Namibia part 2
Current Location: Windhoek, Namibia
Freezing nights, dunes, dust and a Canadian!!
Well the drive from Ghanzi (Botswana) to Windhoek (Namibia) was fairly uneventful. Once in Windhoek we headed back to our favourite haunt, Puccini House for a couple of days of R&R before heading to the south of Namibia to see what we hadn’t seen yet. First off was the Quiver Tree Forest, for the overly photographed sunset and sunrise shots, very nice indeed. On the second sunset we missed the trees as we were being entertained by a friendly family of Meerkats. I am really starting to wonder how we can get permanent jobs as a wildlife photographers, it’s just way more fun than anything else we have done, though you do require the patience of a saint, more on that later.
After Quiver Tree we went for a superb drive for a couple of days around Fish River Canyon and were really starting to notice how cold it get’s at night. We started to use the 6 dollar blanket at night that we bought in Morocco intended as a seat cover. Fish river canyon is a beautiful sight but the 4x4 track south that runs along the South African border is even more spectacular, we finished that day in Klein Aus Vista, a beautiful campsite about 20Ks from the wild horses, and sure enough the books do not lie (well, not all the time), the horses were there the next day. After spending a few hours photographing the horses we headed to Lüderitz on the coast. Now if anyone has seen a WWII movie with a little industrial town in it, Lüderitz may well have been it. It was full of barbed wire and concrete walls, and no people. However we had to stay in town in order to visit the ghost town of Kolmanskop at sunrise, which is slowly getting eaten up by the sand dunes all around it. Very eerie.
We hightailed it out of Lüderitz not wanting to spend any more time in this potentially soon to be ghost town, and headed inland towards the famous dunes of Sossusvlei. Southern Namibia is as stunning as Kaokoland in the north but feels a little less remote, guess all the fences and power lines take the “middle of nowhere” feeling away. Arriving at the gate of Sossusvlei and being told the extortionate prices for camping inside the gate we decided to skip it for now as we knew we were coming back in a few weeks with Nick. (Nick is a Canadian guy that worked with Milan at Man in Switzerland and now lives in Hong Kong)
We headed back to Windhoek to stock up on some supplies, organise accommodation in Etosha for when Nick is around, and service the car. Oh yeah and get robbed yet again! They unbolted the spot lights of the front of the car in the middle of the day in a guarded car park, guess you can figure out who they are. This thieving thing seems to have become routine for us at the moment. Not very happy travellers at that time.
Leaving Windhoek a bit sour because of missing lights we headed back up to the Caprivi Strip to one of our favourite places, Ngepi Camp, when spent 7 days there doing as little as possible and it wasn’t as cold as the rest of the country.
Next we headed back south into Damaraland via Etosha (5 male lions and 5 cheetah in 1 day! Plus all the usual suspects). While enjoying a lovely peaceful drive Edmund decided to spit the dummy and behave badly losing power idling and revving like a cylinder was blown. We quickly got onto the phone to the mechanic back in Windhoek and he reckoned it was the fuel filter, had a check of that all seemed fine and next thing you know Edmund conks out completely and won’t start. Luckily at this point we were only about 1KM outside of Uis, a little hick town in the middle of nowhere, onto the mechanic again in Windhoek, we quickly deduced that it may well be the all too well known problem of the dodgy fuel pump. Which is all fine since we have driven around the whole continent with a spare in the back. Now we need to find a local mechanic who can take out the fuel tank and swap out the pump. After ringing one of the local lodges we get the number of the local bush mechanic, an Afrikaner type that has clearly lived in this little town all of his life. I explain him the problem and he then starts towing us back to his garage/house, but uses a chain for towing. Now as anyone knows that has ever been towed before, your brakes generally get weaker the longer you are towed, so eventually the chain goes slack. Tow man up front decides to head off in a bit of a hurry and leaves half the chain flying straight for our windscreen. Needless to say we now not only had a car that wouldn’t start but also a windscreen covered in cracks and a small hole. Afrikaner boy didn’t even apologise, at least he did have the sense to poke and prod around with the wires attached to the fuel pump to discover that our problem was a blown relay and not a faulty fuel pump. So the 34 Namibian dollar relay cost us an extra 1400 for the new windscreen.
