http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Namibia en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:03:48 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:03:48 BST Okay so I am still connected soEveryone here is really nice. One night Frikie took Anika and I out and we were riding on the back of his truck in a lion enclosure with two lions looking for the female because they thought the male may have hurt her she wasn't at the feeding IT was really neat. I am responsible for taking care of with my group group 4 Lost leopardgoeters cheetahIndie http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-304081.html hey everybodyI have a very short time online right now and it may cut out at any time so it is short and sweet.I am bunking with the three girls I met at the hostel. From ireland they are very nice and funny.I am having fun although it is alot of hard work and we are usually in bed by 730 because we are so tired. In shortI have done so farleopard walkbaby baboon walkstartedcontrolled a HUGE b http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-304079.html We left Cape Town on time Wednesday morning 5 days ago. Our first stop was in the Cederburg mountains north of the city. It was cold at night and dew formed making it feel even colder. It's winter here the sun sets early and we always eat around the camp fire in the dark. There are 21 of us in this truck a truck built for overland travel. We sleep in tents on a mat and in sleeping bags. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-302754.html I'm afraid that this isn't really one of my usual entries but just a real quick update about where I am and what I'm up to. First off an apology the email address I had set up with travelblog has been having problems for the last few months so I haven't got any recent messages. I've set up a new one now so future communications should get through.I've just had a short holiday 18 days in the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-301864.html Fun and GamesWe are doing our best to get the mountain of pictures out that we took. Definitely we will not get them all out but have a few more we thought you might enjoy. You have seen some of the animal we saw and the places we stayed now thought we'd show you some of the cool things we did in Africa.Starting in South on the Orange River dividing Namibia and South Africa we did a relaxing c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-301444.html On Sunday morning we started the 516 km north via the towns of Okahandja Otjwarongo and Tsumeb to the Sachsenheim Guest Farm 264 67 230011 Cost N60.00 pppn 15.00 pv Location S18 44.809 E17 15.670On Namibian roads it is wise to be on the lookout for animals next to road. The biggest danger is in Kudus that can easily jump a 3 m fence to cross the road. You really donrsquot want a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Etosha-National-Park/blog-301135.html Hello everybodyWell the tour to Katatura went today at 300pm it was sooooo much fun. Hennyi think that is how it is spelled and victory two people that are staff at the chameleons took us out. There were 6 of us... all of us are going to harnas tomorrow. It was fun getting to know everybody even before we left. There are three girls who all came together from Dublin Ireland and then there i http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-301129.html Mat Can you please go onto my school email... the password is in the drawer by my computer.Go to www.wisc.eduon the right click wisc maillog inI'm waiting for a reply from Harnas and for some reason the page won't open for me. Please if you could do this soon that would be GREAT Because I need to know if I need to venture out to get more shampoo etc. or if we will stop somewhere that I can buy http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300907.html Hey so I can't find my cords right now to hook my camera up to the computer everything is sprawled out across my room due to the laundry soap leakage. I will have to organize this tonight No the baboons I saw did not have the red butts... at least as far as I could see. So anyways. I haven't been up to much today. I ordered an omelette for breakfast because they smelled so good but now I hav http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300905.html Hello again. Well today was nice... just chilled by the pool and watched heartbreak kid and Good luck Chuck in what I think is French but who knows. There are tons of people here now I think that a tour just got over or something and they are all staying the night before they head out. The girl at reception told me that there is another girl who is being picked up for Harnas friday that got here http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300575.html hello again My pizza was delicious Hawaiian style thank you mat. I went to bed super early yesterday because I was tired... also because the electricity went out and they didn't get it back on for like 3 hours by then i was sleeping. I knew it would be cold but it is like really cold at night I slept with two comforters and sweat pants. This morning was also cold when i left but I just got http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300475.html We travelled the 707 km between Kang and Arebbusch Lodge in Windhoek. Formalities at the border went smoothly. On entering Namibia a road tax has to be paid for every vehicle. The are no toll roads in Namibia and most roads even gravel road are in good condition. The exception are the roads in Etosha Park and the Namib Naukluft Park. Arebbush Travel Lodge 264 61 252255 S22 36.677 E17 05. