And he is still alive! (Namibia 14 - 28 December)

We picked up our car at Hosea Kutako International Airport and headed for Windhoek. They drive on the left in Namibia and I was glad Rob did that before. I prefered to read the map as always. There were only few cars on the road and I noticed two dogs entering the bushes but their tailes were weirdly up on their backs. Baboons!

We spent a night in Windhoek (what a clean and organized city!) and were glad to leave the shabby pension behind. We were advised to refuel at every gas station we come across as the distance between two filling stations can by all means be 300 - 400 km. So we did in Rehoboth and then entered the gravel road.

The vast untouched landscape was stunning! Even though we had a detailed itinerary the directions were not always correct as was clear already on our second day. We drove at least an extra 120 km and no guest farm in sight. Then we finally found a sign of life, another working farm guarded by fierce dogs. The farmer showed us the way to his neighbors.

You can drive for hours without seeing a soul. Now and then we came across a hitchhiker (and some more hiding in the bushes). They looked like they spent days waiting along the road.

We arrived at the guest farm just in time for coffee and cake. It was in a very nice natural setting in the Namib Naukluft Park. We were the only guests there. In a family atmosphere, we shared the dinner and breakfeast all together with the owners and their local employees living on the premises. This was something completely new and surprising for me but it turned to be a nice way to learn more about the local way of life. Also Maarten got interested in their stories about scorpions, black mambas and spitting cobras encountered at the farm.

We travelled further into the Namib Desert.

Big hay constructions like this we could see along the road and everywhere. Those are nests built by the small brown bird called sociable weavers. Some of these nests are over 100 years old, and some house up to 300 birds. They can survive in most arid conditions because they eat insects and never need to drink water!

Our next accommodation was in a tent of Desert Camp. The camp is set in the middle of nowhere, the views from the terrace of the tent are magnificent in all directions, beatiful scenery. It is located only just a short distance to the entrance of the Sossusvlei National Park.

In the evening we set off for dinner in the nearby lodge when we heard a hissing noise coming from the back of our car. We got a flat tire! Luckily we were still in the camp. But!!! to make long story short, the spare tire was also in a very poor condition. We had to wait for a new tire or another car that had to be brought from Windhoek. This would normally take about 4 hours but we got stuck at the camp for almost 2 days!! That's Namibia!

A friendly ranger brought us to the lodge to have our dinner but the stay in the hot tent with temperatures around 40 C was not really agreable.

One night I was awoken by strange noises. I thought of horses but we were surrounded by a herd of oryx! They were literally touching our tent.

The breakfast delivered in a picknic basket was without exaggeration grand!

Maarten kept a journal "Maarten in Namibia" describing all animals he came across but also writing pages about eating ice cream and french fries.

We were glad when we finally received new tires and ventured to visit the dunes at least in the early morning on our last day. It was really worth it.

Climbing the huge dunes wasn't really something I would like to do again, too hot, sand everywhere, but Maarten wouldn't agree with me! and the views were unforgettable.

Unfortunatelly also here our car didn't prove to be strong enough for driving in the deep sand. We got stuck and were happy to go with the public shuttle.

What a contrast between the clear blue skies, deep red dunes, and the cracked white base of the dry "vleis".

The colors and almost mystic landscape of ancient dead trees among the red orange dunes....

I was reading from the guide book aloud that the Namib is nicknamed the world's oldest desert, approximately 55 milion years old, when Maarten exclaimed, Wow! that's a lot! And he is still alive!

Obviously we didn't have enough time to visit the Sessriem Canyon. We had a long journey ahead. That day another 350 km awaited us to reach our next hotel in Swakopmund.

On our way to the coast we stopped in Solitaire for gas, bathrooms and a stretch. I liked this place, full of character, it reminded me a lot of the American West. And it even had a little bakery with delicious treats and coffee for Rob!

The landscape was beautiful and dramatic again. There is only one route between Solitaire and Walvis Bay and here again you can experience that Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world (2 inhabitants per square kilometer!!)

The road itself takes you through the the Gaub and Kuiseb mountain passes that consist of many sharp turns going around high drop-offs into the river down below.

