Together in South Africa

New Murraysburg House 5

2011-03-27T16:32:00.000+02:00

New Murraysburg House 4

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New Murraysburg House 3

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New Murraysburg House 2

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New Murraysburg House

2011-03-27T16:23:00.001+02:00

Potted Plant Garden

2011-01-09T21:45:00.003+02:00

New potted herb garden on back balcony. Includes lemon thyme, chamomile, sweet basil, rosemary, curry plant, english lavender, french lavender, catnip, and sutherlandia (cancer bush). Also some cacti and succulents (more added since photos taken).

The new and improved balcony includes "kitty-safe" mesh fencing, installed by WR, so that Raya and Abu can enjoy some fresh air outside.

Rooibos Mulch

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Rooibos Mulch in use on new potted plant garden. Makes the balcony smell like a cup of rooibos tea, very nice!

More house pics

2010-10-07T20:55:00.002+02:00

New decor, with piano, and Southern Africa trip pics in rustic frames. (framing compliments of WR's mother Jeanette!)

Walmer Estate house

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This is the house we moved into in July 2010:

Duplex house, we live on the left side.

View looking up our street toward Table Mountain.

View looking down our street toward the harbor.

Garage, before we moved the tree business in.

View over city and harbor from study window.

View of the mountain from spare bedroom window.

The Return of the Blog!!

2010-09-12T19:37:00.001+02:00

We’re finally getting around to resurrecting our blog… It’s been over a year since we posted anything. Once we settled in Cape Town with jobs, life just didn’t seem exciting enough to be blog-worthy anymore! But with family and friends scattered so far, it’s definitely time to start posting again, to share photos of what we’re up to every now and then.

Some major events of the past year…

September 2009: Julie’s parents and sister came to SA from the US, and we had a marriage blessing ceremony and wedding reception on a farm outside of Murraysburg.

November 2009: Julie’s cats Raya and Abu arrived from the US (Alaska), and they settled in quickly to life in Cape Town.

December 2009-Feb 2010: Willem’s friend and fellow arborist/climber from Alaska, Greg, came to stay with us for a few months for a working holiday. He worked with Willem at the tree business, and travelled around the Western Cape a bit to do some rock climbing, as well. His friend Adam joined him here in December, and his friend Anna visited in February. We loved having the company, and meeting Adam and Anna.

December 2009 and February 2010: weekend trips to the Cederburg mountains, about 4 hrs north of Cape Town

January 2010-June 2010: Robyn the Welshman worked with Willem at the tree business while he and his girlfriend Elizabeth were in SA on an extended working holiday. We very much miss Rob and Liz now that they’ve returned to the U.K. Rob just started up his own tree business in Wales, check out his website, designed by Liz: http://www.atwelltrees.com/

April 2010: boat cruise from Durban – Cape Town on the MSC Sinfonia with the Avenant family to celebrate Willem’s Pa’s 50th birthday.

July 2010: moved into a new house (another rental) in Walmer Estate, just outside the city centre in Cape Town. Close to where we were living in Woodstock, but a much bigger house, and we were able to move the tree business vehicles and equipment to our garage here. Good write-up about our new neighborhood: http://www.thepropertymag.co.za/pages/452774491/articles/2008/July/articles/nw-walmer-estate.asp

August 2010: 3-week trip to the U.S. to visit Julie’s family and friends. We flew into Maine where Julie’s sister lives, drove down to Michigan for a family gathering, spent 2 days in Chicago sight-seeing, went to Julie’s parent’s house in Kewanee, IL, then up to Julie’s best friend’s house in Minneapolis, and flew home from there.

September 2010: newly resolved to enjoy more of the outdoors activities in and around Cape Town, we’ve been climbing Lion’s Head peak twice a week, hiking at Silvermine National Park, and just returned from a weekend on the West Coast, where we saw Langebaan, Paternoster, slept at Beach Camp in the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, and drove through the West Coast National Park.

We’ll catch up with posting pics of some or all of the above in the days and weeks to come, but they won’t necessarily be in chronological order!

Beach Camp at Cape Columbine Nature Reserve

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One of the most fantastic, beautiful, and relaxing

places we've ever been.

We'll definitely be back!

View from our tent!

slingshot catapult

Succulents growing between the rocks

Paternoster, 11-12 September 2010

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Life in Cape Town!

2009-07-19T13:07:00.002+02:00

We are now living in Cape Town. Julie has a civil engineering job at HHO Africa, and WR is running our tree business, Willem Avenant Tree Specialist. We live in Woodstock, which is a neighborhood just outside the city center. It is a very diverse neighborhood, and still a bit rough, but up-and-coming. We live walking distance from the supermarket (Shoprite), bank, post office, restaurants, and bars. We really enjoy the vibe of the neighborhood, and are very much enjoying living in Cape Town. Running the business is extremely time-consuming, days, evenings, and weekends, but we try to get out at least once a week to see and do things.

Front of house

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House Pics

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Pics showing front of house, patio, main room, kitchen, master br, and spare bedroom (office). We love our little house! Still need a more appropriate guest bed, as all that's in there now is a camping cot.

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Outside our door, a view of the mountain to the left.
Looking down our street, a view of the Atlantic and the harbor.

Street Views in Woodstock

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Uitkyk hike

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Hike up to an old cattle outpost on Uitkyk, outside of Murraysburg. There is a little old stone hut way up in the hills that we climbed to. The group was Julie, WR, Polla, and Britta (a family friend).

Spitzkop climb

2009-07-19T12:40:00.002+02:00

In May, Julie, WR, and Sybrand climbed Spitzkop, a distinct landmark mountain outside of Murraysburg. There is a route up the side where you can almost just walk up a ridgeline up to the top, but we chose the more direct route up the back, which included some cliff-scaling!

Waterval

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In April we went on a picnic to Waterval (on Toorfontein, outside of M'bury), with Louw & Adri, and Louw's cousin and his wife. We climbed down and had a braai lunch on the rocks behind the waterfall. Certain members of the group then did some absailing. (This included Willem but not Julie)!

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Murraysburg donkeys

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The Avenants' cat, Genie, sleeping on Polla's drum.

More Murraysburg Pics

2009-07-19T12:30:00.001+02:00

It's been awhile since I updated the blog...
Here are some pics from our time in Murraysburg/the Karoo in April and May.

Mr. & Mrs. Avenant

2009-04-01T19:55:00.001+02:00

Our big news…we made it official on 31 March 2009. We got married at the Home Affairs office in Beaufort West, for administrative reasons. We need to file paperwork for Julie to stay in South Africa, and to start the green card process for Willem. However, we are planning to have a proper ceremony, and a big party (braai) later this year, hopefully in September or October.

Wedding Pictures

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Plans

2009-04-01T19:48:00.000+02:00

We’ve decided for the time being to stay in South Africa, rather than go and work overseas again. It was too difficult to get visas, and a very good opportunity came up for us in Cape Town. Right now we are in the process of making plans to move to Cape Town, buying a tree business there, and Julie finding engineering work. We’re looking for a flat in the Gardens area of City Centre. If anyone knows of a nice flat for rent in that area with a big double garage, please let us know!

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New Ride

2009-04-01T19:38:00.001+02:00

We needed something other than Skillie, our beloved old Land Rover, for quick trips and city driving, so we are now the proud owners of a 1997 Hyundai Accent. This photo was in Victoria West the day it passed the roadworthy test, and we got it registered in our name. It is a very nice change for us to have a vehicle with a radio, and doors that lock without a struggle!

Julie is back in South Africa!

2009-02-20T14:31:00.002+02:00

Julie returned to South Africa on Feb. 1, after three months in the U.S. visiting family and friends. This trip included staying in Cedar Rapids with her sister Karen, time in Illinois with her parents, a road trip to Michigan to visit her Grandma, two roadtrips to Minnesota to visit her best friend Laureen, and a LONG cross-country roadtrip with Karen from Iowa to Arizona to visit friends. So it was a fantastic trip, but Willem and Julie missed each other extremely much, and had a very happy reunion in Cape Town.
From Cape Town we drove along the garden route a bit, stayed in Mossel Bay, and stopped in Victoria Bay, Knysna, and stayed in Buffalo Bay (extremely fabulous backpackers on the beach there). After a week of enjoying the sun and the beach, we headed inland, back to the Karoo, and Murraysburg.
Since then we've been staying in Murraysburg, Willem has done some tree work, but the economy has made that tough, we work in the shop a lot, and Willem is working on restoring Julie's 1979 Vespa.
Most importantly, we are busy making a plan for our future, and being together. We want to go back to the U.S., and are working on lots of paperwork to this end.

