Canoetrip and Rafting on the Mighty Zambezi

The last week or so we've spent on the Zambezi river in Zambia. First we left Livingstone to go to Kiambi Lodge close to the Lower Zambezi National Park. The drive was very long, especially the first 80 km's out of Livingstone are terrible with more potholes than road. This stretch takes at least 2 hours to drive, and even then it is very uncomfortable.

The day after the drive we then left on a 4 day/3 nights canoe trip on the river. This is certainly another highlight of the trip so far. The canoeing is not really hard or anything, I suppose it is much like the Gudenå in Denmark (well, if you add the Crocs, Hippos, Elephants etc. that is). The nights we spent on islands in the river, and hippos and elephants come very close to the camps. We saw tons of both of these fantastic creatures, and even got to experience a couple of pissed off elephants trying to scare us off with their mock attacks (apparently they wont make proper attacks into the river). We also got very close to the hippos and a few crocodiles, and got to see buffaloes for the first time here.

We hope that the following pictures can give you a better idea than anything we can write about the last week.

Arriving at Kiambi Lodge











































Day 1 of Canoetrip













































































































































Day 2 of Canoing

















































































































Day 3 on the river















Day 4

Includes our second visit to a local village. This time (a Tuesday) there were children attending classes.

After the canoe trip we went back to Livingstone via the Kariba Dam and lake.

Kariba Dam and the return trip to Livingstone





























































Yesterday we then went white water rafting, which was a lot of fun. We went in two boats, with 4 Chinese and 4 Russians, who didn't seem to pay much attention to the safety instructions (or understand them for that matter), but we all made it out alive). The rapids are rated 2-5, with plenty of nice big ones. We flipped totally once, and Christian got thrown out a couple of extra times, and you really feel the power of this river when you end up as a swimmer. At our flip we had the easy choice whether to take the easy or hard way, and as we approached the rapid the guide said something that sounded like "and then we will flip for sure", we were discussing this briefly, and as we hit the wave below the fall we realised that that was in fact what he said......

Tomorrow Thomas's parents arrive, and we'll then do a helicopter flip over Vic Falls, elephant back safari and then go to Botswana to see the Okavango Delta and Chobe national park.

The Rafting (In the first three pictures you can see how Christian is lost)

On to Zambia via Makgadikgadi and Central Kalahari

Finally we recovered fully from our stomach bug, and got ready to leave Maun for the bush again. We did manage to catch the Portugal - Denmark match on our final night, what a great (if very lucky) result that was!

First we headed to the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, which is a really nice smallish park. We saw tons of zebra and wildebeast, but also a few elephants, hippos and a lot of carrion birds of all sorts. We also drove through the park to Nxai Pans to see Baines Baobabs, which is soliary group of baobab trees in the middle of the pans. These trees are very impressive in general.

Next stop was Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the largest protected area in all of Africa. This turned out to be a couple of very eventful days. When we arrived at the gate after a rough ride in, there was nobody there. There was however, a strange note on the counter left by a family at 04.00 in the morning two days earlier. It basically said "we've left very early, being chased by fire". This was a bit strange, and as we were having our lunch outside the office a very tired looking lady appeared. The message was that the park was on fire, and they estimated that 80-90% of the grasslands were burned. Nonetheless we were still allowed to go in, but were told to stay away from certain campsites.

So we drove in, and after about 20 km's we saw the first signs of the fire. The ground in great parts of the park are tragically totally scorched, but big areas are also untouched. There was very little game around, and aside from quite a few different antelopes we didn't see much on the first day. During the night we did hear lion roars, which did bother Pernille a little due to the lack of fences around the camp sites.

The next day we drove a very long drive around the park, to see more burned areas but also a lot of untouched. On the way we saw a honey badger and a few other minor things. When we finally found a waterhole there was a lioness sleeping next to it, which was a great sight. We therefore decided to find a camp site near the waterhole so we could go back just before sunset, but that wasn't to be.....

After having lunch a bit off the main track, we packed up, got in the car, turned the key... and nothing! The starter didn't turn over at all. This was a slightly worrying situation, as the park is very remote and we'd only seen 4 cars in 24 hours, and all of them on the main tracks. Luckily we still had a lot of water and food, so we were not really in any danger, but still up a certain creek without the required instrument regarding the car.

