It was clear right from the beginning that I will not be able to do this trip alone. Too much of risk to begin with, not affordable, and more than that it will be more fun if I could share the experiences with someone. And of course, the person or persons who are accompanying should have similar interests and also it will be ideal if you knew them before. It was also quite straight forward for me regarding the people that I would like to ask for the trip – the “bushmates – Bru, Lourie, Drac, Lady, Pumpkin and Wasp”. They are a group of people that I met during a volunteer project in Namibia. People from different parts of the world, but with similar interests. We try to meet and travel together once in a while, though the chances that all of us go together are rare. We were not really close friends, but more like “travel buddies” as the Lady would say. I was closer with the Lady and Bru. I have talked about this plan them before and both of them showed interest. But Bru has already done part of the trip with his friend this year, so be backed out. I was more than happy when the Lady immediately agreed for the trip. I couldn’t actually think of doing this trip without her. I thought we are the same species, with similar views, love for Africa and the wildlife and moreover she is my dear friend.
I was aiming for duration of 3-4 weeks as the only period that I could attempt this trip (due to monetary considerations) is the green season/rainy season. The expenses are less during green season – starting from car rental (a 4x4 is a must), camping, park permit etc. And also off season means one has a better chance for getting camping places inside the national parks. The only concern was the risks involved as rainy season means bad road conditions especially in the delta, pans and the marsh.
The next step was to come up with a route plan. A day to day itinerary was necessary as I needed it for the application of visas and also it was necessary for the advance reservation of park permits, camping slots etc in Botswana. Since last year Botswana has made advance reservations compulsory and we could no longer get the park permits at the gates. I normally like travelling without any concrete plans as it gives me the freedom and flexibility. But in this case I had no other way. Since Victoria Falls was not so far away from the Namibia/Botswana border we decided to include it as well in the plan. That means for me it is a nightmare ordeal to get tourist visas from 3 countries – Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The fact that I can get the visa for Botswana only from their consulate in UK made the process more tiresome.
I came up with a draft plan for round trip starting and ending in Windhoek for duration of 21 days. The plan was to drive north from Windhoek towards the Caprivi region, drive to Victoria Falls through the north of Botswana. Then drive back to Botswana in the direction of Moremi national park in delta through Chobe NP and Savuti marsh. From there drive towards the pans – Nxai and Makgadikgadi – through Maun. Then use the Trans-Kalahari highway to return to Windhoek. Altogether around 3500 kms according to Google maps, though I was sure that the actual kms will be more. I forwarded the plan to the bushmates and requested a faster reply in view of the time I needed for the visa applications and also in view of the time that is needed to plan such a trip including 4x4 rental, camping and park permits, safety issues, money, route plan, etc.
Except Wasp and Pumpkin everybody else backed of citing different reasons. Most of them had already planned another trip in south East Asia a couple of months before this trip. So for them both money and time was a problem. The Lady and I went ahead with the bookings, esp. the park and camping permits and the 4x4 reservations.
In between the health of my father deteriorated rapidly. I was very much worried. Within a span of 1 month he was hospitalised. I was too much worried and confused not knowing whether it makes any sense to proceed with the trip under such conditions. I was sure that if his health worsens than I will not be able to enjoy the trip and it won’t make any sense. I talked about it with the Lady and she was very supportive telling me not to worry about the trip as there will be other opportunities. By that time I had only the visas from Zimbabwe and Botswana confirmed. I went to India to visit my father. He expired when I was there. I was devastated. I wrote to the agent in Maun whom we used for the reservations to cancel all the bookings and informed the Lady about it. She suggested that it will be nice if I could hold the cancellations just in case one of the others is still interested in the trip.
When I came back to Germany I was in double minds whether to proceed further with the plans or not. The trip was planned during the Christmas – New Year period. Since I have holidays during that period it only made sense to go ahead with the trip. Instead of staying alone at the home and mourn about my father’s death I thought it might as well do good to me if I go to Africa (where I always found peace) and be with the people whom I love to be with. I decided to proceed with the trip and applied for the Namibian visa. Pumpkin and Wasp backed off eventually and it was just the Lady and me for the trip.
One factor that concerned me all the time was the road conditions. Both of us didn’t have any kind of experience with driving under 4x4 conditions and being the green season some amount of risk was always expected. I always used to say ‘No risk, No fun’ and always loved taking little bit of risks. So I was not so worried. That being said I also wanted to make sure that no harm came to the Lady under any circumstances. More than a week was spend on scanning through the internet to avail whatever information is available to make the trip secure as possible. I even wrote to travel websites asking for suggestions, precautions needed and tracks that need to be avoided in case of heavy rains. Both of us went through videos explaining driving under 4x4 conditions to make up for the lack of experience a little bit. We also rented a satellite phone and assembled all the contact numbers that we could find on the places that we will be staying on the way. I also got phone numbers of some vehicle recovery/rescue services in Maun just in case if something goes wrong. Though the car rental agency in Windhoek themselves has guaranteed support in case of emergencies I was a bit sceptical as it involves cross country co-ordination, and that too in the African way. For me it is always important that I prepare as much as I can and whatever that happens after that is destiny. So once I was more or less certain that I did what I could do what remained was just a matter of actual ground conditions and luck.
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