Namibian sands

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Namibia is one of the countries that I have dreamed of visiting for a long while.
Our first destination was Etosha National Park. At first there was little to see but just as we were heading off we came across a stand off at a waterhole between a young lion and a pack of hyenas. The lion appeared to be slightly lame but as we watched the hyenas suddenly turned their attention to a new hyena interloper and amongst yelps and screams they chased him away from the waterhole.

The next day we drove through Etosha via a series of waterholes. At one a couple of lions were trying to get at a kill in the water while impala, hartebeest and zebras watched warily from close by. That evening at the campsite we watched a continous stream of animals at the illuminated waterhole. Rhino and giraffe were joined by a large herd of elephants while lions prowled and roared in the background. Two of the elphants started sparring firstly betwen themselves, then with one of the rhinos. After the elephants left the lions came down and a stray springbok was stalked and almost caught within sight of the human audience.

One of the luxuries of the overland trip by this stage was getting to a campsite and jumping in the swimming pool to cool off. There was almost a competition to see who could pitch a tent and getto the pool first. If we were at the campsite early the tent was left till later. On this stretch we also enjoyed Crispin and Japhed's cooking. Japhed cooked us African sadza (ground maize) and stew.. yum.

Cheetahs are my favourite african cat and I was looking forward to visiting the cheetah farm in Namibia. As we stroked the pet cheetahs the purred like overgrown domestic cats. Later as the wild cheetahs were fed and we saw their red eyes following hungrily behind our open pick up they didn't seem so domesticated!

Then came the scenery that I had most been looking forward to the sand dunes of the skeleton coast. As we drove through the barren landscape it was almost like being on another planet. The colours changed from white to grey to orange and red, in some places interspaced with grey-green shrubs. We stopped briefly on the coast at the Cape Cross seal colony and with a pungent aroma around us shivered as we ate lunch. The temperature had droped about 15 degrees as we travelled from the central desert to the misty coast. We arrived at Swakomund in rain!

Whilst others from the truck enjoyed adreneline thrills of sky-diving or sand boarding my thrill in Swakomund was finally having the cast and pins removed from my wrist! I bought two large apple cakes to share in celebration. Resisting the urge to skydive I did try quad biking the next day although I sat behind one of the instructors to get a feel for the desert. My favourite moment though came a day later when we went to the red flowing dunes at Sossovlei at dawn. This was one of the scenes that I had come to see and would love to go back to explore more. I loved the desolate beauty of the area that seemed desolate but where you could see impala leaving footprints in the sand and lizards and snakes hidden.

Our final highlight in Namibia was Fish River Canyon - second in size after the Grand Canyon.

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Photos

Climbing the dunes
Climbing Dune 45 at sunrise

zebra
Zebra at a waterhole in Etosha