• Dobbs Away II

Dobbs Without Jobs

A 696-day adventure by Dobbs Away II Read more
  • Trip start
    May 7, 2017

    Away we go...

    May 6, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    After more than a year of planning (and many more saving) we are finally on the road!

    We will be in South & East Africa for ~6 months before heading to Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and India. Then to Antarctica, through South & Central America and Mexico where we hope to be ~18 months before returning briefly to the US before our move to New Zealand.

    We so appreciate the many individual, group and team send-offs, phone calls, texts and well-wishes from friends, colleagues and family members near and far. We vacated our beloved apartment in North Beach and officially became homeless on May 1st. For the past few days we have relied on the generosity of family to house, feed and entertain us until we left.
    Thanks to the Medina family for giving us a comfy place to hang out, store our stuff, and play; to Virginia & Marco for a great meal under the redwoods; and to the Davis family for letting us relax at your wonderful home (and store more of our stuff!), eat great food and enjoy your company.

    We will miss you all, but will be keeping in close touch over the next couple of years.
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  • Crocodile Bridge

    May 11, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Picked up our friend, Cindy, at Jo'burg airport and drove to our first campsite in Kruger. Drive took a little longer than expected and arrived at sunset. Had lots of 'fun' setting up our camp for the first time as the sun was setting, but eventually got settled and quickly reminded of two things: 1. night time is noisy in the African bush and 2. monkeys are quick. Yes, we were mugged by monkeys, again, 1st day into our camping trip. Went out for a drive next morning with some great animals - giraffes, elephants, buffalo, hippos, crocs and lots of other great critters (Cindy would request we mention the adorable warthogs). Also, very lucky to spot two rhino. Two nights at this camp then heading up north.Read more

  • Lower Sabie

    May 13, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Moved up north to Lower Sabie camp. Tonight we are in a bungalow since no campsites were available. Since it is raining, we do not mind. Our typical routine is up around 5am, light breakfast and out of camp at 6. Drive for a 2-3 hours looking for animals and back to camp for early lunch, relax and head out again for another drive in the afternoon or close to sunset when animals tend to be more active. Great lion sighting today. Three females waking up then walking down the road in front and beside our car. Stayed with them for an hour or so before they disappeared into the bush. Also lots of elephants, zebras, giraffe and different kinds of antelope.Read more

  • Skukuza

    May 14, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Next camp. Still raining. Decided to take advantage of an available bungalow and Cindy's generosity to stay indoors for a couple more nights until the rain subsides. We figure there will not be too many opportunities to sleep in a real bed over the next 5 months so we need to enjoy it when we can. 2 nights here. Went on a night drive with a ranger, but not too many animals except a close encounter with some elephants a couple of rhino and a hyena. Amazing night sky!! And as we were leaving camp to drive to Satara, we saw a pack of wild dogs -- these are extremely hard to see, endangered and at the top of Christy's list for wanting to see -- perhaps Cindy's visit has brought us good luck.Read more

  • Satara, Kruger Park

    May 16, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    The warthog has been confirmed as Cindy's favorite animal! She was very excited to have an entire family of warthogs, including a few cute babies, running around our campsite when we got back from an early morning drive. Heard the distinctive sounds of hyena and lion at night, another reminder we are surrounded by an immense variety and concentration of wildlife in this amazing park. Had an incredible sighting of 2 Cheetah near this camp -- amazing experience to watch them playing, spraying their territory and getting stared down (and intimidated) by a herd of wildebeest. It was John's first sighting of Cheetah after two prior trips to Southern Africa.Read more

  • Balule, Kruger Park

    May 18, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    With only 10 campsites, this is a much smaller and more rustic site than many of the larger camps we have visited. We stayed here about 7 years ago and it has always been our favorite in Kruger. The site is fenced with most people camping close to the fence in order to get a good view of the hyenas who often patrol the fence soon after the sun sets. Most folks grab a seat with a flashlight and wait for the hyena to come around. On our first night John stayed up after Christy and Cindy had gone to bed. At about 8:30 (yes -- that's bed time when you're getting up at 5am to go on a morning drive) 4 hyena appeared, one a youngster. Christy and Cindy got up to have a look. It's an amazing experience to be that close to these powerful and dangerous animals, fortunately kept at bay by a fence that seems far too flimsy when a hyena is a couple of feet away...pacing and watching. It is also sobering when you turn off your flashlight and you can not see an inch in front of you, but you know the animal is still there.Read more