We decided to try pushing it towards the main track, so we could get someone to tow us if they came by. After fighting very hard to even move our 2 tons+ vehicle in the loose sand, we finally got a bit of momentum on the car, and decided to try push starting it. Pernille jumped in, Christian and I pushed the hardest we ever had, and just imagine the joy when she released the clutch and the car skidded forward! This is probably one of the happiest moments of our trip so far.

After this experience, we decided to head for the gate, so we could get the starter fixed. But as we were leaving the park we suddenly came across 4 lions sleeping in the middle of the road, one big male and three females. This is certainly our best lion sigthing so far! But as we couldn't stop the engine because of the starter problems, and the lions did not seem to want to move. We had to make a slightly pulse raising dash off the sandy road, through the bushes and around the lions. This really wasn't a place you'd want to push your car!

By some strange coincident one of the guys at the gate was actually a mecanic, and he told us that this is quite normal, and that it is "just" due to a lot of dust. He then told us to get a wrench out. Not to loosen or tighten anything, but simply to bang the starter with when it didn't work. This will then make it turn over... I suppose these little tricks are obvious to the bush mecanics, but certainly not to us. Luckily the starter hasn't given us any further problems, but if it does all we need is apparently to have it cleaned, and that is it.

That night our adventures continues, as we set up our very first bush camp about an hour out of the park. Being completely alone really is a great experience, but in Africa you are rarely totally alone due to all the animals. Just as we we're having our dinner we heard a rustling in the bushes, and as we turned about 20 cows were staring at us. Pernille seemed very happy to be out of the lion infested park and just come across cows at this point in time.

The next day we went through the Makgadikgadi salt pans, which is an amazing sight. In some areas it is completely white as far as you can see. We stopped at the Planet Baobab camp, which is a very nice place. We enjoyed the first shower in more than 2 days (and the first hot one in 4 or 5), swam in the pool - and had quite a few drinks in the very nice bar!

The following day we went to Zambia, where we are currently in Livingstone by the Victoria Falls. Crossing in to Zambia is a bit of a hassle, mainly due to "opportunists" trying to cheat you whereever you turn. We managed without paying any of them though, but it really is a test for the less patient of us! On the small ferry across we saw a green mamba (or a green snake the locals said was a mamba, who knows).

From here on we want to go white water rafting, canoeing on the Zambezi and to the Lower Zambezi National Park before my parents arrive for a ten day visit!

We hope you are all doing well, and keep the comments comming!

Finally - on we go from Windhoek

Well its has been a while since the last update on our blog and we are sure you are all anxious to hear something new from us. For us it is simply nice to be in a place where it is possible to check the internet once again.

Since our last post the bigger half of the Flojgaard clan has returned to Denmark and we have had plenty of time to see new things and meet (let's call 'em) interesting people along the way. After saying our goodbye we returned to Windhoek to have our car serviced, which turned out to be a longer episode - meaning we had to get one of the rear sideshaft changed as well as one of the bearings in the left steering and having new brakes fitted. Ohh - I guess I forgot mentioning the rear muffler needed to welded as-well.

After several days delay in Windhoek we took off to Spitzkoppe where we hooked up with a very nice group of young english people. Together we had a couple of nice days at Spitzkoppe at the very isolated campsites. At Spitzkoppe we saw the Bushmen paintings and various rock formations. On the last evening it would have been quite suitable to have had a bath after our long walk and messing about with a soccerball, but the truck that was promised to return with water never came. So we returned slightly dirty back to our campsite.


On the day we were meant to leave Spitzkoppe and head north towards the Caprivi it turned out that our Water tank (which we had already gotten fixed once) was still leaking. Hence we decided to make another visit to the nice people at KEA in Windhoek to leave the container with them. This also gave us the wonderful opportunity to visit Nando's once more. The same day we tried to make it as far north as possible and got to Grootfontein where we stayed at the De Kraal Steakhouse and Camping. At first glance it seemed like an alright place, it was clean and the owner who was German also spoke quite good Danish. The dinner we ate together with the owner and his wife. The meal was lovely but as we got further and further into the hours of the night this (ex) SS-Officer revealed his true views on life in Africa. If the evening wasn't a nightmare then he certainly gave us some by showing us his pistol whilst we were settling the bill. Maybe we should have had thought twice when we saw we were the only ones at the campsite...

