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Saved: November 30th 2021
Kathleen and Laini
Kathleen was the BEST part of the Cardboard Box!**WARNING** Long Blog Entry - please get comfy before reading ...
We headed to Windhoek on a Sunday and ended up staying at the Cardboard Box Backpackers (it was within walking distance from the minibus taxi stand) and set up our tent on the driest piece of sand we could find. We must say, in all the photos of Namibia that you see, it looks like the whole country is a barren desert land. It has been an exceptionally wet year this year, but still, we couldn't get over the green vegetation and the amount of rain we were experiencing. The best part of the Cardboard Box was Kathleen the receptionist who checked us in. She has the most beautiful smile and her charming, fun personality made us feel at home immediately.
Windhoek is a lovely city, much more modern and commercial than we expected. In fact, it is the cleanest and quietest capital city that we have visited in Africa. We enjoyed walking around the city and even did a little hike that takes you up on a ridge that gives great views over the city. Windhoek feels like a very safe city, and while we didn't experience
Windhoek
View from the Hofmeyer Ridge Walk. any trouble at all, we have heard stories since that people have been robbed, so if you are heading there - please take care!
We had been tossing the idea of renting a car from Windhoek and started doing the research to find the cheapest, available car (lots of companies had no availability for weeks!). We found a Toyota Corolla for approx. $50 Cdn a day and decided to go for it. Our itinerary included a visit to a Cheetah Sanctuary, one of the only wineries in Namibia, the red dunes at Sossusvlei and to Fish River Canyon - a trip that will take us more than 1400 km in 8 days. Since we drove on more gravel roads than tarred roads, Dusty was the obvious choice of name for this car!
After getting the car sorted out (Odyssey Car Rental in Windhoek were awesome!) we began our road trip by heading north, with a stop at the first winery in Namibia, Kristall Kellerei, just outside of Omaruru. We sampled the two wines on offer, one red and one white and ordered a platter of food. The white is a colombard that is very crisp and refreshing when
Windhoek
Beautiful church on the corner of Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue. served chilled. The colombard grape is usually used for making cognac or brandy, and only recently have winemakers started making strictly colombard based wines. The red is a blend, called a Ruby Cabernet and is really nice, light drinking red. The winery only has 4 hectares of land, 2 ha for white grapes and 2 ha for red, so it is a really small, boutique winery. We chatted with the new owners for a bit, they have only been at the winery for just over a year and they have some changes in mind. If you visit them next year, there will be a new line of wines for tasting. We also sampled some Grappa, which Kristall has called Nappa because the name Grappa is similar to Champagne and can only be used in Italy. Then we had a tour of the small facility and even saw the 'grappa' machine producing a clear liquid with a 75% alcohol level. The still was originally brought over from the Black Forest region of Germany, and is still working today. When we sat down to share our platter and enjoy another glass of white wine, we were astounded by the size and variety
Windhoek
Lizard at a war memorial in town. of the "meat and cheese" platter that we ordered. The bread was homemade, the meat was all game, the condiments homemade and the cheese delightful. We sampled smoked zebra (our favourite!), kudu sausage, and oryx salami along with brie and cheddar cheeses. Needless to say, we were very happy we stopped at the Kristall Kellerei!
We stayed the first night in a town called Otjiwarongo which was close to where the Cheetah Conservation Fund is located. We stayed in a campground that was situated right next door to the Crocodile Ranch ... I was feeling a little nervous about that! The best part of the campsite were the guinea fowl that were running about all the time, we managed to pick up a number of great guinea feathers from here! Our drive to the Cheetah Conservation Fund was a little game drive in itself. We left early, and managed to see several warthog families, springbok and a large kudu. The Cheetah Conservation Fund is an organization founded by an American doctor who is trying to save the Cheetah from extinction. Namibia hosts the world's largest population of Cheetah and 75% of these are living on ranges that they must
Small Owl
Found this little fellow near our tent at our campsite in Otjiwarongo. We think he is a Scop's Owl of some kind. The photo is a little dark, hope you can see him! share with livestock farmers, which typically results in many Cheetah deaths every year. The Fund currently houses almost 50 orphaned Cheetahs which cannot be released into the wild. They live in large enclosures, are not allowed to breed and are monitored closely to ensure the health of the animals. There are a great many game reserves, lodges and private enterprises that have orphaned cheetahs, but we were glad we made the trek to the CCF as we learned a great deal about the plight of the cheetah and what the organization is doing to protect it. Their mandate is to work with the local farmers to lessen the conflict between the cheetahs and the farmers and one way they are doing that is using Anatolian Sheep Dogs that are donated to the farmers to assist in flock or herd protection.