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300200.html Between 20 June and 3 July 2008 11 of us travelled through Namibia. It was mainly a camping holiday but we treated ourselves to two nights with beds in Swakopmund. In the next postings I will try to share some of our experiences.Thank you to Alida and Mariaan Henriette and Willem Maryna and Mark and our Old People Dries and Henna and Frankie and Baba for making it a great holiday. Mariaan http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-300184.html well I made it finally The second flight wasn't that bad there was this funny south african guy who i ended up sitting by and his kids and brother and his kids were all surrounding me... they were a little nuts but funny. I slept about 5 hours straight so that was really nice. The transfer from that flight to the windhoek was bad though well not bad. It took an hour to get my luggage adn then m http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-300116.html Matilda has now safely brought us to Swakopmund midway up the Namibian coast. Since Fish River Canyon we've also passed through Sousselvlei which is meant to be Namibia's No1 attraction a set of sand dunes that make up the Namib dessert. We saw sunset from the top of Dune 45 there after camping just inside the national park at Sesriem the night before. We then had a 6 hour drive through the N http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-299615.html Right so sorry for the late third installation of the blog......I was catching up on sleep after the trip having gone to work at 9am after landing in Heathrow at 6.45am on a Monday was not the best idea....children don't do this at homeAh where was I.......right so we are traveling up from Sossusvlei to Walvis Bay and Swakopmund google earth Namibia and you'll see the entire west coast line http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-299548.html Just a quick one today the internet is a little slow and I'm running out of time.Things have relaxed a little bit after the intense day of skydivingsandboardinggeneral mayhem. Since then we've driven through an area called Damaraland where we saw some ancient rock drawings and our first elephants Last night and the night before that we were camping in Etosha National Park. Our campsite wa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-298795.html Having spent our first night camping in the South African bush on the Orange River Matilda the name for our Land Rover has got us safely to Fish River Canyon in Namibia.All is well in Africa the sun is shining brighter every day as we head north.Unfortunately the BT homehub is not up to scratch in the middle of the dessert so we'll update with a full itinery in Swakopmund within the next few d http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Luderitz/blog-298528.html During April 2002 a group of us travelled by motorbike car and with 2 Gyros from South Africa via Windhoek and Swakopmund to Sossusvlei Namibia. See also my posts on Desert RunI had the opportunity to fly with Eugene in his Gyro from Sesriem over Sossusvlei.Vlei is an Afrikaans word that means Marsh but Sossusvlei is not a marsh but rather a series of deadend lakes for the infrequent floo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Sossusvlei/blog-298527.html We left adventure packed Swakopmund a couple days ago and it was awesome. Originally I wanted to do the sandboarding but the idea of walking up the dunes after every ride down wasn't too appealing for most of the group. So most of us opted for the quadbiking and it was amazing We did a 2 hour run through the Namib desert oldest desert in the world. The endless dunes and Atlantic coast made http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-297992.html Hello allWell I am now about a week into my journey and am loving it. My tour group is awesome we consist of 6 Canadians 4 Brits 3 Americans 2 Aussies 2 New Zealanders and 1 Irish and we range in age from 19 to 5060. It is really neat to hear everyone's travel stories most of us have travelled quite extensively even the 19 year oldToday we are in Swakopmund famous for being the lo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-297093.html The safari official has started.I believe I am leading the Survivor Namibia race being as I am the only one who turned up in Namibia at the right time LOL But the others disagree as they had engine failure in Sydney so missed the connections last night. Ah well......Namib Desert camp is the 1st stop after 5 hrs of travelling in the night. The spirits are still high. The landscape is amazing. T http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Sossusvlei/blog-297080.html Well start to the trip.....and surprisingly got on time to joburg at 7.45am which meant a wait until 17.55 until the flight out to windhoek......so now I know joburg departures really really well and that they won't sell me any spirits not made in south africa as namibia is in the same duty zone HuhThe one thing that strikes me about africa is the people. I can't believe I forgot about this http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Windhoek/blog-296987.html The overland trip is underway and it is great so far. The truck is huge and definitely well equipped for African overlanding. The people are amazing and we're having loads of fun both in the truck very long drives and at the campsites. There are 4 Americans including me a couple Canadians a couple Brits a couple Kiwis and the rest are all German and Dutch. Socially the group tends to sp http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-295267.html Pictures our of TravelsWell we have all arrived back home safe and sound and are enjoying our hot showers and comfortable beds. Chester and Kirsten tortured our friends and family with an old fashioned slide show of our picutres a few nights ago. So now that we have a better connection thought we would upload some of the better ones. We will spread this out of a few blogs. Hope you enjoy.We'll http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-294824.html Pretty big sand dunesWe had a great time at Vingerklip but then had a pretty long drive down to Swakopmund on gravel and then salt roads. We had to do this in two legs as it probably wasn't safe to take the polo in the dark on the roads that rollercoastered up and down into dry streams to save the cost of building bridges. We had an overnight stop in a place called Uis. There really is nothing http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Sossusvlei/blog-293184.html Northern NamibiaFrom Rundu we did a 4 hour drive to Etosha national park to stay at one of the government safari camps called Halali. The camp is actually luxurious and has a floodlit watering hole as one of its main attractions. Etosha is mainly a self drive national park so most days we headed out ourselves in the trusty polo on the gravel roads to try and spot some game. It didn't have the s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Etosha-National-Park/blog-293175.html The next few days of the trip overlap with places that we've already seen on our trip from Nairobi to Cape Town. So when it came time for the Okavango Delta we decided to opt out and spend some quiet time at Ngepi Campsite. A unique place to stay with even more unique toilets and showers. We went on a sunset cruise down the river just the 2 of us and saw lots of hippos and small crocs as wel http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-292307.html