On to Ntwala Island Lodge, Namibia

Wednesday, October 6

Up early and out of the house around 7:00 to catch a flight from Kruger Mpumalanga airport (only a few minutes from Cameron Downs) to Johannesburg (which everyone here calls “Jo-burg”).  In Jo-burg, we caught a flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  The best way to describe the rest of the day is chronologically:

We stood in line for Zimbabwe immigration for about 45 minutes – since we were in the back of the plane, we were in the back of the immigration line.  (An important note for next time!)  Zimbabwe requires a visa, which you purchase upon arrival…$45 US dollars per person for a two-entry visa (which we needed since we were leaving today and returning Friday).

Note that the official currency in Zimbabwe is the US dollar…their currency was devaluing so rapidly that they just declared it void and adopted the US dollar.  They also take Euros and South African Rands.  ATMs in Zimbabwe give out US dollars!

After immigration, we were met by Moses, a representative of Victoria Falls Anytime, a travel agency, and a driver, Leon.  They packed all our luggage and us into a nice bus (that would easily hold many other people) and headed to a Botswana border crossing, passing through a national park on the way.

At the border, we first stopped at Zimbabwe immigration, to have our visa stamped for exit.  The we walked to Botswana immigration (a two-minute walk), stopping to walk on a rag soaked with some solution to stop hoof-and-mouth disease.  (The bus drove through a trough with the same solution, to sanitize the tires.)

After obtaining our entry stamp for Botswana, we waited for our next mode of transport – an open vehicle similar to the ones we used at Kruger, driven by David.  Moses came with us to the next stopping point – the Botswana exit point on the river.

Here we obtained our Botswana exit stamp, and put all of us and our luggage into two motor boats, one driven by Martin and one by Chespin.  We motored to Impalila Island.  Here we beached the boats and walked up a rocky path (the water was low – normally the boats beach much closer) to Namibia immigration, to obtain our entrance stamp.

So we managed to be in four countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) in less than 12 hours!

From here, it was on to Ntwala island Lodge in Namibia.  The lodge is a small facility (only four units), with a central building (dining room, kitchen, living room, bar, small gift shop, large outside seating area, etc.).  Each unit is large, with spacious decks (lots of seating for relaxing and enjoying the scener), an small swimming pool, an outside shower (for bathing, not necessarily for after-swim), a huge bathroom with a shower and large bathtub surrounded by large windows on three sides.  (Rita declared the bathroom to be the best we’ve ever had on a trip.  Who remembers bathrooms??)

On the way to Ntwala, with Martin at the wheel

Crossing the long walkway from the dock to the lodge

Outside sitting area at the lodge

Ntwala is located on a small island where four countries meet (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe).  The lodge overlooks a part of the Zambezi River called the Mambova Rapids.

While the lodge is quite lovely, we were surprised to find out that the generator only operates at certain times of the day (6 to 10 in the morning, noon to 3 in the afternoon, and 6 to 10 at night – although they agreed to keep it on later our second night).  Also, the facility is not air conditioned, which was a problem only because it was hot for this time of year here.  Oh well – the next day made all the sweat worthwhile!

We had welcoming snacks and drinks on the patio overlooking the river, and drinks and dinner on the veranda around the indoor dining area.  Since lights were out at 10, we made sure we were in bed with the lights out by then – we didn’t want all the lights coming on at 6:00 a.m. when the generator next cranked up!