Namibia and Botswana trip report: an indipendent safari by 4x4

"Where are we going on holiday next August?" "Just spin the globe, close your eyes, and point the finger."
The lucky winner was Namibia, to which we soon added Botswana and Zimbabwe (for the Victoria Falls). We were three friends willing to travel indipendently, so we booked only the flight to Johannesburg and a 4x4 with rooftop tents. We downloaded the Tracks4Africa GPS maps and we were ready for a long itinerary that would bring us from South Africa to Namibia, Botswana, Victoria Falls and then back to Johannesburg.
You can find full travel itinerary, map and photos here: www.wildtrips.net/africa.htm , plus more info and a more extended trip report.
So at the beginning of August our road trip began. We drove for one thousand kms (the only “boring” drive of the holiday… but we were so excited that we loved that drive too) from Johannesburg to the Fish River Canyon, our first destination, in the South of Namibia. We immediately appreciated the vast spaces, the freedom, the wild landscapes of that country. Fish River Canyon is huge, an African Grand Canyon. There were only few people around and by driving for another hour of so on gravel roads we reached our first “camping”: a rocky plain surrounded by barren hills. Probably there was no human being nor artificial building within a hundred miles.
We had a BBQ and we slept well in the tents on the top of the jeep.
Our next destination was Sesriem. While we drove north the landscape slowly changed, more grass and some trees appeared. Then we spotted zebras and antilopes and an oryx. It was so exciting to spot wild animals that we were getting crazy and we drove offroad everywhere.
In Sesriem there is a beautiful canyon, but unfortunately we couldn’t visit the nearby Sossusvlei dunes, in the Namib desert, due to a sand storm. August is in the dry season, the best time to travel in Namibia (also the temperatures are perfect) and in fact we had clear skies for all 16 days we spent in southern Africa… but we couldn’t do anything against the wind.
We continued our trip, exploring the savannah and the dunes of Walvis Bay and other amazing places. Every late afternoon we stopped in some wild, beautiful place and we camped under the stars. One night we were on a dune with a view on a lagoon full of flamingos. It was great, but the following morning, when we woke up, the jeep was stuck in the sand. We couldn’t get it out, we were sinking in the sand. It was terrible: we were destined to spend the rest of our lives on that dune, and we had only two bottles of wine! But then a jeep came out of nowhere and they saved us, teaching us also some tricks to avoid getting stuck again.
We drove to Cape Cross to admire the seal colony and then through the wild region of Damaraland. We spent two days in the Etosha National Park, where we saw all kinds of wild animals: lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetas, gazelles, rhinos, a leopard and others.
Then we drove north to Opuwo and the nearby Himba villages: a very interesting experience, especially when we entered one of the villages and we tried to communicate with them. Going north we reached the wild Epupa Falls. We were almost in Angola and we started driving east, a long “rally” on gravel roads in a beautiful scenery.
The north of Namibia is more green and humid, with actual rivers and not just dry riverbeds. During the long drive through the Caprivi street we lived some funny experiences, then, finally, we reached the Victoria Falls (we had to cross the borders with Botswana and Zimbabwe: this last one was an expensive hassle). Of course, seeing the Victoria Falls was great, even if they were the most expensive attraction of the holiday. (Well, everything else was free or almost free: we paid just the fuel and the food; definetely there is no need of paying for expensive safaris or organised trips).
In the next days we explored Chobe National Park, in Botswana, which is wilder than Etosha and probably even richer of animals. We spotted loads of animals, including hyppos.
(For this Botswana-Victoria Falls part of the trip you can find photos and more info on the travel itinerary here: http://www.wildtrips.net/africa-botswana-travel-itinerary.htm).
During our drive from Chobe to Johannesburg we saw the salt flats, some ostriches and some very typical towns of Botswana. Everyone laughed when they saw us, maybe because there were few white people and none as fascinating and dirty (after two weeks camping, you might understand) as us.
We reached Johannesburg and flew back home, immediately starting to miss Africa, that freedom and those crazy adventures.