9 May 2016 – Okahandja to Red Dunes- Gochas 10 May 2016- Red Dunes- Gochas to Mata Mata

 9 May 2016 – Okahandja via Windhoek and Stampriet to Red Dunes, Gochas

10 May 2016- Red Dunes, Gochas to Mata Mata

We left Ombo at 8 am. After 10 km we passed Okahandja which looks like a fairly big and well maintained town. We had road works on our way to Windhoek, where we did some shopping.  The last 20 km into Windhoek is a double carriage-way, similar as to Cape Town. Windhoek is a sprawling city, very cosmopolitan; we even had difficulty to find parking in a main road also looking very similar to Cape  Town.

We wanted to fill up with diesel as we left Windhoek and when we approached the Engen filling station, we found that it was not open for business, I don’t turn around! We decided to proceed as we thought we have enough fuel for another 200 km as well as 25 liter diesel in a can.  We only realised later that we already drove more than 800 km on this tank and that the gauge predicting 'kilometres left'  may be faulty (it showed 160 km left). 

We left Windhoek on the Gobabis Road  (B6) on tar for 23 km for Gochas, around 12 noon. We took the turn-off to Dordabis, and from there we were on a gravel road until we reached our destination, 35 km south of Gochas on a very scenic road through Savannah-covered hills. 

Double road  into Windhoek, from the north.

Three km before we reached Dordabis we saw a sign saying 'fuel 3 km'. We turned off to Dordabis which were no more than a police station, 2 or 3 other government houses and a shop. We were fortunate to find diesel here.

The names could have been of stars, millions of light years into a foreign galaxy.

Notice the one broken pump.  And they have a two hour siesta which we were fortunate to miss by 40 minutes.

More Dordabis views

From here we drove through a very unpopulated region through Kalahari farms. About the last 100 km we almost drove inside a canyon with flat top hills on the left and right. 

The roads are mostly good, but some has a loose stony topping and others a smoother surface. 80 km per hour can easily be achieved. We reached Red Dunes, on a farm with the unfortunately name of Tranendal around 5 pm. We had accommodation on a farm yard. The accommodation was basic, but clean.

We saw many beautiful landscapes.

Nice wide roads

More nice wide roads. The grass was characteristic, here.

A blockhouse? From what war? There was no signage, only sheep lying in its shade.

Kalahari red dunes.

Impressive farm entrance.  There were diesel pumps as well.

This morning we left Red Dunes at 8am for Mata Mata in Kgalagadi National Park. It was an easy 155 km drive. About 10km before the Mata Mata border post we had morning coffee at Kalahari farm stall which is situated on the farm yard. It is much more than a farm stall but a coffee shop with interesting curious. 

Typical Kalahari Farmstead, along the road.

More views

We saw many, many road signs! To places with weird names.

Many road signs in the south are very faded.

I assume this road sign, on a single track, is for tortoises?

We reached Mata Mata around 11am, went through Namibian customs without any hassles and were back into South Africa. We do, however, need to go through South Africa Customs when leaving Twee Rivieren. Custom people everywhere have this air of being the most important person in the world; doing you this huge favour, 'letting you through'.

We went to the SANParks Office and received an Entry Gate Permit. The administration for our reservation was done. We went for a scenic drive as we could go into our accommodation at 2pm, only.

As soon as the gemsbok recognised me, he ran off.

We were back in Mata Mata  at 3.30 and were pleasantly surprised with our river view chalet. Tomorrow we will do a slow scenic drive from Mata Mata.

It is now 7pm and we are looking from our stoep at the braai from our chalet at 10 gemsbok at the water hole just in front of our chalet, two fighting. A jackal is running past the water hole.

We had excellent weather so far with no need of long sleeve shirts except for when mosquitos were slightly annoying. We chose not to use malaria tablets or medication but took precaution by spraying Tabard or Peaceful Sleep. Although mosquitos were often present they were not too abundant. Many of the accommodation have mosquito nets around the beds and/or screens on windows or sliding doors.

Tomorrow, 11 May we’ll be driving south from Mata Mata to Twee Rivieren enjoying the landscapes and hoping to see various animals.

4 May 2016 – Leave Halali area, drive to Rundu.

Halali area, drive to Rundu, via Tsintabis.

Namibia has ‘day light saving’ so they are one hour behind RSA from 1 April.  The following times are all Namibia times.  The Halali gate opens at sunrise, now 6.10 am.  Reception and ‘breakfast’ opens at 5.30 am.  So we went for breakfast, and got our R500 deposit back and left the Halali gate at 6.10 am, just before sunrise.

The day's travels.

We drove the 87 km from Halali to Von Lindequist gate in about 1hr 30 min.  We saw single elephant, roaming alone, twice.  

We saw gemsbok, and the usual crowd...

but were fortunate to see six hyena, one a baby. They were gorgeous and very special to see.

Faces that re-confirm that mother-love is unconditional.

We took the tar road to Oshivelo and turned east before Oshivelo and proceeded to Tsintsabis.  It is savannah farmland, in some places somewhat converted, but a beautiful area. We drove ± 90 km in good gravel and only saw two bakkies passing from the front.  One donkey cart, and some workers with cattle, or busy on fences.

We got to Tsintsabis…it’s not a town, it is a “road crossing with a school and a water tower”.  From here a ‘new’ tar road goes to Mpungu.  First straight N on the 18 degree line.  Then NE to Mpungu. From Mpungu we should have turned East, but I had to look at an area 23 km West first, then turned North on 18 degrees again and drove on a sand road.  There are two roads, one each side of a fence line dividing Ovamboland on the West from Kavango on the East. We drove for 15 km through a very sparsely populated area; saw people twice.  I did not find what I was looking for and turned back to the B10 (old C45) and proceeded to Rundu.  

Looking 18° north. Kavango to the left, Ovamboland to the right. We called this area "Chandelier Hek".

The road looks good; it wasn't.

Just a sign post.  Mopane trees used as posts.

Rundu was a disappointment.  There are LOTS of people and the area along the road densely populated.  The town self was big, with many shops, but dirty and a real frontier town.  One main road is a one-way, i turn wrongly twice and the locals were quite patient with me. There are some farming and irrigation projects around Rundu. 
It was Cassinga Day and the only place where we saw some gatherings were in Rundu. We arrived at our accommodation for the night, n’Kwazi lodge, about 15 km from Rundu, on the Okavango River. The huts were fine but semi-rustic.  The windows have gauze, no glass, not really a problem.  The layout of the huts are between big indigenous trees and close to the river.  A portable braai was provided and we had a nice fire. The setting was lovely and the lawns and gardens well maintained. 

Okavango River; view from our hut.

Our hut, #6 with a view over the Okavango.

Electricity was only available from 6pm to 10 pm. This interfered with our ‘charging regime’ somewhat.  We do have excellent charging facilities in the bakkie but with photos taken, cell phone searching for wi-fi and internet, GPS on, the batteries drain quickly.Two volunteers washed my bakkie which got very dirty passing Swakopmund where 

we had a drizzle out of the mist and the black version of the so-called salt road sprayed a fine dark sticky mud onto the vehicle.

Madam waiting for service.

Breakfast was served at 7am (8am SA time), straight after we left for Katima Mulilo, our turning point on this tour.

PS: we only get to post this on 7 May as we had no internet.

3 May - Halali Camping Site

View over camping site  after sunset.