From Twyfelfontain we were travelling on good gravel “pads” up to Palmwag and after wild camping in the wilderness, we continued to the Khowarib Gorge just south of Sesfontain. We found another lovely campsite there and met 2 awesome guys.
Just before Palmwag we came to the Veterinary Fence, a measure to prevent the spread of disease between animals. On the way north, there is no restriction, just going south you are not allowed to take raw meat or unpasteurised milk products.
Palmwag is a well known lodge and campsite, which was completely booked when we arrived. The camp wasn’t the kind we like anyway, with everybody standing very close to each other. But we could drive into the concession and spend the night at a wild camp there, which was much more our thing.
The Palmwag concession covers an area of 400,000 hectares with wildlife including leopards, lions, cheetahs, mountain zebras, Angolan giraffes, springboks, kudu, and African bush elephants. The reserve also has the largest population of black rhinos in Africa. And we were allowed to camp between all these wild animals?
When we left Palmwag the next day we had seen a herd of springbok, 3 giraffes, 1 oryx, that was it. We were happy we had made it to our campsite and out at the other gate without any problems, as the track was difficult for us, especially the river crossings where other cars had created holes by bad driving. You are actually not allowed to enter the concession with a car over 4 tonnes – we saw that after paying.
We continued at the good gravel pad, where the only challenge were the dips, created by little rivers. Some of them you could take with speed, others you had to take slow not to destroy our shocks.
We reached the Khowarib Gorge, where a lodge has a campsite, but we went just a little bit further to stay at the community campsite of the village nearby. We had a fantastic view into the valley, with the river just below us. Our site had a covered terrace with a kitchen, a fireplace and a nice ablution block. We loved it there.
At the campsite, we had met Alan and Sam from New Zealand, and had enjoyed a Schnaps and Marshmallows roasted on the campfire together. The next day they invited us to explore the gorge together in their Hilux.
We continued the next day, going further north, first to Sesfontain and then to Camp Aussicht – more at the next post.