A trip to Windhoek - WHAT a trip!

What a trip!
Had to go to Windhoek last week for some business and my treatments again, nothing serious this time though, just the routine stuff. The world is bright green, and having a pitstop (pissstop?) was like getting lost in a jungle - so lush and green! The elephant was spotted while busy on "stop", wandering into sight just a few hundred meters up the road, about halfway in the Bwabwata National Park.They started making the bridge over the Okavango at Divundu stronger and broader, I noted when arriving there. The bridge was built in the early 1970's and replaced the ferry that was normally used to cross. With the amount of traffic - especially trucks coming over the "new" bridge between Zambia and Namibia at Sesheke, an upgrade is required urgently to accommodate the heavy trucks.

From just after Divundu, it was rain, rain and more rain. I had to stop in Grootfontein for some business, and took a photo of this old Marchall, which gave new meaning to the name STEAMROLLER. Brother has such a keen interest in anything "steamy", and the enthusiasm is quite infectious... I am bitten as well, but more by the nostalgia than the working parts as with him. Driving to Windhoek from Grootfontein was rain and rain again...

I was quite cross-eyed from concentration when I finally reached my other home - my brother's house. As usual he greeted me warmly, gave me a drink, and showed me what little engine he built since I was there last. He use old computer and printer parts to create the most wonderful small parts, gears, pistons etc on his lathe to build these little engines with - and make tools on the lathe as well to be able to create the little parts! This time it was the "Flame Eater" - it sucks in flames to make the little engine run. When I finally find out how to compress video enough for a blog, I will post a clip! Well, My Goodness Me! What an extraordinary little creation! Congrats on him winning Project of the Month as well in the Home Model Engineering World!
Just sat down for a chat the evening when Obelix's Alarm went off, something very rare. Happened once in the night as well, so I just left it off. Had a nasty surprise the next morning though... While driving in a luckily half empty 4 lane street, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw this HUGE spider on the headrest by my head... Pulled to a screeching halt in the lane next to the side walk, jumped out! No way! A man came and pulled behind me, asked what was wrong, took one look, screamed like a grade 2 girl and was in his car and away before I could even say Baboon Spider! Then came a woman and her son, about 12. He immediately took the spider and asked her to keep it as a pet! Which Brother also said later - if he knew, he would just love it for his garage!

Rain fell very heavy that evening, sliding Obelix and me to the Club, where I had a good few laughs, good business dealings (a friend used to say the best deals comes from a pub!) and a drink or two...or three... but not quantity enough and fast enough to get me in trouble. Windhoek boasts some very active traffic officers....

All went well, except for the dentist, who had a bit too much! Rain that is.... He had some flooding and give me a raincheck (haha) on my drillings and more time to walk about. Sister and I spent time in the Crazy Store in Maerua Mall - playing Star Wars Swords with foamolite bats - untill we saw we are next to the Glassware! I then aquired my new budgie babies, Sysie and Kriek (Blue waxbill and Cricket - from the sounds they make!). Had been looking for babies for a while now...Coming back to the Caprivi I had the 2 baby Budgies and 2 little Hyenas in the car - 2 X 8 week old doggie pupps looking just like hyenas - the colouring, longish hair on the back.... Quite well trained already, and no problem with carsickness this time! Extreme heavy rain with strong winds fell just south of Rundu, making my trip very slow. Crossed very full Okavango and Kwando Rivers and was quite shocked to see the whole guard post at the Kongola gate was collapsed! When I gave the pupps off, I was told an armored security vehicle drove into the little post at full speed, and alcoholic containers flew over the whole area...
Condolences to the family of the policeman who lost his life in this very unnecessary happening .Found a whole heard of elephant about 40 km east of Kongola, a rare sight, telling that the Kwando will rise a whole bunch still. And as they say, most accidents happen 40km from home... I nearly had a big one. It was just past dusk, and this truck with 8 mounted spotlights came charging toward me, not dimming, and blinding me quite bad. I slowed to about 70 and kept my eyes on the edge of the road on my side - and when I glanced up, found the truck is in MY lane! Swerved to the left, off the road, narrowly missed the truck, which just roared on, missed a tree due to the extreme muddiness of the roadside, pulled on the tar again just to go off the other side, quick turn to the road and I was on my way home again, to reach it still trembling but in one piece.
Well, back at work, very ugly reports about the flooding possibilities coming in, and a lot of frustrating meetings this week... Eish!

Interview with an Elephant - Caprivi Namibia

Rain, Rain and Rain again..... That is the way Katima Mulilo and the Caprivi find these present days. Finally the big soft rain has come, that will make sure the people's crops will wave in the wind soon. Not a lot has been planted so far.... And with the Zambezi river now a meter higher than last year, 2011 will be in for Zambezi floods again. But not so bad as 2009 I think, might be worse that 2010 though.

