1 Post & some photos

7th August. Near Grootfontein, Namibia.
The Caprivi strip was a boring drive. For the 2 days we covered 800kms passing many villages but apart from those there was nothing but scrubby trees on straight roads. The good thing going for it we didn’t see one pot hole the whole journey. The road off to the National Park was gravel but wide and a good surface. This. I believe, is what we can expect in Namibia. Today we go to the Etosha NP. The jewel in Namibia’s tourism crown. I expect there to be many other tourists there but we experienced the isolation of Muhanga NP which makes up for it.
Last night we stopped off at the Die Kraal Camping and Steak Restaurant. It was a cool night but the owner had a roaring brazier going. We sat down to a meal of zebra steak, roast potatoes and fresh beans. There is a butchery a short distance from here where we will go back and buy a couple of steaks. As I expected, the native animals are farmed here, yesterday we passed large areas of land fenced with high fencing that had vertical wooden battens every foot or so, I guess that is for the animals to realize there is a fence there. You have to be careful travelling through Botswana and Namibia; there has been an outbreak of foot and mouth disease somewhere and there are regular inspections on the highway where you have to stand in disinfectant and the wheels of the vehicle is sprayed. They also confiscate any red meat you have. We socialised with a group of Austrians last night, 8 in number, they had had meat for a couple of meals for them all confiscated the day before.
Incidentally, what started out as a quick meal on our own turned into quite a celebration as it was one of the group’s birthday, champagne was presented, the red wine flowed and the French cognac afterwards was much appreciated. Things are cheap here compared to AU, I should say food. But then we are getting almost 8 Namib$ to our dollar so a loaf of heavy health bread that would cost $4 in AU is costing $10Namib, the equivalent of $1.20. A 3 course meal at the resort the other night with a generous glass of wine cost $139$N each or $18AU. After Zambia’s prices it is great.