After Etosha park we headed for the Caprivi Strip, a narrow, green strip of Namibia extending eastwards into Angola and Botswana, all the way up to the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe. We drove via Grootfontein and headed for Rundu, where we stayed in a lodge for 2 nights, to catch our breath a bit. The lodge was ‘traditional style', in this case meaning rectangular stone walls with thatched roofs, with electricity, hot shower and fridge. On the day we left Rundu, we found Kiki, a young bird that was fallen out of the nest. We decided to take Kiki under our care and feed him until he able to fly. Peter built a small nest out of a carton box, put old underpants of Sil on the bottom and Kiki looked satisfied. He travelled with us as far as Divundu, where we stayed a couple of days at Ngepi camp along the Okavango River. We fed Kiki using a syringe filled with milk and bread. It took some convincing, but in the end the he swallowed it. Apparently our manner of feeding was also a good incentive to learn how to fly, as we only had to feed Kiki for 2 days, before he decided to leave us.

Ngepi camp was at the Okavango River and we could see the hippo's being lazy during the day and heard them eating loudly during the night. We were lucky to get a spot for our tents, as we had not made any reservations (the camp's phone was down the last week) and only last month the camp was closed due to flooding of the river. At that time it was not able to camp there at all, as the crocodiles were happily roaming around the place. One time, during a short walk over the camp site, Lasse cried 'look out, a snake'. It appeared that Peter stepped over a green tree snake. A wonderful, but seriously venomous snake. Claudia took a picture, and we all looked in amazement how the snake got away as quickly as possible. Lasse and Sil were both sick for some days, so we made it a relaxing stop, during which we still managed some schoolwork with a nice view over the river.

Originally we did not plan to go much deeper into the Okavango delta, but to stay in the 'Panhandle-delta' only. However, we liked the tranquility of the river so much, that we decided to change our plans and went south to Maun in Botswana. The plan was to fully encircle the delta by driving from Maun straight through Chobe national park, via Savuti to Kasane at the border with Zambia and Zimbabwe. Maun was a nice village, from which many operators organized tours into the Okavango delta. We met with Simon Roos, from South Africa, who was travelling with Ran and Daniela, a couple from Israel. Simon was very knowledgeable about camping and 4WD and he knew a lot about the place. Besides, he and the Israeli couple were good company and we spent some nice evenings around the fire with them and shared information about trips and places to see. From Maun we embarked on a daytrip with a traditional mokoro, a tall, slender boat that is either pushed or peddled through the swamps of the delta. We travelled with two mokoro's, made from polyester fiber, which were pushed by Ken and Samuel, our guides. During the day we made a short walk through the bush and visited a traditional village. Normally, 5.000 people would live in the village (!), but due to high water, only a small number of people were there, to look after the village and after tourists visiting it (!). Most of the people were living in a temporary village, to be able to work and look after the cattle. Although it was a ‘thirteen in a dozen' touristic trip, we all thoroughly enjoyed the day and came back either fully relaxed (Claudia and Peter), or dead-tired from pushing the mokoro (Lasse and Sil).

The decision to change our plans and go into the Okavango delta worked out well. Some weeks earlier, when we were still in Uis, Namibia, we had to make the first changes in our overall travel plan. It appeared that the flights from Singapore to Christchurch (NZ) were fully booked from January 1 to March 1. We had not booked this leg of our trip yet, as we were not able to book ahead for more than one year. Apparently we had waited too long, as now all was fully booked. We were forced to lengthen our stay in South-East Asia, but also to shorten our stay in New Zealand. We sacrificed two weeks on the Cook Islands, but included a week in North America (LA - Frisco), in order to still have six weeks on New Zealand. Hopefully, this change in plans works out just as nice as the decision to go into the Okavango delta. We'll see.

The drive from Maun to Savuti and through Chobe national park would be rough, consisting at best of gravel road with big potholes, but for more than 130 km it would be heavy, deep sand. We inquired about the road conditions, which were thought heavy, but doable. We decided to move up 60 km from Maun and stay two nights at Kazikimi camp. This would save us an hour on our way to Kasane. We met with Simon, Ran and Daniela there once more, and had two very enjoyable evenings with them, where we cooked and sat around the campfire together. Kazikimi camp was out in the wilderness and in the evening the camp was visited by honey badgers and spotted hyena's. We slept in a round hut made from cane and grass. Lasse and Sil were really into playing with mud, and started up a mud-factory. Peter repaired the Disco (most of the power steering fluid had leaked away) and Claudia was drawn into the adventures of Michael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. We all had an enjoyable time there.

Then it was time for our drive via Savuti to Kassane. Peter had been really looking forward to this drive, and it was well worth it. It took us in total 7,5 hours of heavy driving, through deep sand, where our Disco really came to good use. Along the way we passed some South African families that were stuck in the sand with their 4WD towing a caravan (!). We offered help, but in the end they made it on their own (later we heard they had been stuck in the sand for five times that day). But not our Disco, o no, pedal to the metal and go with the flow! In Chobe park weunfortunately did not see much wildlife. An occasional elephant crossing our road and a distant giraffe, but we did see a group of African buffalo's, which we hadn't seen before. We later turned around after we heard there were lions seen, but could not spot them. Apparently, when there are buffalo's, there are lions about.

Kasane was a pleasant little town, with all the facilities travelers like us required. We fuelled up and did some shopping. We had booked a night in the Waterlily Lodge, which, with its round form, looked rather nice. Peter took a dive in the (unheated) swimming pool, we drank a GT in the last hours of daylight and treated ourselves on a meal in the restaurant (after having taken a short walk through town during which we did not recognize anything that looked like a restaurant).

Tomorrow we will be leaving Botswana and Namibia behind us, and cross the border into Zambia, where a whole new world awaited us, according to the old, but still valid national slogan: 'Zambia, the real Africa'.