The following morning we got up early in a rush to get out of there and on to Khaudom Game Reserve. On the way into the park we made a stop by a Bushmen village to get some insight into how they used to live and make fire and so on. By the time we bunked down for the night we probably had one of the most exhilarating days so far; we got stuck outside the Bushmen village, and got out of it, our tyre punctured, we experienced some of the first heavier sand driving after we left CT, and we camped for the first time without fences.


We spent the following day driving through Khaudom and on the way we saw plenty of elephants, giraffes, and roan antelopes. Here it was different than in Etosha - the animals weren't used to cars and people so the experience of the different behavior in itself was much wilder. The whole day we spent driving in deep sand and it was fun but tiring. Finally when we got out on the tar road north of the park we headed towards Rundu to make sure to have a new spare tyre for the next leg of the trip. This was a fortunate decision as once we had travelled a km on the road the cars' instruments slowly started dying on us. After we had pulled over the car would not run again. To our luck a nice group of Germans came along that were also heading into Rundu so they towed us to their campsite.

The following morning with the help of some of the Germans (mainly Fritz) and our trusted Multimeter (sponsored by SDU) we found the problem was that the alternator was busted and the engine had just been draining the battery of all juice. To our 'luck' this was a public holiday so we spent an extra night in Rundu before getting the car to the shop. eventually we got the car in shape again with a new alternator and two new tyres and we were off to Ngepi Camp on the Okavango river. At the very relaxing campsite we used 5 days for playing Settlers, relaxing, and swimming in the Croc & Hippo cage. One afternoon we went on a Mokoro (traditional canoe) trip up the river to drink some beers and watch the hippos. Awesome animals, by the way. At this camp we experienced some of the most interesting toilet facilities yet.

From Ngepi we went over the border into Botswana an on towards Tsodilo Hills to see more Bushmen paintings of animals and the 'Dancing Penises'. And our next real stop was in Maun to reserve our campsites for the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. On the way though we had to get out several times due to Checkpoints for Foot and Mouth Disease. Fortunately instead of making us throw out the meat we had bought in the previous town they allowed us to cook it at the fire at the checkpoint before proceeding.

The last 4 nights we spent taking turns being sick in Maun, but we hope to get on the way soon.

Namibian roundtrip

We are now back in Windhoek after a Namibian roundtrip with Christian and Pernille's family (Marie, Leif, Camilla and Hans).

After picking the family up at the airport we stayed the first night just north of Windhoek on a nice guest farm. The next day we headed towards Etosha National Park. On the drive in we started spotting warthogs, zebras, springboks, all sorts of birds (the bird thing was mainly the two biology experts, Hans and Camilla), etc. But as soon as we entered the park things got even more interesting, as we saw an elephant almost immediately.

During our three night stay we saw more than we ever dreamed of. The first night the water hole at Okakuejo camp was visited by a big group of elephants, and had a visit by three lions and four rhinos. We even got to see a rhino square up to the male lion, resulting in a massive lions roar (which is really some thing you have to hear for yourself, along with an elephant fart...). Aside from this brilliant start to our safari we also saw tons of zebras, springboks, gemsboks, wildebeast, giraffes, plenty of elephants including very cute small ones. But maybe most interestingly we also saw a lion chasing a gemsbok, unfortunately without success. A leopard in a tree with kill, and very surprisingly a leopard in the middle of the road obviously not caring much about us (so much for it being the shy big cat). We also went on a very cold night drive where we again saw lions, elephants and rhino. Nothing short of amazing.

After Etosha we drove down to Swakopmund (with an overnight stay in a hole called Kamanjab), via a petrified forrest, the Skeleton Coast and Cape Cross seal colony. The drive was beautiful, it is just so different for us Danes to see this vast desolate landscape, and the changes along the way. We also saw a giraffe in the middle of the road, and a group of Hartmanns mountain zebras. The seals were also nice, but they really do stink.

In Swakopmund we relaxed, played a bit of football, ate quite a lot and drank plenty (mainly beer i suppose, and I agree Ashley, Tafel is the best of the ones up here). We also went on a drive to see the welvichia plants, that are only found in Namibia. And then we went on a quadbike and sandboarding tour. The quadbiking in the sand dunes was a lot of fun, with surprisingly few restrictions regarding how fast you drive and how steep slopes you attempt to tackle. One thing to remember though, is that the tires grip a lot better on tar than on sand. Christian found out the hard way, and his trousers are currently at the taylors to have the 10 cm tear on his arse repaired, after the quad decided to throw him off :-) Oh, and if you go, the manual 200cc models have quite a lot more power than the automatic ones!

