Archiv der Kategorie: Namibia

Namibia, World Trip 2018-19

Namibia Part 3 – North

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From Spitzkoppe, we drove back to the coast to Henties Bay and a bit further South, where we had a look at the shipwreck Zeila. The Skeleton Coast is scattered with many shipwrecks and seeing the typical weather here at the coast (gloomy fog), one can imagine how these wrecks came to happen.

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We then headed North to Cape Cross Seal Reserve – a massive seal colony of about 100.000 seals. It was crazy!! They already greeted us at the parking lot, laying anywhere and everywhere. The noise is fascinating! They all seem to „talk“ in very different tones and constantly. There’s so much movement in the colony, you never get bored watching!

And have I mentioned how MANY seals there were!?? I have seen quite some seals in my life, but this was by far the biggest amount I have seen in one place, ever. Such a cool experience! They even lay on the board walks and viewing platforms or old picnic places. Haha, seals taking over anything human-built! If you ever need to be cheered up, this is the place to come.

After a while, we managed to leave and make our way further up the coast and inland again – direction Brandberg. Brandberg seemed a bit far though, so we found a camping near the old abandoned Brandberg Mine – the Ugab Rest Camp, run by the Save The Rhino Trust. The cost of camping is a donation to the trust and sometimes there’s wild elephants or lions around. Did I mention the camp is unfenced!? Bit scary if you ask me and I was not as relaxed chilling at the fire later, but rather turning around a lot and checking for any hidden predators.

At the camping, we had seen a sign pointing to Twyfelfontein, our next intended destination – but this was a 4×4 track we hadn’t known about. Much shorter in distance than going around the normal route, but of course also much more adventurous. We were sold! There is also a chance to spot elephants, rhinos or lions along the way – but we had no luck. Instead, we enjoyed the nice track, which was sometimes really tough but overall a good adventure with nice views.

It took 4.5 h in total until we reached the (uninteresting) Burnt Mountain and the (also not that amazing) Organ Pipes in Twyfelfontein.

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After, we decided to drive another little 4×4 track in the hope to finally see some elephants – nothing. Finding a spot to sleep proved a bit tricky: we wanted to wild camp again but avoid open areas where elephants might pass through or riverbeds where flash flooding might occur (it looked like it might rain). We finally found a spot, but I didn’t feel very comfy there. Clearly, we were out in the wild, with lots of animals around us. I just don’t know how a lion would react to suddenly standing face to face to me!? Guess I’d rather not find out.

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Next morning I was more than happy to move on to Palmwag and Grootberg, safely in the car on animal lookout again. It’s a good place to spot black rhinos and elephants, but we were again not lucky. We did see some nice views though!

In Kamanjab we stocked up on food, drinks and fuel again. It was not a nice place, lots of weird people hanging around, lots of hassly sellers etc. At least we got to see some Himba women though, without going into one of those touristy villages. Couldn’t take a photo though of course. Along the way to Etosha, we then spotted our first giraffes of the trip, yay! And at our camping just in front of Galton Gate, zebras, baboons, an eland and a giraffe greeted us at the waterhole. Nice start!

Again, it was an unfenced camping and the caretaker told us that, yes, lions sometimes pass through the camp. Oh man, why don’t people build fences!? Seriously, I was looking forward to some nights behind fences in Etosha NP after these 3 rather nerve-wracking nights. Apparently during our night there, a big group of elephants and some lions did come visit. Good we were asleep and my bladder control is getting better…

We then spent 3 full days and a short morning in Etosha national park, driving from Galton Gate in the West all the way to the East. Every night we stayed at a different place: Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutomi whereas we liked Halali best. Each of the campsites has a waterhole, where we could watch some action especially in the evening hours. Too bad it’s so hard to take photos in that light, because we got to see quite some rhinos – at Halali 5 at the same time!! Also at Halali, while it was still a bit light, a big herd of elephants trudged in and had some waterhole fun. Really nice to watch! Later that night, we watched a stare-down between a rhino that had already been at the waterhole and an elephant that just arrived. It was quite for a moment, then the rhino quickly turned around and ran away. Hahaha, it was hilarious! Scary lary.

Our days in Etosha were long since distances are large and we always relocated to another campsite. Sometimes we got a bit frustrated with staring into the empty bushes, but overall we really saw quite a lot! Many giraffes, zebras, different kind of antelopes were a given but still always nice to see.

Elephants were plentiful and always came as kind of a surprise out of nowhere. We also had two rhino encounters at day time: a grazing lone rhino and a happy rhino family with the cutest baby rhino running around playfully, nudging his parents with his tiny horn. Sooo cute!!

As in cats, we didn’t see any leopard or cheetah unfortunately but we did see 5 lions each on day 1 and day 2. On day 1, we had barely started our drive in the park when suddenly there was a lioness just next to Mathijs on the road. She stayed with us for a bit and we followed her as long as we could. A great start!

