Nambwa Community Camp 16th July 2012

We have had another exciting day in our travels in Africa. Today is are last land based day in Namibia. We woke up to sunrise in our tree house. It was literally 0 degrees, and the river was steaming. The hippos had been very active during the night and very noisy. 4 were about 30m from our house, which we watched whilst trying to get warm. It was very still and a beautiful morning, but the wind came up whilst we were at breakfast and it was very cold once again. We packed up quickly and headed east through to the other end of the Bwabwata National Park which took 2 hours. Although there were lots of signs for elephants and wild dogs, we didn't see any. We did pass lots of villages. We are now in the centre of the Caprivi strip, a small strip of land between Angola and Botswana belonging to Namibia. We registered at the parks office and then went in search of the Nambwa community camp site within the park. It was very badly sign posted and the tracks were bad, but we eventually found it. It's a beautiful camp site with 6 sites along an offshoot of the Kwando River. Our camp is right next to the river, of very clear water and large fish. Elephants are on the other side of the bank. After lunch and some mucking around in camp, we went for a short walk around the camp. 50 monkeys or baboons crossed up ahead mixing in with about 50 Steenbeast (antelopes). We then drove in search of Horse Shoe bend where there is supposed to be a lot of wildlife late afternoon. We caught up with the baboons again and some kudu. Water is all around and there's an abundance of food. We are at the top of the Okavango delta. By the edge of her water a huge African fish eagle was eating something which it dropped as it flew off. We went to investigate to find it was the massive head of a cat fish. We continued on and had a close encounter with some elephants who crossed I front of us. On the opposite bank were two water buffalo which are massive. We have now seen 4 of the big 5, we think we only have leopard to go which is going to be difficult as you can really only see them at night. We couldn't really continue on as the elephants were blocking the track, so we turned around to check if we were heading in the right direction. As we came close to camp 4 giraffe had just arrived. We didn't want to spook them as we knew a couple were watching from the campsite so we turned back, deciding we had been on the right track.just as we neared the buffalo and elephants the car got stuck in deep sand. Luke, Chris and I had to push it out and we continued on. The elephants had moved on slightly but 2 were fighting on the track. They would then continue on for a bit, fight again, eat something and move on another 20m with us behind. Other elephants passed nearby. After about 1/2 hour they moved off the track and we were able to pass. 2 trucks came past, the only others we had seen and said horse shoe bend was just up ahead and to push past the elephants. Around the corner an elephant was swimming in the river. More elephants came into view and then as we rounded the bend there must have been about 150 to 200 elephants along the bank of the river. The sun was just going down and was a beautiful sunset, but we couldn't stay very long. The noise they were making was incredible. Another herd was arriving behind us, so we decided we better move on. On the way back a herd with a very young baby crossed in front of us. The mother was not very happy as we edged forward and trumpeted and wagged her ears as she headed towards us. We sped past and she calmed down as we moved on. Around the corner we met the 2 buffalo. Further on, another herd and another angry mother which we got past. We thought another buffalo was just to our left but it turned out to be a hippo who had come out for the night to eat. The giraffes cantered off as we came into camp. It was dark when we arrived, and we quickly got a fire going. We have just finished dinner by the fire. It doesn't seem as cold tonight but we will see.

Location:B8,,Namibia