Category: Namibia

Fish River Canyon was so much more stunning than I expected. I hope to put a video clip on the photo highlights page to give you an idea of the scale of it. Ai-Ais hot springs were a bit of a disappointment. We have now left Namibia, it was rather sad to leave, we would have liked to see more of the North of the country but that will have to wait for another time! The lasting impression of Namibia is firstly how incredible dry it is and yet everywhere has reliable regular drinking water (unlike Zambia for example). The second major impression is how the geology shape the flora and fauna and how grand it can be you can almost imagine how the earth was formed from the rocky outcrops whether granite, volcanic or massive synclines and anticlines. Quite awe-inspiring and humbling.

Great hiking on the Nakuluft area we did the Waterkloof trail through some stunning gorges (some scrambling down rocky slopes). This was the first river in Namibia we have seen with any water in it (but not much of it!). We then moved on to Sesriem, the gateway to the dunes at Sossusvlei on the edge of the Namib desert. The campsite was fully booked and we were given three telephone numbers in turn to try and book an overflow space. However when we arrived there was loads of space (this is Africa and this is how things are done!). We went to see the dunes at Sossusvlei and Dead Vlei at midday when it was just too hot. The last bit to Sossusvlei was 4×4 only in deep sand in places (the guidebook said they were going to stop people taking their 4×4 three years ago but nothing stops a South African in a Toyota!! The following morning we got up at 5am to drive into the park to see the sunrise. We climbed Dune 45 and watched as the sun rose at around 6.30am, spectacular! The light at this time of the morning is lovely. I hope to put some pictures on the site when we get the chance.

I have given up on MTC (Namibia’s mobile network), I phoned them to say that their WAP service hadnt worked for about a week and I dont think customer services even knew they had one! They told me their servers had been down for a month!! They did say I could shortly have GPRS and when I asked if that was from 1st August they replied I would try on around the 3rd (Yup, this is Africa and thats how they do things!). I may investigate a modem for the Sat phone in Cape Town.

The Land Rover is going well, it will soon need 1st maintenance and oil change. There have been a couple of loose connections (on these roads not at all surprising, amazing I have any teeth left!). One of these was very worrying as it was to the second battery circuit and could have meant warm beer so was soon sharply resolved!

Went on to Aus where we found an excellent campsite with hot showers and a restaurant that served excellent 3 course meals for around GBP10 so had a couple of nights break from cooking on the fire (and, no surprise, some excellent South African wines to go with it). We also went to see the wild horses at Garub pan around 100 of them. They rather took a shine to the Land Rover and started chewing the bumper, the wire mesh we had put up front to keep seeds out of the radiator and even started licking and knawing at the side of the truck with their teeth! We shoo-ed them off but eventually we decided to leave before they did any real damage. Just before we did one of them managed to get into the viewing hide and we had some fun persuading him to leave the shade of the hide!! We are now at the Orange River on the Border with South Africa.

We plan to go to Fish River Canyon and Ai-Ais hot springs before going into South Africa…

From Etosha we went to the Kaokoveld region and South Damaraland where the rock outcrops are amazing (monument valley comes to mind). There is also bushmen rock art in this area (soon to be a world heritage site). The dunes on the Skeleton Coast were stunningly beautiful but it is a very bleak place indeed with frequent morning thick sea fogs and very cold so we didnt stay there as long as planned and stayed overnight in Henties Bay (the campsites along the coast were far from inviting!). Had fun in the Landy on soft sand visiting the wreck of the ‘Winston’ on the beach. Also a crazy Cessna 182 pilot had landed on the beach (cant imagine what our CAA would make of that!).

Then went on to Spitzkoppe where there are weathered Granite outcrops. We bush-camped here with wonderful clear skies and so many stars. We saw Klipspringers here (small rock climbing antelope) and lots of Dassies (Rock Hyraxes). Next we stayed the night in Swakopmund a reasonable size town (in Namibian terms) to stock up on provisions. We are now in the Nakuluft mountains doing a bit of walking. Last night was very windy again but we (and the tent) survived but not so much sleep.

We have been in Etosha now for 9 days staying at each of the three camps. It is a simply stunning place to see game.