Budapest to Bamako 2010:

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Willem and Julie’s next adventure!!
Since returning from our Southern Africa trip, we have been busy making plans for our next travel adventure. We are planning to participate in the Budapest to Bamako charity rally in 2010. This rally goes from Budapest, Hungary to Bamako, Mali, and includes both touring and racing categories. We are planning to enter the racing category, but not in Skillie, she’s not up for a trip like this! We are actively seeking corporate sponsorship for the race. If you or anyone you know are associated with a company that might be interested in sponsoring us we would love to hear from you! Full rally details are available on the official website:
www.budapestbamako.org

Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa

2008-10-22T17:33:00.002+02:00

1. En route to Nieu-Bethesda
2. Outside of a cafe where we had coffee/tea.
3&4. In the garden of the Owl House

Daytrip to Nieu-Bethesda

2008-10-22T17:31:00.001+02:00

WR and Julie took a fantastic day trip by motorcycle on Saturday 18 October to Nieu-Bethesda. Nieu-Bethesda is a very charming old Karoo town about 115km from Murraysburg, most famous for the Owl House. Most of the old houses in the town have been beautifully restored, and because of the number of tourists the Owl House brings in, the town has guesthouses, craft shops, eating places, and galleries. The Owl House was the home of an eccentric/reclusive woman in N.B., and during the 1960’s-70’s she turned her house and garden into a work of decorative and sculpture art, using glass and cement. The interior walls and ceilings are all covered with pieces of colored glass, and there are mirrors and lamps everywhere. The yard is full of cement figures, mostly owls and camels but also other figures, including mermaids and a nativity scene. Here are some links with more detailed info about the woman and the house:
http://www.encounter.co.za/article/99.html
http://www.southafrica.info/travel/cultural/owl-house-251005.htm

While in N.B. we walked all over the town, had coffee/tea, went to shops and galleries, toured the Owl House and a fossil museum, and had lunch at a fantastic microbrewery/gourmet cheesery. It was an extremely fun and pleasant way to spend a Saturday.

Tree Work

2008-10-22T17:29:00.003+02:00

Pruning/thinning job at the Lazy Zebra B&B in Graaff-Reinet.
Palm tree felling at the Graaff-Reinet Police Station.

Karoo View

2008-10-22T17:27:00.001+02:00

An amazing view outside of Murraysburg.

WR Avenant Tree Management

2008-10-22T17:24:00.002+02:00

WR’s tree business is back up and running in the Karoo! He’s had quite a bit of work in Graaff-Reinet, so we’ve been busy going there for jobs and quotes. Some very good news is that the municipality of Graaff-Reinet is interested in hiring him on a contract basis for all the powerline tree work there, which would be fantastic. If you know of anyone in the Karoo who needs a quote for tree work, contact WR at avenanttreeservice@gmail.com.

Walk Departure

2008-10-22T17:22:00.001+02:00

Paul, Julie, and Sybrand departing Murraysburg on their attempted walk to Graaff-Reinet.

The Attempted Walk

2008-10-22T17:21:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago, Julie, along with Paul Avenant Jr. (WR’s brother) and Sybrand Swanepoel (WR’s good friend), attempted to walk the 90km from Murraysburg to Graaff-Reinet. WR unfortunately had appointments in Graaff-Reinet the next day and couldn’t join the walking. Sybrand had tried it before (with no preparation or supplies) and made it 45km before having to stop, so this time he was determined to finish it. This time we were a bit more organized, carrying backpacks with food and warm clothes, and WR was on board as our support/back-up to bring us food and hot drinks at key intervals. The three intrepid (foolish?) walkers set out from Murraysburg at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Thursday. Walked for about 5 hours, when a whole truckload of friends and family came driving up to supply us with a hot dinner. Paul was wearing very inadequate shoes, and at this point was already limping, but he kept going. After about another hour he called it quits at the 28km mark and was taken back to Murraysburg by a friendly farmer. Julie and Sybrand kept walking. It was a very dark, moonless night, and at times we struggled to see the centerline of the road. It was also very cold, and though the motion of walking kept us warm, every time we would stop to rest we would quickly get very very cold. We walked through the night, until 3am when WR pulled up with thermoses of hot coffee and tea. At that point we had walked just over 45km. We rested a bit, downed more Ibuprofin to ward off muscle pain, and kept going. From 3-6am the going was extremely rough. Fatigue set in badly, we were stiff, and both of us were developing wicked blisters on our feet, making each step painful. We hoped when the sun rose we would be re-energized and invigorated to finish, but it didn’t quite work out that way. WR came back at 6:30am, meeting Sybrand and Julie at the 58km mark. At this point Julie pretty much could not walk another step, due to excruciating blisters covering her feet. She was very ready to call it quits and hop in the truck. Sybrand was staggering from fatigue and pain but still didn’t want to quit. He walked to the 60km mark before finally stopping, and joining WR and Julie in the truck. So it was an extremely interesting experience. Not really “fun”, due to the amount of pain involved. But Julie and Sybrand are still both determined to finish the full 90km, so plans are being made for a future re-try of “The Great Walk”, and WR wants to join the walking next time. We’ve had plenty of helpful advice about blister prevention after the fact (soak feet in spirits in the days leading up to the walk to harden feet; wear pantyhose underneath socks to prevent chafing), so hopefully with these tips we’ll be able to reduce blisters next time and make it. It definitely was not fatigue or muscle pain that were the stopping factors, but blisters!

Kimberly, SA

2008-10-09T08:53:00.002+02:00

The Big Hole. The first diamond mine in Kimberly, now flooded, that started the diamond rush in South Africa. Willem and Julie in front of the Big Hole.

Avenants in Kimberly

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In the (reconstructed) old mining town in Kimberly.
From left, Paul Sr., Paul Jr., Willem, Jeanette, and two of Jeanette's cousin's daughters.

Cactus Garden

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Obesa Cactus & Succulent Garden/Nursery in Graaff-Reinet, SA.

Valley of Desolation

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Valley of Desolation, in Camdeboo National Park, just outside of Graaff-Reinet, South Africa.

Back in Murraysburg, SA

2008-09-30T09:45:00.001+02:00

We’re done travelling for now, but definitely have plans for more trips/adventure in the future (more on that soon). We decided to keep the blog going with some of the things we’re doing around here, as well as future plans. We are staying in Murraysburg, SA for the moment. Julie is flying back to the Midwestern US for three months to see family and friends, and flies from Cape Town to Chicago on 31 October. Since being back in Murraysburg, we’ve done a bit of relaxing, enjoying life in a house again and not living out of a truck. WR trimmed his beard down to a more normal length, and is working on getting his chainsaws back up and running to restart his tree business here (he broke a bar in Malawi, bought a new one upon our return here, but there are some other problems with the saw, probably caused by rattling around in the bottom of the Landy for 6 months, that need to get sorted out before he can work).

Some local sightseeing we’ve done since our return has been Obesa cactus & succulent garden/nursery in Graaff-Reinet, Valley of Desolation, outside of Graaff-Reinet, and “The Big Hole” diamond mine tour in Kimberly. We’ll put some pics of these places up soon.

Southern Africa Trip Overview:

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25 March-11 September 2008 (5 months and 17 days)
6 countries (South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia)
14,025 kilometers
1,475 liters of diesel
1 mild case of malaria (WR)
2 severe cases of upset stomachs (one caused by canned bullybeef, only affecting WR, one caused by grilled onions, affecting both of us, but Julie much worse—ate many more of the onions)
4 flat tires
0 speeding tickets
1 court case
Average speed = approximately 50kph
1 budget miscalculation (should have multiplied the entire budget times 2!)

Book Reviews

2008-09-17T11:15:00.001+02:00

One of our main activities/forms of entertainment on our trip was reading, and we wanted to provide a brief overview of the books we read, some of which were amazing and we highly recommend. Star rating system provided, with 5* being amazing and 1* being horrible. Most of the time we agreed on what to rate it, a few times there are separate ratings!

“Song for Nero” by Thomas Holt. An adventure story about two thieves/outlaws on the lam all over the Roman empire, one of whom is the former emperor Nero, who is supposed to be dead. WR=3*, J=2*.

“The Greenlanders” by Jane Smiley. An amazingly vivid and interesting historical novel about the Norse settlements in Greenland. WR&J=5*.

“The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. Another amazing novel, this one uses the story of an architect who doesn’t compromise his vision at any cost, to present Ayn Rand’s philosophy of individualism vs. collectivism. WR&J=5*.

“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas. Classic story of betrayal, prison break, and revenge. Was much easier reading than we had anticipated, in spite of its size and age. WR=3*, J=4*.

“The Kite Runner” by Khalid Husseini. Novel of an Afghani immigrant to America’s childhood in Kabul, secrets and guilt about his past, finding redemption in the present on a trip to Pakistan/Afghanistan. WR&J=5*.

“River God” by Wilbur Smith. Story set in ancient Egypt about a head eunuch who effectively runs the empire with his behind-the-scenes influence on the pharaoh and the court. WR=3* (only WR read this one).

“Gold Mine” by Wilbur Smith. Fast-paced and entertaining action/adventure/romance story set in the Gauteng (South Africa) gold mines in the 1970’s. WR&J=3*.

“Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi. Non-fiction memoirs of an Iranian-born, American-educated professor of English literature in Tehran. She tells about her life, teaching at the university, and finally forming an underground book club for women once she has resigned from the university. Set against the backdrop of Iran’s overthrowing the Shah, the government becoming controlled by an Islamic regime, and the Iran-Iraq war. Interesting book, but her writing style is extremely academic, dry, and repetitive. WR=2*, J=3*.

“Ama” by Manu Herbstein. Extremely good story about the Atlantic slave trade, set in West Africa, the slave forts on the coast of Ghana, and in Brazil. Written by a South African who lives in Ghana, Julie had toured the forts in Ghana it refers to (Elmina and Cape Coast) which made it even more vivid. WR&J=4*.

“The Third Twin” by Ken Follett. Typical fast-paced Follett action/adventure/romance book, this one about a genetic experiment gone wrong. J=2* (only Julie read this book).

