Let’s Go On A Free Boat Ride

The crossing from Zambia into Namibia was the fastest ever for us – one hour in total.

In most border places, there’s plenty of people wanting to sell you a SIM card and data, but heading into Zambia, there were none. We walked into the border town but were told that the system was down. It was okay as we had the directions to our camping spot from some friends.

We were highly recommended to stop in at the Rainbow River Lodge in Divindu, Namibia. We were really looking forward to it especially since we would have two nights somewhere. It’s been a bit hard packing up every morning, do 8 hours on the road and then have to set up again – day after day.

We arrived in the dark but were given a space right by the river. The lodge has chalets as well as camping areas. There’s a restaurant onsite, but we weren’t impressed with the food choices so cooked for ourselves. There’s wifi at the restaurant and bar, which was important because we weren’t able to get a local sim card. We did go to the post office but the girl behind the desk couldn’t be bothered selling us a card as it was close to her lunch break.

Rainbow River Lodge is located on the banks of the Okavango River in the Kavango-Zambezi Region, north-eastern Namibia. The area is rich in bird life of which as many as 339 bird species has been recorded. It’s surrounded by the Buffalo and Mahango Parks, where 4 of the big five can be found (African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, African Leopard and African Lion). Less than 1 kilometre from Rainbow River Lodge Popa Falls lies, this is where the Kavango River breaks through a 4 meter high rocky entrusion, surrounded by beautiful forests.

This is where we were blessed with a complimentary boat ride from the owner. He gave us lots of insight into the history of the country as well as his journey. We spotted a good number of hippos and stopped off at the falls. When it’s the wet season you can’t see the falls at all because the river rises so much. I would’ve liked to have stayed there longer to practise with my camera but when someone gives you a free ride, you take what you can get.

Check out the video below.

Big News!

When we started BeyondWater in 2007, we established a Board of Directors. Their job is to set up policies, procedures and as much as possible, ensure our future. This is not always easy when we’re based in Kenya and they in Aussie.

All of our boards are hand picked business men and women who have a passion for bringing about positive change through our work. We’re all in this together.

A couple of years ago, our Aussie board asked us to consider taking 6 months off for a sabbatical/long service leave. Can you imagine Pete sitting around for 6 months? Not only is he a sanguine, he has ADD and needs to be doing something practical, otherwise we all suffer. I get what they were saying, it’s time we took time out to refresh our batteries for the next season of the work.

We managed to whittle it down to 3 months. It’s still a long time and also means we can’t do fundraising when we go. We normally travel a few months a year in the US, Australia or New Zealand but if we were to take three months off, this wouldn’t happen.

We looked at doing short courses but nothing came up. Going back to Australia to see the family would’ve cost $10,000 just in flights – and it’s very expensive being there. Would’ve been great to go back and see them but this will have to wait until the end of 2025.

So, we’ve decided to take 12 weeks leave and drive in our landy all the way down to Namibia and back. That means going through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and maybe even Malawi. We’ve all got things we want to see, the big one being Victoria Falls and the deserts of Namibia.

We were going to leave at the beginning of May but because we got back from New Zealand later than intended, we’ve delayed it. We might go at the beginning of June but we’ve a few things to wrap up in the office – like taxes first.

Check out our announcement here: