Thurs. May 30th ‘24
We have a short drive today so decide to lie in, so that means 7am alarm and 7:30 breakfast. It takes us a while to pack as we seem to have spread our belongings, not only in our tent but tripods and electronic gear all over the main communal living area. As the only guests there is no one to mind!! After finishing and publishing another blog post we say our goodbyes and are sad to leave such a stunning place and all the lovely staff.
The exit road heading north meant retracting part of the route we went yesterday afternoon. It is about an hour over a 4×4 track through Etendeka land and took us through more of the stunning landscape. Once on the “main” road it was much the same as two days ago with peaks and troughs. As we have plenty of time we detour to find Ongongo waterfall as we have not seen a river since Fish River Canyon and find it hard to imagine one in this dry desert landscape. It was easy to find and turned out to be a cute campsite beside a small stream.
We paid our day pass fee to enter, probably about the same price as for camping overnight. We could easily have stayed here for the night but we are expected elsewhere. We content ourselves with the short walk upstream to where we can hear running water. On our round the world trip we drove in New Caledonia to find a waterfall which turned out to be what we described then as petit and we joked whether these falls would be bigger or smaller. Ongongo falls won that competition by a long way, or should I say height.
At the base of the falls was a small pool and it was Dave’s turn for a swim, and as promised the water was warm. The day was hot and the scenery pretty but we did not have time to loiter as the drive of 11km from the main road to get to the falls was part 4×4 track and part dirt road which took longer than we expected. We still had 33km to go to our meeting place at 3pm. It was almost 2pm and you would have thought plenty of time for that short distance but no, we only just made it with 5 minutes to spare. Luckily this is Africa and so all was well. Eddie who was meeting us was not worried and quite relaxed about heading onwards.
I should explain that for the next two nights we are booked in at Hoanib Valley Camp, a luxury tented camp which is a two hour drive from the meeting point. No sleeping on the roof of Mungo tonight. We were due to leave Mungo behind and transfer into Eddie’s open sided safari truck for the journey along the dried up river bed. However, after a short discussion it was agreed we would follow Eddie and then we could leave at our leisure in two days time allowing an extra morning activity on departure day. This was also good practice (well for Dave) preparing us for Botswana driving. It was quite straightforward and only needed to engage high range 4wd for a short stretch. Mungo was quite happy sliding though the sand in 2wd even though we felt more comfortable with 4wd!
Well what a camp, we arrived to a group of staff members singing a welcome song before handing out cold towels for us after the journey. Our tent is bigger than most hotel rooms and has a bathroom, shower and toilet are screened off in separate compartments from the bedroom. It also has a wooden carpeted floor and lockable front door. There are only six tents in the camp, of which one other is occupied by guests. We are booked in on a fully inclusive basis including all meals, local drinks and activities as well as a laundry service. This is likely to be the most spoilt we will be on this trip along with a couple of places in Botswana, so it will be interesting to compare them.
The campsite is surrounded on three sides by large rocks and the other side has views over the wide dried river bed through which we drove to get here. The river then continues to the coast about 65km away as the crow flies. This location was previously used as a camp by the giraffe conservancy and is such a good location that it has been utilised by Natural Selection as an upmarket safari location. We had our pre-dinner drinks sitting around a fire just watching the sun set and then dinner was served from the braai in an amazing setting. The three course meal was up to posh restaurant standard and our steaks were so tasty straight off the barbecue. A beautiful meal under the stars and not in the same league as Ongongo waterfall campsite. Also not in the same price bracket!!