Drove to Kasane again to pick up rental cars, and the way there is lush green, with soft grass forming a carpet underneath the bright greens of the trees. The Silver Terminalia and Mopanies glistens when the sun catch them in the few glimpses as the big cotton ball clouds move to and fro. This is the most beautiful time of the year for me, but not good tourism wise. Also not good people wise....

School started after the long summer holidays, and the road is full of little children in their blue shirts. Unfortunately it is a very unsafe time to travel, as the children take the road as a walkway, and doesn't watch out for cars coming, jumping around in front of oncoming traffic, while the adults have more fun laughing at the frustration on the driver's faces than worry about the children. Mostly the adults join the fun to see if they can get a driver to leave the road while swerving to avoid the people... Even though there are good footpaths well away from, but parallel to the road, they find the road best to walk on, they do not want to pass through the damp grass. And the grass next to the road is quite high, so dogs come flying out of there with no warning, adding to the frustrations of the driver. At least the cattle and goats is a bit less now, feeding on the fresh, sweet, green grass under the trees. But tourists and travelers, please be ever careful!

The Chobe park is also lush and green, it had really looked bad through the last couple of months. There was quite a drought there, even though the Caprivi is so close, we had a lot more grass and vegetation to present to animals. During the extreme hotness of October and November last year, huge herds of elephant gathered under the only green trees in the park, next to the road. The smell of the first rains had most trunks in the air as they stormed through the dry grass toward know watering holes.

Then, when rain started in earnest, they all moved around a lot more, although their "evidence" is ever present on the road, big 'bombs' for which small cars have to swerve out, but you see the elephants themselves a lot less. Yesterday was one of the few times in the rainy season where a huge herd passed over the road in the time I was driving. There is a lot of very small ones, hobbling along over the tar, while the young bulls practice flopping their ears around for the cars.

The elephants and other animals of the Park are quite well trained - they actually look before crossing (which is more then I can say for the humans and children). But it is their park, and they have right of way, so the moment they see the cars stopping for them, they will start crossing. They can cross calmly right in front of you, about 2 meters away from the car. Some are more skittish of the cars and will go a bit further and faster. While I waited at the crossing, a very young bull decided he will flop his ears for me just off to the left side, throwing them around, waving his trunk, stomping his front feet and shaking his body around with dust flying off it from a sandbath taken only a few minutes before.
The matriarch (the leading female) appeared from the vegetation to cross the road, and gave him a quick trumpeter, causing him to quickly behave and follow suit. I recognized her and was so happy to see the Old Lady again!

As the formidably big elephant cow passed in front of me and looked at me, I wished I could have an interview with her. I saw her many times now, I always know her by the notch in the ear and the stiff left back hip. She has a scar just above the hip, like the remiscence of a big cut.
I would like to know... Where she came from, how many times she crossed this road (must be so many!). How many kilometers she walked, and which places she visited. How she got the hip and the notch in her ear. How many children she had, what battles she had in keeping the herd safe. Were teenage bulls like our boys, rebellious and mischievous; it might well be from the display of the young one she gave a trumpeting to when he flapped his ears for me... Did most drivers treat them with respect? I have seen plenty that hoot at them or drive through inbetween them - and I saw how upset she, and other herds' matriarchs got. Are they tired of all the photos? Do humans irritate them very much? Are they better off now then a few years back?

Botswana had too much elephant a while back, and with an open garbage dump at Kasane, we were so unfortunate to see them feasting together with the Marabou Storks in the garbage. Just after that Botswana fenced the dump and did a cull to get the numbers down to where the Park could be a sustainable habitat for the elephants again. Its very sad, but very necessary. That was in 2007. Then all the elephant was extremely thin with their backbones sticking out in ridges above their backs. Now they are in a much better condition.

The Old Lady is the second elephant I feel a connection with in my life. Even though I haven't spoken to her. But I am sure she can read my mind, she is always looking at me when passing, as if she can feel I am talking to her inside the car. The car on the other side will not get even a glance after she made sure it stopped. I saw her once, about 2½ years back, and she didn't look very good: her mouth hung open, the head was hanging very low, the ears bent, I just recognized her by the notch in the ear, the stiff hip and her size - she's standing taller than most elephants - and I worried a lot when I didn't see her with for about 4 months after that. But I didn't see the herd as well, which was good, telling me that they stayed with her, out of sight. But one day she came out, passing in front of me again and looking at me as to say: "missed me, didn't you!" , looking healthy again, and healthy ever since. I wish I could ask her what was wrong... The photo here, when she was ill, and the one at the top is showing the same calf, 2 ½ years difference. I don't know if it is her calf, to be honest, but he's always walking just a tad in front of her.

