Tag Archives: travel

Sandboarding in Namibia

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On the top of our list of things to do in Namibia was to join a tour that went had the beach on one side and the dunes on the other. We were really looking forward to it but when we looked at the bank balance, we had to be realistic.

It either was, do the tour, or eat for the next month or more.

We decided that food, fuel and housing was more important that the tour.

Yes, we were disappointed but just had to move on.

Some New Zealanders we had met a few weeks back told us about sandboarding with Alter Action. They mentioned how it was a good price ($25) and the business were really responsive. And they were.

As we were staying locally, we met Alter Action in downtown Swakopmund, which was only 5 minutes away. We went to a German bakery that sold gluten free bread as lunch was going to be provided by Alter Action.

There were two more couples to pick up and then we were on our way out to the desert. Beth, the owner, had come out from the US more than 20 years ago. She was a wealth of knowledge about the history of the place.

When we arrived at the dunes, which were only 15 minutes away, the rest of Beth’s team met us. It was simply a matter of signing a waiver and gearing up. Some of the younger people decided to go stand-up boarding but we opted for laying down on boards. Our gear was a helmet and elbow pads. Since the staff went in bare feet, Liz and Pete left their shoes behind, while Sharon kept her sneakers on.

First thing was to walk up these giant sand dunes. Liz really struggled as the sand was super soft. It was easy coming down, but then, you had to go all the way up again. Rinse and repeat.

The key to a good boarding experience is holding up the board (harder than you think) and keeping your feet up (but not too high), unless you want to slow down, then the feet come down. If you don’t hold the board up, you’ll end up eating sand – which Sharon did on the first slide.

After 5 slides down (which meant 5 walks up) it was time to join the others down at the starting point for lunch. Drinks and buns with salad was on the menu – and everyone was ravenous.

Check out the video below that Alter Action put together for us (included in our booking).

Let’s Go On A Free Boat Ride

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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.

Kapishya Hot Springs

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We had been advised that a great place to break up the long journey through Zambia was the Kapishya Hot Springs.

One thing we’ve noticed is that you can spend many hours on the road and not get very far. Once we crossed the border at Tunduma, the road was good for about 160km’s, but after that, it was hard work. There’s endless trucks coming to and fro from the copper mines but at least they were decent drivers and kept a good speed. However, the road was riddled with potholes.

Once we left the Great North Road we hit red dust. We did wonder if we were going to find the place as some roads were blocked but people pointed us in the right direction.

Kapishya Hot Springs was a welcome relief to traveling. We wished we had booked longer than two nights. The natural hot springs are purposely kept at a shallow depth so that it is safe for children. There’s both campsites – where we stayed, and chalets. The restaurant caters for small and large numbers. There’s a cold pool and a very nice area you can have sundowners at.

Mark is the son of the original owners and even though he was raised in Zambia, sounds very British. He’s built up the business with farms, community development projects, chickens, greenhouses and fruit areas. There’s also a spa at the venue in case you want to have a good massage.

Kapishya takes credit card and also has free wifi – both a rare occurence in this part of the world. If you’re going to visit, you need to book ahead of time, and be aware, there are way easier ways to get there than what we took!

Camping in Tanzania

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We are often torn between booking every step of our trip, and winging it for accommodation. We decided that doing long hours and just hoping to find somewhere to sleep wasn’t going to be a happening thing, for the first week anyway.

So, we booked into The Old Farm House in a remote area but on our route. It was way better than we anticipated. It was quiet, plenty of water, and hot showers!

As we drove in, we met some people who were from Namibia – our ultimate destination. They gave us a bottle of sand from one of their sand dunes and told us to come over later. They had some friends who were coming in later too. These two couples traveled in super flash mtoorhomes, so it was an easy setup for them.

For us, it took quite some time. This was the very first time we had done a setup and actually stayed somewhere. Admittedly, it probably took us a couple of hours to get everything where we wanted.

The facilities at The Old Farm House are fantastic. You can choose to stay in a chalet which is very nice and well setup. You can get meals there but have to prebook as they do it all from scratch. We did our own meals.

We had a great night with our friends from Namibia and learnt a lot about their homeland.

The next day – we spent a lot of time packing up (we’ll get better) and headed to our next destination.

Prep Day

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The groceries have been brought. The bags have been packed. The itinerary is coming together. The Landy has been loaded. Now all we have to do is get going.

Sounds simple, but there’s no hand book that says what each country rules are. We found out just a week ago that if you don’t have a Namibia vehicle identification sticker on your car, you’ll end up getting a fine from the police. It was one of those random posts on Facebook that will save the day.

So, we downloaded some designs and sent them off to the printer. Simple instructions, print one each. A few days later we get back 5 of each sticker and two with major errors. On one of them Tanzania was places in Zambia and Namibia was spelt incorrectly. The printing company said they would redo them, but to date, still no word.

We’ll use what we can and see what we can find on the road.

Check out the video below on what else we had to do to the landy to make sure we don’t get pulled up by the police in different countries.

Do We Know What We’re Doing?

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It sounds awesome to spend a few months on the road camping and seeing some of the amazing wildlife and scenery of Africa. The closer we get to going on safari (trip) the more nervous we get about making sure we’re really ready to go.

I just read about a couple who were on safari in South Africa who were in a rooftop tent and a lion came up and started making holes in their tent. When you hear of safety precautions like not visiting the toilet at night and sitting with your back to the vehicle, it makes you a bit nervous.

This week we aim to buy an air horn as apparently that will keep the lions and leopards away.

