Days 33-43: Namibia

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Our first night at Namibia we spent at a campsite about 20mins past the border. Namibia as a country is such a dry, dry place and largely desert, and then we enter the driveway of this campsite and they have sprinklers going everywhere so that it is like this big green, plush oasis in the middle of nowhere. Quite a laugh really! It was a really nice campsite right on Orange River, we set up tents for the first night which are made completely of mosquito netting so you can see the stars at night and all which is really cool! We had a dip in the river after being informed there weren't any hippos or crocs nearby. The campsite had a cool bar near the water which was made mostly of stone and mostly open air so that was great for a couple of drinks and some pool on a very sloped table!

The following day we visited Fish River Canyon (apparently it's "arguably the second biggest canyon in the world"... we're not sure who's arguing...). That was pretty massive and we stopped for lunch there with the ground squirrels. We camped that night at the Naute Dam, it was a bush camp meaning just us and the truck, and no one to be seen for miles around. It was a cool spot, water is always appreciated for a swim after spending travelling time on the big blue truck and the sunset over the lake was a pretty good photo op! It rained that night, in the middle of the night we had to get up and put the fly on, even though we'd been told it NEVER rains in Namibia. Ha ha

Our third day in Namibia we stopped en-route at this German castle called Danswib Castle which is built in the absolute middle of nowhere several centuries ago, then made our way to Sesriem where we could start out for Dune 45 and Sossusvlei at 6am the next morning. The whole campsite is just sand, sand, sand and it was pretty hot so we jumped straight from the truck into swimming gear and began to head for the pool.... before we could even walk a couple of feet a sand storm started up and then the lightening and rain storm broke out! It was some of the freakiest weather! We ran to the pool and got in, being pelted the whole time by this vicious weather! After braving the weather back to the truck, we spent a bit of time just waiting it out in the truck and having a pretty early night.

We woke up at 6am the next day and waited at the gate out to Sossusvlei. We drove about 45mins, racing the sunrise, out to Dune 45 - the most photographed sand dune in the world, seriously if you've seen a photo of a massive sand dune anywhere in the world, it's probably this one! We jumped out of the truck and headed up the dune, aiming to walk to the top to wait in the sunrise and get some good photos. Well, climbing a sand dune that massive isn't just so easy, I (Kristi) for one was shattered when I finally reached the top! And I got separated from the rest of our group as I was taking photos from the bottom first and then got stuck in the middle of all sorts of "dune rage" on the way up! Seriously! You have to walk right up the dune in single file and this European guy about 2 people back from me yelled at anyone who stopped for a second to catch a breath! Lucky I never stopped voluntarily but the girls in front of me kept getting screamed at! Quite funny.... if you weren't already knackered at the time... The photos from the top were pretty cool, running, leaping and sliding right down the back of the dune afterwards was the easiest, most fun aspect of the morning ;-) And cooked brekkie was waiting at the bottom, yay. After that we went on a walk through the desert with a local bushman. He was so entertaining! He was constantly dancing away, imitating animals of the desert! He knew so much about the desert that it was a fantastic activity, told us all about Sossuvlei, Dead vlei, the creatures and plants that survived in the desert. I'm pretty sure we could last in the desert for at least 2 days without water now .... should the need arise of course ;-) We then headed further north to another bush camp, stopping en-route at this place called Solitaire (tiny, tiny place) that is famous for apple crumble so had massive slabs of it after lunch - yum yum! Then had photos beside the "tropic of capricorn" sign.

The Blood Hill bush camp the next night was awesome, again just the 7 of us (5 in our group plus tour leader and driver) and our big blue truck. We love the bushcamps because they are so surreal! You have to keep pinching yourself cos we're in the middle of NOWHERE and there is nothing around for miles! Wild animals being the exception of course! It's wicked to lie in your tent at night and watch the stars too. We had a proper fire tonight, and sat around that for a while, with Martin and I's NZ music loyally playing on our ipods which we hooked up through the truck speakers. Of course, this all brought on a lively round of drinking games and was a pretty wicked night. The campsite was largely surrounded by either open plains or massive boulders, very cool!

The next day, we headed to the German town of Swakupmund for 2 nights. Drove for several hours through dust and desert to emerge on this small town (again, in the middle of nowhere... seriously, that's turning into a catch phrase!) We upgraded for $20 odd to a hotel room with ensuite and though it was really basic, it was clean and comfortable (did I mention ENSUITE) and we felt like it was luxury after our tenting and bush camping so far. Also had real coffees and meat pies in town ;-) Two of our group went sky diving that afternoon so we hung at the Swakupmund Skydiving club while they did that (ie, neither martin or i skydived). Martin and Matt watched the Crusaders vs Sharks game and struck up conversation with 2 South Africans. They ended up getting royally drunk with them on Namibian beer and Jagar Bombs. Then we went out to dinner at this restaurant called Napolitana just down from Swakop Lodge. Man, the servings there were some of the biggest I have ever seen! (and we've been to america, land of "as much as you can cram on a plate"). Kristi had this Vegie platter I swear was one of the best meals of my life and some of the group got the BABY ribs - seriously there was nothing baby-ish about these ribs - they were MASSIVE!