“Fall on Your Knees” by Ann-Marie McDonald. Oprah Book Club pick, set on an island off Nova Scotia, about a protestant Irish man who marries a very young Lebanese catholic girl, who is then disowned by her family, covers multiple generations of their very strange family life. J=3* (only Julie read this book).

“The Tin Drum” by Gunter Grass. Story of a midget drummer in pre and post WWII Poland and Germany. Not an easy read by any means, but an amazing book, well worth getting through it! (Laureen, Julie’s friend and bona fide intellectual on the subject, adds, “I would have mentioned something about symbolizing the country's crisis of identity and re-formation of memory”.) WR&J=4*.

“Legacy of Silence” by Belva Plain. Very light, easy read about a German family who emigrate to America during WWII, settle in, then have to deal with past family secrets. The story is quite good, but she’s not that great of a writer. WR&J=3*.

“A Good Turn” by Kate Atkinson. Crime/detective/romance story set in Edinburgh during the festival. Extremely entertaining read, J. especially loved the author’s dry, witty sense of humor. WR=3*, J=4*.

“Lady Chatterly’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence. A modern English classic, was banned at first for being “obscene”, story of a lady and a gamekeeper. WR&J=3*.

“Man Alleen” by Louis L’Amour. A classic Louis L’Amour, translated into Afrikaans (apparently made the story lose quite a bit), about a guy defending his farm from people trying to take it away. WR=2* (only WR read this one)

“Night Fall” by Nelson Demille. “Fact-based fiction” novel about the crash of TWA flight 800 off of Long Island in July, 1996, and surrounding conspiracy theories. This was an extremely entertaining, well-written book. Neither of us could lay it down. WR&J=5*.

11 September 2008, Return to Murraysburg, SA!

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We left Upington on Thursday morning, heading south on the home stretch of the trip! Extremely eager to be done driving and traveling, we put in another very long day (500km) to reach Victoria West. Here we were yet again hoping to stay with friends, but our typical luck in this department caught up with us, and they were away on their honeymoon. As Victoria West is only 90km from Murraysburg, we weren’t going to pay for a night of camping, but pushed on to the finish a day earlier than we were planning.

We were trying to keep our arrival date a surprise, but had limited success with this due to the M’burg folks knowing we were in SA (could no longer reach us on the Namibian cell phone number), but they were expecting us on the weekend, so we arrived a bit early. We put a bottle of Orange River sparkling wine on the Avenant’s doorstep, rang the bell, and hid around the corner of the house. Paul answered the door, read the bottle, and knew it was us! We had a happy reunion, and stayed up very late chatting and telling lots of stories.

Bolera Palms School News (Malawi):

2008-09-17T11:09:00.001+02:00

We received an email from Rita at Palm Beach with the following updates about her school:
Hi Everyone,
Well, at last the school is open! not officially,(that will happen in January), but I am teaching groups of Pre schoolers, of which I am hoping to select 30 kids to go to grade one next year.

It has been a long two years, and none of it would have been possible, without your help, contributions, encouragement and interest. We still don't have any running water, or toilet facilities, but as I am only teaching one or 1 1/2 hr sessions at the moment, its not too much of an issue right now.

Next year, I hope to put up a fence, which has become really necessary, as a noisy, nosy lot of village kids of all ages stand on the veranda looking in through the windows, while I'm teaching!

I was hoping to send some pics of my first day, but our internet cannot cope, so I shall have to send them one by one.

On Saturdays and Sundays, I teach about 45 older kids in 4 groups, English reading, comprehension and language. Last weekend was a great success, and the kids and I enjoyed it thoroughly! The kids are so eager to learn, and its quite heart breaking to have to turn some away, because of lack of space in the classroom.

Netties sewing workshop have made all the little school uniforms, at no charge. Thank you! They will start wearing them in Jauary, when the official school starts. Danelle, Chelsea and Kristen from Alaska provided the colourful, washable paint for the classroom, and it looks absolutely lovely! Sylvia and Liz Snapinn, made sure we had flooring throughout the school. Shannon and Lance made sure we have the best Library on the southern lakeshore. They sent loads of class readers and library books, when the US surface mail was still viable. Nate York and Marlo, from Solace International, who got the ball rolling, with a huge monetary injection, Thank you!! To everybody,who in any way contributed, thank you so very much! Without your support, I might have given up the idea completely.

As Palm Beach is getting busier and busier, it will not be possible for me to teach full time, and I have put out the word for a good teacher, which might be a bit difficult, as they are few and far between, and the schools are therefore holding onto their good teaching staff!! So, any volunteers out there.....???? I will provide FREE accommodation in a SELF CATERING CHALET for anyone interested in coming here for more than 6 weeks, to teach at my school!!!

I have just done a quick count of kids names, on my lists for the various groups I've taught, and there have been 67 kids in my classroom in 10 days! Wow, and thats just 4, 5-6 year olds! There seem to be more at the door every morning! EEKK!!
chosing 30 will be really difficult!!

Anyway, I must run off to school. Once again, Thank you all!
Lots of love,
Rita and the kids of Bolera Palms School

9-11 September: Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa:

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In Upington we were treated to very excellent hospitality by Dawie (friend that WR worked with on a farm in England) and his family. The highlight of our stay was a wine-tasting tour. Dawie took us to at Orange River wine cellars (who knew they made wine in the Northern Cape, and good wine, at that?!). We sampled lots, and purchased a mix-and-match box of six bottles from the cellar store, including some sherry and hanepoot, for the rock-bottom price of R150 (about $20), to take back to the folks in Murraysburg. On Wednesday evening we had a very fun night out for dinner and drinks at Dros.

Fish River Canyon, Namibia

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Petting Cheetah

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Quivertree (Kokerboom) Forest

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7-9 September: Southern Namibia

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At this point in the trip we were getting very tired of traveling and driving, and although we loved Namibia, we were driving longer distances, ready to get back to SA and be done traveling for now.

From Sesriem we drove to Mariental, where after 5 days of bushcamping, we treated ourselves to a sit-down meal at a restaurant, and an actual campsite (River Chalets) with extremely nice restrooms and showers. Met the very friendly owner who said Mariental was completely flooded two years ago, and they’ve had lots of renovation work to do on their property. WR met an old shopkeeper in Mariental who had known his grandfather.

On Monday, 8 September we drove to Keetmanshoop, where we stayed at the Quivertree Rest Camp. This camp is on a farm that has the two main attractions in Keetmanshoop, the Kokerboom (Quivertree) Forest, and Giant’s Playground. Kokerbooms are large aloes that grow up to 9m high, and this is an unusually dense concentration of them, with the largest being 200-300 years old, this “forest” of them is protected as a national monument. Giant’s Playground is an area of extensive stacks of large boulders. Another highlight of the farm is that they have 4 rescued orphaned cheetahs living there. They’ve been there for many years, and are “tame”, in that when they have just been fed and are happily gnawing large chunks of meat, you can enter their enclosure and pet them on the head. Was quite surreal and a bit scary to pet a cheetah, but very fun. The farm also has some tame warthogs running around that you can touch.

We left Keetmanshoop on Tuesday 9 September, with one more stop to make in Namibia, at Fish River Canyon. The canyon is very dramatic and beautiful, in what is otherwise extremely flat southern Namibia. It is best seen on a 5-day hike, but this requires prior reservations and a min. group of 4 people, so was not on our agenda, but it would be very fun to go back and do. We had a picnic lunch by the lookout point, and headed on. We drove towards the Nam-SA border at Ariamsvlei. WR’s relatives have a farm near there, but they weren’t going to be home the day we planned to maybe sleep there (another recurring trip theme). We stopped in Karasburg for diesel and snacks, and ended up driving all the way to the border, and crossing into South Africa at about 6pm. The border crossing went extremely smoothly. WR of course would not have any problems returning to his home country, but Julie was extremely nervous after the unpleasant scene of arriving at the Cape Town airport last January on a one-way ticket to SA, which involved 2 hours at immigration, and a $1,500 “refundable repatriation deposit”. However, land borders into SA don’t seem to have the same tight standards as airports, and Julie was given a 3-month stamp into the country with no trouble.

We had hoped to find a campsite or guest farm to sleep at near the border post, but there is absolutely nothing between the border and Upington, and we aren’t brave enough to camp by the roadside in SA. We phoned WR’s friend Dawie, who we were planning on staying with, but not scheduled to arrive until the next day, and he was extremely agreeable to our coming a day early. So it ended up being a record 570km day (this takes a LONG time when you drive 60km/hr!), with us arriving in Upington around 8:30pm.

Sossusvlei & Deadvlei, Namibia

2008-09-17T10:46:00.002+02:00

Tropic of Capricorn

2008-09-17T10:42:00.007+02:00

6-7 September: Sossusvlei, Namibia

2008-09-17T10:40:00.000+02:00

The next morning we left the park, and drove toward Sesriem. We stopped at Solitaire, which is supposed to be a “lonely settlement with a few buildings” and a country store serving famous apple strudel. Ton van der Lee wrote the book “Solitaire”, about the place and the guy Moose who makes the pie, but this fame has spoiled the place a bit. It was overrun by busloads of tourists, and the “restaurant” serving the strudel consists of a counter with a very surley server who plunks a piece of pie on a Styrofoam plate, hands you a Styrofoam cup, and points to the self-serve containers of coffee and tea. A far cry from the excellent service and atmosphere we had enjoyed so far at backereis in Nam. So for any potential travelers to Nambia, this is NOT a must-stop place, and they certainly don’t care about making customers happy now that they arrive by the busload, so is to be avoided.