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Later, two Germans were nice enough to tell us about 3 lions they had discovered under a tree: one male and two females. At first, they weren’t doing much but dozing…but we kept watching them.

Then Mathijs moved the car to take different photos and suddenly one lioness had a view on something that had been hidden by our car before… a different lioness who was in hunting mode! It was fascinating how her facial expression went from lazy/tired to „the hunter“ that made the blood freeze in your veins. She then walked over to the 3rd lioness who proceeded in her hunting position towards the waterhole. She made for a group of zebras but they were alert, so the hunt was unproductive. Wow, but how cool to see a hunt, and in the middle of the day even!!

On day 2, we had a pack of 4 female lions and 1 male one so close to the road we drove on that they really shocked from our car! Unfortunately that meant they didn’t stay too long – but it was still great to see so many lions at once in one place!

As mentioned, we didn’t get to see any other cats, and there are no hippos or buffaloes in Etosha. Wild dogs are always a really lucky find, and not for us this time. But – on our last morning, we still got treated to something special: we arrived at a waterhole to find a pack of hyenas tearing apart some rotten meat, laughing hysterically while doing so, fighting with each other over it and going for a bath in between. Really fun, ugly creatures!

And that was our time in Etosha! From here, we took a short drive to Tsumeb where we spent a day organising ourselves a bit: laundry, groceries and a bit of a clean up, before we were headed into the Caprivi strip.

Namibia, World Trip 2018-19

Namibia Part 2 – Center

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From Betta, we continued our drive to Sesriem. We first detoured to Duwisib castle, but decided it probably wasn’t worth the entry fee. Coming from Europe, we’re a bit spoiled with pretty castles I guess. The rest of the drive took longer than expected, because the scenery was really nice and we spotted quite some animals along the way: oryx antelopes, ostriches and zebras! Not too bad.

We arrived in Sesriem at noon, grabbed a pie for lunch and checked into our camp inside the national park. This was the most expensive and worst value for the money campsite so far, but it would allow us to see sunset and sunrise in the park. First, we headed to Sesriem Canyon although we probably should have waited longer with that. It was sizzling hot! We felt like roasted chicken hiking through the canyon in the midday heat. Haha. Oh well! It was nice to see, but not really spectacular for us.

Later, we drove further into the national park to see some sand dunes. The landscape was sooo beautiful!! We kept stopping for photos all the time. Our favourite dune was Dune 40, which was really picturesque. We stayed there for quite a while to wait until the light got better and better and took loads of photos.

We also checked out Dune 45 where we were going to see the sunrise next day, and left for Elim Dune for sunset. Not sure this was the best decision, since it’s a widespread kind of dune which was tough to climb. The pretty part about it was that there was grass growing on there though, so that looked very nice in the evening light.

The sunset was ok, nothing to write home about. We headed back to the campsite shortly after, to cook dinner and go sleep early. Next day the alarm was set for 5.30, to start driving as soon as the gate would open at 6.00. If you don’t, you don’t make the sunrise at Dune 45. Also, if you keep to the speed limit, you won’t make it in time. Lol. Anyways, we made it, climbed up more or less quickly (dunes are so exhausting!!) and watched the sun rise slowly, changing the colours of the surrounding sand dunes every minute. The light was just amazing!! What was also really cool was that we were able to see the (full?) moon and the sun at the same time, facing each other.

A good start into day 6! After we had properly appreciated the surrounding dunes, we drove on to Sossusvlei to see the most famous part of the national park: Dead Vlei. I was a bit worried about the last 5 km of road which are 4wd only, but we deflated our tires appropriately for sand and were fine following the tracks. It was actually fun!

From the parking, we first hiked up Big Daddy Dune halfway, then ran down the side. We could have climbed up all the way, but firstly I was kind of done with climbing sand dunes and secondly, I really wanted to get down into Dead Vlei when the light was still kind of good. So that’s what we did and it was… stunning!!

Yeps, this is the place where those famous photos are from. White ground, brown/blackish trees, red dunes and blue skies. An incredible combination! We spent a couple of hours here, making sure to take the best photos possible.

We left to drive around some more and to see Hidden Vlei which was described in the guidebook as an easy hike. Haha, certainly not in the midday heat! Also, it was not really worth the pain, as Dead Vlei is just the best and nothing could top that anymore after.

Anyways, we at least felt like we had seen it all, so ready to leave the national park and head towards Solitaire. Here, we were luckily able to fix our fridge which had had an issue since the evening before. An essential piece of equipment in the heat of Namibia! We also bought some of the famous apple pie in Solitaire before heading just a little bit further to an amazing little campsite. The location was beautiful, there were turtles crawling around and at night time we watched some shy zebras next to the waterhole. Unfortunately, they never really came out of the shadow, but it was still really really cool to hear them all around us in the dark. Sleeping between zebras – I like!

