11 July, Monday  
   
All of us had a good night and are ready for the day. We stop at
Kamanjab for diesel and drive to Twyfelfontein through breathtaking views:
rolling golden savannahs, acacia trees, stone hills covered with tufts of grass
and at places through actually water! Willie and I keep on commenting on the
beauty and the fact that rivers have water in. 
 
Our first ever 4x4 experience was in 1985 when we visited friends
of ours in Khorixas, Werner and Carien. They took us on a 4x4 trip to
  Twyfelfontein, known for its palm trees. The existing fully developed lodge was
  in its beginning phases and we slept in one of the unfinished bungalows on
  mattresses. Just before we went to bed Werner spotted a zebra snake of the
  spitting cobra family and considered the second most dangerous snake after the
  mamba, outside the bungalow. It was a cold evening and the next moment the
  snake slithered into the bungalow through an unfinished drain pipe. Pandemonium
  followed. We grabbed the sleeping kids, ran to the landdrover and shoved 3
  screaming toddlers, by this time, to safety. Werner finally managed to kill the
  1 ½ meter snake with a shovel - a very scary experience that has a little twist
  in the story which I cannot tell here. (Ps Willie likes to tell the story...)

From Twyfelfontein into serious 4x4 terrain: Damaraland! We crawl
slowly past the rhino stones and organ pipes through breathtaking beauty as far
as the eye can see. Hugo and Andrej sit on the roof and we hear them talk and
laugh kilometer after kilometer. The sun is on its way down and we need a
place to sleep. Willie drives into a narrow river bed, but we find a good enough
spot to pitch our camp and find hard pieces of wood which burns for hours. 
 
It is so awesome to be back in a place that we loved and that we
are familiar with. We play backgammon, sit around the fire and have a thick pea
soup with smoked sausages for dinner.

Click Play

10 July Sunday Damaraland 
 
We say good bye to Juta, Birgit's mom and it is back in the car for me! I have to work on myself, because I really do not want to get back into dust, sticks for hair, black nails, rough
  hands and skin…I’m complaining. It will not be that bad once I’m in! Sammie is
happy and when the car door opens for the first time he is in. He is definitely
not staying behind again.

 We stop at Spar to buy 4 days of supplies for our trip through
Damaraland. I cannot go to the store without Andrej and Hugo. I love to have
them with me. They are excited about the menus and help make decisions. They of
course twist my arm for extra treats. We also have another problem: they twist
my arm usually not to buy something, “no we have more than enough!”and then
comes day 4? No we do not have enough!

 Namibia is beautiful beyond words. The last 4 years rain were
showered on her, and earlier this year at places more than 1000 mm – the most
rain since 1934. So, she has dressed lavishly with 2-3 feet high rich-golden
grass fields. I personally have never seen Namibia’s dry semi-desert areas like
this. Grass and green cover rocky hills and plains –areas once so dry that one could
not imagine the riches that were lying dormant in the soil – waiting, waiting,
waiting for rain. It is an insatiable feast for the eyes.
 
 We drive to the Northern Finger of God, a rock formation, close
to Khorixas. The more spectacular sandstone rock formation, also called Mukurob,
was in the south of Namibia, but it collapsed in December 1988, the result of a
sandstorm, leaving only debris behind. Mukurob was one of Namibia’s biggest
tourist attractions. 

An interesting anecdote: Nama oral tradition foretold that the power of the white man would collapse when Mukurob collapses. A few weeks after the collapse South Africa, Cuba and Angola signed the New York treaty which paved the wave for Namibia’s independence in 1989! 
 
We drive a few more hours and then start to look for a place to
bush camp round about 4 pm. Willie finds a dry river bed and with some bundu
  bashing find us a fine camping spot – our first river camping! We pull big logs
  closer and make a lion fire in the still of the night under a vast canopy of
  stars.