Yesterday was really special, seeing her again, the first time for 2011. I think she had another herd merge with hers in the last couple of months. For nearly 2 years they were just 28, with about 12 kids, now there is over 40 large elephants and about 26 kids - as far as I could count.

Sometimes I wonder how many other people that travel the road very often like I do recognize the same elephant, or herd, or other animal, or if they even care.... For me its like seeing good friends again.

The story of my first elephant friend and the special bond we had, ended tragically, and I will keep it for another day. For now, I really appreciate seeing the Old Lady every now and then. It is a huge privilege to be able to see her after over 3 years, crossing the same paths. Maybe, one day, I will sit down and have the interview with her - in the afterlife. Untill then....... Walk on!

Long time no speak!

Long time no speak!
A whole new year has started here in the Caprivi Namibia - as it did elsewhere - but this year is special. It's been quite a long time since I have been on the blog, after 2010 turned out to be one of the worst years of my life..... Well, its over, and I made it! Between my own health - which is sorted out now, thanks, the loss of my good friend Hans after he lost his battle with cancer, - and what a terrifying, long and hard battle it was - everything is streamlined and going again, as it always will.

Meeting KnoedelHans:
Hans Rus had been one of Katima Mulilo's residents that stayed longest - he lived here 25 years.
Born in Unter Village in Austria in 1945, Hans completed apprenticeship in Confectionary in Austria, and moved to South Africa in 1965. He got temporary work in construction, but because of his slender built, they soon found him much better in the kitchen - and from the day he stepped under the hat there, he soon had plentyful jobs to choose from.

He tired of it all later, and moved to Namibia - then South West Africa - in 1974, where he became the Jagermeister representative for Brockmann & Kriess He moved to Katima in 1984 as the head of the bakery for Enok, one of the largest companies of then, baking bread and confectionary for the town's mostly defense force residents. He ran the butchery for a long time as well, and when peace came to Namibia - and sort of to the Caprivi - he decided to stay on.

He was diagnosed with glandular cancer in August 2008, and had a long suffering battle, going into a coma for 5 days in May 2009 in Windhoek following radiation therapy and recovered sufficiently to be sent home to Katima, but he never really got better after that. From the beginning of June 2010 he needed fulltime care, though he was such a proud "ou korrelkop" he looked after himself with ablution till the end, and had all his witt and humour untill the last day.
There is not a lot of people I know with that kind of quick dry humour on this earth - even though it was just sign language and the twinkle in his eyes when the tumour took hold of his voicebox.

He received the nickname KnoedelHans from his tendency to Knobel, which is a game played with 3 dice, cast from a leather cup, with the objective to get 3X 1's (Das general), 2 X wooden plankletts and 19 round little metal rings called deckels ( some play with 17 and some with 21).
He had this strange thing of handing out imaginary "stripes" to anyone who made silly mistakes, didn't think before they said something or played out of turn. If you had 3 stripes, you had to drink a short - and no, he didn't except imaginary shorts, I did try that.
There, now you met Hans as well! He is resting soundly on an island in the Zambezi, together with two of his other friends, and said he will "spook" the river's boats every now and then, so beware when passing there! ;-)

Caprivi Promotional Project & Magazine

I am now starting in earnest with the Caprivi Promotional Project as the Chairperson, working on the new coffeetable type Caprivi Wetlands Magazine.


I am hoping to get some nice editorials in this year again, so if any of you have something, please let me know! We are still working on advertising costs, will let you know soonest, have a lot of bookings already though.

We still have ample amounts of the 2010 magazine, together with the Caprivi Map, let me know should you want some. Magazine and map is N$ 80-00 per set, posting excluded.

Promoting the Caprivi is a hell of a business, as there is so much to be said and done, I will never stop! I also nearly finished changing the website Caprivi.biz, but there is a lot of updating to be done still. Started a new site as well, Southern Africa by Boat, and will post when this very informative site is up - what you can do and see with floating transport throughout southern central Africa. Aliboats from Botswana saw the opportunity in advertising and I thank them GREATLY for making this site possible!

Flooding season is coming again, and the Zambezi is quite high already... The Zambezi River Flood has been bad the last 3 years, and it looks like we are in for a bad one again, as the water levels is already higher than last year same time... And the rain is not stopping in the catchment areas. Between the regular-like-clockwork updates that Guido van Langenhove, from the Namibia Hidrology Department, is giving and the good satelite and planning from Namibia Weather Website (http://www.namibiaweather.info/namibiacloud.php) we have a continuous stream of info regarding the floods and what is coming...

A huge thunderstorm just started outside, so I know the Internet - and probably electricity - is going to go soon, so ending time for today!

Keep well, speak soon!