Vumbura to Etosha pan, Namibia

25 - 28 Oct 07

Moon up, sun down

Maun (our airport of exit from Botswana) is a very busy with lots of small planes used for transporting the tourists to the Okavango Delta and to Livingstone for the Victoria Falls. We bought some Avgas there but not too much, as we didn’t want to be too heavy for the shortish gravel runways and high density altitudes in Damaraland (NW Namibia) and we planned on purchasing fuel at Mokuti Lodge airstrip.
We flew on to Grootfontein, a flight of about 2 and a quarter hours, for entry formalities in Namibia. Luckily Flemming thought of checking our Airfields Directory for Southern Africa soon after take-off from Maun, because it said we needed to call customs in advance. Upon landing we understood why. The airport was deadly quiet with just a few military guards about the place and the customs official had to drive out from town to stamp our passports. Like in Kasane, the official was most friendly with a pleasant twinkle in his eyes. And, what’s more, there was neither a charge for him coming to the airport just for us, nor any landing fees. Welcome to Namibia!
About 40 minutes after landing, we took off again for the Mokuti Lodge airstrip by the Etosha Pan national park. Already in August we had tried to book at Mokuti Lodge but they were fully booked. Etosha Aoba Lodge could only fit us in for the first two nights so we were to transfer to Onguma Safari Lodge for the last night. This all worked out beautifully. Mokuti Lodge was large and impersonal looking and the lodges where we stayed were small and quite charming. Also, they were located on private game reserves whereas the Mokuti Lodge was near the main road leading to the national park.