While there, we did a one hour "safari" where they take you into one of the enclosures (in a vehicle) and you drive around looking for the cats. We were in the female enclosure and found 3 of the 4 females that are currently living here. To see these beautiful animals up close is really a treat. While the
Kristall Kellerei Omaruru
Can you see the smoked zebra on the platter?? cats are not able to live in the wild, they are not tame or domesticated. We took several photos (we choose only a few to share with you!) and enjoyed being close enough to them to hear them chirp and growl.
There is a large museum on site and we spent plenty of time learning more about the cheetah. Did you know the current belief is that the cheetah originated on the North American continent? The cheetah is the fastest land animal and the second is the Pronghorn Antelope (found in our prairie backyard). The last ice age almost wiped out the cheetah and as a result, only a few survivors are the ancestors of today's cheetahs. With the inbreeding, the genetic makeup of the cheetah is very fragile. We learned a lot about this beautiful cat and have a whole new understanding about the evolution and future of the cheetah.
From the CCF, we drove south again to stop the night in Okahandja, before making our way toward the dunes of Sossusvlei. There are several routes to enter the desert and the Namib-Naukluft Park, and we randomly chose one. The catch is that all the roads leading
in are gravel. With the recent rains, there was a chance that the road could be washed out or just in very poor condition. The road was good for the first part, then it rapidly deteriorated and was indeed washed out in some sections. Luckily, there was no water left, just the rubble. Peter expertly drove our non 4x4 Corolla through the worst sections and got us safely to our destination. We later learned that the road we chose is one of the least travelled routes to Sossusvlei (yup, sounds just like something we would do!). The scenery was stunning though and with the rains, everything is green and the flowers are blooming. We expected the landscape to be flat, but instead we were driving through magnificent mountain ranges. Before heading to our campsite, we made a detour to visit Solitare, because in the Lonely Planet they say the bakery makes the best apple pie. We would have to agree! It was worth the stop!
We arrived into Sesriem, where the campsite and the park gate is located, to find Mike, our Pincher Creek friend, waiting for us. We met Mike in Windhoek and arranged to meet up with
CCF
Need we say more? him in Sesriem. The cost of camping in Sesriem (the cheapest option) is outrageous (we paid approx. $45 CDN each night to camp and this was with a seasonal 50% off special!) and it would help out all interested parties if we shared a site. This worked out especially well for us as Mike is a photographer and gave us lots of hints and tips for taking photos in the desert. Most of all, Mike lent us a polarizing filter (very kind and generous of him) and we got some great dune shots that really make the dunes red and the sky blue. Thanks Mike!!
Being in Namibia in the rainy season, and one of the rainiest in years, means we saw a very different country than most visitors see. The landscape was so green and lush, very different from what we expected, especially as we headed out to the dunes. We travelled through mountains to reach the Namib desert and then were greeted by green grasses, trees and beautiful flowers blooming after the rains. Made for a particularly beautiful sight!
