Blogs from Namibia, Africa - page 4

Today was a little sad but also exciting to move on. The drive isn't a really long one to Rundu in the Okavanga region of northern Namibia. Headed out at 8 after breakfast. The route takes us back down the A33 from Kasane to the border post at Ngoma Bridge. Another great sighting of a very large Giraffe crossing the road right in front of but unfortunately didn't have the camera handy. Reached Ngoma bridge in about 45 minutes and began another exciting interaction with border immigration. Botswana side wasn't an issue, well not for us, but the lady who was supposed to be manning the desk but was outside sunning herself seemed a bit put out that she had to come and stamp our passports. Namibian side was a bit more interesting although it's the ... read more

Our last full day has been very full. We started out on a cheetah walk experience where we had the opportunity to walk up to cheetah on the wild. We got about 8 meters from them and got to see them do some natural behaviour. They were a pair of females who usually are together but when we found one, she was on her own. She made this chirping noise to call the other one while we watched. She seemed quite distressed so we walked away to find the other one hiding under a tree. She startled when she saw us and the two of them reconnected. We left them napping together. As a bonus, on the way there we saw a leopard who came right up to the car. We also got to see one ... read more

Yes, folks, you read that exactly right, 100th nation visited to date, and still counting.....! On the basis of the symbolism behind the nature of the experience, the 100th country visited to date just had to be somewhere of a sufficiently other-worldly and memorable nature to make it stand out at least in a couple of ways from the rest of the pack - take a step forward Namibia! Prior research had revealed Namibia to be a relic of a German colonial era, which had left a legacy in some fascinatingly positive way. Arriving at Windhoek international airport and picking up a rental car (for the entire week away), the plan of action was a typically widescreen ambitious plan which attempted to condense the highlights of one entire sizeable nation into one neat-looking package. Passing through ... read more

Hi and welcome to a bumper edition of my blog, a lot has happened since I last wrote and the delay is because we have been off grid for a while. I want you try and picture the scene of where I started writing this. It is 6am and the full moon is bright in the sky and in about 30 minutes the sun will start to rise. We are camping in an area called Damarland and the site is in the middle of nowhere. I drove about 30k on a gravel road, well gravel is not as you would expect it was compacted mud, sand and stones. The scenery is harsh with huge rocks and boulders punctuated by miles of sandy scrub and hardly any wildlife. We had power last night from sunset at 7 ... read more

Day 6: Up at 6am to enjoy the cool of the morning. Really enjoying that new Mumford and Sons album. Top notch stuff. Jumped on the Safari bus to begin the first errand to the distant attractions. Full bus, so plenty of people to yarn too as the hours of gravel roads passed by. Still getting called every name variation under the sun, but I can't claim I'm doing a better job in return. Especially with the African 'click' languages. I will no doubt repeat this, but there's something quintessentially beautiful about the Southern African landscapes. A bit like NZ, I get the sense the journey to places is half the adventure. We arrived in Soussouvlei after 6 hours on the road and set up the tents before a relatively early night. I get the sense ... read more