Wild about Africa
THE last time I was in Cape Town, Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned on Robben Island. Now the island is is a tourist attraction. My plan is to hang out in Cape Town for a few days, and then our mixed group of Dutch, Belgian, Swedes, Australian, Armenian and Irish (ranging in ages from 20 to 60) will head north in our truck/bus, into Namibia and then Botswana before ending in Zimbabwe — where a hotel room with a shower promises a return to civilisation. We are promised meaningful sit downs with the native tribes along the way who will attempt to show us the reality of their lives, and perhaps even how our choices impinge on theirs. Dunes, deltas, water holes, rafting and falls await. I can’t wait.
Cape Town is a wonderful, bustling city, such a change from the dark machine-gunned decoration of my previous trip which had reminded me so much of 1970s Belfast. It is Christmas week, and busy, but it never feels overwhelming, apart from the long queues for the cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain, so for the second time in my life I miss the fabled views from its summit.
My hotel is a short walk down a gentle slope to the Victoria and Albert docks — the entertainment and dining centre of the city. I enjoy a three-hour sailing cruise out of the beautiful harbour (thinking how the 16th-century mariners must have rejoiced when they entered its safe embrace after thousands of miles of dangerous sea voyages), past the impressively modern national stadium which has hosted major finals in the recent past. There are also worthwhile day tours available south to the Cape, through one of their many national parks.
In spite of some negative reviews in travel blogs about the food, I find it to be good value, especially the tuna steak in Hout Bay, freshly hauled out of the water in front of my eyes just before we eat. My backpacker hotel is simple but clean, quiet and has the added advantage of being just around the corner from the safari offices, where a 7am deadline awaits.
Nomad, the company I’m travelling with, is the biggest safari firm of its type in southern Africa. They have a fleet of 60 specially-converted trucks, all equipped with a freezer and fridge, tents, cooking and dining facilities, lockers for our own belongings, USB charging points, extra-large windows for easier — but not perfect — viewing, and their very own maintenance and design depot just outside the city. All the trucks are named after dead pop and rock stars and our home for the next three weeks is Elvis. Nomad travel is like a backpackers’ hotel. When you can, you upgrade, but you’ll probably remember it fondly. I do.
Day one starts grey and cool, and by 9am we are leaving the outskirts of the city, heading north. Twenty days, 5,500 kms and four countries lie ahead. Our first stop is a local vineyard where we are indifferently served an array of indifferent wines. I can’t help thinking as we leave without one purchase between us that someone should have a word with their sales and marketing department.
‘Trucks are named after dead rock stars — ours is Elvis’
Here are 18 of us heading off for a three-week trip which will include at least 16 camp-fire dinners, and we would each have happily snaffled up a few cases of wine. Later, a little on down the road, I end up buying two very drinkable wine boxes of seven litres in total, for about €15.
Our first few days pass in a blur, with nothing especially memorable, except for a flying visit to a very decrepit Springbok town where they were all drunk, and the rugby pitch was a dry brown disappointment for such a hallowed name. Later, our group enjoys a Christmas Eve bonding session, near the massive Fish River canyon, aided and abetted by wine and Irish whiskey. Sunrise starts and hangovers do not make a happy tourist, however we are rolled up in our tents well before Christmas Day.
We cross into ‘unfriendly’ (so our guide warns us) Namibia but seem to have hit upon a happy group of customs officials who beam at us and wish us season’s greetings. Then we start to hit rough roads; two long days spread out ahead of us like the endless flat landscapes we are travelling through. Mad Max was filmed around here and I don’t need to wonder why.
We are starting to see our first wild animals, mainly ostrich, zebra and oryx. Our guide explains that ostriches are a protected species here — not because they are so rare — but because as they are scavengers they are inclined to pick up anything bright and shiny and as Namibia has loads of diamonds...He also informs us that all the income from Namibian diamond production is dedicated exclusively to child care in all its forms — health, education, nutrition.
After a fun visit for a few days to Swakopmund on the coast, we head inland again and spend New Year’s Eve sleeping on what used to be a
‘Assured the crocodiles are vegan, we swim in the blood-warm waters’
sacred bushman mountain, but is now sadly abandoned as the ever-reduced numbers of San head deeper and deeper into the Kalahari.
We visit some beautiful rock paintings which date back at least 2,000 years and later, a thirdgeneration Namibian who goes by the moniker ‘Bushman’, dressed in Afrika Korp lookalike uniform, nearly brings us to tears as he explains how they were hunted as animals for bounty and eventually, either became ‘assimiliated’ or died through hunger, disease and massacre.
A few days later, we meet some so-called San, and also members from the Himba tribe, but they are so obviously Hollywood cut-outs of their previous authentic versions that most of us politely decline to take the $10 tour.
That night, at the Bushman’s watering hole, we watch the fascinating social interplay between oryx, zebra and ostriches as they fight for drinking rights.
Etosha National Park is our first real wow moment. It is especially good for lions and we watch a lioness guarding her kill, her three cubs nearby, while a hyena attempts to separate her from the larder until he can sneak a bite.
It was straight out of a David Attenborough documentary, but at only 50 paces. We also spend a while at the promising Okavango Delta, a trip which includes an amazing helicopter trip.
However, our time in Chobe, on the Botswana/Namibia/Zimbabwe triangle of frontiers, surpasses all expectations. If you don’t believe in paradise, come visit.
Hundreds and hundreds of elephant, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, hippopotamus and rhino intermingle peacefully on the shores of the Thebe River. The following morning we do a boat trip and get the river perspective, and witness the arrest of some tourists who have landed on one of the forbidden islands.
Finally, after 5,500 kilometres we turn a corner and there are the Cataracts that amazed David Livingstone. Locals call it ‘The Smoke That Thunders’ — a beautifully apt name.
One guide describes how, “the Zambezi River is acclaimed as the wildest one-day whitewater run in the world, highly regarded by rafting enthusiasts as one of the top 10 paddling rivers on the planet’’, and it is a fantastic experience. Assured that the basking crocodiles are vegan and will not attack, we swim in the blood-warm waters, but I keep a wary eye out.
Although it sounds counter-intuitive, the low water season (July to mid February) is the most exciting as the higher water covers a multitude of sins and problems.
With names like the Devil’s Toilet Bowl, Terminator 1 & 2, the Cruncher, 3 Ugly Sisters and Stairway to Heaven, this rafting experience does not disappoint: for six hours we are beaten, battered, tossed and turned, and not one of us escapes without some sort of bruising, but it’s the best fun ever, even worth the 300-metre lung-collapsing climb back up to the waiting truck and the very welcome barbecue and beers.
Highly recommended, but not for the fainthearted. And what a way to finish my fabulous three-week adventure. Based on a trip from early December until mid-January 2017, from Barcelona to Cape Town, returning from Johannesburg with a stop-off for five days in Dubai/Abu Dhabi, Emirates, €1,043, including Air Zimbabwe for Victoria Falls. Note: $50 entry and exit fee from Zimbabwe. Nomad three-week camping safari trip, including several extras, costs €1,419 booked through Andrew Walton of Escape4Africa. More information at escape4africa.com €160 for four nights in Forty8 Backpackers Hotel. More information at forty8backpackers.co.za Victoria Falls Rainbow hotel €100 per night. High tea and cocktails at elegant old-world Victoria Falls Hotel $25pp.