With animal books under our arms and our backpacks filled with oatmeal, powdered coffee and opportunities, we set off on our biggest adventure yet – exploring Africa – camping style. A trip that would take us from Sossusvlei in Namibia, via the Elephant Highway in Botswana, to the roaring Victoria Falls of Zimbabwe
Why Africa?
To mark their 3 year anniversary, KAYAK employees get to take advantage of a tasty travel bonus. With my 3-year marker coming up, my husband and I had the chance to plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip. With the world our oyster, we started researching travel destinations. We had some requirements to help us limit the long list of exciting destinations, the largest one being our 3-year-old son. We wanted to avoid spending too long on the inside of a plane, so countries like Australia were out. Our ideal destination would include both a different culture and nature. We were debating destinations in Asia (too far) and Greenland (not many child-friendly activities and too cold), but it wasn’t until a colleague recommended Africa that we even considered the continent.
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Scorpions, lions, malaria and political stability
Our main concern when considering Africa as a destination was illness; a quick search online worryingly stated that it wasn’t a recommended destination for children under 5 due to the risk of malaria, but the Institute of Tropical Diseases put our mind to ease on the matter, as well as other illnesses.
During the European summer months, it’s winter in Africa – which means it is a reasonable temperature, too cold for scorpions and too dry for mosquitoes meaning less risk of malaria in most places.
According to travel advice from the UK government, most trips to Namibia and Botswana are trouble-free. Since our trip, there have been some changes to the situation in Zimbabwe, including a halt on making cash withdrawals using international bank cards (see the travel advice for Zimbabwe page for more detail). It is possible to subscribe to these pages, to keep an eye on any changes to ongoing situations in potential travel destinations.
In my imagination, Africa was filled with dangerous animals and was not a place to walk around, especially with a child. But this is not the case. The “big five” are mainly only seen in parks and reserves, where it’s advised to stay in your car. Outside of these parks, there are sadly very few of these wild animals left.
Camping alongside the giraffes and elephants
In our family we love camping. Drinking hot chocolate around the fireplace and falling asleep under the stars is one of our favourite ways of spending our time, so the idea of doing this in Africa was immediately enchanting. And as it turned out, it’s one of the most popular ways of travelling within the continent, by tourists and native Africans alike. The camping sites were better than many sites I have experienced around Europe.
Travelling in our own (super-) car gave us the freedom and peace both to run our safari at our own pace, and to avoid the potential stress of bothering other people – always a possibility when your 3-year-old throws a tantrum next to a leopard. If we got hungry on the road we could pull over and cook a meal at the roadside. We also brought an iPad for backup if the sometimes-long drives became too wearisome for the little fellow.
In Africa, we hired a 4×4 with tents on the top of the car. The car was the equivalent of a swiss army knife – it had everything: fridge, table, chairs, gas cooker, solar panel – you name it. This was definitely the fanciest camping we have ever done. All of the campsites had a great set up, most of them with electricity, and all with good shower and toilet facilities – including some outdoor loos for the adventurers.
As mentioned before, before leaving, I was a bit concerned about dangerous wildlife in the camps, and a sentence from Lonely Planet’s guidebook kept sticking in my mind “there is no fence strong enough to keep all animals out and all children in”. In the end we didn’t run into any particular dangerous animals on the campsites or lose our child in the savannah, but it truly felt like an adventure the night we were woken up by the sound of a giraffe chewing away on the lush leaves of the tree next to the car, and the time a troop of elephants walked past.
Hire an SUV in Windhoek from £34 a day
Our African agenda
We had 2 weeks in Africa. We flew into Windhoek from Germany and hired a car for the majority of the period.
Day 1: Mountain Camp – South Namibia
Day 2: Early drive down to Sossusvlei, with walks on the dunes in the beautiful landscape
Day 3: Drive up North and check into Etosha Safari Camp
Day 4: Self-drive safari in Etosha
Day 5: Self-drive safari through Etosha, exiting at the north end and camping next to Rundu (This was an extremely long drive, where we ended up driving in the dark – I would recommend taking an extra stop and potentially taking the Easterly exit from Etosha. Camping sites were very sparse in the North of Namibia)
Day 6-11: Camping at Ngepi Camp – Caprivi. During this time we went on a village walk, a sunset boat ride, and a fishing trip, all arranged by the camping site. We went to visit the local Kindergarten and we did a self-drive safari at Mahango Game Reserve. Looking back now, we would have spent a bit less time here and maybe more in Botswana.
Day 11-12: We spent these days at Senyati Safari Camp, Botswana. We did a boat-driven safari at the Caprivi river and it was awesome – we saw elephants swim!
Day 12-14: We dropped off the car in Kasane and got a lift to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The falls were beautiful, but I would say 2 days are enough time there. We stayed at The N1 Hotel & Campsite Victoria Falls, which was very standard but felt safe, was clean and had friendly and good service. While we were at Victoria Falls we took a steam train to the Victoria Bridge. With the steam and all it was fun for the entire family.
Knowing what I know now
Reflecting on the trip there are only a couple of things I might want to do differently:
♦ We had some very long drives and it might have helped either to have had less destinations or a longer time to travel.
♦ Buying return tickets to Windhoek instead of flying home from a different country would have been just as good. We would have had plenty to see in Namibia alone, and it would have been cheaper both in terms of flights and our car hire.
♦ We should have brought more audiobook and music CDs to make the long drives go by faster for the little one.
♦ Remember that when the sun goes down in Africa, it gets really dark. Driving after dark is not advised, as some animals can get confused by headlights and some like the warm tarmac. We did it twice, but it’s really not worth the added stress, so avoid it if you can.
All photos © Fie Kornum
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