We arrived at Sesriem, and had to pay park admission again to the Namib-Naukluft park, this time to see the red sand dunes and pans at Sossusvlei, which is Namibia’s number 1 tourist attraction. We arrived in the late afternoon, and were hurrying to see everything, luckily the 60km road from the Sesriem gate to Sossusvlei is tar. The dunes and views there are amazing, we ran along a ridge up a towering red sand dune, with wind blowing us, took lots of photos from the top, and ran back down. Then we hiked the 1 km out to Deadvlei, which is very beautiful and surreal with dry dead trees in a large pan surrounded by dunes. We drove the 60km out of the park just as the sun set and they were closing the gates. The NWR-run park campsite at Sesriem charges a staggering 600 ND/person/night (about $80), so we opted for yet another night of bushcamping, and slept by the road at a picnic area pullout.

Namib-Naukluft Park

2008-09-17T10:30:00.004+02:00

Trans-Kalahari Highway

2008-09-17T10:28:00.001+02:00

3-6 September: Namib-Naukluft Park

2008-09-15T12:24:00.000+02:00

We headed out of Swakopmund, and drove south on to Walvis Bay, Namibia’s shipping port town. The backpackers there had closed, so we decided not to stay in town, and drove into the Namib desert, and Namib-Naukluft Park. The park covers a massive portion of south-western Namibia, and includes the Namib desert, Naukluft mountains, and sand dune sea by Sesriem/Sossusvlei. We had purchased a permit for park entry and camping, but there are no park gates and we never saw any officials in our 4 days/3 nights in the park. There are designated camping areas, but they are bush camp sites with no facilities. The first night we stayed at Vogelfedderberg, about 50km east of Walvis Bay. The area is flat desert, but the campsite is at a large rock hill with lots of small caves and shelters around the bottom. We set up camp and climbed to the top of the hill for the gorgeous sunset over the desert. The next day we drove to Homeb campsite, in a beautiful grove of acacia and ebony trees growing along the (dry) Kuiseb River. We hiked along the riverbed for awhile, then climbed a sand dune along the river from where we had an amazing view of the Kuiseb River valley, and had fun running back down the dune.

Our final day in the park we drove along the grassy plains to a campsite in the gorge at the Kuiseb Bridge. En route we saw a herd of wild horses at a distance. We spent the afternoon relaxing, WR had to top up the gearbox oil (gearbox has developed a leak), and Julie decided to walk along the (dry) Kuiseb riverbed looking for any diamonds that may chance to be lying there. Unfortunately this mission was unsuccessful, though Julie admittedly has little idea what a raw diamond looks like (aside from the scene in “Blood Diamond” where he picks up a 20-something carat pink out of the river). All potential shiny rocks brought back to the campsite were determined to be just rocks. :)

Shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast, Namibia

2008-09-03T10:00:00.001+02:00

The newest addition to the Skeleton Coast, a ship that wrecked last week.

Skeleton Coast, Namibia:

2008-09-03T09:59:00.001+02:00

From Damaraland we drove to the Skeleton Coast Park, a restricted area due to diamond mining, but for which you can buy transit permits at the park gates. It is not allowed to spend the night in the park, except with special permits for resorts there. We drove through amazingly desolate scenery of rocks and rocky mountain passes to the Springbokwasser gate. It was late in the day (too late to enter the park) so the officials let us camp for free outside the gate. On Monday 1 September we entered the park in the morning, and drove for three hours through the park. The Skeleton Coast, known for its treacherous, rocky shore, and large number of shipwrecks, is a vast stretch of nothingness where almost nothing grows, sand dunes, and salt flats. It is beautiful in an eerie and desolate sort of way, and was very fun to arrive at the ocean again (this time the bitterly cold Atlantic, not the warm Indian we left in Mozambique!). It was unbelievably windy along the Skeleton Coast, a bitterly cold wind, and there were very strong, high waves crashing into the shore. We were meant to stop and visit a friend of the Avenants who works at a diamond mine in the park, but he was away on business in Swakopmund (we’re not having good luck with the visiting of friends in Nam.). We exited the park at the south gate, and drove south on the salt road along the ocean to Hentiesbaai, a bleak fishing village on this empty, very windy stretch of shore, popular with S. African fishermen. At Hentiesbaai we refueled (diesel in Namibia is about $1.50/liter, down from $1.70/liter in Botswana!), and splurged on a very late lunch out at a proper sit-down restaurant, then continued south to Swakopmund for the night. En route to Swakopmund we saw a very newly stranded ship, still all clean and brightly painted, wrecked on the beach. We heard in Swakopmund that it just wrecked there about a week ago. As we arrived in Swakopmund, we very briefly said hi to John (whom we had missed at the diamond mine), who waited for us to arrive before he had to leave for Windhoek.

We are camping at a very nice backpackers in Swakop. called Desert Sky, with very nice facilities and friendly staff. Spent Tuesday 2 September sightseeing in Swakop. It’s a strange but quite nice town, some old German buildings, lots of new sleek beach-resort looking buildings and houses, cacti and palm trees. It’s booming as the center of adrenaline/adventure sport activities in Namibia, and there is lots of tourist money coming into the town, so lots of nice shops/restaurants/hotels to go along with it. The whole time we’ve been here there’s been cold wind and fog blowing off the sea, but maybe it’s nice and hot in the summer?! We spent a couple of hours at the very interesting Swakop. museum, lots of good displays about the history of Namibia. Then we headed to a German backerei (recurring weakness for us in Namibia) for refreshment, and walked all around the center of town. The adventure sports are out of our budget range at this late point in the trip, but it’s a very nice place to spend a couple of days.

From here we are heading south to the Namib-Naukluft Park, then Sossusvlei, then Fish River Canyon, then back to S. Africa!

Dune Tracks

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Tracks on a sand dune in the Skeleton Coast, Namibia.

Skeleton Coast, Namibia

2008-09-03T09:57:00.002+02:00

Damaraland, Namibia:

2008-09-03T09:56:00.001+02:00

After leaving Etosha we drove to the town of Outjo for a refueling/grocery stop. While we were there we took time to have a snack at the Outjo Backerei, rumored to be the best in Namibia, and it did not disappoint. WR had a massive slice of German chocolate cake and his first real (non-instant) coffee for months, Julie had some sort of deep fried dough thing, and the most amazing glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice ever made. Outjo is an extremely cute and friendly small town, sort of becoming a theme in Namibia. Full and happy, and WR with a major caffeine buzz, we continued on our way into Damaraland. Per Lonely Planet, Damaraland is “sparsely populated by the Damara people, and is known for its unique geological features including volcanic mounds, petrified forests, red rock mesas and petroglyph-engraved sandstone slabs”. Our first stop was a rock formation named Vingerklip, it is in a part of Damaraland known as the “Arizona of Namibia”, due to the mesas and rock formations there, and as Julie can attest, thanks to extensive travels in Arizona with b.f.f. Laureen and her sisters, it looks exactly like Arizona.

In addition to the constantly-changing and awe-inspiring landscapes in this part of Namibia, we loved traveling here because there were so many attractions to stop and see close to the road. Our next stop was the Petrified Forest. The site is run by the national monuments council, and we paid 70ND for entry and a tour, but was extremely interesting and cool to see. The petrified wood came from central Africa in a flood, pieces are continuing to surface from the sand, and they are amazing, intact trees, bark and all, of stone. The guides and workers at the small park were extremely friendly. It was close to closing time when we arrived, and after our tour, they let us camp for free for the night in the parking lot.

On Saturday 30 August, we drove to the area around Twyfelfontein, again lots of little attractions, mostly for free. Saw the Wondergat, an impressive sinkhole of unknown depth, the Organ Pipes, a small gorge of geometric dolerite columns, and the Burnt Mountain, a small black hill of volcanic clinker, in front of which we ate lunch, and were plagued by flies. After lunch we went to Twyfelfontein itself, a collection of hills full of San engravings, also run by the monuments council, where we had to pay an entry fee and a guide for a tour. The engravings were quite intricate and impressive.

We camped for the night at a brand new camp, Aabadi, currently under construction by three Dutch owners, as the only budget accommodation in the area, which is a nature reserve. (Camping for 35ND) Two of the owners were away in Windhoek, but the man there, Jeroen, was extremely happy to have us camp for the night. The campground is complete, and they are working on putting up fixed canvas en-suite tents/chalets for their opening in 5 weeks, for which they are fully booked already! The camp is situated in a gorgeous location among the hills, and they are making it an extremely nice place, so we highly recommend it to anyone coming to this part of Namibia. Other than the previously described rock attractions in the area, the main reason people come to this area is to see the elusive desert elephant, of which there are only about 105 in the world. As we arrived at the camp, Jeroen said to follow him on a walking safari, and there right at the edge of camp was a desert elephant grazing on a tree. They are often in the camp, and we heard them during the night as well. There are also black rhinos and cheetahs in the conservancy area, but we were not lucky enough to see them. (Rhino is the only one of the “Big Five” Julie has not yet seen).

San Engravings

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San rock engravings at Twyfelfontein, Namibia.

Organ Pipes, Namibia

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Damaraland, Namibia

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The "Arizona of Namibia"

Etosha National Park, Namibia:

2008-09-03T09:51:00.001+02:00

From Tsumeb we drove toward the great Etosha National Park, but it was too late in the day to enter the park, so we slept at another German guest farm, Sachensheim, about 30km from the park gates, with extremely gorgeous camping and ablution facilities.

