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Published: October 15th 2009
Thursday, October 8 - High 38 Low 20 Mokuto Lodge, Etosha National Park
We were up early for another morning game drive in Etosha Park. I didn't mention earlier, but at the park, we drove our own vehicles. We had 3 vehicles with 4 people in each vehicle. They provide a map of the park, descriptions and photos of the various animals and birds found in the park. This morning I went out with Malcolm ( The Argentine who drives the support vehicle for Ayres) and Jon Wyrick from Texas. Malcolm is a great addition to the team as he is an expert photographer, a horticulturist, very knowledgeable about animals, and an all round good guy. As an aside, I plan to visit Malcolm in his home town of Cordoba later this year.
The first 2 hours, we didn't see anything new or special. Just when we were getting bored we drove to the Tsumcor water hole. As we drove in, we spotted a
Lion under a tree. There were 2 other vehicles a little further on , so we drove up to see what was going on. Well, three lions had just had a kill. There was a
large animal on the ground that we thought was a small elephant. After changing our viewing position, it became apparent that it was a
Rhinoceros ! Two mail lions were wandering around the now dead rhino, gloating over there accomplishment. We were in our car, probably 15 to 20 feet away from all of this. We stayed for about an hour taking photos and observing the lions to see what they were going to do next. They eventually wandered about 100 feet into the bush and laid down in the shade. Jon, the crazy guy from Texas, decided he wanted to go and touch the Rhino. So he handed me his camera, ran over and picked up the rhinos leg, poised, and ran back to the car. Oh well, boys will be boys. We decided to leave as it was getting very hot and we thought nothing would happen until the evening.
As it turned out we were right. We came back late in the afternoon. The 3 male lions came out of the bush one at a time, circled the rhino and started chowing down. We noticed also that the head had been cut off the rhino and
we assumed that the park staff had cut it off to prevent a poaching situation. We watched for about an hour in absolute awe. What are the chances of seeing this in the wild? This made our day, in fact it was definitely a highlight of the trip - to see the top of the food chain in action.
Friday, October 9 High 35 low 20 Etosha National Park to Windhoek - 530 kms
This is the last riding day of our trip, 530 kms back to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It was a long drive, since we took the same road up to Etosha 3 days earlier. We arrived back at the hotel early afternoon. Most of us spent the afternoon getting our luggage sorted around, and final travel arrangement made. The evening of Oct 9 was the last official night of the trip. We had a final "farewell" celebration dinner. We all survived with no major incidents with the possible exception of Isabella, from Argentina had a fever on the last day and was taken to hospital and given antibiotics. Hopefully she will be OK.
I decided to stay over another night at the
Windhoek Country Club to give me time to rest up, plan the rest of my trip, and get caught up on my emails.
Saturday October 10 High 26 Low 16 Windhoek to Swakopmund - 360kms
I woke up Saturday morning and joined some of the group members for breakfast. Everyone, except myself, was flying out today. I was looking forward to some peace and quite. I did a few emails, then took the shuttle bus into downtown Windhoek to pick up a few things. When I returned to the hotel, I went to see the travel agent about renting a car for a few days. My rough plan was to leave early the next morning, Sunday, and drive to the coast and the desert. The travel agent, Katrina, a black woman about 50, was helpful and she booked the car. She mentioned that she had to go to Swakopmund later that afternoon to see her kids and it was too bad that the timing didn't work out that we could go together.
It was now about noon, and i was getting very bored with the idea of hanging around at the hotel all day. After all, my emails
and planning could wait another day. So I went back to the travel agent and asked her if i could rent the car that afternoon, and would she be interested in travelling with me. She thought it was a great idea, so I cancelled my hotel booking, got the rental car, and we set out on our road trip.
We left the hotel about 4pm. The drive to
Swakopmund is about 360 kms, and takes about 4 hours due to the condition of the roads. It is mostly plains and desert, with some mountains off in the distance. It was great to have company for the drive. We talked most of the way. Katrina had recently started her own travel agency, very basic by our standards. Renting a car thru her was a major challenge. Her specialty was arranging local tours offering unique Namibian flavour of cultural tours and performances of cultural groups. Her company was started on the vision of liberating women of the informal settlements of Namibia from poverty. This lead to caring for street children. A percentage of every tour she does goes to help the street kids. During the week Katrina lives in a group
home with 15 - 20 street kids, and the weekends she goes to the coast where she has 3 young kids, 2 of her sisters (both HIV positive), her daughter and husband and their kids. Katrina told me that she grew up in the country with her parents and 15 brothers and sisters. her father's brother died and he had 8 kids that moved in with them. I asked her how many bedrooms, and she said none. They just slept on the floor. She didn't know what a bed was until years later. She also spoke a version of the "click" language (I think it is called Demara), similar to the fellow i had met in Joburg.
