Blogs from Namibia, Africa - page 100

Before I left Namibia in early April, Keith Leggett, of desert-dwelling elephant research project fame, had asked if I’d be interested in coming back to work on his project in May when he and his new research assistant, Juliane Schaub, would be taking the year’s first Earthwatch volunteers into Kaokoland. I didn’t need asking twice! My role was primarily to help Juliane with the volunteers setting up and running the camp, and with local geography, as I’d been in the area a little more than she had at that point. I guess you could say I was to be the general dogsbody, but I was a very, very willing one, jumping at the excuse to go back to Kaokoland, particularly as Keith and I had not managed to get there in March, thanks to the ... read more

Today was another long drive, over the normal 4 hours! The road from Luderitz was mainly tarred so it was an easy drive. We stopped on the way to see some Desert Horses; these have evolved to go without water for up to 4 days, far longer than Tim can go without a cold Windhoek lager on this trip! We arrived in time for lunch at Canon Lodge, one of the most attractive places we've stayed, it's lots of bungalows built around huge rock boulders that sometimes are partially built into the rooms. We spent a lot of time watching the Rock Hyrax (also known as dassies) which are related to Elephants but look like fat Guinea Pigs. After a trip through the Valley of Salads (their name for a salad buffet!) we went to bed. ... read more

May 8 Cheetah Farm We had a great sleep and slept in a little bit late to make up for the sleepless bus ride the night before. Charlene and Pete are great hosts. They make us feel at home. Dakotah especially felt at home because there was a bird there. Unfortunately the little guy died that night. Pete, Charlene’s husband, had to go North today to help with tiling the new Orphanage so he didn’t get to come on our adventures these next few days. Today we went out to the Cheetah farm outside of Okahandja leaving late morning. We had a flat tire (or TYRE as they spell it in Namibia) on the way, fixed that up while we ate really great Pizza. We got to the Cheetah place at quarter to 4pm and ... read more

After another 4 hour drive - it takes at least 4 hours to get anywhere round here - we are at the Desert Homestead. Like most places it is in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere in this case is on the outskirts of the Namib Naukluft park and near the tallest sand dunes in the world. The journey here did have one highlight and that was that we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. There was a huge sign to inform us of this fact so needless to say we had to get out to take a (well several) photos. Today we headed to Sossusvlei in search of the dunes and after a slight bit of driving in the wrong direction we found them. They were huge - over 300 metres in places. As well as seeing ... read more

Participants returned to field base over the weekend looking tanned and healthy, albeit a little scruffier as another phase took its toll on their expedition kit. There were lots of hugs and kisses as friends reunited to tell tales of the past three weeks and exchange gossip and photos of their time away. With two phases down and just one remaining they are now a hardened bunch and expert fire lighters, porridge makers and long drop constructors. We wave goodbye to five more Explorers who swap expedition for home life and welcome two new faces for the final phase. As before, we hear now from those out in the field who have put pen to paper to share their experiences. Once again, there were enthusiastic responses to the messages sent via the blog, so thanks ... read more