Next we headed back to Windhoek with an overnight stop in Spitzkoppe, to get a new relay and a new windscreen, and wait for Nick to arrive.
The day after Nick arrived we headed towards Sossousvlei, but after a late start which involved the GPS cable being broken off by our visitor for the first time :o), we only managed to get to Solitare where we stayed at a recommended place called Ghecko Camp. Run by a Swiss lady and it was a truly magical place. We also met another Swiss overlander couple, Florian and Sara (www.tchovaxitaduma.blogspot.com) , who left Switzerland at the beginning of the year. We bought some beers and chatted with them at the top of the hill overlooking the stunning sunset.
Since we were all going in the same direction we decided to save costs of the camp site at Sossousvlei by sharing one site (as well as Louise hiding in the back of their car to save money on entry as well). We set up camp and made our way to Dead Vlei. Since it was quite a late start that day as well and so much chatting with everyone, we didn’t quite make it to Dead Vlei for sunset – we know its a sin to be there and not see it, but we enjoyed a lovely sunset close by instead. The rules for the park are that you have to be out by sunset. Of course we were 70 kms away from the gate after the sun had already disappeared, so we played dumb and told the man at the gate who we had dragged away from his beer that we had gotten stuck in sand. Pretty sure he didn’t believe us but what could he do, take us to court?! The next morning we made sure we were on the road on time and had a lovely sunrise at Dune 45, although it was freezing cold! We also checked out Sossousvlei itself which was nice as well. After that we hit the road again and headed north towards Swakopmund, but we didn’t quite make it so we stayed in a lovely camp called Rostock Ritz.
Up early and headed to Walvis Bay for lunch and arrived in Swakopmund in the afternoon. Being fairly tired we stayed in that evening and had an early night. Next day was a Sunday, and its worse than Europe as nothing is open on Sundays in Namibia. We were lucky to find a gelateria that was able to serve us breakfast. In the afternoon we went quad biking together with Andrea and Rene (Czeck/German couple that came down the east coast – www.ourwildjourney.com who we met in Caprivi). Tips for anyone going quad biking in the desert, hire the manual rather than the lemon automatic that Louise had. It struggled to get up the hills! We had a great time though and were lucky to see a peringuays adder at one of our breaks.
The next morning we went on the Living Desert Tour which is a 5 hour tour into the dunes where the guide tries to find all sorts of animals that survive in the desert. It was really fun and we were lucky to find chameleons, skinks, spiders etc. Highly recommend it! We carried on north to the Skeleton Coast where we first saw thousands of seals at Cape Cross, and they are noisy! We also saw some wrecks on the way but it was so cold and very barren so we carried on, plus we had to be out of the gate before 7pm. We managed to find a lovely bushcamp in a riverbed just outside the Springbokwater gate (S20°16.136, E013°45.041) in between the rolling hills.
While packing up the tent in the morning Milan had a bit of an accident and hit his head on the end of a branch. The blood was gushing out and I was tempted to use some of our steristrips to fix the cut, but Milan was having none of that. A 3cm long cut nonetheless. Louise took over the wheel and drove to a beautiful campsite called Granitkopie close to Twyfelfontein. The campsite has 5 sites all tucked away between the hills, very basic but all you really need is a shower (heated up via donkey system), toilet and a sink. On our way to the camp we spotted 8 desert elephants in the distance!
The following day we headed to Twyfelfontein and saw thousand(s) year old San rock engravings. Next destination was Puros but we only made it to Sesfontein where our only option was the community campsite in the middle of the village – not the best. The road to Puros was a lot worse than last October so it took us a good 4 hours to drive 100kms. Puros has expanded their accommodation and now offer self catering chalets as well as camping, but it was a bit pricey for us so we went back to the same camp site we had last year. We explored the area and searched for the desert elephants and we saw one hiding in the bushes and we also visited a Himba village which was very interesting.