For example we have seen:

* Herd of 26 Elephant at Kalkhuewl
* A lone Lioness eating a giraffe carcass at Klein Namutoni
* Literally hundreds of Zebra crossing the track at Okerfontein
* An African Wild Cat at Kalkhuewl which jumped into the air from the top of an Acacia to catch birds
* 20 Giraffe at Klein Namutoni mouring the death of the one refered to above
* Red hartebeest at Springfontein
* Nyalas (a bit like Kudu) at Goas
* Enormous herds of Black-faced Impala at Goas
* Eland at Goas
* Black Rhino and spotted Hyena at Moringa
* 2 young male Lions at Salvadora hunting Zebra (rather inexpertly!)
* 20 Giraffe at Klein Namutoni mouring the death of the one refered to above
* Enormous herds of Black-faced Impala at Goas
* 30+ Elephant at Rjetfontein
* 5 Black Rhino at Moringa including two suckling calves
* Leopard on the road from Halali to Goas which we watched for around 30 minutes
* 4 Lions near Salvadora on a ridge
* 50+ Oryx (Gemsbok) at Nebrownii
* A Rhino, 3 Lions and an Elelphantall together at Nebrownii
* No less than 9 Rhino and 3 Lions hunting a Giraffewhich escaped (only just!)
* 90-100 Elelphant at the aptly named Olifantsbad

Not a bad roll call eh?!

The photo highlights will have to wait for better bandwidth for upload (probably South Africa in a few weeks time) as even the thumbnails of the highlights are 500 kilobytes and that just isnt practical!

On to the Skeleton Coast soon, more news then….

Now in Ethosha National Park which is a former lake long since dried up but which has lots of water holes in the remaining salt pan hence an ideal oppprtunity to view lots of wildlife. We have so far seen elephant (including a herd of 26), kudu, springbok, giraffe, Jackal, Kori Bustard, Crane, Falcons, Eland and mongoose. We have yet to see any cats apart from an enormous weasel! There are Lion, Leopard and Cheetah here so we hope to see some soon. There is a log of sightings in reception and a pride of six lion has been seen near here recently so maybe tommorrow we will be lucky. I have some good photos (have taken around 400 already!) but I think I will have to do a photo highlights page until we get to South Africa where I can get a fast internet connection. Even internet cafes in Namibia have relatively slow links.

It is incredibly dry and dusty here but still quite cold at night. We are waking at dawn and going to bed about 7pm! Best way to see the animals. I am getting a good suntan (although more on one side than the other from being in the vehicle so much!). I am also growing a beard and becoming very unkempt and very ‘frontier’!

Hopefully I will do the photo highlights page in the next couple of days…

Well we have finally arrived in Africa. We safely picked up George (the Land Rover) from the Port of Walvis Bay which took a day. We have also now got a roof tent fitted, a 40 Litre fridge, folding table and chairs, cooking equipment (gas and fire) and a 2.5 metre awning. This has all taken some time! Bardt, the manager of the outdoors dealer Cymot in Windhoek has been very helpful and also arranged with Berti, the manager of Savannah Vehicle Hire to fit the Roof tent and the awning. This of course was all more difficult than it first appeared and needed bespoke brackets and all sorts so this took another whole day. When we then tried out the tent we found out that the manufacturers do not pop rivet two rungs of the ladder because vehicle heights vary which meant a return trip. We are now kitted out with a Namibian pay-as-you-go SIM card called ‘Tango’! We tried to get GPRS to connect to the ‘net but after several mobile shops attempted to do this MTC (the only Namibian network) helpline told me you could only get GPRS on a contract and even then it didnt work!! So we are downloading emails using a WAP connection at 9600 baud hence the lack of update of the website, until now!

Windhoek must be the most laid-back capital city I have ever visited. Not at all bustling, frenetic metropolis and all the better for it.

So we are now at the Waterberg Plateau, wonderful walking country. Today, on a short walk we saw a Dik-Dik and a Red headed Woodpecker (havent looked him up in the bird book yet). Have photos but that maybe beyond the current connection capabilties. Last night we stayed near here at a lovely campsite on a ridge overlooking the bush. Ideallic setting indeed, but horrendously windy, not much fun in a roof tent. At one stage I thought we were going to have to abandon ship in favour of more stable living quarters of George’s cab!

Next we plan to go to Etosha National Park where we are camping for 10 nights in three different campsites and a couple of chalets. We are looking forward to some excellent wildlife viewing there. The roads in Namibia are pretty good although the corrugated gravel roads are certainly entertaining.

A right of passage this evening, I cooked my first Potjie (a cast iron cooking pot, a bit like a witches cauldron used on a campfire) in which I made a Lamb stew with butternut squash and green beans. Quite good though I say so myself!

News of Etosha soon depending on mobile reception…