7 – 9 July, Etosha pan – guys
Otjiwarongo – me  (Wednesday – Saturday) 
 
Willie, Hugo and Andrej leave early for the Etosha pans +/-2
hours drive from Otjiwarongo where Sammie and I are staying with our friends
  Peter and Birgit. Birgit’s mom takes me to town. I find an internet café, buy a
  few necessary things and spend the rest of the day enjoying the luxury of a
  dust-free environment!

 Thursday – Saturday: Enjoying my time in a home. I’m not sure I’m
want to get back in the car again!

 Saturday: The guys arrive at 4pm! They had a fantastic time…the
most lions they’ve ever seen! Willie took tons of pictures and video clips.
Peter and Birgit left for Swakopmund and we have a lovely evening with Juta,
Birgit’s mom.

 See Gallery: Etosha pan
 

6 July, Wednesday   Rundu to Otjiwarongo 
 
Willie wakes up with a brilliant idea: our next destination is
the Etosha National Park. The plan was for Willie, Hugo and Andrej to go in
  whilst I stay outside the Park as Sammie cannot go in. There are 2 ways to go
  to Etosha, of which the one is through Otjiwarongo. Friends of ours, Peter and
  Birgit, live and work in Otjiwarongo and Willie’s plan: to go via Otjiwarongo
  to say hi to Peter and Birgit. Oh how excited I am! 
 
We arrive at Okoruso Mine where both Peter and Birgit work and
are escorted to the administration buildings by a security guard. Seeing one
another again is a sweet and happy reunion and we decide to stay over for the
night. We have the most wonderful time of reminiscing about our adventures
  together. Hugo and Andrej are quiet as they listen and are given a small peep
  into a world and time that they were not part of. What a gift to be friends for 26 years! 

It gets even better, because we decide that I will stay withPeter and Birgit when the guys leave for Etosha tomorrow.

5 July, Tuesday 
  Rundu 
  
We find a campsite 14 km from Rundu by the Kunene river –the

border between Namibia and Angola. We are there early and the only people in the

campsite. We spent a leisurely afternoon: cleaning, car maintenance and
laundry – Hugo and Andrej included!
 
I think Sammie is the happiest of all
of us as he has space to run
around!

I only realize that it is the 4th of July now that I’m writing this. I
hope all our US friends had a wonderful day!

We go on a game drive and see many deer: bushbuck, red buck,
  koedoes, elephants, warthogs, giraffes, birds and baboons. The cats
keep on evading us. I hope they will see them in the Etosha. Back at the
camp: pack and a last visit with our friends where we exchange addresses
and telephone #’s.

We drive a long stretch on the Golden Highway through the Caprivi strip to the Popa Falls. The lodge where we wanted to stay is fully booked and we go to a community camp. This is a new concept which we really like: the community leaders provide a piece of land which then is developed as a camping site. The money received from tourists goes to the local community and is used for needs and development. 

The camp is on the banks of the river with the roar of the Popa Falls a constant din in the background. I love the little bit of luxury: a thatched outdoor kitchen, 2 wash basins, countertops, warm water. Hugo helps me peel veggies for a potjie. The moment the sun disappears a chilliness appears and we are happy to have a fire to sit around. 

 

3 July, Sunday Mamili to Doppies
  
It was a busy and interesting bush night with high traffic of
elephants and hippos. Willie and I woke up a few times to add logs to the fire.
It gives a feeling of a little more safety for what it is worth. In the early
morning hours we hear our first lions roar in the distance!  

We have a slow start, have breakfast and then the pack up thing,
with which we are well acquainted by now. Willie drives in the direction where
we’ve heard the lions, with the guys on the roof, but flooded marsh plains
  finally stop us and we decide to drive to our next destination by the Kwandu
  River – Camp Kwandu where we camped with Ruco and Hugo in 2003 when we were in
  Namibia for Operation Sunrise.