Since we had already made bookings for Etosha in advance we had to make our way in that direction so we drove to Kamanjab to another one of our favourite camps, Porcupine Camp. Nick had the one day flu so was not really feeling too well. The owners invite you into their home and spoil you with food, entertainment and porcupines in your lap! We haven’t been to any other camp with so much atmosphere! Unfortunately the next morning Milan wasn’t feeling well either, another case of the one day flu, so Louise was behind the wheel again and drove to our camp site in Okaukuejo in Etosha where we would spend the next 2 nights. On the road to the gate an aardwolf ran across the road in front of the car – luckily I didn’t run him over!
This is when we met Marc, an Australian overlander that has been travelling for years when he is not at home working to get more money for the travels. We shared stories and chatted for hours. At the waterhole that evening we saw a large herd of elephants and 5 black rhino! Up at sunrise and we headed to a waterhole were we saw a large pride of lions, 2 male lions and 5 lionesses. So lucky! One lioness tried to hunt a springbok but wasn’t very successful. In the evening we saw a huge herd of elephants again and 2 rhino. The third day in the park was not highly successful but we still saw a rhino in the day and elephants. In the evening at the camps waterhole at Halali we saw another rhino chasing away a spotted hyena – so funny!
Aaahhh, the fourth and last full day in Ethosa turned out to be a fantastic day. At Salvadora waterhole we saw a mom cheetah with her young in the distance, and then came a lioness who hid in the grass waiting to hunt. We were there for 7 hours and she tried to hunt zebra three times but failed each time. It was the first time for us to see a proper hunt which was great. This is where we had never ending patience. Of course we also saw a rhino that day :o) Nicks holiday was coming to an end and we had to make our way back to Windhoek where we are staying at Puccini again. We think we have covered every corner in Namibia, except Kaudoum NP for which you need to be 2 vehicles, so its time to leave this wintery country and head into Botswana for warmer days and nights.
Freezing nights, dunes, dust and a Canadian!!
Well the drive from Ghanzi (Botswana) to Windhoek (Namibia) was fairly uneventful. Once in Windhoek we headed back to our favourite haunt, Puccini House for a couple of days of R&R before heading to the south of Namibia to see what we hadn’t seen yet. First off was the Quiver Tree Forest, for the overly photographed sunset and sunrise shots, very nice indeed. On the second sunset we missed the trees as we were being entertained by a friendly family of Meerkats. I am really starting to wonder how we can get permanent jobs as a wildlife photographers, it’s just way more fun than anything else we have done, though you do require the patience of a saint, more on that later.
After Quiver Tree we went for a superb drive for a couple of days around Fish River Canyon and were really starting to notice how cold it get’s at night. We started to use the 6 dollar blanket at night that we bought in Morocco intended as a seat cover. Fish river canyon is a beautiful sight but the 4x4 track south that runs along the South African border is even more spectacular, we finished that day in Klein Aus Vista, a beautiful campsite about 20Ks from the wild horses, and sure enough the books do not lie (well, not all the time), the horses were there the next day. After spending a few hours photographing the horses we headed to Lüderitz on the coast. Now if anyone has seen a WWII movie with a little industrial town in it, Lüderitz may well have been it. It was full of barbed wire and concrete walls, and no people. However we had to stay in town in order to visit the ghost town of Kolmanskop at sunrise, which is slowly getting eaten up by the sand dunes all around it. Very eerie.
We hightailed it out of Lüderitz not wanting to spend any more time in this potentially soon to be ghost town, and headed inland towards the famous dunes of Sossusvlei. Southern Namibia is as stunning as Kaokoland in the north but feels a little less remote, guess all the fences and power lines take the “middle of nowhere” feeling away. Arriving at the gate of Sossusvlei and being told the extortionate prices for camping inside the gate we decided to skip it for now as we knew we were coming back in a few weeks with Nick. (Nick is a Canadian guy that worked with Milan at Man in Switzerland and now lives in Hong Kong)
We headed back to Windhoek to stock up on some supplies, organise accommodation in Etosha for when Nick is around, and service the car. Oh yeah and get robbed yet again! They unbolted the spot lights of the front of the car in the middle of the day in a guarded car park, guess you can figure out who they are. This thieving thing seems to have become routine for us at the moment. Not very happy travellers at that time.
