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Published: November 21st 2008
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Hi everyone from Swakopmund, Namibia.
Since leaving Victoria Falls a couple of weeks ago we have now finished the westward leg of our journey and are on the Atlantic coast in the old German colony town of Swakopmund.
On our way here we initially had a brief stop at Botswana's Chobe national park (Thebe river). Here we had an evening cruise up the river into the national park, this stop was unfortunately only very brief as we were back on the road the following day. However, this cruise gave us a taste of the start of the rainy season as we were head by a torrent of cold water while out cruising and checking out the local hippo and elephant population.
Our first substantial stop after Victoria Falls was however in the Okavango Delta. The delta forms a huge natural reserve area in Botswana and acts as an almost impenetrable barrier against human encroachment with the coming of the rainy season floods every year.
For this stop we were packed off into dug out log canoes known locally as makoro. We had a 3 day stay in a bush camp out on one of the many islands
currently being formed by the start of the rains. It was pretty basic conditions in our bush camp which wasn't helped much by the usual evening rains which turned everything to mud. However, while on the delta we did our very first "bush walks" which began with a briefing from our guide as to how to avoid being killed by several different kinds of animal. The game in the delta is fairly skittish and if it smells humans will usually take off as fast as possible. We were lucky enough to see elephants, zebra and wilder beast while on foot which is an interesting experience when you don't have the protection of a jeep or truck around you. We also received many informative briefings from our guides on game tracks and the many types of animal dung to be found in the wild. For instance we can now tell male blue wilder beast from female blue wilder beast by the shape of the poo :-)
Moving around on the makoro was pretty cool too as most of the time you are sliding through banks of reeds with only a couple of inches of free board left on the canoe
before it gets swamped by the water. It is quite an interesting feeling being poled along and hearing the grunts of nearby hippo without having a clue where they are - our polers were surprised by them a couple of times and managed to go backwards very very quickly.
We also spent a bit of cash on a scenic flight over the Delta which was well worth doing. We had an hour long flight in quite possibly the smallest plane in the world flying at 150 metres above ground for the entire trip. This was a great way to see the area as we got a much better perspective as to what is now happening in the delta as the rains starting to arrive, with the water slowly creeping inwards onto the parched isolated highlands.
Our westward trek next took us into Namibia which has been pretty much under control of South Africa since the end of the first world war. Once we entered Namibia things have become a lot more developed which at this stage of the trip we are pretty thankful for :-)
Our first stop in Namibia was at Etosha national park, where we
did a number of game drives in our truck over three days while camping on the fringes of luxury resorts within the park. Being able to use clean sit down toilets which stock toilet paper and have working taps and basins was a welcome change. We had some great lion spotting drives while in Etosha - the highlight of which was finding five 6-8 month old lion cubs hanging out under a tree waiting for their mothers to return with dinner. However, an added bonus of staying at resorts was that each place sported its very own waterhole complete with flood lights too check out night time visitors. None of these resorts had TVs but that wasn't really a problem as most of the guests spent a lot of time on park benches watching 'waterhole TV'.
After leaving Etosha we had a quick stop at a cheetah sanctuary where wild cheetahs which have been harassing livestock are captured and kept. We were taken on a feeding run for these wild cheetahs and were able to watch as groups of ten or so animals competed in the air for chunks of donkey meat being thrown to them.
This place
also had 3 pet cheetahs which had been raised from cubs by the family in charge, which we were allowed to sit with and pat provided we didn't make eye contact with them or touch them below their necks. They were like very large house cats, purring and rolling around on their backs for us before having a chase around the yard after the Jack Russell terrier.
Our last stop before Swakopmund was at a local Himba tribe village, where we were able to wander amongst the villagers and were treated to displays of waterless washing done by using smoke saunas. The Himba women were really striking as from puberty the coat themselves with a red ochre paste and bind their hair into long pigtails with strips of leather.
We are now in almost at the end of our time in Swakopmund, the adventure sports capital of south western Africa. Simon was able to sample the thrills of sand boarding yesterday which was pretty much like snow boarding only with long walks up sand hills and sand being deposited everywhere possible after a wipe out. We are probably up for a repeat performance of this today as we
are taking some quad bikes out into the dunes for a look see.
We are now only a week out from Cape Town and are really looking forward to ditching the tents and sleeping mats. We are now at the stage where we are quite looking forward to coming home so will see you all again very soon :-)
S&S
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