 Willie wants to see ‘Doppies’ where we camped with Handré and
Marianne 25 years ago. It was used by the South African military during the
  border war and had an amazing view over the Kwandu and marshes. Ruco and Roné,
  Handré and Marianne’s youngest daughter went to explore and came back, very
  excited, about their find: an old mortar! Willie recalls all our previous
adventures as we drive and it is so special to come back and retrace our foot
prints and car tracks of the past.

 Poor Sammie unwillingly receives stow-away status again, as we
are not sure whether he is allowed in the Conservation Area. All the plots by
the river are taken of the community campsite and the wardens show us a
  non-official site where we can camp. We are disappointed and Willie decides to
  check the camp out for a possibility of a different spot. We are thankful when
  camper-travelers from Kleinmond in South Africa graciously invite us to share
  their site with them. We meet the friends whom we met at the border again and
  they walk over to invite us for dinner – a real South African braai with meat,
  pap and wors.(porridge and sausage). 

Hugo is so excited, because this will be his first real taste of
Afrikaans speaking South Africans doing the traditional thing: a braai. We have
a wonderful evening getting to know one another better, listening, sharing,
laughing, eating, enjoying till late. We are used to going to bed often before 8
and we reluctantly say good bye when it is midnight. Not a random encounter is
what all of us realized and I am excited to see how our paths are going to cross
in the future. 

Poor Sammie is not a happy camper, and has to do all his toilet
routines in the cover of darkness before he retires with the boys into the tent. 

Click Play for Photos:
  

2 July, Saturday  Katima to Mamili 
 
I’ve shed a layer of emotions since entering Namibia and am left
with a glowing skin devoid of stress, anxiety, fear and concern. I left Germany
with some of these emotions already imbedded and others have joined without us
realizing – simply as a result of the lifestyle that came with traveling for so
long, so far through different seasons and countries. No more border-crossings
which is huge for me; no new languages, no foreign cultures, no more
‘fish-out-of-the-water’ feelings: we’ve arrived in a place where I have a sense
of belonging; where there are more things familiar that unfamiliar; where I feel
part of; where I share culture, traditions and languages with others different
from me, but strangely similar…

 We stock up: meat = Namibia = meat and Hugo is a happy boy:
  boerewors, lamb chops, steak – not even expensive. We are on our way to Mamili
  Game Reserve and it is ‘Memory Lane’ for Willie and me. We have wonderful
  memories of 4x4 trips with some of our best friends, Handré, Marianne and their
  daughters, from Western Cape when we traveled in this area 25 years ago. I am
  amazed with Willie as he remembers roads and places as if we’ve done it a week ago.

 Mamili is true wetland – the only in Namibia, and we have to
  cross through a river to enter the park. The car swims through like a fish. We
  stop at the ranger’s office and he tells us that most of the park is flooded
  with all the rain they had the last 2 years, but we are welcome to go as far as
  we can; we can camp anywhere we want to, because we are the only visitors in the park! 

Andrej and Hugo sit on the roof as we drive through the park.
Although there are signs of elephants and hippos everywhere, we don’t see them,
but lots of deer, warthogs and birds. We find a beautiful spot to pitch camp and
watch in awe as the sun sets in burning colours of red and orange. As soon as
the sun disappears hippos noisily surface at first suspicious about the human
activity in their territory, but not too long and we hear them chomping away on
the reeds and grass in and outside the water. 
 
The guys make a huge fire and we enjoy our carnivorous meal
  rounded off with ‘braaibroodjies’ – toasted cheese, tomato and onion
  sandwiches. We drift away to dream land with the chomping sound of grazing
  hippos and feeding elephants ripping off leaves and breaking branches from the
  trees behind our camp.