Day 7 brought us back to the cooler coast past some pretty landscapes and galloping zebras. At last we got to see them! The rest of the drive was not as interesting, Kuiseb Canyon and the other viewpoints mildly interesting.

Then we arrived in Walvis Bay, where we did some groceries before checking out the famous flamingos. They’re everywhere here and there’s so many of them! Really cool.

For the night, we drove halfway to Swakopmund to Langstrand where we found a cheap if very basic camping. It was cold, gloomy beach time again!

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The following day, we checked out Swakopmund a bit and did some more groceries. Swakopmund is definitely much nicer than Lüderitz, the German influence is much more visible and it’s the prettiest town we have seen in Namibia so far.

From here, it was a short drive only to Spitzkoppe where we arrived in time for a late lunch. It took us a while to pick a campsite since there are sooo many beautiful ones, set between photogenic rocks, scattered really far apart. Basically, you drive around, look at what’s all available and take your pick!

We were lucky to arrive early and have almost the full choice of options – but in any case there are enough pretty sites for everyone! Site 9B appealed to us the most with its beautiful setting which made for great pictures later on when the sun went down.

Before settling down, we drove around a bit in the huge area and took lots of photos. It’s a very picturesque place! There’s also a rock bridge which looks cool both in the late afternoon, as in the early morning.

We spent the evening with a successful braai (Afrikaans for BBQ) and some grilled marshmallows while watching the beautiful starry sky above us. Out here, there’s almost no light pollution, so you can see sooo many stars!

In the morning of Day 9, we drove around a bit more to take some photos in the morning light. Have I mentioned how beautiful this place is!?

Then, our roadtrip took us back to the coast, more into Northern Namibia…

Namibia, World Trip 2018-19

Namibia Part 1 – South

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When we arrived in Windhoek, I was excited and a little overwhelmed at the same time. Excited for Namibia and our 4×4 with roof tent, and overwhelmed because it had all happened so quickly. We were just in Ethiopia… and then suddenly here, since we pre-poned our flight to Windhoek to avoid potential problems with Ethiopian immigration as they made a mistake and gave us 29 days instead of 30. We had booked an AirBnB to get ourselves a bit organised before receiving our car for the next 5.5 weeks. Yay!

We first headed South, on a nice tar road until shortly before Keetmanshoop where we found a pretty campsite surrounded by quiver trees. They are so cool!! After struggling with the roof tent, a thunderstorm surprised us. We first fled into the roof tent, then realized we were probably not save in there when lightning struck very close, so fled into the car. At least our roof tent withstood the storm and rain test – and it didn’t last too long. Afterwards, we were treated to some beautiful evening light, kitschy rainbows and photogenic dark clouds in the distance. A good start after all!

On day 2, we headed further South to Fish River Canyon, an easy drive during which we spotted some Oryx antelopes. The canyon was really cool, supposedly it’s the 2nd biggest one after Grand Canyon! There’s different viewpoints which can be reached via rough dirt roads – the first time we were glad to have a 4×4. The views were great everywhere!

We then drove further to Aus, where we wanted to camp – but the nice campsite was fully booked and the one in town didn’t appeal to us. So we decided to wild camp at the wild horses viewpoint. We were lucky enough to spot some wild horses over the next day, although less at the waterhole than while driving between Aus, Kolmanskop and Lüderitz.

Day 3 started with a visit to nearby Kolmanskop, a ghost town that is being swallowed up by the surrounding desert step by step. It was much cooler than expected!! We were in photo paradise.

The old buildings, the sand which is piling high in same places, the doors which are barely still hanging in there… it just all looks very photogenic. It was also much larger than expected, so we spent over 3 h wandering around, exploring, taking photos.

From here, we went on to Lüderitz which in return was a bit underwhelming. Took some photos of old houses, checked out the expensive campsite on Shark island, decided not to stay there, moved on to the peninsula to see Diaz Point and the surrounding bays. We were not so lucky on the peninsula: we saw some pretty flamingos around Diaz Point and some seals and penguins on the islands too far away to take proper pictures. The other bays were virtually empty besides the ever-present seagulls. Since there wasn’t really an appealing campsite nearby, we decided to wild camp again – in Witmuur bay which at first seemed sheltered. Later, quite some wind came up and it was coooold. The whole day we had been cold already, with clouds hanging low, strong winds and high humidity in the air. Let’s just say it was not an enjoyable night… The highlight of our stay on the peninsula came next morning when we saw 3 jackals in Griffith Bay! We also saw some more flamingos and other birds.

After this night, we were definitely ready for some warmth again though! We drove back to Aus and then up North, taking the photogenic D707 road with many photo stops, all the way to Betta. Here we found a really nice campsite, not the best views but really good facilities and most importantly: good showers to clean ourselves up after wild camping for two nights. A good day and finish to our „South“ Namibia adventures.