From here on we drove through the Namib Naukluft National Park to Namib Desert Lodge about an hour from the gates to Sossusvlei (the red dunes of Namibia). We went to the dunes, which was probably on of the best experiences of our trip so far. The landscape was stunning, even if the walk up the dunes was very tiring. We went up Dead Vlei and Big Daddy. One of the great things was getting down again, you can gather a lot (and I mean a lot) of speed down these dunes, and thus jump very far and high. The only downside is that you have sand absolutely everywhere afterwards.

Our final night we spent just outside Windhoek (Christian, Pernille and I in a tent in yet another freezing night with temperatures around -5, thank god we bought proper sleeping bags, well Christians isn't quite warm enough, so he seems to be looking forward to warmer nights...).

Now we are in Windhoek waiting for our Hilux, that Toyota have just called to say we wont get back untill tomorrow at 15.00 as we have to have the bearing in our suspension changed.... We sort of expected this, as the left front wheel was very loose.

Hereafter we plan to go on to Khaudom National Park for some rough bush camping (meaning no toilets, and apparently no fences around camp), and then through the Caprivi Strip to Botswana. So we do not expect to have another update for at couple of weeks.

Thank you all for your comments and interest, and my apologies for putting the pictures in the wrong order this time (I cannot seem to figure out how to move them around).

Cape Town to Windhoek via Kgalagadi, Fish River Canyon and a 1 kg steak

Having left Cape Town to go to Franschoek for our 'final' supper (which we enjoyed massively) we then finally headed north to start the outback/camping life. The first stop was Beaverlak National Reserve, just for a night. The decent to the camp site was very rough, and we engaged four wheel drive here, only a few hours from Cape Town (hurraahhh).

The next stop was Springbok, only as we had to sleep, but even if the town is very dull it turned out to be a nice night. We went to the local steakhouse, Taurus, where Christian happily found they had a 1 kg rump steak on the menu at the moderate price of around 70 danish kroner. As a price for finishing it (as he duly did, including all the chips, veggies and half a dessert) he now has his name on the wall in this restaurant. So if any of you are ever there, be sure to check it out, and please sent a picture of it :-)

While digesting the steaks we moved on to Augrabis Falls National Park, which is a nice place with tons of Dassies (nice little mammals of some sort). We had a couple of great days with a bit of hiking, and brushing up on our camping abilities and most importantly braai'ing skills (BBQ'ing to most of you guys...)

From there on we headed into the Khalahari, or at least the fringes of it. We spent three days in, and around the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, which is a wonderfull place. Unfortunately on the way there I ran over a mongoose or maybe meercat (see our front page picture), which is very much a favourite animal of mine, so we now have our first road kill... could it only have been a cat or bird or something. In the park we were quite lucky, we saw tons of Springbok, Gemsbok, Wildebeast, Hartebeast, Foxes etc, but also a Lion strolling next to the car, two Cheetas resting after a meal and a Caracal (quite rare at daytime).

From the Kgalagadi we crossed into Namibia, heading for Fish River Canyon, which is the worlds second largest canyon. Just before we reached the camp site there was a sign that it was closed and we had to go to Hobas at the other end of the canyon. Luckily they had room for us. The canyon itself was very nice.

After a couple of days we went to Windhoek, where we are now. The city itself is nothing special, but there are restaurants, internet, cinema and even vegetables of the menus! This is very much a meat lovers paradise. Steaks are never less than 300g, and you get very little vitamin. After an afternoon i Windhoek we found out that Namibia is an hour behind South Africa, which explained a lot of things, such as the sun taking forever to set over the canyon, why people had looked oddly at us for going to bed at 21.00 (or 20.00 as it turns out) etc.

From here on we will head north with the Flojgaard clan, going to Etosha, then back down the Skeleton Coast to Swakopmund and finally to Sossusvlei and Sesriem. Thereafter they go back to Denmark, and will start planning the next leg of our journey.

We hope you are all well, and please leave comments on the blog!