Nevertheless, this drive was also very tiring. After hours we made another stop at Vogelfederberg, a mountain next the road, about 50 km to Walvis Bay. A sign said we needed a permit to access it but we did it anyway and climbed the short way up to the base of the mountain.

There was a BBQ place in the shade, Maarten was happy to climb all over the place and the view was stunning.

Arriving to the Walvis Bay we were welcomed by inhospitable landscape and a threatening sky with cloud inversion.

I've already googled our accomodation in Swakopmund so I knew. But my all over impression of this place wasn't really positive.

You could do some shopping here, not my favorite thing as well known. It was too cold for swimming even though Maarten did of course.

There were some good restaurants with fresh fish and delicious sushi!!

We spent our evening in the restaurant that is at the end of the pier surrounded by sea. Enjoying sushi and watching dolphins coming past through the breakers around the restaurant was almost a magical experience!

Back to the desert to Damaraland! And again also here the driving through the remote landscape was already a great experience.

We came across many roadside craft stalls. The vendors really did their best to make the stalls attractive. Either the Herero women dressed in big bright dresses danced in front of it inviting you to buy or they made life-size annimals out of clay to catch tourists' attention.

That worked for me and I made Rob stopping or at least slowing down which annoyed my both fellow travelers, particulary the little one. p504

Our next accommodation was in a little cottage with an own herb and vegetable garden which also supplied the restaurant. A good inspiration for my own gardening! It was a little bit weird place. Here I didn't like being in Africa. It was like staying in a (French) open air museum. Or how else should I describe those sweet cottages? p516

Maarten was happy with the big pool, he could just run out of the cottage right into the pool on his own.

We stayed two nights and visited the petrified forest west of Khorixas.

Here we could admire the welwitschia plant which actually is a prehistoric flora. Some are estimated to live for mor than 2,500 years! Maarten was more impressed by the rock lizzards searching for cooling in the shade of this living fossil.

It was already very hot again when we reached Twyfelfontein, a great atmosferic place famous for its ancient rock engravings.

I especially enjoyed the story of the hardy pioneer farmers settling here in the late 1940's after the Second World War. You can still see the ruins of their house.

I like this interpretation of the well known Lion Man engraving (from Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Dowson, T. 1989. Images of power: understanding Bushman rock art. Johannesburg: Southern.)

The Lion Man engraving is so named because its paws have five rather than four toes. This shows that the engraving depicts a sha- man in the form of a lion. One of the paws has more than five toes, and the tail has a paw at the end. Shamans in trance sometimes experienced what is known as polymelia, the possession of extra limbs. This is a form of somatic hallucination, in which things are felt rather than imagined. The tail of the lion is taken as the extra limb, and it is interesting to note that lion do occasionally show a claw-like growth near the end of the tail, in the tuft of hair at the end. This engraving illustrates both the influence of trance experience on the art, and a highly detailed knowledge of the animal, its physiology and behaviour.

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This is a typical Damaraland landscape, heaps of rolling red granite boulders amids savannah with shrubs and acacias, a panorama of desolation.

Rob spotted a tower of giraffes just while driving! I got out of the car trying to get closer to them to take pictures. I ventured quite far into the bush. Only later I realized how dangerous it was. Not because of the giraffes but there could be also creeping lion hiding in the grass and could have been an easier pray. Anyway I was thrilled to get so close to those magnificent annimals here in the middle of nowhere.

Maarten prefers animals that he can touch. He was excited to "save" some smaller animals by helping them crossing the road.

Our next stay was an disaster. It was on a remote private farm which could be interesting but... To start with the positives... the owners were very nice and friendly, the food was excellent. The atmosphere was very relaxing but the rooms were just awful, dirty and with dozens of mosquitos! I could still live with that but there was nothing to do! And to drive out of the farmland took hours! They didn't offer anything they advertised, no safaris. Also the owner told us there is no use for doing safaris as you can't see anything because of the high vegetation. It was just before Christmas so there were their family members coming to visit. We were the only guests. Upon our arrival Maarten complained about stomach pain and he had to throuw up. The owner at the farm said that was something what everyone gets here, a 24-hour bug, nothing to worry about. Maarten was very sick he laid down to rest but after less than an hour he was right as rain again! Maarten had a great time playing with the farmers children and you could see that the farm life suits him the best! We didn't see him for the whole day!

