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The Caprivi Strip (Revised)

Day12, Thu, Jan 26, 2017
Another repositioning day.  We are riding due East.

Start Location:  Rundu, Namibia

End Location:   Namushasha, Namibia

Distance:          427 km (265 miles)

Hotel/Pension:   Namushasha Country Lodge

Money Conversion: R1 = $0.0443 USD; $1 USD = R13.459

Fuel: 1 liter 95 octane = R11.08

Our typical routine is:

6AM – Awake, dress and pack.

7 AM – Breakfast

8 AM – Rolling

The Caprivi Strip is a little panhandle that juts east with Angola & Zambia on top and Botswana on the bottom.

Because of overcast and threats of rain, temps are approx. 90°F

We ride through the Caprivi Game Park with only an occasional baboon sighting.
The last 4 km to the Namushasha Country Lodge was sand.  I think I have said before “Sand is not my friend!”

Deep sand is not my friend. My first dirt dive in Africa.

As you might have noticed, most of our nightly lodging are on the excellent level.

Hello Botswana!

Day13, Fri, Jan 27, 2017
Our eastern route takes us through Katima Mulilo, 1km from Angola.

Start Location:  Namushasha, Namibia

End Location:   Kasane, Botswana

Distance:          261 km (162 miles)

Hotel/Pension:   Chobe Safari Lodge

Money Conversion: Pula P1 = $0.0952 USD; $1 USD = P10.506

On the road by 8AM.  It’s a short day, 261 km (162 miles) because of the Namibia/Botswana border crossing.  The first order is gas at Katima Mulilo.  We all budgeted our Namibia $ to spend the last amount getting gas before we cross into Botswana.

All gas stations have many attendants. They hustle to get us to ride up to their pump.

Fuel is N$ 11.08 per liter

We were the only border crossers.

The Honda CB500XA is holding it's own with the 9 other BMWs!

Welcome to Botswana!

This was a simple border crossing.

Like so many international border crossing there rules that don’t make sense. Upon entering Botswana, all riders had to walk over to a little box and step in and out of a little box of chemicals. I'm guessing this is to prevent hoof and mouth disease.

Fully loaded, I rode the max speed limit...120 kph (70 mph)!

Typical afternoon cloud activity.

We are all hoping to see elephants as we ride through Chobe National Park.  With a speed limit of 80 kph the only elephant I saw was poop!

This is the only proof that elephants were around.

We get to the Chobe Safari Lodge around 2 PM.  Tonight’s lodging is on the Zambezi River.  Our group of 10 riders were scattered along road.  I later learn  ~20 minutes after I passed, 3 riders had 2 groups of elephants cross the road!
The Chobe Safari Lodge is beautiful.  We spend a full rest day here.  Tomorrow an early morning 4-wheel drive jeep safari then a late afternoon river excursion.

Will we ever see any animals???

Day14, Sat, Jan 28, 2017
For the last 2 days, I’ve rode east along the Caprivi Strip and into Botswana.   I rode by hundreds of elephant warning signs and massive amounts of elephant dung, but I had no personal elephant sighting!

Start Location:  Kasane, Botswana

End Location:   Kasane, Botswana

Distance:          0 moto travel

Hotel/Pension:   Chobe Safari Lodge

Money Conversion: Pula P1 = $0.0952 USD; $1 USD = P10.506

Up at 5AM, meet in Lodge lobby at 5:45AM and 10 of us ride a touring jeep Chobe National Park along the Chobe River.
Camera:  4 year old Olympus Stylus.  Shock proof, waterproof, point and shoot.

The Chobe Safari Lodge had mongoose and razorback families running around.

The 3 -wheel drive jeep safari took 4 hours. We started act the crack of dawn.

The ducks here sit in trees.

Driving beside the river, a large family of monkeys trot by.

Baby on board - high!

Baby on board - low.

The rest of the family run past us.

Fish Eagle

I forgot the name of these but there was a bunch of them.

3/4 of the ride, still no elephants. Time for hot coffee & cakes.

Joe H and hot coffee.

Our first elephant encounter!
The first half of the jeep safari was along the river.  Now we turn inland to see if we could see elephants.  We ride for 30 minutes a see an elephant cross the trail.  The driver stops and there are 4 elephants around us.  10 cameras are snapping away.  Suddenly, directly in front of us a large elephant comes at us on the road.  The next series of photos takes place in about 30 seconds!

While we were in the middle of 4 elephants, this large elephant comes down the trail with a bad attitude!

Our jeep driver slowly approaches him with engine racing. The elephant moves off to the right into some trees. Ears flapping, snorting, trumpeting!

He rolled his head left and right while trumpeting. Half the guys were wetting their pants!

He then rises his trunk for loud trumpeting!

He moves to the bush right in front of us thrashing the leaves with his trunk. Someone yells "Lets get out of here!" Our driver pulls away and the bad boy elephant moves out to the trail shaking his trunk at us. He defended his harem with honor. Our driver was in total control and at no time were we in danger.

On our way out of the park we see Cape Water Buffalos.

This afternoon, we take a boat safari on the river.
Photos will enlarge is you click on them!


CURRENT LOCATION:  Upper right corner titled “Current Location” is my Delorme inReach Explorer satellite tracks provided by SPOTwalla.  When activated, it provides a real time track of my travels.  Select “1 Cape-Cairo” and a map with my latest location comes up.  The 2nd banner tab “Cape to Cairo 2017” opens for more options.  Select “Adjustments” enables the viewer to select more days to view.  Remember we started Jan 13 so factor that in to the total days.
GlobeRiders has it’s own BLOG “Cape To Cairo Adventure 2017”.  There is a complete description of the excursion, rider bios, updates of the ride, and an active satellite location link.
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