Day 31: Taranga Safari Lodge (nahe Rundu) – Riverdance Lodge (nahe Divundu)

A quick stop in Rundu to fill up, withdraw cash, and extend our MTC SIM card. We thought we could easily get by with a month...

Tomorrow is a holiday, and there's a lot going on everywhere, with long lines.

We realize that we've gotten used to "white" Africa again in Windhoek and southern Namibia; now we're back in predominantly black Africa.

People walking long distances along the side of the road. The occasional reflexive begging child. Lots of children and teenagers in general. Lots of smiling faces. Colorful clothing. People carrying all sorts of things on their heads. Villages of round huts and corrugated iron shacks, but also the occasional tidy new housing development in the middle of nowhere. Blaring music until late into the night. Meat sold on the side of the road. In the supermarket, you'll mostly find large containers like 10 kg of corn flour or sugar (!) and 3-liter bottles of soft drinks. Lots of garbage.

We drive through flat, agricultural land with cornfields and pumpkins for sale on the road. Sandy soil, bushes, and large, old trees. Herds of cattle, and increasingly more goats and sheep. And a constant view of the Cubango River, which carries a great deal of water. The continental plate still has an elevation of 1,000 meters here.

The River Dance Lodge is a small paradise. The four campsites each have their own sanitary blocks, a view of the river, and our site #4 has access to the riverbank via a small wooden pontoon. There's a pool (which cools well) and a restaurant with a viewing platform. It's quite beautiful here and wonderful to enjoy, if not for...

...our car, unfortunately, has problems again. It almost seems like everything becomes vulnerable with the two-year warranty expiring. Today, the 4x4 drive no longer works. It's almost impossible to switch it on and off; it flashes when switched on, and flashes when switched off. Only reversing helps and, as we later discover, engaging the switch for 4WD in neutral (N) while stationary. And when we're in 4x4, the car pulls enormously to the right. Something is seriously fishy. Could it be related to the last visit to the workshop in Windhoek? Since everything is fine in normal 2WD operation, it can't be the tires, nor the shock absorbers.

And as is so often the case: Tomorrow is a public holiday, Workers Day, Monday is a Namibian holiday, and many people are on vacation until May 11th. The workshop in Windhoek is no exception.

So we have to find someone in the area, and it ultimately turns out that we get a recommendation in Katima Molilo (343 km).

Incidentally, we meet Paul again here, with whom we already spent an entertaining evening in Windhoek. This calls for a repeat, so we treat ourselves to another delicious meal. Unfortunately, Paul's partner has to work – which somehow reminds us of Wolle's previous work situation.