Second day of Swakopmund we used as an excuse to sleep in and then wandered about town and down to the beach in the morning. Then we went Quadbiking out in the sand dunes that surround the town. This was one of the most fun things Martin or I have ever done! It was an awesome 3 hours, driving all up and down (rollercoaster style) these massive dunes, not being able to see anything BUT sand dunes anywhere, going down steep, almost 90 degree hills and getting massive airs over jumps (particularly Kristi who loved the jumps!) Twice we emerged from the dunes on to points where we could see out to sea and it was a very surreal feeling after all that sand! It was an awesome, awesome afternoon! That night we watched the video of Ange and Matt's sand boarding in the bar and then wandered down to the waterfront to scout out restaurants there but ended up back at Napolitana just down from the lodge. That restaurant was divine!

We headed out mid-morning the next day for Spitzkoppe for another bush camp. If we thought it was cool at Blood Hill, at this camp, you are in the shadow of Spitzkoppe mountain and the huge boulders surround you, most boulders are the size of small mountains in themselves and we had never seen anything like it! Charlie, our driver, took us for a walk to see bushman rock carvings and we watched sunset from another massive boulder. There were a few other people around here so it was a little different in that there were other humans in sight at most times! (including a european guy our whole group trooped past completely by accident who was squatting on a longdrop, and then later managed to walk right through their camp and all his friends proceeded to laugh and laugh at this guy who had obviously spread the story around a bit...) Had toasted marshmallows over the bonfire - yum!

Martin takes over blogging now... WOOHOO

Next day we got up early and drove for a couple of hours to Cape Cross, which is a seal colony on the perilous 'Skeleton Coast'. Was pretty amazing, seals for Africa! (excuse the pun). There would have been 40-60000 on the beach and several thousand more in the surf. There were also heaps of Black-backed Jackels lurking around waiting to ravage carcases and steal babies!! Just like dingos eh!? Jackals are a right royal pain in the ass, they constantly hang around camp sites and try to steal stuff... cheeky buggers!
Drove most of day to the Cheetah park where we stayed for the night, got up close and personal with 3 tame Cheetahs, which was pretty neat - they are very majestic animals, and sound like lawnmowers when they purr 😊 Then went on a drive on the back of a ute to feed the wild cheetahs in their 2000acre enclosure - very scary shit! they just watched the truck initially, but then went bananas when the meat started being chucked out - wowza! Gald I wasn't that sliced up donkey! Also went to see a mummy and her 4 little cubs get fed 😊 Reminded me of Bali, but of course she is tougher and more scary.

In the morning we had a longish drive to Outja for a quick shop, then pushed onto Etosha national park and our first encounter with the serious wildlife of Africa. We camped in the park itself. at Okaukeujo and managed to see elephants, zebra andf giraffes on the drive to the camp 😊 Basically chilled out and camp for the afternoon then had a late afternoon game drive, not too much to see - plenty of Oryx, Wildebeast and Springbok - all glorified deer! The camp has its own waterhole, where we can watch the animals drink, but due to massive amounts of uncharacteristic rain it was deserted - except of course for stupid German tourists who crowded behind the fence staring at nothing, then getting grumpy if we spoke to loud because we mite scare it away... the nothing that is!!! Due to excessive consumption of local beer, I had to get up at 3am to go to the little boys room, I wandered past the watering hole to see if there was any more action, and sure enough there were tons of animals, including a Hyena - apparantly the animals only come out after the hordes of Germans have gone to bed!!! Quite funny really 😊 Germans are everywhere in Namibia, it's like a second home to them... weird eh!

Got up nice and early for a full day game drive, from one side of the park to the other. Saw heaps of antelopey things throughout the day and were getting a bit depressed until our tour leader made an amazing spot - a sneaky lion lurking in the bushes!! Saw a young cheetah scampering through the undergrowth, but too quick for a photo! Then saw another 2 male lion chilling under a tree.
Finally got to our 2nd camp in Etosha, called Namutoni, and set up for the night, just before the impending rain hit. Went for a late afternoon game drive and got stuck in a scary-as-poo rain/lightening storm, we actually saw the lightening strike about 500 mteres away... BOOM!! On the up side we had an amazing sighting of a Big bull elephant having a feed and them the unprecedented site of two lions have a romantic interlude!! Took all of 4 seconds, which was funny until we learned they have to do it 40+ times a day for 3-4 days - Yikes!! Saw heaps of animals as we raced back to the camp gates to avoid being locked out.

Got up early and watched another brief Lion copulation (Just like the discovery channel I swear!).Another colossal drive, only stopping at Rundu for a quick shop, which included buying eachother costumes for the 'Booze Cruise' we do in Vic Falls (Zimbabwe) - basically everyone drew a name out of the hat and had to buy that person an outfit at the cheap Namibian market - spending no more than $10 Namibian (bout $1-2 NZ). Great fun! heehee (more to come about the ensuing ensembles later!!) Arrived at Ngepi Camp ata about 4pm, a very cool camp, each bathroom is personalized and very, very funny. Included names such as 'Loo with a view', 'Outdoor adventure shower' and 'The royal seat'. Most were open air! A very classy idea and made the camp site very memorable, was a cage pool floating the river too!
Everyone hit the bar pretty hard that night, our leader Steph bought us all a round of Springbok shooters, the ritual of consumption including pulling our pants half down to show our 'little white tails!!' Great night.

Left the next morning to finally cross into Botswana!!

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Comments

[Jennifer]

big blue truck
Sounds like you guys had an awesome time in Namibia. What was the name of the big blue trucl tour company? Would love to give them a go as heading that way soon ourselves. Thanks, Jen