Day 5- Into Namibia and to Popa Falls…

After the wonderful boat cruise on the Chobe river, I had another restless night in the tent, going to sleep very early with some fever. The next morning we woke early, packed and drove the 70 km to the Namibia border through the Chobe Wild Reserve. Although we could see evidence of wildlife passing the tarmac road by their droppings, we did not see any animals until we reached the Namibia border. But it is a most beautiful part of the world here where a lot of countries’ borders meet.

At the Namibia Border post we were amazed by the Boabab trees, and the antilope in the meandering river below.

Photo: Andrea

The border crossing went mostly painlessly. We were scanned with a special device to see if we have ebola, but fortunately we skipped that disease…

Then in Namibia we started on the long, straight road of the Caprivi Strip. We had lunch in Katima Mulilo, a place that I have heard a lot of since childhood, as being one of the furthest places possible to reach… we reached it!

After lunch we still had a way to go. A 4×4 guy told us that we should stay at some “Vuvu- something” resort at Bagani, as it was spectacular and affordable. We asked about the road there, being very sensitive to sandy roads. But he assured us: hard gravel all the way from the tarmac right up to the resort, which lays alongside the Okavango river.

Well, we reached the turnoff. Which was thick sand. And one of the group had a fall right there,. Breaking the bolt which keeps his bike’s rear shock in place. Another one, the most experienced of us offroad speaking, also put his bike down. We then decided to turn around, and head back to Popa Falls Resort. 2 km back, which appeared as if it had paving up to the tarmac. It did, and we booked the night for 80 Nam dollar per person at Popa Falls.

This resort belongs to the Namibian Government, and is beautifully built, with excellent, modern bathrooms at the camping sites. The staff at the resort is friendly and helpful. The restaurant is also beautiful, I just had a problem with the quality of the food. It might be my fault, being sick that past two days. But I did not enjoy their Butternut Soup tasting like pureed onion, and croutons tasting like mud.  That was all that I could manage to try and eat.  The view from the restaurant is breathtaking…

The next morning we first went down to the river to see the Falls. It is actually just rapids. But it is beautiful, a place of peace. We had a good experience of just sitting and being quiet alongside the river, watching the various birds like Kingfishers catching their prey.

While we were sitting here, our friend with the broken bike was carried off in a Minibus Taxi, along with his wife and 27 other Namibian Citizens, with his bike on the back of a small trailer, to Rundu. The taxi driver told him about a business that would help him, and took him to an enginering works that really fixed his bike good (after finding out from Windhoek’s BMW dealer that there are no such bolts in supply in the whole of Namibia.)

Popa Falls was beautiful. I enjoyed it a lot. I would really recommend the resort, although I am not sure if I could say the same for the restaurant. I might be totally wrong.