The first evening we drove into the park to get some sunset photos and the following morning
CCF
I would like to take one home! we set off early to capture the sunrise over the dunes. In terms of infrastructure, it is an interesting little area. You can only reach Sesreim by way of gravel roads, yet when you reach the park gate, in the middle of the Namib desert, a paved road starts. The paved road takes you 65 km to the 2x4 car park and then you MUST have a 4x4 to cover the remaining 5 km to Sossusvlei. It's a little crazy. Even though we were in our 4x4 Toyota Corolla (ha!), we had to leave our vehicle at the 2x4 car park. Of course, there is a shuttle for us poor non 4x4 drivers, but it will cost you! Being budget travellers, we thought we would walk the 5 km and save the cash. Luckily for us, Mike also decided to do the same thing, and as he had been there before (albeit 14 years ago!) he remembered that there was a shorter way to reach Sossusvlei than by walking on the road. As is typical of us, we just blindly followed Mike into the desert and quickly found ourselves surrounded by sand and dunes with no sign of human life
CCF
So beautiful! in sight. Occasionally we would climb high enough to see the vehicles on the road and Mike kept commenting that he sure hoped he was leading us in the right direction - Yah, me too Mike!
It was still early, before 8 am, but the sun was getting very hot and walking in the sand is a difficult task, especially for Mike as he was carrying over 50 lbs of camera equipment with him. In the end, we made our way to Sossusvlei and I'm sure Mike's shortcut saved us at least 2 km of walking. We also had the experience of walking through an area that most people will never see. We watched the dune bugs racing around the sand, marvelled at all the prints in the sand from all kinds of creatures that we will never see and took some great photos along our trek. We came across our first Gemsbok antelope and watched it for ages as it grazed on the sparse vegetation. When we finally reached Sossusvlei, hot, tired and thirsty, we chose not to climb the large dune overlooking the pan and instead we focussed our intentions on making the hot trek (5 km
CCF
As you can imagine, we took many more photos than this! return) to Dead Vlei. Mike would not be joining us as he was knackered with carrying his camera equipment and by this time we had all decided that we would be paying ANY price for the shuttle back! So much for being budget travellers! At this point they could have charged us double and we all would have gladly paid!
Dead Vlei is an area where dead and blackened camel thorn trees sit in a white pan surrounded by red dunes. It really is a sight to see and is perhaps even more magnificent because you have to cross the scorching desert to reach it. We both found Dead Vlei to be more impressive and interesting than Sossusvlei and are very glad we made the trek to see it.
After coming back from Dead Vlei all we could think about was getting in a shuttle and getting back to Dusty and getting the air conditioner on!! We laughed when we realized the car had air con - as if we would even turn it on! HA HA! We had the a/c on every day, all day! It was very hot in the southern part of the country and
Solitaire
The small outpost of Solitaire, home to yummy apple pie! we were very happy to have a/c.
We spent the remainder of the first day relaxing and chatting with Mike, trying not to fry in the heat. We took the thermometer out and it told us it was 40 degrees in the shade - just a little hot! In the late afternoon the three of us decided to take a drive out to Sesriem Canyon, a small, but impressive canyon near the campsite. Although it wasn't far, the road was terrible and it took us a long time to make it out there in our little cars. The canyon is narrow and relatively short, but it is deep and carved out of sand and gravel conglomerate, making it look like the canyon has cut through ancient concrete.
Our last evening, we drove out to watch the sunset and enjoyed watching the springbok and jackals. We decided we would be up early for another sunrise, this time, from the top of Dune 45. Apparently named so because it's 45 km from Sesriem and the 45 dunes from Sossusvlei. It is a popular sunrise destination, so were hoping we wouldn't be inundated with tour groups. Luckily, we were the only
Drive to Sossusvlei
These tiny, pretty, purple flowers caught our eye. ones on the dune until just before sunrise when a British fellow, Nick, joined us. The three of us marvelled at the changing colours of the dunes as the sun rose, he took a few photos of us and then we headed down. After we got down the groups started arriving - I'm so glad we had a quiet and peaceful sunrise!