  • Phalaborwa

    May 20, 2017 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Last day in Kruger - did not disappoint! If anyone has the opportunity, visit any chance you have. Getting here is a long and expensive proposition from the US -- but once here you can easily rent a small car and camp in the park for a total of ~$100/day for two people. This is the best value for money we've encountered. We will be dropping off our friend Cindy in this town, she is flying to Johannesburg tomorrow before flying home to the US. We have been so lucky to have visited Kruger a couple of times before and it has been great experiencing it again through the eyes of someone who has not been here before. Spent the afternoon restocking food, water, wine before a long drive tomorrow to Botswana - our first border crossing for this trip. We will be heading into the Kalahari in a couple of days so also spent some time getting a slow leak on one of our tires fixed. Sorry if posts and photos are intermittently loaded, but internet is usually slow and only occasionally available. It may be a few weeks until we have any sort of internet access again.Read more

  • Khama Rhino Sanctury

    May 21, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Long 9 hour drive from Phalaborwa to Botswana. Border crossing ok, but driving in Africa is always unpredictable and have to be constantly on the lookout for people and livestock on the road. Crossed into Botswana at Grobeling (sp) bridge, over the Limpopo river. Arrived at Khama Rhino Sanctuary later than planned, but set up camp, cooked dinner and got an early night. Staying here 2 nights so we can rest up and re-organize before heading into the desert. Botswana is one of our favorite countries. Yes, it's hot and sandy but the people are nice, the parks are great and the government seems to have minimal corruption.Read more

  • Khama Rhino Sactuary

    May 22, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Cold night, but able to get a good sleep. We were looking forward to an easy day, but woke up to find the tire, which we had just fixed the other day, was completely flat!! Found a big piece of wire stuck in tire so was a different issue than before. John was able to remove the wire and temporarily seal the leak. Used the compressor to fill to a drivable pressure and drove to nearest town to get it fixed. The temporary patch was too good and we could not find the leak. Put one of our spare tires on and will keep a close eye on the pressure. The last thing we want is to have to change a tire in the middle of the Kalahari desert heat with wildlife wandering around. We will let you know.Read more

  • Kori camp, Kalahari

    May 23, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We do not want to sound repetitive, but another longer than expected drive from Khama to our first camp in the Kalahari. Partly our fault since we didn't follow an important rule when driving in most parts of Africa; fill up at every gas station! If you have only driven 10 miles since filling up and you see an open gas station, with gas, top up! Going into the Kalahari you have to be prepared for any situation since there are no services in the park and on a busy day you may only see one or two other travelers. So let's describe some of what we drive with. Our 4x4 has a 110 liter long range fuel tank. We also carry 40 extra liters in 2 cans on the roof. There's no water here so we have 40 liters of water in 2 cans, another 40 liters in an internal tank inside the 4x4 and a few 5 liter bottles. 2 spare tires, repair equipment for flats, hi-lift jack and a compressor to inflate repaired tires. Sand tracks if we get stuck in deep sand and a winch on front of the 4x4 so we can pull ourselves out if really stuck. A lot of stuff to carry, not including food and camping stuff, and hopefully we do not have to use this self-rescue equipment.
    Back to why it was a longer than planned drive. We had planned to do our last fuel 'top-up' in the last town before turning towards the entrance to the Kalahari. This is not a one-horse town, but a 2 donkey one fuel pump town with a windowless, brick structure called 'Her Majesty's Internet Cafe' called Rakops. We pulled up to the pump and a woman from the shade of her hut gave us the international sign - arms crossed in an X above her head, no gas and don't know when we'll get more. Our only option was to drive back 50 kilometers the way we had come to Mopipi where they hopefully had gas. Our calculations suggested an added hour driving but an extra 100kms worth of gas. We had also been pulled over on the way to Rakops for speeding, but managed to talk our way out of the fine. Going back to Mopipi, however, meant we had to go by the speed trap 2 more times - much more carefully.
    Once we were full of fuel (thankfully), we returned to Rakops and turned off the main road towards the Kalahari park entrance. Once you leave the main road in Botswana, everything is sand-or mud in the rainy season. Since they had an exceptionally wet, wet season, the roads were really impacted and have now turned to either bone rattling corrugation that goes for miles, interspersed with deep holes or deep, soft sand or a combination of all of these. With 50kms to the park gate and another 50kms to our first campsite it was great to finally get in, set up camp and go straight to bed.
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  • Sunday Pan, Kalahari

