Wana Travel

22-28 Oct 2007: Our river-boarding trip is going to be hard to top but we headed to Botswana with high hopes for Chobe National Park and the Okovanga River Delta. Our first stop was Chobe where we took an evening river cruise through the park. It was a beautiful trip with hippos fighting in the water and elephants walking through a beautiful sunset. From Chobe we headed to the Okovanga Delta where we took a small plane flight over the Delta. It might have been a beautiful flight but unfortunately the nigh before we went on the flight a big storm rolled in so we were sure they would cancel the flight. However, as we should know by now there isn’t a lot of better judgment in Africa so we went for the flight despite the weather. It was the bumpiest and roughest flight either of us had ever been on. About 15 min into the flight Jola was reaching for the barf-bag and when I looked behind me the two passengers in the back were wiping sweat from their heads about every 2 min. As for me I was doing all I could to keep from puking on my camera while I tried to take pictures. By the time we landed we were all feeling sick including the pilot who ran off as soon as we hit the ground and was no where to be found.

After our not so scenic flight we moved up to the Okovanga River on the panhandle of the Delta. There we met another generous South African who was working as a fishing guide who invited us to go out for a free fishing trip since his clients wouldn’t arrive until the morning. This trip turned out to be one of the most amazing fishing trips I have ever been on. We motored up the Okovanga River until we saw literally hundreds of Catfish feeding along the bank. Then we went a bit upstream, anchored up, and waited for the Catfish to work their way up to us. The sound was amazing. You could hear them coming before you could see them. Then when the Catfish arrived we would cast into them and catch Tiger Fish, which followed the Catfish, feeding on the smaller fish that were scared out of the shallows by the feeding activity. The only problem was casting close to the shore with all of the reeds and grass. Before the day was over Jola didn’t catch a fish and I had caught on 6 lb catfish and one 8 lb Tiger Fish. I tried to explain to Jola that fishing is a man’s world but that didn’t go over to well.

29 Oct - 9 Nov 2007: From Botswana we were off to Namibia. Our first stop in Namibia was Etosha Park, a 100 year old wildlife reserve. There were a lot of animals in the park including Lions, Elephants, Rhinos, G-Raffs, and all kinds of deer like animals. One of the highlights was that on Halloween night we were treated to a big lighting storm that silhouetted giraffes drinking at the nearby water hole. After Etosha we headed for the Northern deserts of Namibia and saw the Himba people which are essential naked except for a red grease they rub on themselves and a small leather loin cloth. The Himba’s weren’t very friendly but it might have been because I (Brad) couldn’t quit staring. After the Himba’s we drove through some stunning deserts and mountains before reaching the skeleton coast. It was nice to be back at the coast with some nice cool air. We even managed to find the energy to go sandboarding in the dunes which was great fun, and had our fist sighting of Greater and Lesser Flamingos. So far Namibia has proven to be excellent for 4X4 and dirt biking, there are loads of beautiful, vast areas to cross. We are off to see the great dunes next.


11-15 Nov 2007: From the coast of Namibia we headed south to Sossusvlei to see the giant red sand dunes. It was a rough road but we were relieved to see the entrance gate before dark. However, when we went to check in for camping they told us it would cost $100.00 per night to pitch our tent in a grass field. We were not about to pay that so Jola asked if there was somewhere else to stay for cheaper. The guard had obviously been asked that before and offered to let us camp outside the gate for $8.00, so we quickly took him up on his offer and pitched our tent right in front of the no camping sign. The next morning we were up early to climb one of the sand dunes and drive through the park. It was nice but the prices in Namibia are a bit out of control. After the sand dunes we headed south for our last camp in Namibia on the Orange River. It was a beautiful camp with a nice swimming hole to cool off in, which was a blessing after riding all day in the 115F degree heat.

16-26 Nov 2007: 18,000 Km and we made it back to Cape Town. It was nice to be back and meet up with friends we had made from out previous stay and to enjoy the beaches and good restaurants. We also took a couple of days and went out the Western Cape to go Great White Shark diving. The shark dive was a bit disappointing because the sharks weren´t interested in the cage so they didn´t bite it or smash into it but it was still nice to see them underwater. (What Brad meant to say is that he was happy that the huge sharks did not have to injure themselves while being tricked that they were going to get some tuna heads...)

27-29 Nov 2007: We spent the last couple of days in Cape Town getting ready to go to Sao Paulo, Brazil. This was a bit of a process because we had to pack the bike to be flown with us, get visas for Brazil, and add pages to our passports. We managed to get our visas without too much hassle but it was really expensive ($100) for US citizens such as Brad, and free for us poor Polaks, but getting the bike on the plane was another story. We had to have a crate built for the bike, which took twice as long as they told us (which I guess we should have expected), but then it was too late to get the bike on the plane, and we had to pay extra money for faster processing (bribe), and we really were not sure the bike was going to fly at all. This was the day before we were going to fly, so Brad was going to postpone his flight to make sure the bike will leave the country, but that night they called us and said the bike would fly the next morning with us. We decided to believe them (not sure why) and get on the plane to Sao Paolo. We even managed to make to the airport early for our flight (so did the bike), and this time on the same day the plane flew, unlike a day late in Malaysia.