Leaving Windhoek a bit sour because of missing lights we headed back up to the Caprivi Strip to one of our favourite places, Ngepi Camp, when spent 7 days there doing as little as possible and it wasn’t as cold as the rest of the country.
Next we headed back south into Damaraland via Etosha (5 male lions and 5 cheetah in 1 day! Plus all the usual suspects). While enjoying a lovely peaceful drive Edmund decided to spit the dummy and behave badly losing power idling and revving like a cylinder was blown. We quickly got onto the phone to the mechanic back in Windhoek and he reckoned it was the fuel filter, had a check of that all seemed fine and next thing you know Edmund conks out completely and won’t start. Luckily at this point we were only about 1KM outside of Uis, a little hick town in the middle of nowhere, onto the mechanic again in Windhoek, we quickly deduced that it may well be the all too well known problem of the dodgy fuel pump. Which is all fine since we have driven around the whole continent with a spare in the back. Now we need to find a local mechanic who can take out the fuel tank and swap out the pump. After ringing one of the local lodges we get the number of the local bush mechanic, an Afrikaner type that has clearly lived in this little town all of his life. I explain him the problem and he then starts towing us back to his garage/house, but uses a chain for towing. Now as anyone knows that has ever been towed before, your brakes generally get weaker the longer you are towed, so eventually the chain goes slack. Tow man up front decides to head off in a bit of a hurry and leaves half the chain flying straight for our windscreen. Needless to say we now not only had a car that wouldn’t start but also a windscreen covered in cracks and a small hole. Afrikaner boy didn’t even apologise, at least he did have the sense to poke and prod around with the wires attached to the fuel pump to discover that our problem was a blown relay and not a faulty fuel pump. So the 34 Namibian dollar relay cost us an extra 1400 for the new windscreen.
Next we headed back to Windhoek with an overnight stop in Spitzkoppe, to get a new relay and a new windscreen, and wait for Nick to arrive.
The day after Nick arrived we headed towards Sossousvlei, but after a late start which involved the GPS cable being broken off by our visitor for the first time :o), we only managed to get to Solitare where we stayed at a recommended place called Ghecko Camp. Run by a Swiss lady and it was a truly magical place. We also met another Swiss overlander couple, Florian and Sara (www.tchovaxitaduma.blogspot.com) , who left Switzerland at the beginning of the year. We bought some beers and chatted with them at the top of the hill overlooking the stunning sunset.
Since we were all going in the same direction we decided to save costs of the camp site at Sossousvlei by sharing one site (as well as Louise hiding in the back of their car to save money on entry as well). We set up camp and made our way to Dead Vlei. Since it was quite a late start that day as well and so much chatting with everyone, we didn’t quite make it to Dead Vlei for sunset – we know its a sin to be there and not see it, but we enjoyed a lovely sunset close by instead. The rules for the park are that you have to be out by sunset. Of course we were 70 kms away from the gate after the sun had already disappeared, so we played dumb and told the man at the gate who we had dragged away from his beer that we had gotten stuck in sand. Pretty sure he didn’t believe us but what could he do, take us to court?! The next morning we made sure we were on the road on time and had a lovely sunrise at Dune 45, although it was freezing cold! We also checked out Sossousvlei itself which was nice as well. After that we hit the road again and headed north towards Swakopmund, but we didn’t quite make it so we stayed in a lovely camp called Rostock Ritz.
