Namibia
Trip Start
Mar 11, 2009
1
27
50
Trip End
Jan 05, 2010
Swakopmund, Namibia
Friday, August 7, 2009
Stopped for lunch in Ondangwa before heading further south to camp close to the entrance of Etosha National Park, so we could enter it early tomorrow.
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27th and 28th - See blog entry 'Etosha National Park'.
29th - Exited Etosha and headed down to Outjo, where Phil and Anne left the truck and trip. Here I could finally change money and therefore actually buy things. Had lunch here before driving to a Cheetah Farm.
Camp Otjitotongwe, Cheetah Guestfarm is where we would be staying tonight, which is near the town of Kamanjab. It's a private farm 8km off the main road which over the years has become a sort of sanctuary for wild cheetahs from neighbouring farms that have become pests to the farmers. We camped beside an enclosure that we discovered to contain a female cheetah and 3 four-month old cubs. Marco picked us up to head to the farmhouse where we could meet 3 hand-reared cheetahs. There were 2 adults and 1 four-month old cub. The cub was the fifth member of the family by our truck and was separated when it was little due to it having an eye infection. This little one was called Naughty in Afrikaans and loved to play with flip-flops, sandals, slippers and really any type of footwear - Gwynne's trainer was being chewed. They were fed before we went off into the enclosure to feed the wild cheetahs bits of donkey flesh. Only managed to see 6 but it was still worth it.
Back at the campsite Marco opened and worked the bushbar, which contained some animal skulls, skins etc. hanging off the beams or on the wall. We have a chance to sleep in tomorrow till 8.30, great when you've been waking up at 6 for nearly a week.
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30th - Drove through Khorixas and stopped to visit the Petrified Forest, around 40km west of Khorixas. The site is scattered with dozens of petrified tree trunks. The first main trunk we saw was between 260-280 million years old. We went with a compulsory guide and the walk around the site was about 30 mins long.
From here we passed a grassy valley and arrived at Twyfelfontein, supposed to contain the most extensive galleries of rock art in Africa. The original name was /Ui-//Ais (Surrounded by Rocks), the new name in Afrikaans means 'doubtful spring'. The petroglyphs here are 6000-years old engraved on local sandstone. We hired a guide and went around the 'Lions Man Route', so called because of a lion engraving that has been given 5 digits on its feet instead of the normal 4, portraying a medicine man.
Our guide gave a good analogy of telling the difference between black and white rhinos. "The black rhino baby walks behind the mother whereas the white baby walks infront. This is similar to black human babies who are carried on their mother's back and the white babies are carried on their mother's front or pushed in front of the mother."
Staying at Camp X.
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31st - Long driving day, George was being grumpy, and we had to backtrack most of yesterday's driving. Stopped in Uis for lunch at Vicky's Cafe and had toasted sandwiches.
Camping in a wild campsite beside the 1728m Spitzkoppe, one of Namibia's most recognisable landmarks supposedly. Got here in time to watch the sunset.
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August 1st - Drove to Swakopmund, the last part of the journey was on tarmac. No George incidents, but the wood locker fell open about 20km down the road.
Went off to change money, bit of a challenge at Standard Bank and Winhoek Bank, their foreign exchange counters weren't available...only found this out after queuing for ages and then reaching the counters. Got it at FNB (First National Bank Namibia) foreign exchange. Went to go Tandem Skydiving with Peggy+John, Martin+Gwynne, Ben+Sarah, Gary, Kira and Elyse. Really good fun and most were doing their first jump. Cost N$1900, approx 190euro.
My instructor was Paul and we did a forward somersault out of the Cessana and then I practised my turns during freefall, a lot harder with someone strapped to your back. I had control once the chute was opened and he took over only for the landing. Peggy was with my jump lift with someone from a Nomad overland truck. The flight up gave us 20mins to look out over Swakopmund, the dunes to the south and strangely enough a golf course in the middle of the desert. You can see the mountains of Brandberg and Spitzkoppe in the distance. This was about my 48th skydive.
Went out for dinner to have a good steak. I'm staying in a 4-bed dorm room with Ron, Rory and Caren at Dunedin Star.
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2nd - Managed to get some of my clothes washed with MACHINES!!! - a good price too, washed and dryed for N$29,approx 3euro.
Spent time waiting to go Quadbiking at 2.30 by walking around town a bit. The company that does the quadbiking picked us up 30 mins late, but this was actually good for us as instead of being in a group of 15 we were in a group of 2, Kira and me. I found the quadbiking a lot more fun than the tandem skydive, since it was my first time on such a bike. Driving up and down dunes as well as over some of them. You cover quite a distance spending 2hrs on the bikes, stopping for photo opportunities, we both got semi-automatic 250cc bikes.
3rd – Did a partial sightseeing tour of the town with Martin+Gwynne and John H in the morning. First we visited the outside museum about the old railway and parts of the town's history, this was located behind the Snake Park building. Walked past most of the old buildings and churches that can be found within the town, before going into the Kristall Galerie. This gallery houses the largest known crystal cluster in the world, estimated to be 520 million years old weighing 14,100kg (14.1 tons), it is the only cluster of its kind that has been found and preserved for display. Kira left at 9am to fly home to Cape Town and Tamara also left today to go to Windhoek, both will meet us again in Cape Town during our weeks break.
4th – Sorting out some last few things, e.g. laundry, during the day before going out for a meal at the Lighthouse Café with Gary, Ben+Sarah, Martin, Rob and Elyse. Followed by a few drinks at the bar in the Gruner Kranz.
5th – We are leaving at 11am so I went to get a haircut and loaded my things onto the truck. Ben and Sarah are leaving the trip here and will be joining another truck.
We drove to Solitaire, which only a few buildings can be found 80km from Sesrium. This is where they do good apple pies/crumbles and virtually everyone had a large slice at N$18 each. We are bushcamping off the road to the entrance of the Namib-Naukluft Park, a fair distance from the actual road as bushcamping is actually illegal in Namibia. Lots of George problems today.
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6th – Reached the gate at Sesrium after waking up early to get there when the gate opened at 6.30am. Driving on the tar-sealed road to Sossusvlei, stopping at Dune 45 (the most accessible of the red dunes) to climb up to its summit. Arrived at the 2WD car park and arranged a shuttle to take us the last 4km to Dead Vlei, due to access only for 4WD vehicles. The Dead Vlei (Valley) is an old salt pan with trees all around, most are still standing and a couple are lying in the old mud and salt. Sossusvlei is a huge ephemeral pan set amid infamous towering red dunes. The dunes are part of the Namib Desert, which stretches more than 2000km along the coast from Oliphants River in South Africa all the way to southern Angola.
We are bushcamping on the road to Bethanie about 50km north of Helmeringhausen due to more problems with George, we stopped twice within 13 mins to fill up. It looks as though the truck is trying to hide behind a tree beside the road as we bushcamp.
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7th – We drove to Bethanie and on towards Fish River Canyon National Park. Stopped for lunch at Canon Roadhouse, which we just happened to pass. The prices are very reasonable considering where it is located and they were undergoing extension of the property – adding new rooms and a bigger restaurant.
Entered Fish River Canyon at Hobas near the northern end of the park and spent about 40mins looking down into the canyon from the main viewing point. From here we drove for the rest of the day to camp beside the Orange River at (need the place name).
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