He amused himself tremendously by playing games with the stuff, running outside with the kids or petting all the farm animals.

The main tourists attraction for this place is a Himba clan that came to live on this farm.

They can sell their goods and crafts, they are given a food supply and allowed to stay free on the farm land.

Honestly, I didn't enjoy visiting them but the babies were adorable! The dinner was served at one big tabel together with the family who spoke only German. The meal was outstanding. Just as darkness fell we could hear hyennas cry but the German schlager music was also getting louder and louder. Very disturbing! We were supposed to stay here for two nights but in the morning we said good bye and literally fled away hoping that we can arrange a night closer to the Anderson Gate entrance to Etosha.
Once we almost drove over a big Black Mamba crossing the dirt road directly ahead. It's Africa's longest (this one was "only" about 2 meters long) and one of the most poisonous snakes! Sorry, no picture as it ran fast!!! Anyway, we saw many dead snakes on the road and this one was the only one Maarten was allowed to get out of the car to observe up close.

Maarten saved another turtle crossing the road which brought us luck and we could enter our "tent" one day sooner. What a difference a lot of privacy with a delightful rustic open-air-shower and toilet! We would wake up every day into a bright morning but during the day the clouds built up and became dark and heavy. Spectacular and heavy thundershowers usually arrived in the late afternoon. The rainy season is usually not the best periode to see wildlife. We were also a little concerned because during the wet season there is enough water in the veld that the animals don't need to travel to the water points.
Yes, the water holes were pretty deserted but we just drove around and found all of the animals in numbers and often in close-up over the roads!
I guess, we were lucky.


While driving through the Gemsbokvlakte suddenly we noticed a group of lions laying in the grass just nest to the road. We were only a few meters away from them! They weren't bothered by our car at all.

Helmeted Guineafowl

You can find ostriches all over Namibia.

We smelled "something" and soon came upon big fresh dung lying on the road. And then at last we saw a herd of elephants approaching the road right in front of us, they were about to cross the road!

It was beautiful to watch how the smallest babies are protected and herded by the adults.

An incredibly close and thrilling encounter!



Zebras in love.

We were driving for hours without seeing a car then passed the fairytale-like Sprokieswoud where a thrilling scene awaited us.

There lied a giraffe carcass. Torn abdomen, a leg meters away, only bones and a hoof, the head dragged further away in the bushes. A glaring sign that the lion was nearby! We tryed to spot the lion himself but only Maarten claimed he saw it run away.

Luckily there were still many alive!

Few minutes later we encountered those big cats. They were all very sleepy and seemed to be well fed.

We could almost touch this lone bull who was having a bath at mud pool just next to the road. The sounds he made were incredible. He sucked liters of water with his trunk and then emptying it down his throat. It sounded like throwing buckets of water into a huge metal tank. Then he started to cool himself down by sucking the mud and blowing it over himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX We spent our Christmas at Etosha. De decoration in the bush camp during our dinners was beautiful but still it couldn't evoke any Christmas feelings in me.

After 3 nights our last stay in the beautiful Nambian nature awaited us. This was above our expectations!

The garden was full of secret spaces to be discovered, perfect for Maarten! with a watchtower and a nice pool.

Nice Christmas surprise from the friendly staff!

My favorite was the viewing deck looking out on a meadow full of rare antelopes. From the restaurant you could watch the animals gather at dusk.

We did a hike across the street.

After days spent in the car we were all happy to stretch our legs despite the dark sky threatening to storm again.

We encountered a herd of Wildbeast grazing among the termite mounds - one of the typical features of Namibian savanna.

 

The sunset in the evening was enchanting. Vast skies, vivid colours changing every second and open space teeming with animal life. So serene, so quiet.
Wish we could stay longer!