Jo'burg-Gaborone-Windhoek-Katima Mulilo-Livingstone-Mamba-Jo'burg trip (MateAction)

The December 2005 holiday trip was quite exciting and saw MateAction travelling through five countries. The journey was very relaxing in that it was that time of the year when families get together.

We left Johannesburg at 18h00 through Magaliesburg, Derby, Koster, Swarttrugen, Zeerust to the border of Botswana next to Gaborone. Fortunately we arrived at the border at 21h50 just in time to closure. We spent a night in Gaborone at a family friend. We left for Windhoek the following morning using the TransKalahari highway (Sir Seretse Khama highway) and passing through Kanye, Kang and Mamuno. We arrived at the border of Mamunu at 14h30. The journey saw us traveling through the Namibian towns of Gobabis and Witvleis. We arrived at 18h30 in Windhoek and took a long rest measuring in days before we left for home town of Katima Mulilo on the Zambezi river.

It was quite pleasing to see the good services of the traffic and police officers in all the countries we traveled during the December period,  regarded as a major holiday period in Southern Africa. The officers dispensed their duties to make sure that all the travelers reached their destinations safely.

After 11 days in Windhoek, we left for Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi region and traveled through the towns of Okahandja, Otjiwarongo, Otavi, Grootfontein, and Rundu. At Katima Mulilo we ventured into traveling to our remote village of Kasika on the off-road marshy landscape. At this time of the year, the area receives quite a lot of rainfall and the roads tends to be impassable due to flooded streams and muddy grounds. Fortunately, we only got stuck once on our way to Kasika.

While in Caprivi, MateAction attended other cultural ceremonies such as "Mayolo" meaning the "Inheritance ceremony". This kind of a ceremony happens when a long deceased member of the family is "spiritually " believed to be revived by naming his name to a surviving member of the family. The activity is both regarded as a memorial and a celebrating one. All sorts of drinks and food are served to the audiences who merry in their "Sipelu" dances.

After the Christmas holiday, we proceeded to visit our family in the Zambian town of Mamba close to lake Kariba. The trip saw us traveling through the towns of Sesheke, Livingstone, Zimba, Kalomo, and Choma. At Mamba we visited the crocodile farm at Syansowa on the bank of lake Kariba. It is at this farm where the abundant fish of "Kapenta" if fished and packaged for sale and export.

Time was running out for resumption of work in Johannesburg. We left Mamba for Johannesburg and traveled through the border of Victoria Falls ( which seemed to have less water at such a time) into Zimbabwe. We traveled for an hour in the Zimbabwean national park before we passed through the Botswana border at Kazungula. We then started off for Johannesburg from the Botswana town of Kasane at 15h30 and traveled through the Chobe National Park, Pandamatenga, Nata, Francistown and Palapye. We crossed the border at Martin's drift into South Africa at 22h00 and continued our journey to Johanneburg passing the towns of Mokopane, Naboomspruit, Warmbath and Pretoria. We arrived in Johanneburg at 05h00 and were quite exhausted that we could not wait to take a long nap.

We would recommend that you consider visiting Southern Africa and more so to use this route as it is quite scenery. We were able to see elephants, different types of antelopes, hippopotamus, warthogs, impalas, zebras, buffalos, crocodiles, giraffes, squirrels, and many types of birds and insects. Insects? Yes! One had to force us change a windscreen wiper after it hit and damaged it on the Trans Kalahari highway. It was so huge we thought it was a small bird.

Look, you can also enjoy the waters of the Zambezi river and lake Kariba. Other places that you can visit in Southern Africa are lake Malawi, Mapungubwe the cradle of mankind in South Africa, Etosha Game Reserve in Namibia, the Trans-frontier National Park between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, Kalahari and Namib deserts, lake Tanganyika and many more.