We spent 28-29 August in Etosha, but were horrified with the price. Entry for us and the car was 170ND (about $24), and then camping was 200ND each—way way way too steep for our budget. So we only spent one night in the park, and made the most of our 24hr park entry to see as much as we could. Unlike the other game reserves in Southern Africa, where you drive around on rough 4x4 tracks all day looking for animals, the highlight of Etosha is parking by water holes, cracking open a cold drink, and waiting for the animals to come to the waterhole. Etosha is mostly made up of a massive salt pan, and then savanna and scrubby low bushes. There are three camps in the park, but far from the bush camp experiences at parks in Botswana, these are fenced luxury resorts, run like hotels, with prices to match. The highlight of Etosha for us was lions, we saw six while we were there. The best one was in the afternoon we were sitting in our truck watching a herd of zebras and a herd of springbok drinking from a waterhole. As they drank, a lioness charged at them from a nearby patch of grass. We hadn’t known there was a lion hiding so close! She didn’t catch anything, the herd ran away in a massive stampede, but it was great to watch. The most annoying part of Etosha was all the people (mostly S. Africans) getting out of their vehicles to take pictures, when this is clearly against park rules posted everywhere. At the camp where we stayed the night there is also a waterhole with a viewing platform to sit, and they light the waterhole with floodlights so you can sit and watch what comes at night. A herd of seven elephants came while we were watching, including two extremely tiny baby elephants. Also at our camp WR ran into a friend from the Karoo, Henkie, who was working for a company that caters for self-drivers on safari (i.e. people who want to drive themselves but don’t want to set up their own camp, cook their own food, etc…mostly older South Africans). Was very nice to see him and chat for awhile.

Vingerklip, Namibia

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Northern Namibia:

2008-09-03T09:49:00.000+02:00

Brief history for those not familiar…Namibia was a German colony from 1884-1919, after WWI it was given as a mandate to South Africa, and was ruled by South Africa until it became independent in 1989. There is still a German cultural influence here (plenty of biergartens and backereis, and still a minority who speak German as a first language, and LOADS of German tourists!), and also it’s very much like South Africa as far as Afrikaans culture/language being prevalent. When Namibia became independent, they chose English as their official language, because it was the international language of business, and almost no one in the country spoke it, so it put every ethnic group at the same disadvantage. Now most people speak it as a second or third language.

Anyway, in Grootfontein we stayed outside of town at a (German-run) guest farm called Die Kraal that had camping, very clean and nice facilities. WR’s friends from Rundu met us there for a drink on their way back from Windhoek, so we chatted with them for a bit. In Grootfontein we drove by the old German fort to have a look, but the museum was closed. We headed out of town, and stopped at Hoba Meteorite, the world’s largest meteorite! For being the world’s largest, it was surprisingly small. Facts on the meteorite:
3 m long and 1 m thick
Weighs 50 tons
According to scientific calculations, struck the earth 80,000 years ago
Consists of 82.4% iron, 16.4% nickel, and 0.76% cobalt, with trace elements of carbon, sulphur, chromium, copper, zinc, gallium, germanium and iridium.
It is on a farm, but is run by the national monuments council, and the place very nicely done up for tourists, so was a fun stop.

From the meteorite we continued driving to the town of Tsumeb, a very cute and quaint small town, there used to be a large copper mine there but it is now closed. We had lunch in the town park, drove around the town a bit to look at some of the old buildings, stopped at a craft market where a woman was selling homemade solar ovens (wood frame with a tin sheet reflecting the sun for a heating element, and a glass top). She was selling the ovens, and little loaves of sweet bread that she was baking in one, so we bought two loaves for 1ND each, and they were delicious.

Hoba Meteorite, Namibia

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At the world's largest meteorite, outside Grootfontein, Namibia.

Caprivi Strip, Namibia:

2008-09-03T09:46:00.000+02:00

From the border post we drove on the transit road through the Mahango Game Reserve, to the Popa Falls, where we paid 20ND/person entrance fee to the park, and were very disappointed as there were no falls, just some small rapids. But it was a nice place for a picnic lunch. We backtracked to Ngepi Camp, on the Okavango River, a pleasant place to spend the evening. They have a “swimming cage” in the river where you can swim safely protected from hippos and crocs, but it was too late in the day/chilly for swimming so we didn’t try it.

The morning of 24 August we drove the 200 km to Rundu, a medium-sized town right across the river from Angola. Always very tempting to pop into another country when it’s so close, but for Angola you have to arrange visas in advance, so that eliminated that temptation. WR has friends living in Rundu that we were hoping to stay with, but they were in Windhoek for a long holiday weekend, so it didn’t work out. We camped at a resort type place Ngandu, with a campsite, but not very friendly staff who wanted to charge us more to use the pool, so we didn’t swim, and mainly just got ourselves organized. WR checked all the levels on the truck and tightened bolts, Julie did a massive load of laundry, and we bought some groceries. After two nights in Rundu we were ready to go again, and on the morning of 26 August drove south to Grootfontein.

Male Hill, Botswana

2008-09-03T09:43:00.003+02:00

At the peak of Male Hill in the Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. Highest point in Botswana at all of 420m!

Northwest Botswana:

2008-09-03T09:40:00.000+02:00

We ended up spending another night in Maun, at the home of Nico (the Afrikaans mechanic) and his wife Magda, and their two very cute and perfectly bilingual 9 & 11 year old sons. They live on a smallholding on the river about 35km outside of Maun, and we slept the night in their little guesthouse, which is a woodframe building with canvas walls, and ensuite bathroom. Was extremely comfortable and a nice break from the rooftent! We had a nice braai and a great time chatting with them by the fire. After finally leaving Maun on 20 August, we drove around the bottom of the Okavango delta, then up the west side. We camped at Guma Camp, near the village of Etsha 13. A nice camp right on the Okavango River, with a very nice self-catering kitchen. Nice to find a camp with a self-catering kitchen, then Julie can cook things that take a very long time to boil (lentils, chickpeas, etc..) which otherwise would use up our gas bottle too quickly. Guma Camp was 13km off the tar road on a deep sand track, so it took us an hour longer to get there than we had counted on, but it was worth the drive. From Guma Camp we continued north up the tar road, to the turn-off to Tsodilo Hills. Our guidebook (which we trust less and less as the trip progresses), said that there were three tracks to Tsodilo Hills, and that the southern one was the best and most used one. We turned off on this one, and at first it was an okay gravel road, but quickly deteriorated into sand track through the bush, for 40km, until we reached the park gates. We realized as we were driving that the track had not been used in awhile, so thought the park would be quite deserted. Once we arrived, we saw that there was a big newly built gravel road leading in from the middle turn-off, that we hadn’t known about. So we took the really rugged way there for no reason, but had a 4x4 adventure! There were plenty of people at the park, who had all taken the new road there. Tsodilo Hills is a holy place for the San (bushmen) people, they believe that the world was created there, and the spirits of the plants and animals reside there. There are four hills, Male, Female, Child, and Grandchild, and the main attraction there is the San rock art paintings. Camping at the park was free and there was no admission to the park! The only expense is paying 50 Pula per hike to your guide, and guides are mandatory. (Also good to tip them as they make very little money). We took three hikes, the first one, the Rhino trail around Female Hill, where we saw lots of paintings, mostly of wild animals, a few humans and “geometric patterns” (our guide’s favorite phrase), and also a few caves that had been inhabited by bushmen. Most notable were paintings of whales and penguins, indicating contact with the coast of Namibia, hundreds of kilometers away. Our second hike, the next morning, was to the top of Male Hill, which at 420m is the highest peak in Botswana. This shows how flat Botswana is! This hike was literally a walk in the park compared to summiting Sapitwa, Mulanje in Malawi! The views over the Kalahari from the top of Male Hill were stunning, though. That afternoon we did our third and final hike, Cliff Trail, on Female Hill, where we saw some more paintings, some very interesting caves, and did some scrambling over boulders up the cliffs.

We left Tsodilo Hills the next morning, taking the easy gravel road back to the tar this time, and drove north, refueled in Shakawe, and went to the Mohembo/Mahango border with Namibia. It was another very smooth and incident-free border crossing. We were stamped out of Botswana with no problems, got 32-day visa stamps for Namibia at no charge, and paid 170 Namibian Dollars (about $24) for a Namibian road permit for the truck. The Namibian border marked the beginning of WR being able to speak Afrikaans again, as it’s the main language used in Nam., even though the official language here is English (most people speak both).

19 August, in Maun, Botswana again:

2008-08-19T11:52:00.000+02:00

Monday morning 18 August, we drove back from the pans over about 50km of dirt track to Gweta and the tar road, and took the tar road back to Maun. A police officer at a roadblock en route patted Skillie, laughed, and said “The Gods Must be Crazy”. He is the second Batswana to mention that movie when seeing Skillie, so “The Gods Must be Crazy” must have been quite popular in Botswana because it was filmed here, and Skillie does look like the old Landy in the movie.

Back in Maun, we went back to the Old Bridge Backpackers for the night, and this time one of the owners, who hadn’t seen the truck when we were here previously, was sitting at the bar when we arrived, and had a bit of a shock. His stepson Michael was one of the two previous owners of the truck, whom we bought it from in Cape Town! So Skillie has been here before, and apparently had extensive repairs in Maun before, as well!

