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Diary - Namibia - Border to Swakopmund (3rd Dec to 25th Dec)
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With over two months to go and only two countries left our time is now feeling more like a holiday than a travelling adventure. It helps that we are now in a country where there is plenty of accommodation, lots of cheap food and plenty of things to see. Not forgetting that most towns have the standard mod cons that us westerners take for granted, like a bank and supermarket. The accommodation is also all really impressive, from camping by a river with quirky bathrooms, to complete wilderness camps surrounded by miles and miles of nothing except your private security man. Though this makes Katie feel guilty so the security get invited to dinner and then questioned to death.
It is so refreshing to have a large array of different tourist things to do, possibly making it add to the holiday feel. But after just a few days in the country we had already had more variety of activities than anywhere else. We had seen, or rather climbed upon one of the largest meteorites on earth. Visited a little but very interesting museum in the town of Tsumeb and for the first time since Europe sat relaxing in a park reading, completely hassle free. We had also stopped at a pretty lake and been on a number of walks. It makes you realise the simple things that we all take for granted are actually a treat to others around the world.
Of course Namibia isn’t without National Parks and we headed to the main wildlife park, Etosha, for a top up on our Botswana let down. Within minutes of being in the park after almost bashing down the gates we spotted a pair of Leopards relaxing on some trees. To see one is special so we already had massive grins as we sipped our thermos coffee, only to almost spill it as a third cat appeared for a photo. Overall our first day in the park, all eleven hours of it, was the best day on safari that we are ever likely to have. During lunch we watched two herds of Elephants, totalling about forty, coming to a waterhole whilst we ate our sarnies. Combine this with a huge quantity of Jackels, Hyenas, Gemsbok, Springbok, Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu, Impala, Mongoose, Ostrich and even more Elephants would have made us over the moon. To then see a pride of Lions, though sleeping and doing their typical nothing, was too much to take and kept us hyperactive all night long.
Etosha is so unlike any other National Park in that rather than tearing around the entire place trying to cover as much distance to increase the chances of seeing animals, you just drive to any number of waterholes and wait for them to come to you. If patience is not your thing or you can’t stand 35 degree sun beating down onto your drivers arm, then the park is not for you. However nature is not always a beautiful sight and we were shocked to come across a lame Zebra fowl. Luckily the herd was still there, or so we thought until they viciously chased the young animal into the middle of the water. Minutes later the injured Zebra fell over as it struggled to cope in the mud. All the kicking and panicking to regain his feet was to no avail and he ran out of energy and faced the inevitable drowning, all whilst the others stood nearby.
We ended up spending almost a week in and out the park as not only is it the cheapest park so far, but we were so thankful that a park was finally living up to its hype. The one over night we spent in the park was rewarded by a total of five Rhinos, three at once, that came to the camps waterhole that you simply pull up a chair too and eat snacks and drink wine at whilst the sun sets. To avoid getting too much of a good thing we spent one day on safari and then one day relaxing at a lovely lodge, with private bathroom for each campsite and a really tranquil pool. Of course it helped that we were looked after by two very bored but entertaining South African girls, including one rather drunken night, which resulted in the first hangovers of the trip. |
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We realised that our time was up in the park when we began to have some car troubles. Now nothing too bad, but when the clutch starts to struggle to let you change gear and there are Elephants and Lions all about it makes you panic a little. Especially as towards the end we had serious doubts if we would make it out the park and back to camp. As we are writing this we didn’t get eaten and escaped, unlike somebody who had rolled their car in the park! A caution to everyone about driving at speed. After some investigations by Steve it turned out to be a leaking Clutch Slave Cylinder, something we had been carrying as a spare for 23,000 miles. Without much thought we set about the task of changing it, completing the job without incident and without argument (Steve stresses during DIY tasks).
