Day Twenty Six last leg from Mafikeng to PE

WE were up early and left Mafikeng on our last leg of the trip. We arrived at Kimberly at just past ten visited the big hole, bought some Kentucky fried chicken and hit the road again.

View of the Big Hole Kimberly

We arrived at the intersection at Britstown at 1,30pm, the point where we had branched off to Upington  twenty six days ago on the start of our tour, which means we had done a complete round trip.


Des standing at the same turnoff 26 days later


We then headed back through Middleburg, Cradock and arrived back home in PE at 7pm. A trip that both Des and myself would remember for the rest of our lives.

Arrival back at  41 Jeremy Road Port Elizabeth

Day Twenty Five Homeward bound from Kesane

Departure in the dark from our last campsite in Botswana

We made an early start this morning on our homeward journey leaving the Toro Lodge campsite at Kesane at 6.30am. We pushed hard to see how far we could get arriving at Nata at 9.30 Francistown at 1.30 and Gabarone at 4.30pm.We arrived at the border post at Ramatlabama at 6.30pm

Arrival at the Ramatlabama Border Post in the dark

After doing the necessary paper work we crossed the border into SA and pushed on to Mafiking where we stopped and went straight to a Spur and treated ourselves to a steak. We later went looking for a campsite or a caravan park to spend the night but found nothing. We eventually found a scout camp and the guy said we could stay over for the night without charge. We said we would be leaving at daybreak the next morning.

Day Twenty Four Trip to Victoria Falls

We had booked a day trip to the Victoria falls through an tour operator who came and picked us up at our campsite. We thought it would just be less hassles for us at the border post. We were about ten in a Toyota mini bus. They took us to Livingston  here they dropped us off. We were able to do our own thing for the day and the bus would leave again about three in the afternoon.






We took a stroll through the rain forest and viewed the falls from all the lookout points.



A view of the falls




 We went to the bridge where they did the bunge jumping. One of the members of our tour group did a jump so we were there to cheer her along. We were back in Botswana at 5pm.

Day Twenty Three Katima Mulilio to Kesane

We left the Namwi Island camp site and travelled to the Ngoma border post where we would enter into Botswana.

The giant Boabab tree at the Ngoma border post

 After doing all the paper work we left for Kesani and booked into the Toro Safari Lodge.



Emjoying the trip



A Hippo on the run



  We immediately booked a sunset cruise on the Chobe river which was most enjoyable seeing so much wild life from the comfort of a boat. A cruise really worthwile doing. We returned to camp just on dark


Buffalo on the plains at sunset





A Crocodile on the run

 

Day Twenty Two Popa Falls to Katima Mulilo

We moved on from the Popa fall and arrived at Kongola where we thought we should take a campsite at the Namushasha camp and spend a quiet afternoon. When we arrived we found there was nothing there for the camper, you could not even see the river, you needed to be booked into the lodge, so we cancelled our booking and carried on to Katima Mulilo where we booked in at the Namwe Island campsite.

A pod of Hippos

We took a sunset boat cruise on the Zambezi River saw a couple of hippos and some crocodiles. Enjoyed a nice braai in a very nice campsite.

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Day Twenty One Tsumeb to Popa Falls





Enjoying a couple of cold ones




Relaxing before our braai at Kupfe Quella

 We left The Kupfe Quelle Resort enroute Grootfontein. We no sooner left when we saw a sign Hoba Meteorite so we took the turn and arrived at small  building, we paid a fee and went to a site where this massive iron structure was embedded in the ground.
 

Des standing next to a mass of iron (The Hoba meteorite)


It was all paved around it and the structure itself was clean solid metal.  After observing and reading about it we continued to Grootfontein where we again stocked up. We then went to Rundu and then on to the Popa Fall where we would spend the night.

The Popa Falls

The campsite very quiet and secluded with the falls not much more than rapids.

Day Twenty Etosha to Tsumeb

This morning we hooked the camper again and went back into the park to exit on the other side at the Namutoni gate. We followed the main route through the park seeing animals at all the waterholes.



A Kudu bull after a drink




A bit of greenery at the Namutoni gate

 

 We stopped at the lookout point overlooking the pans, the pans were bone dry but it is just incredable to see the exspanse of the pan.

The dry Etosha pans at a lookout point

We eventually arrived at the Namutoni gate and made our way to Tsumb where we took a camp site a the Kupfe Quella resort. We then decided instead of taking the main route back to Windhoek  home we would  continue through the Caprivi to the Katima Malilo and then back home through Botswana.