in the wild west

Last weekend, I went for a trip to Mabuasehube, a national park in the wild west of Botswana. From the tarred road, it takes more than 100km on a sand piste to the entrance gate and from there, another 25km to the campsite at Mabuasehube pan, so it's really in the middle of nowhere.

We spent two nights there,
saw the sun rise,hid from the scorching sun and the hot desert wind during the day,
went searching for some lions,
and had a little party with the squirrels and birds at our campsite.
On the way back, we followed another endless, bumpy track through the bush and finally found some fuel before heading back to Gabs. Thanks to the guys for driving all the way and for a fantastic trip!

bella italia

A few impressions from our trip to Italy. We did quite a bit of driving, to Florence, then on to the Maremma and back to Lucca. The weather was beautiful for most of the time, and the landscape in Tuscany is pretty, as are all the old little towns.

some snow & ice

On our way to Tuscany we went over the Alps, where we got into the first snowfall of the season.
Not pretty, and not exactly what we had hoped for. But the good thing was that once we got closer to the Lago di Garda, the sky cleared and the sun was out...

And luckily, the weather stayed more or less like this for the rest of the week...

roadside scenes

Some pictures from the way home to Gabs, taken from the car. Vast grassland and wide, open skies. Next to the road, some cattle and spread-out villages. Rising hills in the distance, empty land. Just across the border, but a different country indeed.

Sunset Saturday IX

The sunset on our roadtrip to Namibia last year. It was one of those loooong days in the car - we had left rather late and had planned to cover quite some distance before the end of the day. But the sun sets quickly around here and we only saw the sunset from the car window with the Kalahari flying by. This weekend we are staying in Gabs, so no lengthy car drives. Yay!

Where there's Smoke, there's Thunder

This past weekend we drove up to the Victoria Falls with my parents, who are currently visiting from Germany. After a night at Nata Lodge, we continued our journey to see the water masses of the Zambezi River falling over the edge.

On our way, we encountered some elephants on the roadside, passed huge sun-flower fields, spent a lot of time at the border and finally arrived just in time to catch the last hours of light over the glorious waterfalls.

The next morning we walked over the bridge and took some more pictures of the falls, the gorge and the beautiful scenery.
At high water, the falls really give you a good shower and you can't even see the bottom of the gorge, but the sound of the roaring water definitely makes it all very exciting.
I seriously love this place and could visit it over and over again.
Maybe next time I'll go to the Zambian side?

all pictures (except the family pic) taken with my new camera!!!

a little video of our trip to Mozambique

I finally managed to upload this little fim from our roadtrip through Mozambique.
We drove through Maputo, took the ferry to Catembe and then made our way through the sand and dunes to Punta do Ouro on the coast. The town of Punta do Ouro is really built on sand - no roads there! The long stretches of sand pistes were extremely bumpy and we saw quite a few cars who got stuck in the sand but we were lucky and the landscape was still beautiful to look at.
Thanks to David for the car and to Björn for being a great offroad driver!

Meandering in Maputo

On our trip to the Elephant Coast we spent some time in Maputo, a busy African city with a certain colonial chic to it. The city is full with pedestrians, the streets are lined with trees and the roads are full of potholes.
There are some formerly grand houses near the Old Market and little cafes in the beautiful Main Station.
And apparently Botswana's old trains made it all the way to Mozambique!

trip planning

I really want to go to the beach and so we decided it's time for another trip!
In March, we are planning to go for a week-long holiday to Mozambique and the Elephant Coast, where they say there are pretty beaches, fresh seafood and green landscapes....I'll find out if they are right and report back. But until then, there is some more work to be done...

a week-long drive

Last week we did a little 3600 km roadtrip through Botswana and Namibia and spent days in the car, watching the changing landscape along the road.

Apart from driving we also ate fresh apple pie in Solitaire, watched the sun rise over the Namib desert, climbed Big Mama (a big red sand dune at Sossusvlei), camped out in the Naukluft mountains and hiked up over the slopes & down a massive canyon for hours without meeting any other people, had some rain in the middle of the desert, played with a baby-seal, watched dolphins, pelicans, flamingos & a whale near Swakopmund and enjoyed champagne (& fresh oysters) during the cruise!

It was the perfect escape and I loved every minute of it!
(except maybe for the time when I just could not get the car to go up that very steep & scary mountain gravel road...)

Following the Cup

The last weeks I spent exploring South Africa on a roadtrip, driving more than 4000km across this beautiful country, taking in the world cup spirit and loving every minute of it! Internet has been rather sporadic, so here's a quick recap of my whereabouts in the previous weeks.

Our journey took us from the highveld of Johannesburg for the Germany-Ghana match via the capital Pretoria on to Pilanesberg National Park and then to Bloemfontein in the Free State, where we attended the England-Germany game; and so we got a first impression of the rainbow nation and proud host country of the World Cup.

The second part of our roadtrip brought us from Gaborone to the Drakensberg and a quick visit to Lesotho, then to Durban and from there to the Wild Coast where we spent a couple of days on the beach.

In Port Elisabeth we saw Germany's last victory against Uruguay and then hit the road again to reach our final destination for this trip: Cape Town

Thanks to Björn for encouraging me to do this trip and being such wonderful company, to Keith for being a great travel buddy and to all the people we met along the way for their amazing hospitality and for sharing some insights of this fascinating country with us!

Ein Tag am Meer

In Chintza, a well-loved holiday resort on the Wild Coast, we found a perfect place to rest after spending so many hours on the road. Situated on a hill overlooking a bay we spent two nights at Buccaneer's from where you would wake up in the morning to a beautiful sunrise and the sound of the waves down at the beach.

On our beach walk we collected some seashells, observed little snails walking across the sand, listened to the endless crashing of the waves and had picnic on the beach before we returned to the lodge and enjoyed a delicious home-cooked dinner and some live-music.

Life is good at the Wild Coast and this was exactly what we needed in order to prepare for the rest of our journey.