go and seek out wildlife at the various watering holes. We saw animals by the bucketload - giraffe, zebra, elephant and rhino. We also saw a lot of other creatures I had only seen on TV, safari tours made up of people in more khaki than is safe with stupidly huge binoculars the 'must have' accessary. We stayed here for three days but could have stayed much much longer. But it was onwards to Botswana where we are currently into our second day and have just completed a trip down the Okavango Delta in a sort of poor man's Gondola. It was a wooden canoe to be frank but did the job and we got a frog's eye view of this massive delta which is utterly fascinating.

Yaris Report - She's taken a pounding clocking up the kms and driving on more dirt than tarmac of late but doing us proud nonetheless.

Sign of the week - Warning Road Experiment!