Namibia - Sand, sand and more sand!

---

Namibia is a country the size of a large european nation, with a population lower than Birmingham... public transport is pretty much non existent. Germany thought they got the short straw in the colonial stakes, but its a beautiful country full of dramatic landscapes and a lot of sand!

We started our journey hitching a lift in a car transporter, as you do... made it to Windhoek and picked up our Nissan 4x4 for a 2 week tour of the country... we started off in Etosha National Park, hoping to see some more wildlife, first day was pretty cool and we saw a couple of lions sleeping and nearly ran over a mother and baby Rhino in our rush to get back to the campsite before sunset.

The park is set up for self drive but has really anal rules and regulations and has campsites that look like failed prototypes for disneyworld... but the floodlit waterholes are a nice touch and we got to see a black rhino, bull elephant and African wildcat at night, also got woken up by the roar of lions very close by...



The second day involved a lot of driving and not a lot of wildlife (except loads of giraffes) but thats trhe chance you take with wild animals. After Etosha we headed North back into "real Africa" and the home of the Himba people... we visited Etosha falls and swam in the mini whirlpools at the top, the river forms the border with Angola and we had to fight the temptatio to swim across (although the threat of getting shot by border patrols helped!) The falls were really cool and me and Patsy, typically maanged to find a random bar in the village where we met all sorts of local characters



On our journey North we were unfortunate to stop off in Ondangwa, a town (apparantly) notorious for car crime and some theiving #@~!# managed to steal Vicki's bag through a small gap in the window, right from under our noses!

We headed back south, making a second stop in Outjo at Kai-Oms Guest house run by Dion, a South African guy who cooked us a fantastic Braii (BBQ Sth africa style - ie proper meat not birds-eye beef burgers) both times we stayed we ended up drinking awful shots in his mini bar in his house... the second time involved drinking games at the mercy of sharkie...



We also dove the skeketon coast, amanging to run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere! luckily managed to flag someone down who drove me down to to the petrol station 100km away, meanwhile the others managed to syphon some petrol from another passing vehicle... i borrowed a jerry can and blagged a lift back up the coast, where i passed the others just as they were about to conk out again, could have been worse considering we broke down in the middle of a barren area of land with no villages or towns other than some abandoned mines

in swakopmund "a town more German than Germany" and the adrenaline capital of Namibia we did a skydive over the dunes, where i had a go at steering the parachute! flinged oursleves off the dunes and went quad biking at sunset...



Also we visited Sossevlei, an oasis in the middle of the dunes and climbed some huge dunes - feels like walking up a travalator!




On our way back to Windhoek, we stopped in Rehobath - a random little town... we found a crummy little campsite and for the cost of camping there (£2) the guy on the door opened up the spa for us to use whenever we wanted, so naturally cracked open the wine and made the most of it!



Photos are uploaded at the following location:

---