26 January, Friday - Day 25

We are on the « Kaisoso River Lodge » campsite with an immense, shady lawn all to ourselves, fifty meters from the Okavango River.  Most rivers in the world runs into an ocean, but this one « disappears » into a huge delta in Botswana. 

Namibian summer holidays are over since 15 January and we have entered the so called low season.   Tourism will only pick up again only at Easter, when we are going back to Europe.

This is « our » lawn and private bath house complete with shower, warm water, toilet and a place to wash laundry and plates.  The campsite offers bungalows and rooms to rent, but it is so much nicer to be in the open than squeezed on 6m2 at three times the price.

Last  night a peacock came visiting as we had finished  settling in and this morning he came back to steal our last slice of bread.

We are 7 kms east of Rundu, 700 kms north-east of Windhoek.  We drove by pretty, green Tsumeb by the B1 and then joined the B8 along the Mangetti National Park to Rundu, in the Kavango West province.   Rundu is an ugly mining city in the middle of nowhere.  Dusty, dull and full of misery.  Houses built of straw.  No roof or, at the best, with a tin roof.

During the morning drive, we saw several zebras along the road, dozens of impalas, one kudu and a large heard of girafes.   

The countryside was grean with a few fields of corn and much cattle grassing along the road slowing don considerably the trafic.

I thought this was elephant dung, but it appeared to be thermites starting new homes in the middle of the road.

The water level of the Okavango is low at the moment.  Boatman Franz, who took us us on a sunset ride last night,  said it is actually  2,5 m deep.  In May, after the rains, both depth and width will  double.  Actually the width seems like a medium Par3 hole, approximately 120 m.

The sources of the Okavango River are to be found in Angola from where it flows slowly direction east-south-east creating a natural border to Namibia.  To the west flowing into the South Atlantic Ocean the Kunene constitutes the natural border. 

It would be relatively easy to swim across but as there are both snakes and crocodiles, only few people enter the water.   Contrary to previous years there is no sign of military to see on the Angola side.  All seems peaceful and locals fetch water on both banks.

Here is Hans on the day before yesterdays campsite, but the setup is exactly the same today ... same happy smile, same table loth and same white wine.  A Chenin Blanc from Du Toitskloof Cellar in South Africa.

We are lazy and will hang on here until we have no more food left, probably in a couple of days.   

Then we will drive East to enter the Caprivi Strip and cross border to Botswana close to Bagani and the Popa Falls.