Day 169-173

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NAM 18th - 22nd May 2007, Namibia

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Day 169 18/5. Roys Rest Camp, 56km north east of Grootfontein, Namibia
19°14.51'S 14°29.45'E. Miles today 124, Total 16228
Good fire last night. Still enough heat to make tea and toast on. Drove on past Grootfontein to camp at Roys Restcamp, (€5.50 pp) where we had stayed 3 years ago. Just as lovely as we remembered, only a lot busier. Swam in their pool, chatted to the locals and sipped Gin and Tonics in their rustic African bar. Yet another scrummy braai. Sigh, I could get used to this. They sell a special biltong (drid meat) here and I can well recommend it. Only they call it "Kat Drolletjies" which means Cat Poo and yup, it does look just like it. Yum though.
Day 170 19/5. Bush camp, B8, 0km east of Rundu, Namibia
17°56.43'S 20°21.89'E. Miles today 160, Total 16388
A slow start (possibly those G and T's to blame?) Carried on further north and so we are back in real Africa again. Cows, goats and donkeys wandering across the road, no more houses - only reed huts and plenty of happy, smiling locals. Bushcamped somewhere in the bush. Knocked up a delicious veggie omelette.
Day 171 20/5. Ngepi camp, 14km South of Diviundu, Namibia
18°07.03'S 21°40.21'E. Miles today 88, Total 16476
reality bath river pool
Drove a short distance towards the Caprivi strip. Decided to stop and check out Ngepi Camp on the Okavango River. Quite pricey to camp (€7pp) but such an idyllic spot, we couldn't not stay here. The most awesome place with a fantastic floating pool in the river, hippos and elephants all around you, open air loos, showers and bath and a great restaurant and bar! Needless to say, I took a bath with the most amazing view of the river with hippos grunting in front of me and elephants playing on the river bank. Met a lot of very interesting travellers and sat chatting on the sun deck for sundowners. Somehow, managed to whip up a pizza on the fire. Flopped into bed after a wonderful day. Africa Rocks!
Day 172 21/5. Hippo Lodge, 7km east of Katima Mullilo, on bank the Zambezi river, Namibia
17°29.79'S 25°00.00'E. Miles today 204, Total 16680
boat hippoAnother lazy morning enjoying the campsite. Drove on further to Katimo to pick up some basic supplies in the very crowded OK supermarket. We had heard about these houseboats that you could rent on the Okavango river nearby and so went to investigate. Sadly, they were beyond our budget for an overnight cruise but they were willing to take us on a sunset cruise for €11 each. We opted to stay at the nearby Hippo Lodge, which is a beautiful campsite with immense potential but sadly, a little run down. Still, it was cheap, the gardens magical and the staff were super nice. The houseboat picked us up right on the banks of the river outside the lodge and provided us with a fabulous river trip, ice cold beers, the most spectacular sunset so far and of course, a whole lot of hippo watching.
Day 173 22/5. Namibia-Zambia border post
17°82.64'S 24°17.74'E. Miles today ?, Total ???
Off to Zambia today. Just another border crossing. Geesh, it's been a while since we did one of these. A quick trip back into Katimo for fuel and a quick wander around the Caprivi Craft Centre. Great selection of cheap baskets and carvings, if you're into that sort of thing. No problems leaving Namibia, way too easy actually. Almost too good to be true……..
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