Today, Tuesday 19 August, we are spending in Maun, using internet, filling up with diesel, and doing some shopping, before heading up the west side of Okavango Delta to Namibia.

Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana:

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On the Makgadikgadi salt pans, south of Gweta, Botswana.

Cattle Herders near Gweta, Botswana:

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Cattle herders on horseback.

17-18 August; Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana:

2008-08-19T11:46:00.000+02:00

From Maun we drove 230km east on the tar road to Gweta. Just outside of Gweta is Planet Baobab, one of the funkiest and most popular lodges in Botswana. We absolutely loved it. The whole area is dotted with baobab trees, the place has great campsite, gorgeous pool, and the buildings (ablutions, bar, chalets, huts around the pool) are all the local mud-hut style construction, very cool and clean and pretty, and the bar is full of old-style Africa travel and movie posters. In all it is one of the best places we’ve stayed so far on the trip. Camping is P 50 (about $8) per person, we VERY highly recommend Planet Baobab for anyone coming to the north of Botswana.

The next morning we headed south from Gweta into the pans themselves. The tracks south from Gweta were extremely silty/dusty, and us, the truck, and everything in the truck got coated with a layer of dirt. The landscape changed quickly from scrubby trees and bush, to just grass, to just salt pan and nothingness as far as the eye can see. We drove out southeast onto the pans for awhile, then turned west and crossed a grassy area to see a famous baobab tree called Chapman’s Baobab. It is 25m in circumference, and was used for navigation and passing of messages between early explorers and traders. We took some fantastic photos by the enormous tree, then headed southwest back onto another section of pans. Again, drove until we were surrounded by absolutely nothing as far as the eye can see but salt pan and horizon, which was unbelievable. We both agreed it was one of the coolest places we’d ever been. The only sign of life out on the pans is an occasional ostrich or two running across. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing. We drove a ways to a grass-covered sand dune on the pans, that according to our guidebook, Prince Charles had come to because he wanted to “capture the indescribably lonely scene in watercolor, but his paints ran because it was so hot”. Fortunately for us there were no aspiring royal artists lurking on the pans that day. We drove a ways off the main track, and camped out for the night in the middle of absolutely nothing! We were reveling in the complete silence and stillness, enjoying a nice fire after the sun had gone down, when a roaring wind picked up from out of nowhere. As we scrambled to secure things into the truck, WR’s camping chair with his favorite shirt on it blew on the fire, but very quick action by Julie in plucking it off the fire saved it from destruction (sorry Jeanette!), only a few singe marks to give it character.

Chapman's Baobab, near Gweta, Botswana:

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Veterinary checkpoint (buffalo fence), northern Botswana:

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Mechanic shop in Maun:

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Getting new springs for Skillie.

14-15 August; Maun, Botswana:

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Quoting directly from Lonely Planet:
“A schizophrenic apparition of donkey-drawn carts and flash 4WDs, Maun (prounounced ‘mau-UUnn’) is the gateway to the Okavango Delta. Although it was once a rough-and-tumble outpost for graziers, hunters, and poachers, the sealing of the road in from Nata led to the burgeoning safari industry that now drives the town’s economy.”
We really, really liked Maun. It is large enough to have everything you need, shops, banks, etc…but is small enough to really feel like a community, and the people are extremely friendly. There is a good-sized population of both Afrikaans and English speakers, as well as locals living there. Our first order of business in Maun was to sort out Skillie. We bought a new accelerator cable for a proper repair when the old one finally gives up for good. Our non-existent shocks and suspension had caused the chassis and inner workings to get rattled and shaken beyond what they could bear on corrugated and rough gravel roads so far on the trip, causing damage, so we finally decided to get the springs looked at. We found an extremely nice, Afrikaans, drive train mechanic named Nico. He said not only was the center bolt off causing one spring to be useless and the weight to lay on the chassis, but the chassis had a crack in it. As he was looking at our truck, a friend of his, also a mechanic, Crispen, drove by. Crispen happens to be a Landy aficionado, who is currently selling off two old Series III Landys for spare parts. He said he would sell us a pair of front springs in exchange for two bottles of Scotch (Famous Grouse), this cost about P 200 or $32! After looking at our overloaded, sagging back end, he decided to throw in a pair of heavy-duty back springs as well, no additional charge, just trade for ours! WR had to detach the front springs from the spare parts Landy, and the next morning went to Nico’s shop for the installation. We bought new front shocks, and it took about a day and a half for Nico’s guys to change out the springs and install the new shocks, and weld the chassis. The labor cost considerably more than the springs had, to the tune of a couple hundred dollars. But, the result, a much higher-riding, smoother-driving Skillie!!

We camped at the Old Bridge Backpackers in Maun, a very nice place with friendly staff and very good bathrooms, with nice hot showers (has become the benchmark for judging camping places). Julie hung out at the campsite while WR spent the day and a half at the mechanic shop, organized our trunks, did washing, made fresh bread rolls and boiled a pot of chickpeas, caught up on the journal, and read. After three nights in Maun, feeling MUCH better about our truck, and WR and Nico having become friends, and us REALLY liking Maun, we moved on.

Chobe River floodplain

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Warthogs on the Chobe River flats.

9 August: Queue for ferry to Botswana

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10-13 August; Northeast Botswana (Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve/Okavango Delta)

2008-08-19T11:32:00.002+02:00

We are only going to do the northern part of Botswana. It is an extremely sparsely populated country, and most of the population lives in the south and east in Gaborone (capital) or Francistown. The main attractions of the country for tourists though are Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta, and the Makgadikgadi Pans. These are all in the north, so due to the vast distances and our limited budget, we are covering these main attractions in the north of Botswana, then will move on to Namibia, without going down to Gaborone. Missing the capital city is a bit sad for Julie, who is beside herself with excitement to be in Botswana, due to her love of Alexander McCall Smith’s “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, set in Gaborone, but Gaborone is practically on the border with South Africa, so lends itself well to a future quick trip (i.e. not in Skillie) up from Murraysburg. If, by the way, you are looking for some light and entertaining reading, you absolutely must pick up these books. They are very witty, amusing, and fun reading, and provide a great glimpse at life in this fabulous country. (insert testimonial: Julie’s mom Vary, sister Karen, and b.f.f. Laureen have also all read the entire series and enjoyed it thoroughly!)

Anyway…from the border town of Kasane, we proceeded into Chobe National Park. Park fees for Chobe were P 120/person/day + P 50/vehicle/day + P 30/camping/person/night. So it worked out to about $30/day per person for each day in Chobe, which is high for our budget but was a must-do activity on the trip. The northern part of Chobe is along the Chobe river floodplain, on the border of the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, and we saw lots of fabulous wildlife on our first day of driving through the park. We saw: elephants (at uncomfortably close range), hippos, giraffes, massive herds of zebra, buffalo, lots of warthogs, baboons, thousands of impala, kudu, other bucks such as steenbuck, waterbuck, reedbuck, and wildebeest. Our first night in Chobe we camped at Ihaha camp, which is a bush camp not separated from the park by a fence. The camp had a fabulous view over the Chobe river plain, and as the sun was going down we sat and watched a herd of elephants out on the flats in front of us, and a herd of buffalo started walking around the camp, coming very near us! When it got dark we could hear lions roaring in the bush around us, so we lit a very big fire, and kept it going until retreating into the safety of our rooftent, where we could hear lions and hyenas around us. Emerging from our tent in the early morning light, there were eyes all around our camp, but we were very relieved to see in our flashlight beam that it was a herd of impala around us. We exited the north section of Chobe NP, and drove across Chobe forest reserve, to the Savuti section of Chobe NP to the south. Chobe forest reserve consisted of deep sand 4x4 tracks through thick bush! A great test for vehicle off-roading capabilities! Skillie’s low-range endurance was exceptional, and we had no problems with the sand, our only problem along this stretch was our accelerator cable snapping yet again (it was too tight from the previous repair, and our lack of shocks/suspension shakes the truck beyond endurance on corrugated gravel roads). WR, quickly becoming a qualified bush mechanic, fixed the accelerator cable yet again.

(Here I am inserting WR’s write-up of the sand track drive from his Graaff-Reinet Advertiser write-up):
We got stopped behind a group (mixed nationalities), with 2 Range Rovers with trailers, and a Mazda double cab 4x4 2.5 Tdi. They were stuck in deep sand at the beginning of the way, and could not get out, because of the trailer. They found someone to help them, and we went past, trying to go as fast as we could, so we wouldn’t have to drive behind them. Then the sand got so thick that we could only go forward in Low Range 1st gear, with our wheels almost half way in the sand and the diffs scraping the middle man. As luck would have it, our accelerator cable snapped again, and while I was fixing it, the previously mentioned group and some other cars passed us.

After we fixed the cable we resumed our off-roading only to find, 10 min later, that the whole group that had passed us, was stuck, and here came our overloaded Landy, with its Marie Biscuit wheels and rattling suspension in low range, and just idled past the whole train of stuck cars. Off course we could not leave them there, so I helped them out. The Range Rovers had no manual overrides, so everything was electronic, which meant that is was almost impossible to get the things in low range, and even worse, they had trailers on the back, and drivers that more or less did not know what they were doing, and also had not packed an air pump. Thus, they had not even let their wheels down, and they were blocking the single lane sand track, so that no one could get past. Eventually I showed them how to use my sand ladders, and they got moving, but still got stuck every 10 minutes or so. Eventually I told them to stop driving up each other’s asses, and that they should let the first car go, and drive the hell out of it, so that they don’t make all the others cars slow down and get stuck in the sand, this seemed to help, and we let the cars move forward in intervals so that they could get up their speed. That sorted them out and they charged through the bush, leaving our poor Landy to make its own way to camp.