When we arrived in Swakopmund, i took her to the house where she stayed with the rest of her family. It was actually a nice house because her daughter worked for the government, and they provided a house for her. It was a four bedroom house with almost no furniture, except for mattresses on the floor in the bedrooms. I counted 14 people living there, although there could have been more. I took a few photos and then left to find a
hotel. It was dark, and i got lost in a black ghetto area. I was getting a little frustrated because I had know idea where I was. I thought it was a small beachfront town, but it was bigger than I expected. Finally I stopped asked some where the hotels were. I finally found a place, The Secret Garden Guest House, a very cute B+B. Perfect. After checking in I went to a German Pub, Kuckis, for a pint of beer and weiner Schnitzel.
Sunday, Oct 11 high 32 low 16 Swakopmund, Namibia
Had a relaxing morning around the Secret Garden. I had a couple of things I wanted to do in this town - deep sea fishing and ATV's (quads) on the sand dunes. The innkeeper, Peter, informed me that they only do fishing in the morning since it gets too rough in the pm. so scratch that idea. He suggested that for the dunes, i go to ·Dare Devil Adventures near Long Beach, about 20 kms away. so i jumped in my rental car (a VW Polo Classic - how appropriate) and headed it. I stopped at a beautiful place in Long
Beach right on the ocean for lunch - salad and a glass of wine. After lunch I went across the street to Dare Devil and arranged to rent a quad. I was the only customer so i got my personal guide Michael, for an hour and a half. It was absolutely spectacular. The dunes run for miles and miles as you can see from the picture. What an adrenaline rush. If you ever have the chance to ride the dunes, I highly recommend it.
Monday, Oct 12 high 32 low 8 Swakopmund to Sossusvlei 380 kms
I hopped into my trusty rental car for my drive to
Sossusvlei . It is the number one tourist area in Namibia. It is a 32000 sq km sand sea that covers most of Western Namibia. There are immense sand Dunes that reach as high as 320 meters. I stopped at a tourist info site in town before leaving and book a room at a lodge - A Little Sossus Lodge, about 35 kms from the entrance to the park. I also booked Hot Air ballooning for the next morning - apparently a must do while in the area.
I
finally got on the road headed to Walvis Bay and then headed inland on C14. It was paved for about 20 kms, and then suddenly, with no notice turned into a gravel road in the desert. When I rented the car in Windhoek, the rental person went over the car in detail and pointed out that there were 2 spare tires and showed me where the jack was. I thought this was a little odd, since I don't think I have had a flat tire in almost 20 years. Well, I found out why. I had 2 flat tires on the way to the lodge. The first one, about 150 kms from civilization, and the second one, 1 km from the Lodge.The scenery on the drive was spectacular, but the flats took a lot out of me. I was exhausted by the time i got to the lodge. I explained to the owner what happened and he immediately arranged for 2 new tires.You don't want to travel without a spare in this part of the world!
Prior to dinner, I met an interesting couple, Peter and Susan Noble. They invited me to join them for dinner, announcing that they
were celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary. Together they have literally travelled around the world in their 1955 Bentley continental, including; London to Cape Town, London to Mongolia; and Florida to the Southern tip of South America. In one year they put 27,000 miles on their Bentley.
Tuesday, October 13 - Sossusvlei to Windhoek, Namibia
As I mentioned earlier, I had booked a
Hot Air balloon ride over the desert. I woke up at 4:15 in the morning and drove 35 kms in the dark on a gravel rode that is in horrendous shape - the same one I had my second flat tire on. When I arrived at the pick up spot, I was informed that the ride had been cancelled due to high winds. Shit! I was really looking forward to it. oh well, I drove into the Park and did the dunes tour on the ground. The early morning sun was casting beautiful shadows on the dunes making for great photo opps.
Wednesday, October 14 - Windhoek to Nairobi, Kenya
Flew to Nairobi, met Robbie in the Visa lineup - very convenient! Off to the Hotel to start Phase II of the trip - Horseback
Riding Safari in Kenya.
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Julia
non-member comment
Looking good
Hi Mike, it is great to keep in touch this way, Rick and I were waiting to hear about your adventure. The coast, except for the roads, sounds just like I thought it would. talking with your local travel agent probably helped you understand how they live there. Keep up the blog, it is a great way to keep in touch. I enjoyed our time together, and what memories!! Julia