It is a truck, not a bus! Overlanding Namibia

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We joined the overland truck (it may have seats like a bus but apparently it's most definately a truck) in Cape Town and spent a week traveling up to Swakopmund on the west coast of Namibia, taking in Orange River, Fish River Canyon (the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon) and the amazing huge red dunes of the Namib desert on the way. Unfortunately we've had a (hopefully minor and temporary) issue with our photo back ups - when we get to somewhere more urban we're going to attempt a rescue so I'll save the blogs for the first part of the trip until then - hopefully soon!

Swakapmund is a pretty town with wide streets and german looking architecture which has fast become the adrenaline sports captial of Namibia. And unfortunately there no camp sites in the middle of town to we had to stay in a hostel - i.e. no tents to put up and take down (yeayyyyy) and a hot shower that was quite welcome after the shower and toilet-less bush camp we'd spent the previous night at!

After a few days R&R in Swakopmund, where most of the bus, I mean truck, opted for adrenaline sports like skydiving and sandboarding whilst Helen and I went for the more hard core option of sitting in coffee shops and horse riding over the dunes, we hit the road again. A few hours north of Swakopmund is the start of the Skeleton Coast, appropriately named for all the ship wrecks that have occured off these shallow rocky shores. On the way up we passed a ship that had fallen foul of the rocks only 10days before and still sat wrecked close to the shore line, tilting at a rather alarming angle.

We were heading to Cape Cross, home to a huge colony of Cape Fur Seals. Walking down from the carpark towards the walkway thats been built to keep people away from the seals, two things hit you before you've even seen a seal - the smell and the noise.... yet despite the overwhelming power of both I was still supprised at the sheer number..... there's thousands of them! Some were lazing on the beach, others on nearby rocks, some snoozing, some scratching, others fighting and more out at sea feeding. And just meters away were 5 or 6 Black Backed Jackels which would happily have a new pup that strayed to far.

That night we stayed at another bush camp, although this one at least had long drop toilets. We arrived late in the day, just in time for sunset, and the effects of the fading light on the 700 year old granite rock that is Spitzkoppe were beautiful. At 1727m hight it's known as the Matterhorn of Africa, just smaller and without the glaciers. Along with the domes of the nearby Pontoks, Spitzkoppe rises high above an otherwise completely flat dusty landscape.

The highlight of this part of the trip for me though was the 2 days that we spent in Etosha National Park - at over 22,000 km sq it is massive (apparently Holland just fits inside) and the volume and range of wildlife that we saw here was fantastic - I was in Kruger last year and thought that was amazing but this was so much better.

Etosha means "Great White Place" and the park is dominated by a massive mineral pan which covers @25% of the park. At the time we were there, in the dry season, it was devoid of water, the stark white of the cracked salt crystals glinting brightly in the sunshine. However even in the wet season it only fills if the rains are really heavy, and even they it's only temporary. The park has numerous other water holes though which were full of water and around which we saw so much wildlife - in all Etosha is home to some 114 species of mammal, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibian species and one species of fish... and of that we saw only a very, very, very, very small fraction.

At one water hole we watched as a herd of Elephants, some young, others adults drank their fill, sprayed themselves to cool off and then moved over to a nearby mud hole. Here they covered themselves in mud - this cools them, provides a natural sun screen and when it dries and cracks off it takes any ticks and fleas with it. Meanwhile up on the ridge behind the Elephants a herd of Giraffes patiently waited their turn - as the Elephants moved away they slowly started to make their way down to drink, but then they got nervous and went off back the way they'd come.

At another hole we arrived to see a whole menagerie of animals sharing the same spot - Elephants, Kudu, Springbok, Zebra, Warthogs - even Ostriches were walking around.

Then there were the Lions - in all we saw 4 but the best was the mating pair. We'd spotted a gathering of vehicles around one water hole, usually a good sign that something was happening, and arrived in time to see a lioness raise her head from the grass and look at us. And then she flopped back down. We were more than happy just with that but then on the horizon walking towards us was a lion, it's mane full, which went straight passed us and the lioness and down to the water to drink. It's thirst quenched it moved away, marked it's territory and lay down in the grass a short distance away. By now we were all really excited by what we'd seen, but watched on as things got better and the lioness got up, walked passed the male and took her turn at the water, scaring off a bird that got to close with a jump and show of teeth. Then she moved back, smelt his sent and flopped down a short distance from him... and then they just stared each other out. Maybe it was too hot, maybe they didn't like the audience but it was clear they weren't going to get it on whilst we were watching. Witnessing all of that though was an amazing experience.

Finally there were the Rhino. The camp we stayed at was within the park boundaries and just outside its edge was a flood lit water hole that we spent both evenings at, watching and waiting for wildlife to come down and drink. The first night I was on dinner duty and busy chopping up veggies when a guy coming back from the water hole said that there were Rhino down there. We went as fast as we could but when we arrived they were leaving. After dinner we came back though and were rewarded by seeing first a mother baby pair and then later an adult pair. These were the Black Rhino, which differ from the White Rhino by the shape of their mouth and the lack of a hump on their necks. Black Rhino's have pointed mouths, adapted for their life of eating leaves from bushes. White Rhino's are grazers so have a flat mouth suited to that purpose. On the second night we arrived to find a herd of elephants at the water hole, again a mix of adult and young. The noticeable thing was that despite their number (maybe 20+) and size (adults can weigh up to 6 tonnes) they made very little noise. By day inside the truck and with the sound of the engine or other vehicles it was hard to appreciate how quiet they or any other animal that we saw were. By night though with no vehicles and only the sound of camera's clicking from the spectators it was absolutely peaceful despite the presence of these large animals.

The Big 5 is a term that was coined by game hunters in Africa to define the 5 most difficult animals to hunt on foot - the Lion, African Elephant, African Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino. In Etosha we saw 3 of them and have since been lucky enough to see the other two - one a little to close for comfort but more of that in the next blog!

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