Travel Summary of Africa to Amsterdam. Flights. Miles. Time. Kilometers. Climate. Weather. Find it all Here!

Time to call this one a wrap!  Ben and I are just totally beat from the intense  traveling. Here we are at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam awaiting our flights.  Its 5am here, and Ben and I find ourselves watching the cleaning crew and graveyard shift getting ready to leave. We sit here reflecting on this trip, this was a trip of a lifetime!  I am heading directly back to Dallas, Ben to Atlanta then to Birmingham, AL, so saying adios in Amsterdam (shortly), until I see him in Dallas in January.

In 23 days we covered the following ground-

14,058.8  air miles

3 continents (US, Africa, Europe)

Crossed over 3 massive bodies of water

drove 2,394 miles (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana) map of our driving trip

consumed roughly 6 pounds of wild game biltong

walked roughly 40 miles each

drank 41 gallons of water

crossed 6 borders

experienced 8 climate & terrain changes

ate zebra, giraffe, gimmsbuck, warthog, ostrich (and egg), panakoken, and many other treats- (you will just have to go back through all the food finds in the blog from the trip!)

saw some of the best sunrises/sunsets, wild animals, art, & architecture in the world!

That is some intense stats to produce in the better part of 3 weeks!  Stay tuned for more  adventures, we spent the countless driving hours figuring out where next.  And of course how to  become a full time tri-lingual  “Ninja”-

Travel.Cook.Eat.

Thanks for following the Africa to Amsterdam Adventure,

Chef David & Ben

Border Crossing and Customs in Namibia, Africa to Botswana, Africa

We entered into Botswana full steam ahead!

Traveling the Trans Kalhari Highway. Driving Trans Kalhari in Botswana, Africa

Written by Chef Dave | 22 September 2009

The Road through Botswana… We woke up bright and early after a scrumptious meal with Monica and Jofee at their Lake Lodge, to take the daring trek through on the Trans Kalahari Highway!  The first mission was to repair the “Flying Toaster”- which meant reattach the license plate, air the tires, reattach a hub cap, and for my OCD issue, clean the inside!

We took another route than the beach route, although our escort zipped off about 1 km. ahead of us. And we were swerving around trying to maintain some equal ground!  The ground clearance was a big issue, and we did hit a few sand patches, but like love the “Flying Toaster” prevailed!  (She only lost a hub cap, which I am quite certain will be found by some baboon and used as a Frisbee!

Mission II-

Racing the Clock….

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Travel Warnings in Africa. Toyota Yaris Pulls Through Outside Windhoek, Namiba. “Tex-African” Nachos For Dinner

The Lake Lodge Mission….

It went like this:

Joffie: “Head to the right when you get in, go 16km and you will see the Lake Lodge”….

US: “Sounds good, hey… you know we are in a Toyota Yaris”….

Joffie: “No Worries, Just be careful”…….

US: “Okay, sounds great!, see you in a few hours”…….

Joffie: “Monica made dinner for us tonight so don’t eat much” …..all sounds relatively well for African standards, right…..

Well, things were on point all the way…directions were perfect to the gate…we made the right…and were on the road to the Lake Lodge…so we thought.

Our friend Joffie (Hans-Louis’s older brother), seemed to forget to mention that “road” is full of soft sand like you were at the beach!  The middle of the sandy road stood about 3 feet higher than the left over tire tracks from a Land Rover!  Well, when you are in a car with a ground clearance of about 8 inches…. You can only imagine what happened!

5:30pm-. “The Flying Toaster” stops moving

5:30-5:45- We asses the situation, and try to just pop the clutch and roll it out of the hole we had dug (about 2 feet)

5:45-6:30pm- we spend digging all the sand out from under the tires, undercarriage, sides, etc. While using the license plate and the top of a Tupperware container we just happen to have! (Sun is dropping in the horizon….)

What are a few herds of Kudu & Wildebeests (700 lb+ animals) 50 feet from you while you are on the ground shoveling sand with a license plate!

6:30-6:45pm- After digging 6 feet of clear path, we somehow manage to get the Flying Toaster out of the rut!  I am so thankful that Ben is an offroad master, but I was in shock watching him off-road the Yaris for several km, until the roads leveled out…

I mean who off roads a Toyota Yaris through a game farm that looks like the Serengeti!

7:20pm, The toaster survives (as always), and we were greeted with a cold Tefel Lager and good laugh from our friends Jofee and Monica!

“Thanks guys!!!!”

I am convienced that the Flying Toaster got stuck from all the additional African keepsakes that Ben decided to purchase….

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Cooking Wild Game Recipes with Martha at Tambuti Wilderness, Namibia (Part III)

Martha, a true character has really shown that she is the master of replication!  I have really been stunned by her abilities to mirror my every move!  While we have been cooking this week.. Martha has been giving me the “NOD” that she is grasping everything… you know from being in so many kitchens over the years the “NOD” does not always imply that the procedures are comprehended 100%… What else was I to do but put Martha to the test!  I told her that tomorrow night she was going to have to mimic the recreated classic that I had prepared with her a few nights previously… The Gemsbok Wellington!

I was blown away!  Martha made me speechless… everything was perfectly seasoned, and yes, did simplify the steps and presentations for her (than what I would normally whip up) but none the less- Martha blew us all away with her perfection!

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