(Julie’s note: we eagerly await to see if the Advertiser will print the word ass!)

We arrived late, tired and exhausted at Savuti camp. We met up again with the previously-mentioned 3-vehicle convoy at the camp. We chatted with them a bit, and it turned out two of the drivers were newlyweds (a Dutch woman and a South African guy), and they were touring Botswana with a bunch of family members for their honeymoon!?! They thanked us profusely for all the help in getting them out of the sand, and gave us a big foil-wrapped chunk of their wedding cake (fruit cake, per S. African custom) as a thank-you gift.

The next morning we set out early across the southern part of Chobe for Moremi Game Reserve, which is a wildlife reserve on the eastern edge of the Okavango Delta. We saw many of the same animals as we’d seen in the northern part of Chobe, but not in as great of numbers. The scenery was unbelievably gorgeous, ranging from scrubby trees to wide open tall yellow-grass savannah. We saw a lot of animals again as we got to the river/wetland area at the Khwai River/North Gate of Moremi reserve. The park officer at North Gate informed us that you needed prior reservations to camp at the camp sites there, which was news to us, as we hadn’t needed reservations for Chobe. After chatting with him a bit, he said he would let us stay for one night at the camp site. The next morning we drove through Moremi reserve to South Gate, and saw disappointingly little wildlife in Moremi, but had a quite cool drive through a flooded part of road. The water sloshed in the doors and got our feet wet, but we made it through! We exited Moremi, and headed south to Maun. The first two thirds of the drive was sand and gravel road, then the last stretch was tar.

9 August, Entry into Botswana:

2008-08-19T11:29:00.000+02:00

About 65km southwest of Livingstone, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe all share borders in close proximity. Zambia and Botswana just barely meet, and their crossing is a car ferry at the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers, at the Kazungula border post. We had no problems getting stamped out of Zambia, and paid $20 for a ferry ticket for Skillie (passengers are free). The ferry queue was enormously long, but was mostly lorries, and small vehicles get preference over lorries, so we got on the ferry after waiting only about an hour. The crossing only took a few minutes, and was very fun for Julie to be in the throng of Africans boarding on foot, while WR drove Skillie on (passengers aren’t allowed in the vehicles during the crossing, only the driver). Once on the Botswana side of the river, things again went very smoothly with getting into the country. Our 30-day visa stamps were free. The customs fees for the truck were 70 Pula (about $12), consisting of 50 Pula for Road Permit, and 20 Pula for insurance. We only had 20 Pula on us, as we had changed the little Zambian Kwacha we had left on the other side of the river for a P 20 note. There were no money changers on the Botswana side, and we were trying to make a plan for paying in Rands, which they take, when a guy (Batswana, i.e. local of Botswana) who had been in line in front of us turned around and gave us a P 50 note. He wouldn’t take anything in return, and it was an extremely nice gesture to welcome us to Botswana! Outside of customs was the first of many foot-and-mouth checkpoints we’ve encountered in the north of Botswana. Cattle are extremely important here, along with diamonds and tourism, for the country’s economy, which is one of the wealthiest and most successful in Africa, and there are many fences separating wild animal areas (buffalo) from domestic cattle. At the veterinary checkpoints, you have to step your shoes in disinfectant, and they either spray the tires, or you drive through a pit of disinfectant/water.

From the border we drove about 20km to the town of Kasane, filled up all 160 liters of our tanks (front tank, back tank, jerry can) with diesel (it’s only $1.70/liter here, as opposed to $2.20/liter in Zambia. Note, Americans, that’s the price per liter, multiply by 3.8 for the price per gallon!! We changed money in Kasane, bought groceries (food is also much cheaper in Botswana than in Zambia), and camped for the night.

Victoria Falls

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Victoria Falls, and Zambezi River bridge (connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe). There is a bungee jumper hanging from the bridge, but may be hard to see at this size!

Great East Road, Zambia

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Construction sign on the Great East Road.

8-9 August, Livingstone/Victoria Falls, Zambia:

2008-08-19T11:21:00.000+02:00

From Lusaka we spent two days driving the 480 km to Livingstone, stopping about halfway at a town called Choma for the night. There are lots of farms in this part of Zambia, we stopped for the night at a farm outside of Choma, Gwembe, that has chalets and a camping area in the front. The area for guests was very well kept up, but the rest of the farm was extremely run-down/desolate/deserted looking, and the whole place had a strange atmosphere. To make matters worse, they had a crocodile pond (well fenced, thankfully), with loads of crocs in it, some massive. There was a raised walkway and observation island in the middle of the croc pond, which we walked out on. The woman who ran the place (Rhodesian, we thought) was not very friendly or forthcoming with information, so we didn’t get the story on what was going on there. At first we were the only ones camping there, and were a bit nervous, but than an overland truck with 12+ campers showed up, so we felt much better with the increase in numbers.

The last 80km to Livingstone the tar road was extremely bad, so full of holes that for long stretches we would drive on the gravel shoulder instead of the road. There was a good amount of traffic on the road, and was quite interesting with all the cars, busses, and lorries overtaking, and swerving to avoid each other and the holes all over the road. We arrived in Livingstone, and drove all over town trying to find the best value place to camp. The only proper camping place in town was very bleak, and the ones out of town were either full or expensive, so we ended up at a backpackers in town, Jolly Boys. They didn’t have proper parking for truck camping, so we just parked/camped in their parking lot, but it was a nice backpackers with lots of amenities such as a pool, self-catering kitchen, and sunken pillow lounge, so was a nice place to stay.

Our second day in town we took a free shuttle to the falls, about 11km outside of Livingstone. The Victoria Falls were of course amazing and beautiful, all the clichés apply. The falls run in a line for about a kilometer and a half, and more of them are visible from the Zimbabwe side than the Zambia side, but it’s not terribly safe to go to Zim. right now, so we stayed in Zambia! We did all the hikes you can in the park on the Zambia side, first to an overlook of the bridge to Zimbabwe, then on the Knife Edge track/footbridge to the main view of the falls, then down a valley to the gorge at the bottom of the falls where the water re-channels back into the Zambezi River. We had a picnic lunch on the rocks by the gorge and watched bungee-jumpers jump from the Zambezi River bridge. There are loads of adventure sports activities in the falls area, but all are quite expensive, so we just had a look, took lots of photos, and caught a minibus taxi back to Livingstone. Livingstone is an extremely touristy town, we went to the museum, learned a bit about Zambia history/culture, walked around a bit to craft vendors, and were ready to move on to Botswana!

5 August 2008--Zooming across Zambia:

2008-08-05T10:47:00.002+02:00

After spending months lingering in Malawi, we are moving quickly across Zambia! The mechanics at Flatdogs Camp (South Luangwa Nat’l Park) did an excellent job of welding the engine mount back onto the chassis. The best part was that it only cost $15! We made it back to Chipata over the 130km of very rough corrugated road without major incident. One side of our front number plate came off and it was dangling, but a boy by the side of the road pointed it out to us, so WR was able to reattach the plate and we didn’t lose it. Spent the night in Chipata at Dean’s Hillview camp site again, and the next morning got on the Great East Road toward Lusaka. The Great East Road is all tar, most is in very good shape, but there are a few stretches full of potholes. The scenery at first was very flat, with tall dry grass and scraggly trees as far as the eye can see. As we approached the Luangwa River valley, the terrain changed to rolling hills and was very pretty, saw lots of baboons by the road. Rural Zambia is very sparsely populated, villages are far between, and small towns even more so. We are still very impressed with Zambia and Zambians. Everyone here is extremely friendly and speaks quite good English. Zambia overall seems a bit more “civilized” than Malawi. We’ve been stopped at many police roadblocks, but always just have a friendly chat with the officers. They have yet to ask for any of our documents or look for anything wrong with the truck. The feeling we get here is that people involved with tourists at every level, from receptionists at backpackers/campsites, to police, to park officials, realize the value of tourists and tourist money, are genuinely interested in developing tourism and the Zambian economy, and realize that to do so tourists should be treated well and not harassed. This is something that people in the service industry and the police have definitely NOT grasped in Mozambique and Malawi! One roadblock was a tsetse fly checkpoint, and the officer was armed with an oversized butterfly net (though with finer webbing than for butterflies). He put down our sun visors to see if any flies were stuck in there, didn’t find anything!

We drove halfway from Chipata to Lusaka, and camped at the Luangwa Bridge Camp, 3 km south of the suspension bridge over the Luangwa River bridge. Early the next morning we got back on the road, and made it to Lusaka about lunchtime. Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, has a population of 1.2 million, and plenty of western-style stores and restaurants. We picked up a few things at Shoprite, and headed to Eureka camping park, about 12km south of the city. The only down side of travel in Zambia is that it’s quite expensive. Fuel here is, according to our research, the most expensive of all the Southern African countries that we’re going to. Diesel is about $2.20/liter in Lusaka, that’s over $8/gallon for all the Americans who think fuel prices are so bad there!!

