Blogs from Namibia, Africa - page 114

Breakfasted as day broke over the stunning Spitzkoppe mountains with he prospect ahead of 6-7 hours on the road. Within minutes of leaving we broke down with a re-occurrence of the brake problem - apparently the pin was welded rather than replaced and had snapped again. After a big delay we continued with one brake drum less. The roads were 95% dirt ones and particularly bone jarring. After two hours we got stuck in sand. Mwangi had encountered problems here on a previous trip and attempted with a run up to get through at speed but a large log flew up a banged the underside of the truck as we got stuck. It smashed off the number plate but luckily avoided hitting the radiator by inches. We would have been stranded if the radiator had ... read more

Our first accommodation was Anib Lodge on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. We checked in and were offered the option to go on an evening game drive and sundowner - which we decided to do! We went for a sleep as although we had slept a bit on the night flight, we had not had enough sleep! We woke up in time for the game drive which was great! We saw oryx (gemsbok) which I was very excited about - they are big black and white antelopes with long straight horns. I had seen a lot of these on some of the web cams on www.africam.com but had never seen them in real life (so to speak!). We also saw some ground squirrels, weaver birds and their huge shared nests, a bat eared fox, ostrich ... read more

Felt improved enough to do the planned activities so we had breakfast at the civilized hour of 8:30am. We were frried out to the large dunes about 10k out of Swakopmund. We separated into two groups - one doing proper sandboarding and those like me doing sandboarding on a sheet of plywood. It was very well organised with us being shown the technique after climbing laboriously to our base at the top of the main dune. It was very hot and windy. Jen came along as an observer. You start off on relatively slow slopes and gradually move on to longer steeper and faster ones. After each descent there is the energy sapping climb back to the top. I was doing quite well until my second go at the fastest slope. I had managed a ... read more

Hey Tan!!!! Happy birthday to you...............happy birthday to you................happy birthday dear grunt..........happy birthday to you!!!!!! Well, I am not sure what you did last night for your birthday but if you did not do too much, I certainly partied enough for the both of us. Only because it was your birthday of course. Rugby is very big here in Namibia and the top two teams were playing for a spot in the finals - it was the Blue Bulls vs. the Western Province. I was told I was to be a Blue Bulls fan - ok, a Blue Bulls fan it was. The owners' of Dunes Backpackers are die hard fans which meant a huge celebration - especially because their team kicked butt. I was glad to be having a good time on your birthday but ... read more

After leaving Walvis Bay we had a little more energy. We headed over to the next town called Swakopmund which turned out to be a very developed holiday town (actually the one where Brangelina had their baby). It is a very quaint town with a great atmosphere and lots to do and see. We ended up staying here almost 9 days. However, you couldn't really tell you were in Africa. The drive between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay was amazing, nothing but sand dunes for miles and miles - except the ocean on your left hand side. It was a very neat mixture and made for a stunning drive. In fact, I did the drive again a couple of days down the road just to see the beauty of it. We started off staying at a backpackers ... read more