Coimbra January 1, 2017
We all had a great nights sleep and were up for breakfast at 8:30am. Of course the boys overslept and only woke up at 8:30am when we messaged them to say we were going for breakfast. They did get up in 5 minutes at least. The breakfast was a buffet with a really good array of breads, cold meat, cheese, scrambled egg, fresh fruit etc. I thought it was pretty good for the fact that it...
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On our way to Portugal December 31, 2016
Yesterday (now day before yesterday when you read this!) we left home at just before 2pm for the airport and we arrived today at 3pm (Portuguese time which is 5pm SA time) at our first overnight stop in Portugal.  27 hours of traveling! No easy way to get to Portugal from South Africa unfortunately. We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg to Frankfurt to Lisbon. While we were all on the first and third flights together,...
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And we’re home! July 13, 2016
We had 700 kms to do today. The first thing that was evident is how much better the roads are in South Africa to either Botswana or Namibia. The quality of the roads and the general maintenance are in a different league. In order to maintain that though it means people working on the roads all the time and so today was slightly frustrating because of the amount of road works on the way back including...
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Windhoek to Oewerbos July 12, 2016
Today's drive went without incident (thankfully). It was the longest drive of the trip being just over 800 km and including the last border crossing from Namibia to back into SA. Thankfully PG Glass had my car ready with a brand new windscreen installed and we collected it immediately they opened at 7:30am Namibian time (which was 8:30am SA time). We packed up and left Windhoek at 8:15am. We stopped to refuel twice (once at Mariental...
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Ghanzi to Windhoek July 11, 2016
We left Ghanzi this morning at 7am. We had 500 kms to do to get to Windhoek and a border crossing so we figured it would take us at least 5-6 hours. There was not really anything in Ghanzi to keep us there so we left early. The accommodation in Ghanzi was minimalist and the cold was not staying out of it. When we left at 7am the temperature outside was -2 C.  The road from...
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Guma Lagoon to Ghanzi July 9, 2016
No blog post yesterday because we didn't do much (at least the Temples didn't) and the WiFi was very 'sketchy'. The other 3 families went on Mokoro's but we all opted out. Firstly, we have done it before and while enjoyable it wasn't something needing to be repeated and secondly, it was pretty windy and cold. I haven't mentioned much about the weather in the blog posts mainly because there has been nothing remarkable about it....
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Mahango National Park July 7, 2016
This morning three of us (me, Stephen and the male Bluer who is with us) decided to get up at sunrise and head to the Mahango National Park.  It is part of the greater Babwata National Park but separate from the main park. The eastern boundary of the park is the Okavango River. It is about 45 minutes drive from our lodge and the first challenge we had was to get the owner to come and...
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Mobola Lodge July 6, 2016
We left Camp Kwando after breakfast this morning but at least not before seeing two owls that roost in trees in the lodge (they were lifers for us). We were heading for the western side of the Caprivi strip to Mobola Lodge which is just outside Divindu. The lodge is on the Okavango River and about 250 kms away from Camp Kwando. We had been warned that the two towns we would pass though - Kongola...
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Mudumu National Park July 5, 2016
The plan was to visit Mudumu National Park today and so we agreed to have breakfast immediately it opened (7am) and then head to the park. The owners of the lodge had given us instructions of how to find the park office (as that is where you need to pay for the permits) and then where we could drive. They said it would take us no longer than 20 minutes to get to the office but...
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Camp Kwando July 4, 2016
I can't say that last night was the best night we have had. The noisy campers continued talking at the top of their voices to well past midnight last night and almost managed to set off their car alarm just before midnight too. Then at 5:15am the people next to us left their chalet and managed to shine their car lights right into my eyes as they left. That was the end of my sleeping for...
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