Monday 4 August was a bank holiday (Farmer’s Day), so most businesses were closed in Lusaka. We spent the day relaxing at the camp site. There are lots of S. Africans camping at Eureka, so WR has had a chance to speak Afrikaans again, and Julie said a few things as well, mostly serving to amuse the Afrikaans crowd. We met a retired French couple camping there. They keep a fully kitted out 4x4 bakkie in Namibia and come to Southern Africa every year to tour in it. He was very impressed with WR's French last name, and said that Avenant is an old French word meaning "sympathetic".

Today, Tuesday, Julie woke up at the crack of dawn and spent a couple hours handwashing the laundry (was too windy/dusty yesterday), then we came into Lusaka on a minibus taxi, and are spending the day walking around the city center.

Tomorrow morning we will get on the road again, toward Victoria Falls!

South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

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Animals at South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

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Campsite Elephant, Zambia

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Farming Valley, northern Malawi

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Livingstonia, Malawi

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Nkhata Bay, Malawi

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28-31 July 2008, Entered Zambia!

2008-07-31T10:23:00.000+02:00

We drove from Lilongwe to the Mchingi border post with Zambia. We had no problems at all on either side of the border. We were stamped out of Malawi with no problems, and entered Zambia smoothly. The immigration visa for Zambia was free for WR, and $135 for Julie. Zambia has a reciprocal entry fee policy, charging people whatever it costs to get into their country. So it is a steep $135 for Americans! The customs import permit for the truck was in the form of a carbon tax costing $44, and third party insurance for 30 days was $30. From the border we drove about 20km to Chipata, the closest town to the border on the Zambian side, where we camped for the night at Dean’s camp site. Our initial impression of Zambia is that the roads are worse than Malawi (many more potholes), but the people are even friendlier and have a better grasp of English than Malawians. Everything, food, fuel, camping is more expensive in Zambia. We aren’t planning to spend very long in Zambia, just going to one game reserve, the capital city of Lusaka, and Victoria Falls.

From Chipata we drove to South Luangwa National Park, the first proper big-game viewing experience of our trip. Mozambique and Malawi have hippos and crocs and baboons, but not much else. S. Luangwa in Zambia is one of the best game reserves in Africa! The road from Chipata was 130km of very rough gravel, corrugated road, and even though we drove slowly, the Landy was shaken and rattled extremely badly. About halfway there the accelerator gave out, involving a roadside repair by WR of the snapped accelerator cable and re-attaching the spring. We were very pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the Zambians. Every single car that passed us stopped to offer help, something that never happened in Malawi or Moz. A passing lorry driver insisted on getting out and having a look, even though WR said things were okay. After about an hour delay we were on the road again, and arrived at Flatdogs Camp right outside the park gates at about 2pm. The park doesn’t have any artificial boundaries (fences), and is just bounded by rivers and mountains. Flatdogs camp is right across the river from the park, and animals living in the reserve regularly come across. So far we’ve seen an elephant and hippos in the camp, and many monkeys and baboons live there. We have to guard our food and possessions extremely carefully. The monkeys got a packet of instant noodles and the better part of a loaf of bread when we first arrived and were unpacking, and not aware of how vigilant we had to be. Now there is always one of us guarding while the other does stuff, or else everything is packed away. The rubber toy snake we brought along is coming in very handy, as we chase them with the snake and they run away shrieking. We went on two 4-hour game drives in S. Luangwa, one at night and one in the morning. We saw lions, a leopard, a massive herd of buffalo, elephants, giraffes, zebra, civets, hyenas, hippos, kudu, puku, impala, waterbuck, bushbuck, hornbill and spoonbill birds, crocs, giant lizard, fish eagles, and warthogs. The game drives were in completely open safari trucks (no tops, windshields, etc…). The guides/drivers here get extremely close to the animals, something WR said would never happen at parks in S. Africa. We were within 10m of the leopard. It was at night, and the leopard was up a tree with a fresh young impala kill. The leopard was washing its face with its paw just like a housecat, before starting in on eating the impala. Was absolutely amazing. Both at night and in the morning we saw a pride of lions, three adult females, one young male, and three cubs. They were sleeping at night when we saw them. In the morning they crossed the road right in front of the truck. Another highlight was getting very close to the giraffes. Two young males were playfighting by standing side by side and headbutting each other. Was very cute.

Back at camp after thoroughly enjoying the amazing game drives, WR started working on the Landy to tighten up all the loose bolts from the drive here. He made the startling discovery that one of our two engine mounts had broken. We were very lucky to arrive here without the engine falling out of the truck! The repair requires welding on a new engine mount. Flatdogs has on-site mechanics to service its fleet of game-viewing vehicles, so today (Thursday 31 July) Skillie is in the shop getting the engine mount fixed, and all the bolts tightened and filters changed! If all goes well we will hopefully get on the road tomorrow morning to Lusaka.

18-28 July 2008, the north of Malawi:

2008-07-31T10:13:00.001+02:00

We stayed another two nights in Nkhata Bay, camping at a nice backpackers called Big Blue Star, with a panoramic view over the lake. We did another adventure dive, a night dive. It wasn’t the easiest or most relaxing dive, but was very cool. There was a full moon that night. It felt very James Bond-esque to do a back roll entry from the side of the boat into the water in the dark. The group was the instructor, Julie and WR, and three other guys also doing their first night dive. Once we got to the bottom of the lake, everyone turned off their lights and we looked up at the moon from underwater, which was very beautiful. There were lots of catfish out, and many small fish getting eaten by dolphin-fish. WR now has 4 of the 5 adventure dives towards advanced open water certification completed, and Julie has 2.

From Nkhata Bay we drove to Mzuzu, the largest town in the north of Malawi. The north of Malawi is quite different from the south. Many more hills and mountains and trees, and much more sparsely populated. The driving was very scenic. There wasn’t much to see in Mzuzu itself, it was just a stop-over a good distance along our route, and had stores and banks and diesel to stock up. We camped at a backpackers there called Mzoozoozoo, which was downright gross, and run by grumpy English ex-pats. Got up early the next morning in the rain, and continued on, to the farthest north point on our trip, Chitimba Beach, Malawi. Chitimba Beach is another overland truck camp, and had nice facilities, but was fairly quiet as no big trucks were in camp. We were only a few kilometers south of the Tanzania border, and it was hard to turn around and go back south, and not continue on to another country. But Tanzania isn’t on the agenda this time, and we definitely can’t afford to add another country!

From Chitimba Beach we had a very slow drive up the extremely steep escarpment road into the mountains overlooking Lake Malawi. It took us about three hours to drive the 15km to Livingstonia, the village at the top. The two backpackers outside of the village are built on the cliffs, and aren’t set up for truck camping. We drove into the village, and camped at Stone House, the home of the missionary, Dr. Robert Law, who founded the town. Stone House is now a museum and guesthouse, and they allow camping outside. We absolutely loved Livingstonia. It was built by Scottish missionaries in the early 1900’s (some of many Scottish missionaries who came to Africa at that time, inspired by David Livingston, this group named their town after him). The town is full of cute, quaint brick buildings and houses. There is a small university there, as well as a hospital, and the residents are all extremely friendly. It is like a little European village up in the mountains, the streets are lined with pine trees, and the air is so fresh and nice smelling.

After two nights in Livingstonia, we headed back to Mzuzu. Instead of going back the way we came, we took the back roads through the mountains. It was a gorgeous drive, through isolated farming valleys and over lots of rivers and streams. Another one-night stop in Mzuzu to restock. This time we camped at the CCAP resthouse, cheaper than the only backpackers in town, and cleaner as well. We walked through the local markets in town. WR loved the market that was exclusively hardware and automotive stalls.

From Mzuzu we drove to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, to spend a few days getting ready to leave the country and head to Zambia. While driving through the north of Malawi we took a liking to stopping at roadside market stalls selling fresh chips/potato wedges. They fry them right next to the road, and sell them fresh and piping hot. Another not so appetizing snack you frequently see next to the road in Malawi is grilled mice. Vendors will wave sticks with 6 or so grilled mice impaled on them at oncoming cars. The mice are completely intact, tails and all. Hard even to look, let alone think about people eating them!

In Lilongwe we spent 4 nights at Mabuya Camp, a backpackers just outside of Old Town which caters to the overland crowd. The receptionists were surly, but it is owned and run by an extremely nice young English couple who bought it a year ago. They bought a Unimog in the UK and spent three years driving down and touring Africa in their Mog, with their dog along! They covered 26 countries. They then bought the backpackers in Lilongwe, and still live in their Mog on site, but are now building a house there. We had a bit of overlander envy of people our age who can afford to a) buy a Unimog b) tour 26 countries and c) buy a backpackers. While in Lilongwe we did all sorts of errands like filling our cooking gas at Afrox, WR getting his yellow fever shot for Zambia, buying food and supplies, filling the diesel tanks, and then just relaxed a bit. Our last night in Lilongwe was Sunday July 27. Julie reached her breaking point after a particularly bone-chillingly cold early-morning shower, and subsequent hour spent fighting off hypothermia. After over two weeks without a proper hot shower, she decided to spring for one night of luxury at the nicest hotel in Lilongwe. It was bliss to have a proper bathroom and unlimited hot water, and was a nice way to spend the last day in Malawi.

Campsite baboons

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Baboons were running all over the campsite at Senga Bay.

Palm Beach School painting

2008-07-25T07:58:00.001+02:00

WR and Julie painting in Rita's classroom.

Painting party

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Rita and Julie painting the classroom in Rita's school.

Palm Beach school

2008-07-25T07:50:00.002+02:00

Rita's school, currently under construction (almost finished), at Palm Beach.