Etosha National Park and Rhino watching in style

Day 19

Julie woke me in the middle of the night to announce it was raining. Quite amazing as we have not seen a cloud for the best part of 3 weeks, but it does remind us that we are on our way back to the UK.

Today is a transit day and we have all day to travel about 180km across the Etosha National Park some 80,000 square Km of true African landscape, salt flats, scrub, trees, elephants, lizards, tortoise, impala, ostrich, birds of prey, and most exciting of all a rare black Rhino.

The road is a rough track but we are limited to 60kph. This is designed to give you time to brake if an elephant or similar decides to cross in front of you. We were lucky and saw a Zebra crossing :)

Our stopover last night Mushara Lodge was probably the most naturally welcoming place we have stayed all trip, the staff wore badges saying how long the had worked there, some with over 13 years service, they loved the place and so did we.

Tonight we have arrived at Ongava Lodge, I know I have said it before but this place is just wow! We have our own thatched lodge overlooking a small watering hole teeming with wild life. We are hoping the hippos turn up later.

Molly is still going strong but we do wonder if we bought the right car. a lot of the driving is on dead straight flat roads. We try to keep Molly at 3500-3700 rpm which gives us a cruising speed of around 115km. The bigger cars are batting along at considerable more than that and we always seem to be tail end Charlie. Not that it's a problem, we are nearest the sweeps (this is the last car on the event and is manned by our highly skilled mechanics). What am I saying, we're in Molly Porsche and don’t need mechanics :)

Tomorrow there are a couple of timed stages but if they are anything like the last one there is no real point in us wrecking the car driving flat out. Our top speed on gravel is probably 120-125 kph and some of the guys are hitting over 150 kph. Think we may have to fit a 2.7 RS engine to keep up. 

We are on the homeward leg now, Africa is a stunning country and we can see why many of our friends in the UK told us we would love it. They were so right. The country and the people have been very welcoming. We have had the odd case of stone throwing by some of the kids but we get that in Sevenoaks :)

So far a fantastic journey and a great event.   Come rallying and see the world with a different pair of eyes.

STOP PRESS

we are sitting by a log fire, glass of red in hand and just below us at the water hole are 3 rhino, a Mum a baby and helper, above us the southern hemisphere night sky, think Molly may fail to start for a few days :)

broken screen and luxury lodge again :)

Day 18

Everyone seems to have had a good nights sleep. Kick off today is at 9.00 we have drive just under 600km. This is why these events are called Endurance Rallies. Luckily the roads in Namibia are very good. The  first part is lined with small villages and stalls selling wood carvings ranging from traditional canoes through to model aeroplanes and of course giraffe.

Its another hot day.

We somehow end up being last car in the rally. This is due to our limited top speed and stopping to take photos etc. We try to catch up a bit and pass a lorry who very kindly kicks up a stone into our windscreen. Luckily again, it’s on Julie’s side and we can carry on. When we get to a petrol station on the Namibia/Angola border we try to make a bit of a repair with Silicone. Strangely we acquire about 20 people all trying to help and all wanting payment, a rather large security guard with an even larger stick comes along and scares them away. Our patchwork is carried out in relative peace. Lets hope the screen doesn’t crack any more.

We have a time trial today, it was slightly misleading in that we were told at the beginning that it was set at 80kph. Some competitors then assumed that we had to average and not exceed 80km. We couldn’t make our minds up and just drove it as a normal piece of gravel road. Halfway along a wild dog or as they are also know ‘painted dog’ decided it had a death wish and ran out in front of us. We miss it and carried on but a bit slower. This section was over 40 km + it will be interesting to see what some of the big powerful cars do it in.

We are staying in another camp/lodge called Mushara Lodge. This is an old family run establishment and the second you drive through the gates you relax, it’s a wonderful place, beautifully cared for with very helpful welcoming staff. Just what you need after a very long hot drive. They make the best homemade lemonade in the world :)

As usual Molly going well and Julie and I have missed the tummy bug that has hit a few competitors, fingers crossed for the rest of the rally.

Julie flies us home !

Day 17 was a very busy day we had to fly in from our lodge in the delta, because we were the first to the delta we were last out.

Another flight in a small light aircraft, no problem becoming quite a regular flyer now, soon we should be able to book our seats a month in advance and use the executive lounge.

We leave the airport parking at 11.00 we have to get to the Botswana / Namibia border by 6.00pm it was a distance of some 400 km. Not a lot in a modern day car but in a 1958 1600cc Porsche in 30+ degrees it was a long way. We made it along with all the other crews to find that the man who stamps the custom forms had taken the day off (it was Sunday) The office phoned him and he kindly came in along with his very young son to calm the chaos.

Through the border we all go and onto our nights stop at Popa Falls.

