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Through April 2016, a team of travel, media and marketing experts from Namibia-Experience undertook an epic trip across Namibia. Here’s part two of three dispatches from the road, written by travel writer Christopher Clark, and accompanied by his images. Read part one here. Part three to follow soon.
The heavy storm clouds passed just as we reached the turn to Ngepi Camp. The dirt road was punctuated by large, deep puddles and surrounded by lush green vegetation, still a strange sight after so much sand and dust up to this point of the trip.
Ngepi Camp was located amongst the trees right on the banks of the Kavango River, and had an irresistibly laid-back and quirky feel. The open air bathrooms were like mini botanical gardens, and the tree houses along the water’s edge could not be more idyllic.
A large cage with a wooden deck around it served as a natural river swimming pool, and there were plenty of hammocks and waterfront reading decks dotted around the place.
After our Khaudum ordeal, we were very happy to set up camp for a few days at Ngepi while we explored the area.
Ngepi is sandwiched between Mahango National Park just a few kilometres to the south, and Bwabwata National Park on the other side of the river. Bwabwata is part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), an ambitious and paradigm-shifting initiative that forms a wildlife corridor for elephants migrating between Angola, Zambia and Botswana, whilst also incorporating a number of villages and local communities within the park boundaries.
This area has seen astounding rejuvenation of its wildlife populations, which were decimated during the so-called ‘Border War’.
In-between a bit of well-deserved relaxation and making use of the wifi (still a rare treat in many parts of Namibia), we spent a morning driving around the picturesque and largely under-explored Mahango National Park, and an afternoon on a mokoro (dugout canoe) drifting along the Kavango, with our guide telling us horror stories of his close scrapes with the local hippo population.
From Ngepi, we continued deeper into the Zambezi Region, formerly known as the Caprivi Strip, towards Nambwa Tented Lodge, which is nestled on the banks of the Kwando River in the Mayuni Conservancy of Bwabwata National Park.
On the way through to the camp, we were held up for at least half an hour by a large herd of elephants who seemed rather uncertain about our presence, approaching to within a couple of metres of us and holding their trunks aloft to suss us out. A ballsy young male tested out his mock charges. Eventually, they all decided to let us pass.
Nambwa was the first luxury lodge in this conservancy. The exclusive treehouse style lodge blended seamlessly into its beautiful natural environment, as did the rustic campsites on the river’s edge.
After another couple of days exploring this area, we started to make our way back along the Angolan border towards the north-western Kunene Region. We overnighted at the bustling frontier town of Rundu, which came as quite a shock to the system after our time in the bush, as did the armed security guards that patrolled our campsite on the edge of town.
From Rundu, we passed through Oshakati and just as the sun began to set we crested a hill and saw the rugged and unadulterated beauty of the Kaokoveld open up all the way to the horizon ahead of us. We set up camp at Hippo Pools, on the banks of the Kunene River just below Ruacana Falls. We could hear the falls thundering nearby as we drifted off to sleep.
After a quick visit to the impressive falls the next morning, we continued towards Kunene River Lodge on a bumpy, meandering and enjoyable gravel road that was hemmed in by the Kunene on one side and undulating granite koppies on the other.
We had lunch at the lodge and then continued on the dirt road to the dusty and destitute Kaokoland capital of Opuwo, where shebeens (informal bars) sometimes seem to outnumber people, and where it was not unusual to see cattle wandering through the town centre or half-naked Himba women perusing the supermarket.
The beautiful Opuwo Country Lodge stood in stark contrast to the town itself, with a pristine lawn and infinity pool offering stunning views across the wild Kaokoveld landscapes. We took the opportunity to get all the dust out of our systems with a quick swim, scaring away most of the lodge guests in the process, before setting up camp and turning in for the night.
The following day took us north again to Epupa Falls at the northern tip of Kaokoland, a great gash in the Kunene River fringed by a couple of shady riverfront campsites, a small Himba settlement and, apart from that, nothing but an awful lot of wide open space.
Our next destination was Sesfontein, and the road to get there was to be one of the most scenic on the entire trip — in Namibia, that’s quite an accolade. Huge baobabs clung to dramatic rock faces, and herds of springbok wandered around the plains beside us. The dirt road itself swooped, weaved and dipped through the ancient and undulating landscape. As the light softened and the temperature finally dipped below 40 degrees for the first time since early morning, I had a strange feeling of transcendence.
