2023 - Northern Namibia - 8 - 21 June

After our adventures in Palmwag Conservatory, we head north towards Epupa Falls and onwards to Etosha before circling back south to Windhoek to finish our 1st leg of our overloading journey for 2023.

Kaokoland is one of the most populous areas of Namibia with 2 key tribes - the Himba and Herero. Passing through Opuwo allowed us to see how these tribes lived. We aren’t fans of the “living museums” (in our mind akin to human zoos), but rather like to have day to day interactions - Paul’s shopping adventures were eye opening.

Epupa Falls with all its majestic power put on a show. Our campsite allowed us to get up close and personal to the main mouth of the falls, but a wander along the riverside made us realise that actually the scale of the falls was enormous. The Kunene River’s flow creates a thunderous roar - amazing for such a dry region but also explains the density of people living in this area.

We followed the Kunene along to Rucana Falls (unimpressive due to the dam above them) but I managed to break my toe - hence no evidence of us being there.

To finish our 1st leg of our African Overlanding for 2023, we headed for our final wildlife fix in Etosha National Park. This was the first ever place we saw game (back 20 odd years ago) - we had high expectations. This time we enjoyed spending quality time at the waterholes in Okaukeujo and Halai camps: with the animals trooping in & out. There is a pecking order of animals, who gives way to whom is defined. Amazing to watch.

With great sadness we headed back to Windhoek to drop off Tommy for a couple of months whilst we headed home to enjoy the winter but first we visited the food institutions of Windhoek (Joe’s Beerhouse) and Johannesburg (The Butcher’s Shop). A great way to end Leg 1 of 2023.