With the car feeling better we made our way to see the magnificent Dinosaur Footprints. As with most things in Namibia it was down a gravel road into the middle of absolute nowhere. It would seem that with only two million people in a country bigger than France, there are not many people anywhere, though the miles and miles of fences would have you think otherwise. Turning up we quickly set up camp and then made the short walk to find them. We were hoping for T-Rex size footprints, but were surprised to find that they were only just bigger than Steve’s. It was still nice to see as it is not in everybody’s normal Tuesday activity list, but thankfully the camp was empty and it was our first real taste of Namibian stillness. Plus Katie is like a small child getting really excited about seeing such sights and endlessly asks Steve if he thinks any Hughes/Thompson from our blood lines have done such a thing and is she the first!
One thing we have come to be aware of is the importance of flexibility with plans. This meant a last minute decision to go south towards Swakopmund and the west coast of Africa, instead of north. Mainly so we would avoid Christmas time as this gets crazy with tourists and accommodation is tricky. As we travelled towards the town we couldn’t help paint pictures of Blackpool or Skegness in our heads as Swakopmund is the Namibian sea side resort. Instead of finding ice cream and games arcades though we found wonderful buildings and incredibly pricey but lovely craft/souvenir shops. The place is truly wonderful, very western and has a completely non-African feel compared to all other countries.
Being a holiday destination it would have been rude not to at least try out some of the things on offer. So with our finest protective gear of t-shirt and thin trousers we hit the dunes on some mean looking Quad Bikes. Now we had previously thought the sand dunes around Dubai were both big and beautiful. However in comparison to those here they are the equivalent of a garden shed against the finest cathedral. It was totally exhilarating flying along the sand and straight up the side of a massive dune that towers majestically above you, only to turn at the top and come zooming back down. The squeal of delight being muffled by the revving of the engine, as a small competition had arisen between who could go the highest or surf furthest along the edge of the rim. The two hour tour was full of adrenalin filled moments and we both felt completely exhausted afterwards. It was amazing and nothing can take away the peacefulness and insignificance that you feel when stood surrounded by sand mountains with no engines running.
As wonderful as Swakopmund is we did not want to remain here till Christmas, but Gweneveer had other ideas that kept us put whilst she had two nights break from us. You don’t realise just how much comfort and support the vehicle gives you until it is stripped from under you. However I would rather she just made us stay in some fancy hotel instead of paying out the money to a garage. This time to fix some leak that was discovered to be a knackered bearing inside part of the gearbox (Transfer Box Front Output Bearing, for the mechanics out there). Something that is fixed out here rather than replacing the whole lot as Europe would do, but still time consuming.
So we moved to the Youth Hostel for some extremely cheap camping in our little tent. We were not to be alone for the festive fun as there were two Aussie backpackers and a crazy Alaskan to keep us company. Not forgetting all the locals from Windhoek who seemed to constantly argue with others in their group and threaten to fight each other. Having woken on Christmas blurry eyed from celebrating Henry’s birthday the night before, not to the happiness of children playing but the shouting of a fight which resulted in one of the family members having to go to hospital. Eventually we had a big fancy breakfast. Not having much else to do we went and had a crazy two minutes of getting soaked in the freezing Atlantic Ocean before a stroll through town and to the popular beach area. It was amazing to see so many people about enjoying themselves, some wearing santa hats whilst others gave new toys their first play. It seemed our present from Africa was to be treated to a couple of dolphins and some seals that had swum close to the shore. Not wanting to miss out on a good feed we all set up a monster braai crammed with steaks and kebabs, not forgetting plenty trimmings for us and the Aussies. |
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| Nature Shower |
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| Bath With A View |
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| Meteorite |
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| Pretty Parking |
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| Lake Otjikoto |
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| Leopard In Etosha |
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| Elephants Coming To Drink |
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| Lunch With Friends |
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| Dressed To Clean |
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| Rhinos At Night |
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| Gemsbok |
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| Warthogs About |
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| Dinasour Print |
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| Another Garage |
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| Top Of The Dunes |
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| Quad Fun |
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| Swakopmund Lighthouse |
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| Harry's Birthday |
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| Christmas Dip |
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| Christmas Braai |
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