After Etosha National Park we wanted to hit the Caprivi, a small strip of Namibia in between Angola and Botswana leading almost all the way to the Victoria Falls. Other than the dry and desert-like climate in the rest of the country up here the landscape is green and lush. And with rich vegetation population increases, so we passed many villages along the long drive. For the first time we got a little bit of an idea how people live in Namibia. Before the landscape we drove through was mostly deserted, settlements were rare because there is just not enough ressources for people to live of. But in the north east corner that changes. We saw kids waving at the cars, goats and cattle along the road and the typical mud houses with grass roof. Sometimes there were stone houses in between but mostly they looked empty, or maybe it was just the impression that glassless and curtainless windows leave. Schools and shops (with basic stuff like rice, drinks and chips) seem to exist in every village, but later we learned that not all families can afford to send their kids to school.
We stopped at the famous Ngepi Camp, a camp with very specially arranged tree houses, toilets with only one wall around (so you're facing the forest while sitting on the loo) and all directly set along the Okavango River, which is full of hippos and crocs.
We learned here that hippos are not only the most dangerous creatures in the water, but also that they are the noisiest neighbors you can imagine. All night we had to listen to them splashing the water, grunting or roaring in order to mark their ground. They are highly aggressive to each other and of course towards every intruder, even if it's a big boat. On our sunset cruise with a boat resembling a terrace with an engine, we saw close up how hippos rip open their big mouth and jump towards us in order to chase us away from their territory. We were impressed and happy to be safe on the boat.
That changed the next day when we did a "Mokoro Trip". A Mokoro is a canoe which is steered by a guide and as it is so wabbly and unstable we tourists (max 2 per boat) are only allowed to sit quietly and do nothing. So, in this canoe we hit the river again, the guide explained us a lot about rare birds and we were lucky enough so spot a few of the Top10-rare-bird list. Our guide got quite excited about Purple Herron, African Skimmer and several Kingfishers, whereas we only shrugged at the sight of birds we didn't even know they existed. With the canoe of course we didn't want to intrude hippo's private space but sometimes it wasn't possible to keep the distance and then the bloody things are diving so you never know where they will pop out next. Being still very impressed from the previous' day hippo experience I was very nervous and when a hippo-mama threatened us by jumping towards us, my adrenaline got pumped big time. The guide just laughed and said, she would never come over to us in the shallow water. Around the next corner it was deeper and another hippo found us too close to his private space. This time the guide didn't say a word just suddenly paddled with the max speed... I was so glad when that tour was over, I can tell you!
By now I'm not afraid of crocs anymore, they are small-brained, instinct-driven reptiles. But hippos are dangerous as hell!
We would see more of the Okavango on the other side at its delta in Botswana, but for now we stayed in Namibia, drove up to the Caprivi's capital Katima Mulilo to stock up with supplies and finally spend our last night in Namibia at the banks of Chobe River at a very calm camp where we were the only guests, just how we liked it. The rooftop tent on our car had become our favourite sleeping place, where we felt safe and at home, high above all possible dangers and annoyances.
We stopped at the famous Ngepi Camp, a camp with very specially arranged tree houses, toilets with only one wall around (so you're facing the forest while sitting on the loo) and all directly set along the Okavango River, which is full of hippos and crocs.
We learned here that hippos are not only the most dangerous creatures in the water, but also that they are the noisiest neighbors you can imagine. All night we had to listen to them splashing the water, grunting or roaring in order to mark their ground. They are highly aggressive to each other and of course towards every intruder, even if it's a big boat. On our sunset cruise with a boat resembling a terrace with an engine, we saw close up how hippos rip open their big mouth and jump towards us in order to chase us away from their territory. We were impressed and happy to be safe on the boat.
That changed the next day when we did a "Mokoro Trip". A Mokoro is a canoe which is steered by a guide and as it is so wabbly and unstable we tourists (max 2 per boat) are only allowed to sit quietly and do nothing. So, in this canoe we hit the river again, the guide explained us a lot about rare birds and we were lucky enough so spot a few of the Top10-rare-bird list. Our guide got quite excited about Purple Herron, African Skimmer and several Kingfishers, whereas we only shrugged at the sight of birds we didn't even know they existed. With the canoe of course we didn't want to intrude hippo's private space but sometimes it wasn't possible to keep the distance and then the bloody things are diving so you never know where they will pop out next. Being still very impressed from the previous' day hippo experience I was very nervous and when a hippo-mama threatened us by jumping towards us, my adrenaline got pumped big time. The guide just laughed and said, she would never come over to us in the shallow water. Around the next corner it was deeper and another hippo found us too close to his private space. This time the guide didn't say a word just suddenly paddled with the max speed... I was so glad when that tour was over, I can tell you!
By now I'm not afraid of crocs anymore, they are small-brained, instinct-driven reptiles. But hippos are dangerous as hell!
We would see more of the Okavango on the other side at its delta in Botswana, but for now we stayed in Namibia, drove up to the Caprivi's capital Katima Mulilo to stock up with supplies and finally spend our last night in Namibia at the banks of Chobe River at a very calm camp where we were the only guests, just how we liked it. The rooftop tent on our car had become our favourite sleeping place, where we felt safe and at home, high above all possible dangers and annoyances.
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