Blogs from Namibia, Africa - page 7

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Africa » Namibia » Etosha National Park August 2nd 2018

Another early start and this time Chris beats me out of bed. In our special pickup cart at 0615 for delivery to our breakfast. Fed and watered then into our delightfully designed ponchos, with associated pics then up into our truck. Same same as yesterday, join the queue, not too long, but we are behind the very same Range Rover as yesterday...... Into the Park and back along the same road, this time with toilet break.... We drive along the bitumen and there are cars in front of us going in all directions. Turns out an elephant family must have had a party last night. Big droppings all over the road along with left over tree branches. No wonder cars were avoiding that.... Sudden stop, David spots 2 Rhino across the plains. A long way away, ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Etosha National Park August 1st 2018

Off on our first early safari looking for big game today. Onto the truck and dressed in warm ponchos supplied by the driver. Still not enough to keep the bitter cold off our faces, but anyway, into the wild west we headed. Get to the made road, turn right to the gates of the Etosha National Park which were about 300 metres away and stop. A queue of trucks, cars and safari land cruisers. After about half an hour we are in and on a straight stretch of road similar to the Nullarbor plain. The plan was to stop at the resort for a toilet break then into the park. Oops, bypassed the resort and onto the dusty gravel roads. Yells of stop, there were zebras. No stopping, then we see lots of vehicles on the ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Etosha National Park July 31st 2018

Another early start - thought this was a holiday. Bags packed and up to brekky before sunrise. We are off to our next digs, via a scenic flight up the shipwreck coast of west Namibia, followed by a dolphin cruise from Walvis Bay with lunch and then onto our final leg, the Fort at Onguma in the far central north of Namibia. Plane beats us down by 5 minutes, but no rush as there is fog on the coast. We wait for 15 minutes the off and running. Balloons in the ranges north of us makes for a pleasant take off view. We fly over the dead pan we visited at Sossusvlei the other day. Much more spectacular from the sky. Then onto the coast. Fog, but then as we reach the coast it is clear. ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Sossusvlei July 30th 2018

Up early again, but this time by our choice. Fantastic sunrise to bookend last nights sunset. Opened the canvas walls,up and had a bedside view of the rising sun. Pretty special. Aah, the serenity....... Down for brekky then straight into the truck for our morning Safari. This time we weren’t hunting animals, more so the little bugs and flora and fauna. Along the way, however, a truck load of Oryx were again spotted. We were shown little beetles that were called Tikka Tikkas (or something like that - might have got a bit lost in the translation...). They scurry around the sand, the male chasing the female - hmm.... Also in the mix were dung beetles and the elusive trapdoor spider (still to see that one). We also learnt that Oryx poo is hard and in ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Sossusvlei July 29th 2018

Early start as we fly south west to the Namib Rand desert for our first real piece of African desert/wildlife. Up for brekky and we are on time (0630), unlike the 2 “boys” who have their clocks set an hour behind real time. Never mind, they had been awake waiting for the right time to come down for brekky, and ended up being late.... Into the van and off to the domestic airport for our charter flight to Soussasveli and into the winds of Namibia. Security check was interesting to say the least. Discussions about who was doing what meant our checks were a little slacker than what we are used to going through....... Into our small aircraft and after checks, etc. off into the wilderness. Finally landed and into the waiting safari vehicle. No sides ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Windhoek July 28th 2018

Today is possibly the hardest day of the tour. Meet and greet day. Today we get to join our other travellers which is a bit like tattslotto, you never know what or when you are going to pick the right numbers (or in this case, interesting people....). Anyway, we start the day with blue sky and sunshine - nice from what we left behind in Melbourne. Breakfast done and we do chats with the family. Also find out our kitchen has been gutted - good and also interesting feelings of oh shit, here we go again with an new kitchen. At least we know it is going to a good place - our electrician who is bartering time for cupboards...... Good to catch up with everyone at home - even if the questions of where and ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Windhoek July 27th 2018

Another airport, another 3 lots of customs to clear and added bonus, our bags followed us..... Arrived in Joburg at 0515 and had over 4 hours to wait for the next flight. Luckily we had access to the South African Airways arrivals lounge so we could freshen up and have a bite in comfort. Only issue was this lounge was teeny tiny. Only about 16 seats and all self service. Never mind, it was better than sitting on airport benches for a while. We had checked that what we thought our bags would do (all the way through without any collections) was confirmed so only had to check ourselves in for the last leg. Eventually left the lounge and wandered into the terminal we had thought our flight departed from only to learn that we had ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Caprivi June 19th 2018

We staan weer vroeg op, het is 5.30 als de wekker gaat en we ons klaarmaken voor een licht ontbijt, bestaande uit thee en biscuits. Vervolgens op gamedrive met onze gids Kennedy. In het begin van de rit is het nog erg rustig en Kennedy maakt gebruik van deze rust om ons ook wat meer te vertellen over de manier waarop de plaatselijke bevolking gebruik maakt van de bomen en planten. Zo gebruikt men deze voor de vruchten, als medicijn en als bouwmaterialen voor hun huisjes. In de loop van de ochtend zien we apen, olifanten, giraffen, warthogs, kudu’s en de afrikaanse fisheagle. Al met al een mooie tocht. Om 10.00 komen we terug bij de lodge en kunnen we heerlijk ontbijten. De rest van de dag houden we ons bezig met het spotten van vogels ... read more
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Africa » Namibia » Caprivi June 18th 2018

Vandaag staat de route van Hakusembe naar Lianshulu Bush lodge op het programma. Wanneer we aankomen bij het ontbijt deelt de manager mee dat hij is gebeld door Lianshulu met de mededeling dat we een upgrade krijgen. Nou, dat is een leuke mededeling. We ontbijten en de manager belt voor ons naar Lianshulu voor de details. Vervolgens pakken we alles in en vervolgen onze route door de Caprivistrook. Ook hier weer vele kleine nederzettinkjes langs de weg en kinderen die naar school lopen. We moeten ook regelmatig in de remmen voor overstekende koeien en geiten. Het is allemaal heel apart, maar gelukkig gaat het allemaal goed. Na ruim twee uur rijden willen we een koffiestop doen bij Divundu. Echter ziet het tankstation en het omliggende terrein er niet echt uitnodigend uit, waarop we besluiten verder te ... read more
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Africa » Namibia » Caprivi June 17th 2018

Wat een verrassing vanmorgen op de patio voor ons huisje aan de Okavangorivier. Wanneer ik om 7.15 uit het raam kijk zie ik een dienblad met koffie en twee koekjes. Bovendien is het uitzicht over de rivier prachtig. De lage zon en de damp boven het water geven het geheel een mystieke sfeer. Dus snel een broek en een vest aan en naar buiten om te genieten van een kop koffie in een prachtige omgeving. Daarna snel aankleden en een ontbijtje nuttigen alvorens we om 10.00 in het kleine bootje stappen met onze birdwatching-gids Bernard. Het is een heerlijk tochtje waarbij hij veel vertelt over de verschillende vogels die hier te vinden zijn. Van de bij ons ook bekende reiger, tot aan kingfishers, aalscholvers en de afrikaanse fish eagle toe. Onderweg zien we ook veel mensen ... read more
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