From here it was time to head on, we had more to see and our time with Dusty was getting shorter! We had said goodbye to Mike before we left for the sunrise (we would see him again in Windhoek) so we packed up and headed off. Next stop was the Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop in southern Namibia. We had heard from another traveller that the campground at the Quiver Tree Forest was worth a night's stay, so we headed there. It seemed a little expensive at first, but it did include the entrance to the forest and another area called the Giant's Playground nearby. It also included the feeding of the cheetahs (which we did not know anything about) and that was very cool! When we had paid and were off to find our campsite,
Drive to Sossusvlei
The mountain ranges on the way to Sossusvlei. the young woman who checked us in told us the cheetah feeding would take place at 5 pm. We didn't think too much of it, we have seen cheetah feedings before, but we decided to wander over anyway. The young woman came out with a bucket of food, nonchalantly opened the cage, let the cheetahs take some food and run off and then she turned to our group (there were about 8 of us gathered) and invited us into the cage. Yikes! In the cage with large cats that are eating??? Is this a good idea??? Of course we went in, and got a chance to pet Chiquita the Cheetah while she ate. Very cool! I will never get tired of touching a big cat! When we were finished with Chiquita and her pal, we were on our way to the other cheetah enclosure when we noticed the pigs. Both of us thought they were domesticated pigs just wandering around the property, but the young woman warned us that the small one should be avoided as he likes to play too hard and people get hurt. I didn't really understand what she was talking about until we saw that they
Sossusvlei
Red, red dunes, blue, blue sky. Thanks Mike! were warthogs! The big one is huge - I mean HUGE! She said that he is so old and fat that he is completely harmless, but he looks like he could do some serious damage. The small one is still quite young and wants to play, but the problem is he plays with his huge head and doesn't realize that it hurts when he whacks someone with it. After the feeding of the other two cheetahs we headed into the Quiver Tree Forest for a walk and some sunset photos. This forest is made up of some very old trees, between 300 and 500 years old. The quiver tree is characteristic of the hot and dry areas of Namibia and northwestern South Africa. The quiver is not actually a tree, but an aloe plant. It got it's name ("Kokerboom" in Afrikaans), because the Bushmen used the tough, pliable bark to make quivers for their arrows. "Koker" is Afrikaans for quiver. We took several photos of these unique trees in the lovely late afternoon light.
The next morning, before embarking on our trip to Fish River Canyon, we made a brief stop at the Giant's Playground, a natural rock garden
Sossusvlei
Gemsbok (oryx) crossed the road in front of us. nearby. The rocks really do look like building blocks that a giant has been playing with. It was hard to do justice to the area with a camera, but we enjoyed the walk and the scenery before we pointed Dusty toward the Fish River region.
As we headed down the shortest route (gravel of course) we were surprised to run into a Road Closed sign. We decided to see if it was "really" closed and went around the sign (as many others had obviously done before us), but quickly found out it was indeed closed to small cars like Dusty. Not wanting to take the longer route around we consulted the map and decided to ask at a nearby hotel if there was another route to take. When we got out to inquire about the roads, a springbok we had seen in the parking lot approached us. Apparently he has decided to make the hotel his home and is not quite tame, but very comfortable around humans. It was fun to try and feed him, but he didn't like my choice of grass at all! He was more interested in our custard cream biscuits! The hotel gave us great
Sossusvlei
A desert lizard that posed very patiently for Peter! advice about bypassing the road closure on another nearby road and we set off. We didn't exactly follow their directions though, because we didn't really understand how we could drive over the dam, so we bypassed another road closed sign (rebels that we are!) and had to drive through the dam run-off that was about running across the road and about 6 inches deep, definitely an interesting driving experience!
We had talked to some other travellers that had been to Fish River Canyon already and heard some mixed reviews. The Lonely Planet declares "nowhere else in Africa will you see anything like the Fish River Canyon"; yet some people we met didn't think it was worth seeing - we heard "it's no Grand Canyon" more than once. We decided to see for ourselves and are glad we did. It is a stunning canyon and if people are going to be jaded after seeing the Grand Canyon, I'd rather not see it! It is an incredible sight that is actually two canyons in one. The inner canyon was formed almost one billion years ago by cracks in the rock formation. The outer canyon was formed around 500 million years ago
Sossusvlei
The Sossusvlei dune, walked up by tourists for a view of the pan and surrounding area. by tectonic plate activity. The shifting of the tectonic plates also caused the waterways to change and the Fish River began meandering along the new valley floor to eventually gouge out the deep inner canyon. There is a popular 5 day walk that takes you 85 km from one end of the canyon to the other, and even if we did have the time we were unable to do the walk as it is only open from May to September. The walk is only open in the winter months due to the possibility of flash flooding at any other time of the year and also the temperatures are cooler for the long days of walking. We would love to come back one day and do the trek.
