I recently went on a trip to Ruacana and Epupa falls in western Namibia. We made it to Ruacana, but Epupa was out of our reach. We had a 4wd, so we might have made it, but given the driving conditions, we decided not to risk it.
Instead, we ended up camping at the Kunene River Lodge.
Driving from Oshakati to Ruacana was an experience of its own. The extensive flooding of the farmlands was abundantly clear. But once you start climbing into the hills around Ruacana, it's like you've entered this lush lost world.
The greens are startlingly different - darker, more densely packed. For some reason, it reminded me of pictures that I've seen of the Great Rift Valley (haven't been there yet). One of those places where you see the clouds drifting over and falling down the mountainsides. This area is a completely different ecosystem from where I live.
The Kunene River is shared by Angola and Namibia. Many rivers in Africa cross or define international borders. This can lead to any number of political issues. In this case, Angola dammed the river to generate electricity. They did this right where the river exists Angola and enters Namibia. This seems to have been a point of contention between the two countries, but in an odd move, Namibia build their own dam just downstream from the Angolan one.
The effect on the river is that its flow is systematically controlled by two groups who at differing times almost complete stop the flow of the river.
Ruacana Falls, just south of the Namibian dam, can be one of the most impressive waterfalls in Africa, when there's water. When we got there, the falls was just a trickle. You could see the whole area that it could flow over, but it wasn't.
We were disappointed, but continued on toward our next goal, the Kunene River Lodge. This would mean traveling on gravel roads in difficult conditions. After a poor start, too much speed on a downhill led to hitting a ditch, we got along fine.
We camped the first night at a small riverside camp that was completely infested with a troop of monkeys. They liked watching us but didn't like it when we watched them. They made it really difficult to get any pictures of them, as you can see from this blurry shot.
The next day we continued on toward the Kunene River Lodge and arrived in good time only to discover that it was closed. Fortunately, the staff was amenable to our camping there anyway, and we even managed to go white water rafting.
The white water rafting was a lot of fun, mixing some mild rapids with passages of calm drifting, and a picnic lunch along a beach. In spite of the ever present thunderstorms, the sun shone and it was an almost perfect day. Kunene River Lodge is a beautiful place, if smaller than I had expected.
The staff were friendly and full of advice. It was here that we learned that the road to Epupa Falls was unpassable to our vehicle. This meant that I wouldn't get to Swartbooi's Drift.
If Swartbooi's Drift isn't the coolest name for a town, I don't know what is. As soon as I saw it on the map I wanted to go there, just to say that I'd been there. Unfortunately, we only got to within 4 km of it.
So, with Kunene River Lodge being the furthest we were going to get by vehicle, we explored the surrounding area on foot.. The hills aren't tall, but they're all broken rock and make for treacherous footing. From the tops of the hills, the scene was spectacular.
The whole time that we were traveling, we were accosted by bouts of thunderstorms. This also meant that the road home would be more difficult than just the day before. We set off with our plans and emergency preparations (if we didn't make it through to Ruacana and cellphone reception within four hours, the lodge staff was going to send a vehicle behind us. We made it in three and a half.)
Those three and a half hours were tense, as we found the road washed out in many places by water of unknown depth and strength. But we got through fine.
The Kunene River Lodge was a beautiful place and I'd like to see it in full swing. Maybe once the rains end and the roads become passable to 2wd vehicles, I'l try to go back. then I'll go to Swartbooi's Drift too.
Oh yeah, while we we rafting, we often touched shore on the north side of the river, so I guess that technically I've been to Angola now too.
