
Soaking it all up at Ngepi Camp - Caprivi, Namibia (September 2022)
24th September 2022, we are well into our year adventure as a family. Roughly 6 weeks, to be exact, 41 days on the road since arriving in Cape Town. We have had an amazing time so far and seen a lot of different landscapes, animals, places and wild and beautiful campsites. We have met many interesting travellers, always sharing exciting personal stories and giving valuable advice for what lies ahead for us. Our decision to do an overland adventure through Southern Africa (ZA, Nam, Bots and Zim) for a total of 3 months has always, by family, friends and strangers, been met with admiration, a healthy amount of jealousy as well as surprise, both before leaving and now while doing it. To do it with two teenage girls seemed beforehand and now appears to be true, a rarity. We are truly happy and thrilled we made the decision to go and to do it as we planned, and it already is giving us the family connection time we hoped for. This is an experience we all will never ever forget.
That does not mean, traveling like we do, does not come with certain challenges. We share our time and place for close to 24/7, 7 days a week. Personal time and space is limited to give you “the” understatement of the year. Plenty of opportunity to get annoyed with each other, disagree with each other, have enough of each other! Yes, negativity is easy to find, nothing different from “normal” life. However, we do not live our lives thinking about possible issues, what if’s and what not’s. We have always lived our lives with what we have and what we can look forward to. Glass half full…… always. We think, live, work(ed), talk and act in opportunities and possibilities. This year, we think (and know) will allow us to see the beauty of the world, appreciate the wonders of nature, cherish the time with each other and respect differences.
That does not man that once in a while, it is healthy and lovely to decompress. Ngepi camp, just south of Divundu, right on the start of the Caprivi strip is a perfect place to do so. We park Bessie here for three days to read, sleep, eat, swim in the river cage (keeping hippo’s and croc’s out - we hope!), and celebrate Mijke’s 15th birthday on the 25th Sept. Remke bakes a birthday cake on the campfire, balloons up in the trees and of course a few presents, mostly sorted out locally.
Our campsite is right on the river and we are surrounded by wildlife, many of them birds (see gallery below) and there are no fences so bigger game roams around. Hippo’s grunt and blow out air down at the river, only 10 m. away from our site, hyena’s laugh at night and even the hippo’s graze in camp at night. We are becoming quite relaxed about being in the bush and everybody walks freely around, while being aware and cautious at the same time. You quickly learn to be respectful at all times, so, that's what we are and how we act. We all spend time alone, reading, or staring over the river through binoculars, spotting sea eagles, hippo’s, waterbuck or warthogs on the banks of the river. Our hammock runs overtime and the kindles need re-charging. We even skip our game drive afternoon and decide to sit still and soak in the calmness of the river, the sound of birds and simply enjoy our surroundings.
Etosha was fantastic though tiring and in a few days time we will be repeating the game drive routine when we cross through one of the best game drive destinations in the world, Chobe, Savuti and Moremi, between Kasane and Maun in Botswana.
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