Self-drive: From Kenya to Cape Town

Thursday - Tsumeb to Halali, Etosha

We got up early and drove 100km to Namutoni, a Beau Geste-style fort now used as tourist accommodation at the east end of Etosha. Having purchased our entry permits, we headed into the park and drove along the magnificent shimmering Etosha pan, criss-crossed with the spoor of some of Etosha's residents. It didn't take long before we started seeing zebra, wildebeest, ostrich and oryx.

The sun began to bake us, so we stopped for lunch. Gary and Seth wrapped a large boerewors - a beef sausage - in newspaper and set it alight. "That's how we used to cook them when I was in the South African army ten years ago", said Gary. We were all suitably impressed with this display of bush lore until it failed to work and Seth got out the frying pan.

In the afternoon we had a breathtaking face-to-face encounter with a black rhino, which walked right up to the vehicles, trying to work out what sort of beasts they were. After myopically peering at us for a while, it shook its head, and, none the wiser, sauntered slowly off into the bush.

We also saw kudu hiding in the mopane woodlands, kori bustard and ostriches strolling in the savannah, elephants browsing the trees, wildebeest and zebra drinking and ground squirrels the size of small terriers.

At Halali rest camp, we went to watch the sun set over the small, intimate floodlit waterhole. As darkness descended, a pair of drongos weaved back and forth, catching iridescent moths in the spotlights. A jackal came down to drink and an hour later we were rewarded by the sight of a mother and baby rhino tip-toeing down to the water's edge. A civet brushed past Gary as he watched, and a hyena waited in the wings for the rhinos to leave.

Friday - Halali to Okaukeujo, Etosha

As the sun rose, Tim and I snuck out of the camp - the others wanted a lie-in. We were soon on the path of a pair of rogue elephants who had left a trail of destruction in their wake. Not only had they strewn the road with broken branches, but they'd even managed to demolish a concrete signpost. When we caught up with them, we watched from a respectful distance.

By a waterhole a long file of zebra came down to drink. They kicked and played in the dust next to the pool, and then jostled each other to get to the water. An ostrich watched disdainfully on the other side. A giraffe drank thoughtfully, with his legs splayed.

We met the others at our designated lunch spot, where we marvelled at a huge Martial eagle perched at the top of a nearby tree. In the afternoon we watched a pair of elephants bullying each other to get to the best spot at a spring, while black-faced impala, springbok, kudu and red hartebeest looked on.

We moved on to Okaukuejo camp in the evening and watched a herd of nervous zebra drinking at the floodlit waterhole. A local guide told us that at this very waterhole a desperate lioness had jumped the wall and eaten a German tourist in 1988. Halfway through the tale, a lion slunk into the spotlight and had a pre-dinner drink. Carmen went pale.

Saturday - Okaukuejo to Twyfelfontein

At dawn it was Tim and I, the game park die-hards, who went exploring the waterholes on the west side of the park. As we were driving along, a freight train of wildebeest went past in search of water, their zebra lookouts alongside. In the background, eight lions flattened in preparation for a kill. Sadly we couldn't wait to witness this one, as we had to get going.

Once we left the park, a tarmac road led us through wooded rolling hills to Outjo. We turned onto the gravel road towards Khorixas. We travelled through a spectacular countryside of mountains, rocky red cliffs and inselbergs streaked with different coloured rock strata. These varied from a dusty red through various shades of gold and sand to black igneous rock - a geologist's paradise. The road was very bumpy, with plenty of steep hills and hidden riverbed crossings, and the cars kicked up clouds of powdery dust. When we stopped at the Petrified Forest, Seth's hair was white.

The forest itself consisted of fifty or so fossilised trees, each a mind-boggling 260 million years old. They were perfectly preserved with lifelike bark and rings, and some of them even had lichen, now petrified into quartz.

Our next stop was at nearby Twyfelfontein, to see the rock carvings made by bushmen 6000 years ago. The pictures were used to teach children about tracking and hunting animals. A lion was carved with paw prints as his feet and the end of his long tail. There were also carvings of rhinos, giraffes, ostrich and snakes. Our guide Solomon, who looked rather like a bushman himself, showed us depictions of a seal and a penguin and explained that bushmen would run to the coast, 150km away, to get salt.

As the moon rose over the burnt orange sandstone cliffs we headed to our campsite nearby. The winch fastening under the engine sheared its bolt on the rocky roads and kept hitting the sump, so Hillary had to limp the last few kilometres.

Sunday - Twyfelfontein to Swakopmund

We drove back along the beautiful but hazardous road to the tiny hamlet of Khorixas and on to the gravel road towards the coast. As we approached the Atlantic we left the fierce desert sun and drove eerily into a damp and chilly bank of fog.

Arriving in the Bavarian-looking town of Swakopmund, we noticed pelican statues on every streetlight, glowing like ghosts in the fog. Then one of them flew off and we realised they were real.

We spent a cosy evening eating and drinking around the open fireplace at a cheerful restaurant, then retired to a little A-frame chalet in the municipal rest camp.

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