    May 26, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    The camps in the Kalahari are exceptional in that they're all in beautiful, shaded spots with nice views of the bush and they're incredibly private. Each group of camps only has ~4 camps each and they're generally spaced anywhere from 500 meters to 7 km apart from each other so you don't see, hear or feel as if you have any neighbors. It feels truly wild. This is reinforced by the nighttime noises and morning footprints you find in your camp from lots of critters, big and small. Had good sightings of lion (Cindy's big-headed males at last) and cheetah stalking some springbok, bat-eared foxes, jackals and other great critters. We had owls in both camps and got really good views of one of them. A less welcome visitor was a large puff adder (4-ish feet long) that was waiting in camp one late morning after we returned from our game drive. Yikes!Read more

  • Maun

    May 29, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Out of the Kalahari! What an amazing, remote place. If you want to experience camping in Africa and feel like you are completely alone, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by amazing scenery and wildlife, this is the place to come.
    Now in Maun for the night to re-stock food and fuel, clean up (so much sand with so little water...) and do a little maintenance on the 4x4. We also hope to get some online stuff done. We may have to upload pictures and videos for posts at different times than when we write the post depending on internet connections - bear with us!
    The other thing we're doing is thinning out some of our stuff since going from living in 1100 square feet to <100 (5 seats plus a large back area and rooftop tent) is proving challenging. Every bit of space matters and figuring out how to pack so you don't have to unpack everything every time you camp is critical. I think we've got it! We'll send some pics in the next post if we are pleased with the result...

    We head off to Moremi park in the morning for 11 days -- it's in the amazing Okavango Delta and an incredible place. We'll be camping on a river and the driving will become much more challenging as the sand is very thick and the water crossing potentially very deep.
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  • Xakanaxa, Moremi National Park

    May 30, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Bought some last minute supplies, dropped off the last of the rental gear that we decided we did not need, and left Maun refreshed, organized and ready for Moremi in the Okavango Delta.
    The road quickly turned to ruts, potholes and, finally...corrugated sand. We arrived at the South Gate and spoke to ranger who knew Magdalene, a ranger we had met seven years ago in Chobe, and learned she’s now at another park so we’re unlikely to see her this trip. One thing we’ve appreciated about the rangers here is they are generally very helpful and deeply passionate about their work.
    We continued on and found ourselves so tired and “over” the bad road, that when we turned a corner and found an elephant was completely blocking our path, we were momentarily annoyed…then reminded each other how utterly ridiculous this was and were able to relax and re-gain some much needed perspective.
    We arrived at our campsite – you guessed it… several hours later than planned!
    Our campsite backed right up to the thick reeds and water of the Delta, where we spent 5 nights. We didn't see too many critters, but we know there is a lot of wildlife here because we saw it on our last visit and we heard it non-stop in our campsite at night. The lions were roaring, the hippos munching on grass at the edge of camp and the hyenas were constantly ‘laughing’ as they ran through the campsites scavenging for whatever might have been left unattended. In the morning we look for animal prints in the sand to see who has visited during the night. It’s taking awhile to get used to and differentiate the sounds, since every creature - whether a tiny mouse running through the grass or an elephant pushing over a tree to feed on the leaves - sounds huge and too close for comfort. For those who do not want too-much-info sorry, but often the discussion as we are getting ready for bed, is how many times do we need to get up to go pee during the night. Inevitably, one of usually needs to pee (often John) just when we hear a lion roar or a hyena cackle. Whether this need to pee is brought on by the sounds of large predators wandering the camp, or whether said predators sense that someone may be leaving their tent and get excited about the prospect of a midnight snack, is hard to say.
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  • Third Bridge, Moremi National Park

    June 4, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Third bridge was just 15km from our previous camp. However, it was going to be the biggest driving challenge so far, with several water crossings to negotiate. We talked to other travelers and received a surprising range of responses about their experiences from “you’ll have no problems just take it slow and steady”, to “OMG I do not want to ever do that again!” We did a little scouting trip the other day to get an idea of what was coming, but turned around about 5km in, after completing a couple of small water crossings and coming upon a longer crossing where the options were what looked like a murky water of undetermined depth or a black mud path, which looked like it had recently devoured the previous vehicle trying to navigate across. We decided to turn back as we have to cross this in a couple of days anyway, so why do it twice?
    Third bridge is just past the infamous Fourth Bridge, which lives large in the Christy and John travel legend. This is where, apparently, approximately 7 years ago, John plotted to have Christy devoured by lions. Third bridge itself also lives in infamy for John, where it was proved that he might be further down the evolutionary ladder than he thought he was after being out-witted by some very clever baboons. Many have heard this story, but John may tell it again later after we safely get through the water crossings.
    Had an amazing stay here -- saw wild dogs! They ran through camp, which we missed, but then we raced (in the truck) to the front gate and spotted them. Unfortunately there weren't any great photos because: 1) the wrong lens was on on the camera, 2) John was driving and Christy doesn't know how to use said camera, 3) Christy panicked and couldn't get a good shot. The dogs ran up the road and we pursued. John tried taking a photo through the window, but the only photo we could get was of the dog pooping. Sorry folks. That's the only good shot we got!
    Met some super nice folks from Cape Town who invited us on a boat cruise on the Delta. Stunningly beautiful. They were also going to Khwai next...more on that soon.
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  • Third Bridge, Moremi National Park

