Ngepi Camp, Namibia

After a long drive from Livingstone, we finally arrived at Ngepi Camp in Namibia. What a great place! Built and run by South Africans, it's very eco-conscious and involved in the local village community. Lodging includes camping, tents, and treehouses. Very laid back atmostphere.

We arrived a bit frazzled, after the longer than expected drive and Mike's struggle with his motorcycle over the soft sand road. We immediately relaxed when we saw our "treehouse." Actually, we gasped with delight. What a view. What a sweet set-up. More like an open air palapa on stilts next to the river. A bed with a mosquito next. A sink and shower. Toilet tucked around the corner. Deck with two chairs and a hammock. All privately situated with a stunning view of the wide, calm Okavango river. On the far bank was an animal preserve. A symphony of birds, crickets, and frogs. The occassional hippo grunting. What more could you want?

The kids weren't quite as thrilled with the tents they got. Plain canvas pole tents set back from the water, with nothing but a bed on the floor. Ethan's tent had a nest of bees right next to the entrance. For bathrooms, they had to use one of the public toilets (which were actually quite creatively decorated). Zenzi and Ava immediately started laughing hysterically. ("Otherwise we would have cried," they admitted later.) It would have been fine under different circumstances, but after seeing our treehouses, and after such a long drive, it was a disappointment. But the next day, Judith was able to get them a treehouse of their own.

While Kate and I showered and soaked up the scenery from our treehouse's hammock, Judith went down to the office/bar to sign us up for activities. There was a whole list to choose from. Game drive, village tour, river cruise... When she asked to sign us up, though, the young woman working there explained, "Oh, tomorrow we don't have any activities. There's a big community meeting in town that we're all going to be at."

Talk about being thrown for a loop. We'd crossed borders, driven seven hours without food or air conditioning. Mike had scraped up his leg and damaged his motorcycle. And the one day we were going to be here, they just simply weren't going to have any of the activities we came for?

Judith can be irresistably charming and she can be a force to be reckoned with. In this case, she was the latter, and within the hour, the lodge had set up both a game drive and a river cruise for us the next day.

Both nights there, we signed up for the family-style, fixed-menu dinner. Lasagne the first night, barbecue chicken the next. The food was quite good, and we enjoyed dining open air right next to the river. We lingered after dinner and played Bananagrams into the evening, serenaded by frogs and crickets.

It was so incredible to fall asleep cradled by the sounds of the bush, and to wake up to catch the sunrise coming over the river bank. Our treehouse was a little piece of heaven, and we could have stayed there for weeks.