Left Leentjiesklip on the 1st October and arrived at Kardoesie later that day and begun unpacking the bakkie and turning it in to a camper, it was to be our home for the next 2 weeks.

The next day we got everything that was not coming with us into the caravan in a way that we could still sleep in it that night as the next day we were leaving it along with our small car at Kardoesie.

Day 1 ; Up at first light and put the caravan and small car in the storage area and headed for the garage just past Citrusdal and filled up, diesel had just gone up to over R26 a liter, this tank had to get us to and over the Namibian border as diesel was R4 a liter cheaper there.

We then headed for Springbok some 400kms away. Stopped of at Kamiescroon about 70kms before Springbok , went to have a look at Verbe caravan park. Can only describe Kamiescroon as a " village " that has stood still in time and Verbe caravan park fitted in with the theme.

Anyway, arrived at Springbok later that day and found the caravan park a little out of town and checked in for the night. Went for a drive into the town that afternoon, was nothing like I had imagined , its like meeting the voice behind the phone ...... never looks like you pictured it to.

Been looking forward to this report!

Day 2 ; Next stop over was going to be at a town called Grunau, the first town over the border 265kms away. This was planned to be a short stint as talking to those in the know ...... the border crossing could take a half hour or could take 4 hours so either way we would have enough time left on the table.

The further we got away from Springbok the more the landscape changed, getting more flat and a lot more baron, so much so that every fourth or so  telephone pole had a crows nest on it , and this went on for 10s of kms , I guess this what they had to do as there was not a tree in sight anywhere. Anyway a couple of kms before the border we came across the damaged road caused by that storm damage about a month before when the orange river broke loose, a short stop and go thereafter you stayed on a demarcated track for a few kms. That flood literally moved mountains.

Got to Vooilsdrift , the SA side of the border did some brief paper work and then crossed a long bridge over the orange  to  Noordoever, there side of the border. First room, second in line we filled in the forms given to us had the passports stamped and were directed to the building next door and had the vehicle documentation checked out , then directed to a building down and across the road . Customs..... where they could decide to search your vehicle or not to, after answering a few questions they decided not to search our bakkie and sent us on our way. 45 minutes or so later we where done and on our way, as we were leaving a tour bus pulled in and about 40 people got out.........could see why it could take up to 4 hours.

Arrived at Grunau around midday , Grunau consists of a filling station station where we filled up that has a modest garage shop , Grunau ' hotel ' and Grunau chalets , thats it.

We had booked at a place called the White house some 10kms past Grunau and a few kms of the main road .A really neat campsite , basic but has everything you need, whilst you're not in the desert yet, the landscape indicates its not very far away, after a good walk around , a mince vetkoek supper and a hot shower we bedded in for the night. 

As the name says

The campsite at the White House.

Just got to love the ablutions - bath in the desert :) - can't wait for the next instalment.

forgot to mention on day 2, we stopped at a Wimpy just over the border where we told we could buy and activate an MTC phone and data card, we bought the card and was told by the lady that it could take 3 hours or 3 days to activate, will get back to this on day 3,Anyway, stopped in at the Wimpy for breakfast, same wimpy as SA, same menu however thats where the similarity ends. the prices are a lot more, a trend that was set to continue over the entire trip.

 Day 3 ; next stop over was to be Keetsmanhoop, another short stint of a 165kms, planed short after speaking to those in the know that this was the closet town that had an MTC shop that would activate the MTC card bought inside the border, and could take a long time as it was a busy shop. And they were not far wrong, the queue was out the door when we arrived mid morning. however some 2 hours later our card was activated and we had comms again.

Now we had made a preliminary booking at a guesthouse in Keetsmanhoop in case the MTC shop ordeal would run into more hours , but we now had time on our side and not really keen on staying at Keetsmanhoop and having booked the night of day 4 at lake Oanob outside a town called Rehoboth we phoned ahead and asked them if they had place for the night of day 3 , they said they had.

So 410kms later that day we arrived at lake Oanob and checked in, a good decision with hindsight as this was a really beautiful campsite nestled around the lake , each site with its own abolition and kitchen area. Stunning to say the least and we where going to stay 2 nights here.

The campsite at lake Oanob.

Day 4 was to be a rest day at lake Oanob, stocked up on supplies at Rehoboth and explored the surrounds of the campsite. the next day was to be a 540km trip to Etosha.

Day 5 ;  Windhoek was not to far up the road from Rehoboth , whilst we had no intention of exploring Windhoek we decided to pull in and find a place to have breakfast which we did. However the GPS lead us up the garden path on the way out and we ended up seeing a lot more of Windhoek then we intended to, it is a bustling city.

 The next town to pass through was Okahandja, appeared to be a small farming town. there after came Otjiwarongo , a bigger town that seemed to have it all. we now left the B1 main road and branched of on the C38 to a town called Outjo, which we were to discover more of on the way back. We then headed for our main 3 day stop over and highlight of the trip..........  

Day 5, 6, and 7 ; the balance of day 5, day 6 and 7 was spent at was spent at Okaukuejo, a campsite in Etosha some 20kms from the main gate. About 6kms before the main gate was a filling station with a shop where we were hoping to pick up supplies , however this turned out to be little more than a rather expensive home industries. As we were travelling without a fridge we were buying meat etc daily , anyway the shop at Okaukuejo was better stocked , not better priced but it is as it was.

The campsite at Okaukuejo

The main abolition block for the campsite consisted of 2 toilets . 2 showers and 2 wash basins. And we guesstimate there were at least 50 people a night in the campsite.............me thinks the geysers , if they were working could not keep up, 3 nights 3 cold showers. the toilets did not flush with a normal handle, these were snapped of as was the top of the cisterns missing, you had to put your hand into the cistern and pull the lever up. When in Africa.................I guess.........

The diesel pumps in the park were empty aswell , indicated by the attendant when we pulled up there, said they would be filled in a couple of days..... we did have enough fuel to get back to the above mentioned trading post on the way out though.

 We spent the best part of the next 2 days travelling a little over 200kms through and around the park. Temperatures reached 40 degrees every day and we found that whilst there were animals to be seen between water holes they were few and far in between, so we drove from water hole to water hole were a large no of animals seem to hang out.

 The roads in the park within a 20 or so km range from the campsite were very rough with extreme corrugation [ we were going to find out what extreme corrugation was really like a little later on in the trip ] and as we got further away on the roads less travelled they got a lot better , however the water holes got fewer as well.

 A welcome on returning to camp every afternoon was the pool at the campsite, which surprisingly was also almost ice cold whilst the temps around it were 40 plus, we spent both afternoons submerged.

 Another really nice feature and the reason why we chose Okaukuejo in the first place was the flood lit waterhole on the doorstep of the campsite, which was about a hundred or so meters from our campsite although not visible from our campsite. [ there were chalets in-between ] turned out there was a abundance of animals all the time there really, but sitting at the view points in the flood lit evenings were spectacular to say the least.  

The view points seating that overlook the floodlit waterhole.

The floodlit waterhole in the evening.

There was a pride of lions under and behind this tree/bush and every now and then one would get up and stick his head out, but as luck would have it I couldn't get the shot.

Pics at various water holes and around the park

Various pics from around the park

Day 8 ; Packed up at first light and headed for Swakopmund some 520kms away.

Headed back on the C38 to Outjo where we stopped for breakfast, found a bakery that sold the biggest pies we have ever seen , they had a sit down place aswell so we had a pie and gravy and coffee then we were on our way.