Namibia & Botswana 2004

The Route

Well while Mike was busy sorting out the Landy I turned my attention to less strenuous tasks but they turned out to be perhaps more stressful. I had 4 objectives -:

To make the trip possible I needed to have these things in place by the end of January 2004 so I had to get started but where?

Originally we had talked of going out to Namibia and Botswana for 4 - 5 weeks and we had in mind some places we wanted to visit especially the Game Parks of both countries so it was down to the map. Our first purchase was the Michelin map of southern Africa and we immediately had the required area blown up to A2 size so we could see where we were going!! We knew the car would arrive at the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia and would also return from there so it made sense to try and travel in a circle at least that was a starting point. We had by this time found some South African web sites/forum groups and were beginning to get ideas of other places to visit so by the time I had marked these on the map and added up the mileage (sorry kilometres) the holiday had stretched firstly to 6 weeks then 8 and finally we decided that the returning date would be the first ship at the beginning of November giving us some 8 - 10 weeks out there.

This led me to the next objective - how were we to get the car out. We knew it was possible as others had done it and Neil at Impala advertised that his clients could do it so -------- I started by ringing the local shipping agents using Yellow pages but drew consistent blanks or at the opposite end of the spectrum the news that it would cost at least £3000 each way plus other charges - this trip looked doomed. I then started contacting the shipping companies directly but again no joy. Most did not go to Walvis Bay and I was even asked by one company if this was a serious enquiry. At this point I was quite surprised how lady like my reply was!!!!!!

Eventually through many hours spent surfing I came up with a shipping company MACS who took containers to Walvis Bay from the UK via Antwerp. I contacted their London office and finally I spoke to someone who didn't think we were idiots and who put us directly in touch with their agent at Immingham. Success at last we had a shipping company and someone to organise the transit for us the only problem at that point was they didn't know the dates of the sailings so far in advance but we were assured there would be one to meet our requirements and they would contact us nearer the proposed sailing time in August.

All this time I was also adding to the list of places to visit and was also starting to identify camping sites etc but more of that later.

My next task was to find out the best ( and hopefully cheapest ) way for Mike and I to fly out to Walvis Bay. As we were going to be without the car when we first arrived it was necessary to get to the port as easily as possible. I started surfing again ( I was becoming quite proficient at this and it was much easier than ringing up or visiting travel agents who had no idea of where we wanted to go.) Of course I was beginning to get a feeling of déjà vu as it was nearly as bad as finding a shipping agent. I finally found a link to Air Namibia - their national airline and they had a UK office. Help at last in the form of their representative in Crawley. "Of course it is possible" was the reassuring answer to my question - what a lovely man!!! It turned out that there were flights 3 times a week from either Manchester or Heathrow which would take us via Frankfurt to Windhoek (the capital of Namibia) and from there we would get an internal flight to Walvis Bay. The cost ? about £680 each including all taxes. This was certainly much cheaper than going via J'burg. The only problem was he couldn't book the flights yet as most seats had been block booked by the German tour operators but they wouldn't want them all and we would be ok. He sounded so confident I had to believe him. Ian promised he would keep in touch and as soon as I had a definite date/s then we would sort everything out. Things were beginning to come together but so much was still up in the air and I like to be organised!!!

As I said I had been collecting information from the web about various places to visit and possible camp sites but how was I going to book without specific dates. Further talks with the shipping agent assured me that there would be a boat arriving in Walvis Bay during the 2nd week in September so we decided that I would be safe to start bookings from the following week. We knew the only place where it was essential to book camping was in the Etosha game reserve so that was where we started. There are 3 camp sites in the park so I took the bull by the horns as the saying goes contacted the Wildlife Parks Office by e-mail, booked 3 nights at each site starting on the 13th September and waited for the reply. Bingo a couple of days later there was the reply, yes there was space, would I confirm the booking then payment would be due on ----------. That really gave me the boost I needed - we were actually committed to a place we were on our way.

I then started mailing lots of different camp sites throughout both Namibia and Botswana and filing the replies in route order so that when I finally came to finalising our route I would be able to see where we could stay. The only other place that I wanted to book was the game parks in Botswana as the same applies there as in Namibia - no booking no place to stay. I had the address of their wildlife booking office but try as I might they did not respond to e-mails. From reading other people's comments on the travel forums it appeared that this was usual so what was I to do? I didn't want to go to the expense of phoning and how long would a letter take? Once again help was at hand. I had been in contact with a camp site owner in Maun (the tourist capital of Botswana) whose in laws were from Somerset and she asked if there was anything else I needed help with for my trip. I explained the problem with regard to Chobe and Moremi and her immediate response was 'send me your dates and camps, I will book them for you, Simon will bring the receipts over to England when he visits in May and post them to you then you can pay me when you are here' Would people in this country do that for a total stranger? I accepted her offer and another milestone was put in place. Joyce also told me of a tented camp on the edge of the Boteti river where we might enjoy the wildlife. Again I looked it up on the net, saw it fitted in with our plans, contacted the owner and booked a luxury 3 days in the wilderness.

We now had a definite framework to the trip and it was important to get down to the detailed maps. From the overland forum we had seen there was another site called tracks4africa so decided to take a look. This group are the O.S. mappers of Africa and some more !! As you might imagine in such wild, desolate and immense countries detailed maps are few and far between. This group use their GPS to log every trip they make then the co-ordinator produces the maps which are available on map source to be read on the computer or as base maps for the GPS and they are freely down loadable (Memory Map eat your heart out) We became members of their group and were welcomed even though we said we probably couldn't contribute to their database. That didn't matter said they, you can pass comment on the actual maps and their accuracy that will be your contribution. One of the members based in the UK sent us the relevant cd's then talked me through the loading over the phone - they couldn't have been more helpful.

There were 3 other important things I needed to sort out, insurance for us and the Landy and the Carnet de Passage for the car.

Again I had much ringing around to get ourselves insured as we were going away for longer than 28 days and of course we were over that magical age of 60. Eventually NFU came up trumps and we were covered, however even though our car insurance is with them they were unable to insure it in South Africa - Morocco would have been OK!!!! We knew that we would have to buy 3rd party insurance at each of the borders as we crossed them but that didn't cover the car for any damage etc. I eventually found a company who would cover it for damage, theft and fire but only for 12 months and at a price (nearly £500 ) but it was peace of mind.

The final piece of documentation needed was the Carnet. This is basically a passport for the car issued by the RAC against a bond based on the value of the vehicle. If the vehicle is not returned to the UK within 12 months and the forms correctly completed at each border passed through then the owner of the vehicle is liable to pay import duty in each country. We needed it and of course it caused us some problems basically because our bank manager did not know that they had a dept who dealt with this kind of security. It needed the girl at the RAC to give us the direct number to our own bank in order to speak to the appropriate person in order to sort it out. After that little hiccup it was perfectly straight forward.

We finally got the message from the shipping company that the Landy needed to be at Immingham Docks for the 6th August for the first leg of its journey and it was due to arrive 4 weeks later in Walvis Bay. It was now all systems go. The flights were finally booked for 3rd September arriving there on the following day. Because of friends we had made on the overland forum we had found an apartment in the town belonging to one of the members which we were welcome to use as long as we needed it at a reduced rate and they would collect us from the airport. This was it everything had fallen into place and we were ready to go. All that remained to do was pack the car then the 4 weeks wait to fly.


6th August 2004: Waiting at the docks.

Next:  The Trip Begins

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