We drove around the evening we arrived and then we drove further early the next day. After we had explored the area to our satisfaction, we headed off back to start our long drive back toward Windhoek. We didn't want to stay another night in the canyon or at Keetmanshoop, so we pulled out a Namibia Tourist brochure and found a place in the Kalahari Desert, that was not too far off
our pathway and heading in the right direction. We headed for the small town of Gotchas and set up camp at the Aob Resort. It was great to see another facet of Namibia's landscape. The environment is dry and scrubby and mostly used for cattle, sheep or goat grazing. The red sands of the Kalahari poke out of small dunes and are visible in the dry river beds. Being our last night, we decided to braii up some steaks and live high after eating sandwiches for many of our meals! It was very yummy!
The next day as we headed back to Windhoek, we passed the Tropic of Capricorn and had to stop and take a photo at the sign. Since we had crossed the equator twice but never got a chance for an equator photo, we had some fun at the Tropic of Capricorn. I kept calling it the Tropic of Cancercorn, much to Peter's delight as he giggled every time I said it!
We arrived back into Windhoek, our road trip officially over. We had a sample of Namibia and understand why most people say they would go back again and again. We are among them!
Dead Vlei
A surreal landscape of white clay pan, dead, blackened camel thorn trees. Often seen in Namibia tourism photos! We saw Mike at the Cardboard Box that evening, reminisced about our dune adventure and heard about the rest of his trip. The next morning we packed up Dusty for the last time and said our goodbyes to our trusty Corolla. The Odyssey car people dropped us off at the minibus taxi station and by 10 am we were on our way to Swakopmund on the coast. Our final destination before leaving Namibia.
Hope that you all enjoyed this rather long entry, but we did and saw a lot on our road trip! We will continue with our adventure in Swakopmund in the next entry ... there is still more to come!
While there is still more to come, we are on our way home. We have finalized our flight details (finally!) for coming home. The plan is to visit Cape Town for almost 2 weeks to see the family one more time, stop briefly in Johannesburg and then on April 19th we fly to London, England. We will spend a week with Peter's aunt and uncle in Cirencester and a few days in London before we fly home on April 30. We arrive into Calgary on
April 30 at 12:00pm.
For all those readers who are in the Calgary area, my brother and sister-in-law are organizing a Welcome Home open house for us on May 2 and everyone is welcome! The details are below:
Open House from 2:00pm to 7:00pm
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Don & Lori Torgerson
156 Stonegate Crescent
Airdrie, Alberta
Phone (403) 945-0461
We are looking forward to seeing friends and family on the 2nd. Thanks Don and Lori for organizing this for us!
As I said before, there is still more to come, we hope to publish the next blog before we leave Cape Town.
Thanks to everyone for all the support, encouragement and kind words over the past year and a bit. We have enjoyed sharing our adventures with you all, friends and strangers alike!
Love,
Laini and Peter
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The Roberts' Family!
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Thank you!
Hello you two!! Another wonderful entry with great photos! We are so glad that you are having such a good time! Enjoy the rest of your trip!!! We will try to make the May 2nd celebration...no wait....we won't try...we will BE there! I can't tell you how much I have missed you both!! So, incredibly pleased that you took the time to do this travelling!! What an adventure, one I know you will cherish forever. I can only imagine just how hugely awesome this past year and a bit has been for you! Thank you so much for taking us along with you! I know I speak for many when I say, "I can't wait to see you!" Sending you lots of love and big hugs! Pam and family!