Table Mountain and Namib Desert

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Hi All,
We spent 3 days in Cape Town at a nice backpackers hostel. The first day we went up Table Mountain and did a 4 hour trek around the park at the summit. The video shows how the clouds come in over the mountain to make it seem as though a table clothe is being put on the mountain, thus the name table mountain. The picture of Steve with Cape Town in the back ground shows the beauty of the city and how European it feels.

The following day we took the ferry to Robben Island, the prison that political prisoners including Mandela were locked up. The next day we hired a car and drove to the Cape of Good Hope. We trekked to the point having to ward off baboons along the way with a stick. On our way back from the Hope we stopped to see a jack-ass (African) Penguin colony and their call sounds just like a donkey. On this day we dipped our toes into the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.

We left early the next morning for Namibia where we have spent the last week exploring the sand dunes in the Namib desert. We hired a 4X4 with a tent on top and started the day long drive from the capital, Windhoek, to Sesriem where we stayed at a lovely tent camp overlooking the grasslands and mountains. Namibia has had a lot of rain and so the desert was green with grass of many kinds. We saw wildlife along the way including springbok, oryx, jackal, ostriches, snakes, lizards, etc.

We drove to the dunes the next day and climbed Dune 45 and went Sossusvlei to see a pan that was dry for the last 4 years but now has water in it. Steve had great fun driving the 4X4 in the sand to get to the pan. As we were looking at the pan a jackal walked by us with no concern about our presence.

The next morning we got up early and joined the queue of cars waiting to get into the park to take that most important photo of the dunes with the early morning sun. After entering the park, we sped off and took many photos of the dunes in the early morning light. We went to Dead Vlei early so Steve could practice his yoga before the heat of the day. It was clear and sunny both days with temperatures around 30c. We climbed some more dunes and drank lots of water. After a rest we took a sundown trip to a rock formation and watched the sun go down over the desert. It was a beautiful end to a lovely three days in the desert with the many birds and wildlife. The last evening we ate at the lodge and a jackal came right up to the wall between our table and the grass and we watched it for a while.

The next morning we drove the 300 klms, of rough dirt roads and and fords across rivers, from Sesriem to the coastal town of Swakopmund where it is the home of adrenaline sports of Namibia. We decided not to do the sand boarding because it seemed too much hard work to walk up the dune just to slide down it. Today we went kayaking with seals but that is a blog for another day.

Steve and Linda

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Comments

[Shari]

Beautiful
Thanks for sharing...it looks beautiful. Steve, it's hard for me to look at you sitting on Table Mountain like that...scares me!!