One thing we’re doing is knowing how to put up our rooftop tent properly. It’s taken a bit of practise but once it’s up it’s great. We bought it from an American missionary who had been in Djibouti for 10 years but came back to Kenya occasionally for a rest, and camping. Unfortunately he got cancer so had to spend a few years going back and forth to the US for treatment. Once he got better, he and his wife decided to return permanently to the US to take up a leadership role in a church.

We bought the tent off him and it had hardly been used.

When we went to Northern Uganda last year to build some toilets, we slept in it for a few nights. It was way more comfortable than what we anticipated. You definitely have to be careful for a midnight toilet visit. It took is a few days to realise there was another piece that attached to the ladder to make it lean on a better angle.

We haven’t slept in the tent when it is pouring down with rain, but it does have a waterproof cover on it. I guess we’ll find out very soon.

There are a couple of windows in the tent for ventilation and lots of pockets on the inside walls for putting in things such as phones.

You can hear everything from the tent, so if we’re in a campground that is noisy, we’re going to have to suck it up. I’m a light sleeper, so hear every animal moving, birds singing and people talking – even from a long distance.

Do we actually know what we’re doing? Sort of, but in the end like everything else, we’ll just have to figure it out.

Where Do You Sleep?

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Our home is a rented two bedroom apartment in a suburb called Jamhuri in Nairobi. It’s really small but it’s affordable and across the hallway from the office. That means it’s a quick 3 second trip between the two.

The downside is that it doesn’t have a security grill, only a direct door to the hallway. If someone comes to the door, you have to ask loudly who it is. It’s a bit of a dodgy area but we actually like it. Downstairs is a open air marketplace where you can buy fruit and veges, as well as a supermarket.

Our lounge/dining area which currently has lots of camping gear ready to go.

When it comes to camping, it’s a whole other story.

We have a rooftop tent that we adults sleep in. It has a thin mattress, windows and you have to go up in it with a ladder. The downside is that if you want to go to the toilet in the middle of the night you have to go down the ladder.

Liz sleeps in a side room on the ground that comes out from the Land Rover. When we first had to put up it took a bit of working out but now it makes sense. It has sides you can let down for fresh air but keep the mossies out. Liz will have direct access to the landy at night just in case there’s a lion or leopard roaming around.

Check out our quick video of how we set up Lizzies room here.

Big News!

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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:

16 Years & Counting

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In 2007, we came up with a crazy idea to give people across East Africa better and safer access to drinking water. Thus, BeyondWater was born. Originally it wasn’t called BeyondWater, because we were going to partner with a company in the USA, but in the end we decided along with our Board of Directors to go it alone.

Fast forward 5 years and we found ourselves moving to Nairobi, Kenya. The plan was to volunteer part time with some kiwis who had their own program and do BeyondWater part time. After two years, we parted ways.

It was then that things really started coming together. We had one part time person, then another and then we increased days and staff. We moved into a very small office and after a couple more years had to find somewhere bigger as our staff numbers increased.

Our original plan was to go back every few years to touch base with family and donors, but grandkids changed all that. Our youngest daughter Hannah, got married and then for the next few years kept birthing children. So, we (or at least Sharon) travelled back and forth to New Zealand and ended up speaking to community groups such as Rotary and also in schools. This actually set up a pattern for the next few years.

16 years later, we are active in several countries across East Africa. We have a large team based in Nairobi, community workers across Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda and Board of Directors in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Kenya.

With the family in Aussie

In November 2023, a wonderful couple from C3 Frisco in Texas surprised us with this video celebrating our 16th anniversary and the 240,000 people who each day get access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.

We don’t see ourselves as missionaries, but just normal people who stepped out to do something to help people help themselves. Yes, we have our personal faith in Jesus Christ, but BeyondWater was set up as a community group.

Giving out sanitary products in The Girl Project

Biking the Dunstan Trail

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When we were in New Zealand in 2021, Pete decided that it was a good idea that we should do some cycling. My brother, Dave, had already given him a bike, so off to Torpedo 7 we went. I told Pete that after going down South, the bike might gather dust in the garage. However, he insisted.

One of the coolest places we cycled was the Dunstan trail.

The Dunstan trail is halfway between Clyde and Cromwell. You can either cycle or walk the trail which is a whopping 55km’s in length. You can park at either the Clyde or Cromwell end and if you’re like us, you just do a portion of it.

We discovered that half way there’s a floating coffee shop, and its owner grew up in Kenya. They take cash and card. As someone who is a coeliac, I really appreciated that they had gluten free goodies available.

As someone who wasn’t an enthusiastic cyclist, I really enjoyed it. There were some hills that were too much to bike up so me like many others, simply got off and walked. Having a bell on your bike is a good idea as some of the corners are blind. The track is only skinny on a boardwalk at the base of a cliff, while most of it is quite wide.

You can hire an electric bike but make sure it can last the entire trip if you’re going to do the 55km. One poor lady we met was pushing her bike most of the way as the battery died and those bikes are particularly heavy. Also make sure you have a tyre repair kit.

We started at the Clyde end and one thing to note is that after the floating coffee shop there’s a sheer cliff to get your bike up. The trail looks tough and I really admired the kids that were doing it. There were some parents who had little trailers on the back of their bikes that little ones could sit in. That would be super tough work.

The great thing about the trail is that you can organise to be dropped up and picked up at either end.

The views are stunning and I highly suggest doing the trail, or part of it, biking or walking.

Here’s some helpful links:

https://centralotagonz.com/tracks-and-trails/lake-dunstan-trail/

https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/lake-dunstan-cycle-trail/

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http://www.argyllonclyde.co.nz/