Up early and headed to Walvis Bay for lunch and arrived in Swakopmund in the afternoon. Being fairly tired we stayed in that evening and had an early night. Next day was a Sunday, and its worse than Europe as nothing is open on Sundays in Namibia. We were lucky to find a gelateria that was able to serve us breakfast. In the afternoon we went quad biking together with Andrea and Rene (Czeck/German couple that came down the east coast – www.ourwildjourney.com who we met in Caprivi). Tips for anyone going quad biking in the desert, hire the manual rather than the lemon automatic that Louise had. It struggled to get up the hills! We had a great time though and were lucky to see a peringuays adder at one of our breaks.
The next morning we went on the Living Desert Tour which is a 5 hour tour into the dunes where the guide tries to find all sorts of animals that survive in the desert. It was really fun and we were lucky to find chameleons, skinks, spiders etc. Highly recommend it! We carried on north to the Skeleton Coast where we first saw thousands of seals at Cape Cross, and they are noisy! We also saw some wrecks on the way but it was so cold and very barren so we carried on, plus we had to be out of the gate before 7pm. We managed to find a lovely bushcamp in a riverbed just outside the Springbokwater gate (S20°16.136, E013°45.041) in between the rolling hills.
While packing up the tent in the morning Milan had a bit of an accident and hit his head on the end of a branch. The blood was gushing out and I was tempted to use some of our steristrips to fix the cut, but Milan was having none of that. A 3cm long cut nonetheless. Louise took over the wheel and drove to a beautiful campsite called Granitkopie close to Twyfelfontein. The campsite has 5 sites all tucked away between the hills, very basic but all you really need is a shower (heated up via donkey system), toilet and a sink. On our way to the camp we spotted 8 desert elephants in the distance!
The following day we headed to Twyfelfontein and saw thousand(s) year old San rock engravings. Next destination was Puros but we only made it to Sesfontein where our only option was the community campsite in the middle of the village – not the best. The road to Puros was a lot worse than last October so it took us a good 4 hours to drive 100kms. Puros has expanded their accommodation and now offer self catering chalets as well as camping, but it was a bit pricey for us so we went back to the same camp site we had last year. We explored the area and searched for the desert elephants and we saw one hiding in the bushes and we also visited a Himba village which was very interesting.
Since we had already made bookings for Etosha in advance we had to make our way in that direction so we drove to Kamanjab to another one of our favourite camps, Porcupine Camp. Nick had the one day flu so was not really feeling too well. The owners invite you into their home and spoil you with food, entertainment and porcupines in your lap! We haven’t been to any other camp with so much atmosphere! Unfortunately the next morning Milan wasn’t feeling well either, another case of the one day flu, so Louise was behind the wheel again and drove to our camp site in Okaukuejo in Etosha where we would spend the next 2 nights. On the road to the gate an aardwolf ran across the road in front of the car – luckily I didn’t run him over!
This is when we met Marc, an Australian overlander that has been travelling for years when he is not at home working to get more money for the travels. We shared stories and chatted for hours. At the waterhole that evening we saw a large herd of elephants and 5 black rhino! Up at sunrise and we headed to a waterhole were we saw a large pride of lions, 2 male lions and 5 lionesses. So lucky! One lioness tried to hunt a springbok but wasn’t very successful. In the evening we saw a huge herd of elephants again and 2 rhino. The third day in the park was not highly successful but we still saw a rhino in the day and elephants. In the evening at the camps waterhole at Halali we saw another rhino chasing away a spotted hyena – so funny!
Aaahhh, the fourth and last full day in Ethosa turned out to be a fantastic day. At Salvadora waterhole we saw a mom cheetah with her young in the distance, and then came a lioness who hid in the grass waiting to hunt. We were there for 7 hours and she tried to hunt zebra three times but failed each time. It was the first time for us to see a proper hunt which was great. This is where we had never ending patience. Of course we also saw a rhino that day :o) Nicks holiday was coming to an end and we had to make our way back to Windhoek where we are staying at Puccini again. We think we have covered every corner in Namibia, except Kaudoum NP for which you need to be 2 vehicles, so its time to leave this wintery country and head into Botswana for warmer days and nights.
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