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Published: June 16th 2008
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We arrived into Windhoek and were pleasantly suprised by how modern the city was. It was liked we stepped into Germany- surrounded by German architecture and cleanliness. We spent the night at the Cardboard Box- thankfully the rooms did not reflect the name of the place. Headed out for dinner that evening to Joe's Beer House. At the Joe's you can get platters of game meats to try. Zebra, kudu, ostrich, crocodile and chicken come all on the same stick and you can have a real taste of Africa. Needless to say I am not that food adventurous and stuck with the steak. For $12 I ended up with steak enough for two and felt bad at having to leave half of it.
After consuming most of a herd of animals we headed back to the backpackers for a good nights sleep in a real bed. The next day we got up for the chewiest pancakes on earth and headed for Etosha National Park. Namibia is a country with quite a diverse landscape and only 2 million people. This means you hardly seen anyone except in towns and you will only pass a few cars on a 400km journey. We
arrived at Etosha National Park, quickly set up our tents and ran down to the camp watering hole. It was an amazing experience to see rhinos, elephants, zebra, lions and other small animals within a few feet of where you were sitting. You had to remain very quite whilst sitting and watching but we were rewarded with the animals presence. As it is very dry at this time of year the animals must journey to these manmade waterholes to drink as they are the only ones with the park fences.
We sat and watched as the elephants played. We saw 12 black rhino (so rare) all in a single night and even two lionesses and a male lion. Wonderful. Sadly the pictures didn't come out too well as it was so dark.
The next day we had a game drive scheduled and headed out into the park. As it is very dry we found we did not see very many animals about except at the watering holes that were scattered very few and far between. Although we did get some good views of the Salt Pan in Etosha. Headed back for lunch and decided our watering hole was
the best place to view game. That evening we saw even more rhino and loads of elephants.
From Etosha we headed south to Spitzkoppe (translation: pointy rocks). We had a walk around the granite rocks looking for a place to watch the sunset. Instead we discovered the biggest crickets in Africa and the spikiest grass! Ouch! I still keep finding bits in my clothes. But it was nice to use our legs again. Beautiful surrounds for our bush camp.
We packed up the next day and headed for Cape Cross Seal Colony. They approximate that there are 80,000-100,000 seals in this single colony alone. It was an absolutely amazing and overpowering sight. The seals carpeted the rocks and the surrounding sea. However one never thinks about the down side to so many animals in a single area...especially those animals that eat fish! The stench was unbearable. I have smelled bad things before but this took the cake! I had to hold my nose the entire time we were out of the truck and you could still taste the foulness. We opened all the windows on the way out to banish the smell from our clothes and hair.
Rhino
about 6 feet from me From the smelly seals we headed to Swakopmund- a little piece of Germany pasted in Namibia. Here the locals speak German and teach it in their schools. Amazing when you think that the Germans only ruled here for around 40 years. All of the buildings are German and the town is very clean. The town is very safe and we can even walk around after dark. Ev and I headed out for dinner last night and ended up in a German pub with the locals for cheap food and good company. We even found a man with an airboot like Ev's. Small world. Heading out to the beach today before heading south.
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Tom
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Black Rhinos
Were the Rhinos black because it was dark?