    June 5, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Arrived at 3rd Bridge and after all the anxiety about water crossings etc. we decided to go around the water and take a longer, dry route to get here. We have definitely become, for the good, more risk averse over the years. The decision to add 85km to the trip was made after John had a discussion with another camper the night before who had just come through the ‘wet’ road. He described it as the most terrifying thing he has ever done and reported the water was hip high. Now we are here and have seen some others making one of the water crossings across 3rd Bridge and feel it is not too risky.
    We were rewarded early this morning with an excellent sighting of 4 wild dog – also called the African Hunting Dog or Painted Dog? – absolutely beautiful! When we first got up, our neighbors in camp told us a couple of dogs had just walked right through the middle of camp. We were very disappointed as this is one of the animals we really wanted to see again after a brief sighting in Kruger. We quickly got the 4x4 ready to go, left camp and within 1 minute spotted 4 dog on the edge of a water hole. They stopped and we got a great view of them all before the ran off. We anticipated the direction they might be heading, and quickly drove down the road to see if we could intercept them coming out of the bush. We got it just right and they emerged on the road in front of us, one of them took a poop and then they disappeared again. We saw them one more time a few hundred yards up the road. Unfortunately, we could not get in great positions to get good pictures, apart from the one taking a dump – not very flattering. Two more nights here before heading north again to the top of the park. No doubt we will be having several discussions over a couple of gin & tonics trying to decide if we are going to get our 4x4 home wet – it probably needs a clean!
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  • Khwai, Moremi National Park

    June 7, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Had another long drive to the top of the park - even though we opted for the "wet route".
    Driving only ~70 km took almost 5 hours. Granted, we got lost (i.e. were chicken to cross the big water without other vehicles around) and did stop to look at various animals, but still...
    Didn't see a ton of wildlife here, until our final morning. We had the best wildlife experience of our lives (sorry Casey & Marisa --- even beats the whale sharks!).
    While starting to get up and break camp, we heard some crashing and John saw a wild dog running on his way back from the abolution blocks. Insanely -- a pack of 7 wild dogs chased and caught the impala just a few yards from our campsite. We then spent an hour or so running around (Christy in pajamas) following the dogs as they moved around the area devouring the kill. Luckily our neighbors from 3rd bridge - Alistair, Denise, Henri & Wendy - were also with us watching the amazing sight. We were on foot and at one stage one of the dogs growled, and another barked at us to warn us not to get too close. Amazing morning. Best yet....
    The picture with Christy is with some of the park staff who were very excited when they arrived at work to find out there had been wild dogs in camp - and a kill. They were curious to know all the details, including where the kill happened and the behavior of the dogs. Believe it or not, even though a little gross, the guy standing next to Christy is holding part of the remains of the impala (a hip bone, we think). We know discussing a 'kill' may be a little unsettling for some, but the excitement comes purely from being this close to nature in it's rawest form, not from witnessing an animal lose its' life. The experience - the sounds, smells, who we were with, the different vantage points - will be something we will remember for the rest of our lives. Huge gratitude for the honor of being able to observe nature this closely.
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  • Maun

    June 9, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Returned to Maun to re-stock, fix the slow-leaking tire, and rest-up before a long slog to Namibia and Etosha National Park. Enjoyed Nandos (a chicken chain) for lunch which was a nice break from our sandwiches.Read more

  • Shakawe

    June 10, 2017 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    On our way from Maun, we stopped at Tsodilo Hills - a World Heritage Site (Christy LOVES her UNESCO sites!) – to see some rock paintings and shelters of great cultural significance to the San people of the Kalahari.
    The roads were generally okay, with some bad stretches of potholes, though the dirt road to Tsodilo Hills was very, very good and it took us only 30 minutes to drive what we’d feared could be a 2+ hour slog.