Click Play for Photos:

1 July, Friday  
   “we did it, 21  border-crossings, 27 000 km: Namibia!” 
 
I could not sleep last night and was awake till 3:30. I am so
excited and it feels like the day before I got married, or had a baby or did
  something spectacularly exciting. I am actually going home after 17 years…and I
  did not realize the depth of the emotions churning around in me: 
 
nervous – the long-awaited day has finally come

 overcome with thankfulness for so many things that I’m afraid I might leave something out: 
        
protection through almost 6 months of traveling– we never felt unsafe or in danger, but for what happened in Harare; health: minor problems here and there, but nothing
significant; no serious problems with ‘Old Faithful’ after almost 27 000 km
which is remarkable, especially after hearing what could go wrong and did with
other over landers; 
       
no accidents on treacherous roads shared by almost anything and anyone you can think of –
wheels, people, livestock and much more you cannot think of
        
faithfulness of friends and family over the world who ‘traveled’ with us in thoughts, prayers and messages of love and care; 
        
although we are running tight - financial provision to bring us here in spite of unexpected and
unplanned extra expenses with visa problems and border crossings; 
         
growing closer and knitting together of 4 hearts for life through shared joys, hardships,
difficulties, emotional ups and downs– and this is a big one, because we know of
splits, fractured and very strained relationships during and at the end of the journey; 
       
basic, but good food most of the time – we never went to bed hungry; 
          
amazing opportunities where we could fellowship, and share in the lives of friends in ministry that we worked with for many years; countless experiences of meeting new friends planned
and unplanned –sometimes in the most unexpected and strange circumstances and
always with a strong sense of: this is no coincidence and…and…endless…
        
I want to cry and I’m not sure what to cry about? I’m not unhappy or sad – filled with wonder about what we’ve seen and experienced; filled with awe for grace bestowed on us;
filled with the unspeakable for the mystery of life.

 It is a cool crisp morning and we pack and strap in record time.
Our excitement is palpable – we enter the last stretch like marathon runners who
can finally see the end. Yesterday, on our way into Botswana we passed a
 supermarket called Choppies! Choppies – I love it – ‘see you later, I’m going
 to Choppies to buy choppies’, so I have to stop at Choppies and we buy sausages
 and chippies for breakfast at Choppies!

 We arrive at the Botswana border in less than an hour and are
joined by a group of Afrikaans speaking South Africans from the Orange-Free
  State who are 4x4-ing through Botswana and Namibia. It is fun to speak
  Afrikaans and hear about their experiences. We fill the small office to fill
  out the exit forms and I feel closer to home than ever before when the Botswana
  immigration officer speaks Afrikaans to all of us. I wait outside and there across the Otto Beit Bridge, a stone
throw, Namibia. The crisp air has warmed up and as I look across to our final
destination it almost feels as if time has frozen; even the atmosphere is
 holding her breath for the last crossing!

 Across the bridge with Willie Nelson singing in my mind, ‘Good
  morning, Namibia, how are you? Say don’t you know me, I’m your native
daughter…’17 ½ years of leaving, visiting, leaving, visiting, but always having
to leave again. This time is different though: we are back with no leaving
lurking in the distance. 

We take pictures outside the border post – we’ve made it! It is
hard to curb the emotions racing, chasing and crashing into one another. We
  drive to Katima Mulilo, the capital town of the Caprivi and are so surprised
  with the growth and development since we visited 25 years ago. Spar supermarket
  is our next stop and we buy genuine ‘boerewors’ (home made sausage) to barbecue
  and treats that we’ve longed for. 

Our camping spot is on the banks of the Kunene River where we
meet André and Anne from Hout Bay in Cape Town. We hear and speak Afrikaans
  everywhere and I realize how much I’ve missed it. It did not happen often,
  probably when I was in a nostalgic mood, that I would pass my friendly
neighbor, in France, with his pipe suspended from his mouth, or walk into a
store in America, or go for a walk with a friend in Germany, and have the
fleeting wish that they could greet me or talk to me in Afrikaans. Reality
quickly pushed the moroseness and wishes away for life to continue in a good
way.

 The 4 of us share an unspoken, strange and unfamiliar sense of
accomplishment; filled with humble thankfulness I want to shout it out to the
world, “we did it, 21 border-crossings, 27 000 km: Namibia!”