We really enjoyed Botswana, its a prosperous country proud of its roots. All the people we met were happy with genuine smiles and welcomes. The president does however bear a striking resemblance to Lionel Richie, its probably why the National Anthem is ‘Hello is it me your looking for” :)

From the border we have to drive 25 km to our lodge on the bank of the Okavango River. Great place but a bit overwhelmed as the rally road show hit them.

We are treated to a river boat cruise were we see Hippo and Crocodiles followed by a cheese and wine sundowner party in the middle of the river by the Popa Falls, all a bit surreal and very wonderful.

A very busy day with transportation by boat, air and road. Bed at 9.30.

Molly is still going well even on slightly iffy petrol. All the other crews are still running and having a brilliant time.

The roads are good but very flat and a bit too straight for my liking, but you can’t have everything.

Tomorrow is a very long driving day and a trial section thrown in for good measure.

Random photos of the Ocavango delta

two post for the price of one. Sorry no pictures very slow internet :(

Day 14

On this rally we are having a number of firsts - day 14 was the most exciting. We catch a very small helicopter ( a first) and fly straight over the top of Victoria Falls ( another first) As we got into the helicopter my claustrophobia kicked in and I was just about to get out when the door was slammed shut and a split second later we were airborne. Wow! Wow! 

The photos were in a previous post, sorry about the confusion.

Some of the other competitors found a very good hand car wash, they got their cars polished inside and out including the engine bay for $5. Molly however is still covered in rally grim, mainly to hide the big dent in the front wing. But she is looking and going very well.

The best news is that Greg and Jenny have managed to find a rental 4 wheel drive and have caught up with the rally. Their Mk2 Jaguar can be repaired but will not be used again on this event. Greg and Jenny have gone all soft and got used to the comfort and air-conditioning, which with a day time temperature of 30+ is fair enough. We are just jealous.

Day15

We drive to quite a large town called Maun, here we are to experience another first. We fly in a VERY small aircraft to our lodges at Moremi Crossing deep in the Okavango Delta.

This is quite surreal as we fly low over 1000’s of acres of the marsh land type delta.

We land on a dirt runway (another first) and are then taken by small power boat to our lodge. The rooms are all separate luxury tents over looking the delta.

In the evenings we are not allowed to leave our rooms on our own, we have to be escorted to and from the main lodge. When you see the size of the elephant poo by your front door you begin to understand why.

We spend 2 days here and i could write a small book on what we saw, did and ate, raw nature at its best.

I am sorry the post are getting shorter but the days seem to be to. Its difficult getting internet and when we do we all dive on it at once.

The main thing is we are all well, and having the time of our lives. Molly is still going well and has still not to have any attention from the mechanics, long may it continue.

Victoria Falls

day 13

Good straight forward drive to Victoria Falls, lovely old grand Hotel The Victoria Falls Hotel with its grounds overlooking the falls.The falls were not as we imagined.

The water falls into a deep S shaped gorge so you can’t really see the full effect of this incredible feat of nature, but you can certainly hear it and see the spray. Stunning.

I will not bore you with the story about our room being next to the entire air conditioning plant of the large hotel next door. I decided that the noise was being produced by the falls and had a good sleep.

Glamping Zimbabwe style, and mine bigger than yours !

day 12

Sorry but some of the posts have got a bit out of order because I get a bit too keen to tell you about the fantastic sights we are seeing.

Day 12 was not really about the sights but the location and accommodation again. Having left Barney and Fred’s place we arrived at what was termed a luxury camp site.

Julie and I had seen pictures of ‘glamping’ type tents and this version in Zimbabawe was not quite up to Goodwood standard. The tents were just that, green army type tents complete with a hole in the ground and a bucket of water on a string for the shower. Unfortunately our bucket did not have any string so that did not work so well.

The big plus was the tents did have very comfortable beds and even a turn down service complete with a hot water bottle and chocolate.

The camp chief produced a truly remarkable meal all cooked on open fires and we were treated to some national dancing by the staff. This time we did not have to join in. Zimbabwe has been saved from my dad dancing routine.

The night was really cold but comfortable. In the morning all the boys meet up to have a ‘mine is bigger than yours’ competition. As with most boys ’size’ competitions there was a fair bit of exaggeration going on. In the end a dead heat was announced we had all had ’the biggest spider in the world’ in our tents.

This is the first time Julie and I have camped and I must say we really enjoyed it.

The roads in Zimbabwe are all tarmac which is just as well as we were travelling on their A roads but the surfaces are unreal. You have to watch every foot of it in case you disappear down a pothole. There are police check points about every 100km. As we were always in the middle of the rally we did not have too many problems.

The cars are all still going well, some too well and setting a blistering pace.

We leave our camp site to drive to the luxury of The Victoria Falls Hotel.