    The hills themselves were spectacular as the rocks were very colorful and they rose out of the flat high desert so you could see them from far away as you drove towards them. The paintings themselves were mostly of animals (rhino, elephant, giraffe, various antelopes, etc.) and surprisingly some sharks and fish - the theory is that the Bushmen traveled to the sea and that water used to cover much of what is now very arid land. Some very interesting paintings, though we were even more impressed with the carvings done at Twelyfontein that we saw when we last visited Namibia (another UNESCO site of ancient art done by the Bushmen). Stopped in Shakawe and stayed at very fancy campsite called Drotsky’s where there was a beautiful deck overlooking the delta. We enjoyed wine, dinner and some great sunset views over the river and even managed to see an otter.
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  • Namutomi, Etosha National Park, Namibia

    June 11, 2017 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Crossed into Namibia from Botswana, committing our first rookie mistake for today. Border crossing seemed easy, but we somehow managed to be just short on the road tax fee required for driving in Namibia. We had to cross back into Botswana to the nearest town, find an open ATM, then drive back to the border, exit Botswana again and enter Namibia. An hour wasted, but because there was a time change it’s like it never even happened at all.
    Namibia’s pristine, flat, smooth, paved roads were a great relief and pleasure to drive on after having to concentrate so carefully on not hitting potholes and crashing or over-turning our truck while in Botswana. We actually made it to Etosha National Park right on schedule (per the GPS) and enjoyed a very interesting and scenic drive. Because it was Sunday, we saw village after village - all dressed in their Sunday best - walking along the roads on their way to worship. Some churches were simply under big trees with chairs gathered underneath (we saw many people carrying their own chairs to church), others were in large revival-style tents. We noticed various groups seemed to have theme colors as we saw brilliantly dressed people in purple, then green, then red, and so on.
    Another thing we noticed was what appears to be a life-changing innovation. Many villages were equipped with a brightly colored plastic port-a-potty – solving an age-old problem and presumably greatly improving hygiene, convenience (we’re not sure if they’re leased and periodically cleaned/replaced or bought outright), and privacy for thousands. We haven’t seen this before but hope this has also arrived in places like Nepal and India where it could have a massive impact.

    Namutomi camp in Etosha was very nicely kept – the cleanest abolution blocks we’ve encountered- with expansive lawns (in a desert, mind-you), and grounds. We had some good hyena, jackal, giraffe and zebra sightings, but no cats yet. Our second rookie mistake – we arrived a day early after feeling falsely rushed to get here! Fortunately, they had an empty campsite.
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  • Halili, Etosha National Park

    June 14, 2017 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Drove a few hours to Halali camp, which had very barren and ugly campsites, but also had a beautiful waterhole and luxurious (freezing cold) swimming pool with shaded lounge chairs. Our game drives were pretty quiet, but the waterhole was remarkable in that we saw black rhino both nights as well as a huge family of 25-30 elephants joyfully coming to drink and 4 hyenas (including a little one).Read more

  • Okaukuejo, Etosha National Park

    June 16, 2017 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Drove a few more hours south to Okaukuejo camp where they had even more barren/ugly campsites, but again, a beautiful water hole where we were able to see even more black rhino and elephant. The highlight was a morning drive out where we saw two spectacular male lions, a pair of honey badgers, some large herds of zebra and wildebeest and, later at the same site near the male lion sighting, a female lion. She was perched up on a hill watching all the zebra, springbok and wildebeest pass without them realizing she was there. We plan to go back tonight to check and see if we can find her sisters and there have been reports of cubs….Read more

  • Namutomi, Etosha National Park

    June 18, 2017 in Namibia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Unfortunately we didn’t find the cubs. Drove up for a final night in Etosha and were reminded of just how stunning and unique the landscape is in this park. Also enjoyed watching a hyena family cross the road on our way.Read more

  • Ngepi, Namibia

    June 19, 2017 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    On our way back to Botswana we broke up the drive by staying at a very charming camp, Ngepi, near Popa Falls (thanks for the recommendation Alistair!) Among the unique features was a cage in the river that formed a “swimming pool” that John gamely tested out. It was a bit chilly, but hippo and croc-free! There were beautiful views over the river and the setting was very lush and tropical with huge trees.
    On our drive, we stopped at Rundu (a largish town), where John decided to get a low maintenance haircut at a local barbershop. This is one of our favorite things to do while traveling. There’s something very fun and interesting about experiencing haircuts at small, local places where you get more of a sense of the community. John’s hair was getting quite long (see before photo) so he opted for a “monk cut” - #2 on the shaver. Joseph did an excellent job, though John will need to watch his sun exposure.
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