On the way to LIUWA Plains National Park

Coming from the Ngonye Falls, we reached Mongu, where we found a big supermarket and petrol station, but no camping, so we continued to Ikithe Luxury Resort at a lake north of Mongu, where we waited for the third car, driven by Michi and Elli from Hannover. On the way back to Mongu we visited the museum of the Lozi kingdom, next to the palace. The road from Mongu to Kalabo was very good, but then we had to cross the Luanginga River on a pontoon and continue in deep sand to the entrance of the gate. Two challenges we were not sure we could take, but in the end we managed to get over the river and through the sand.

At the museum of the Lozi we learned about their kings and all the tools, plants, medicinal and crops they used and still use. In the curio shop they sold fantastic baskets we would have loved to buy, if we would have had an idea where to put them in the camper.

The three of us left the resort together to tackle the adventure of driving into a national park, which is difficult to reach and challenging to drive. We had heard about the deep sand there and were not at all sure that we can do it with our heavy car with dual wheels in the back. Luckily we had met the others and were now travelling in a small group – a first for us.

We read that the pontoon can carry up to 10 tons, and it looked stable enough, the only challenge was to get on and off, but the crew knew how to position the pontoon, so the angle was not too steep for us. Anyway we were happy when we safely had reached solid ground again.

We were now close to the national park, where we hoped to see many animals and make it in and out without destroying our car or getting stuck. More about our adventures at the Liuwa Plain NP comes next.