Namibia

We pulled the Pinzy into Namibia and were amazed that immigration, police and customs were all in one room, very efficient; we even walked out with a tourist map after paying a $170 Nambian for road tax. We found a cash point, Connie very excited by this and with money in our pockets at last, we drove to Ondangwa. On smooth tarmac we arrived only to miss the rest camp completely and made the fatal mistake of doing a u turn on a 2 lane highway pulling a 5 tonne vehicle. The turn was too tight and the rope was across the highway like a finishing marker of a race.  Luckily the traffic stopped and we shot across, at full speed as Urs yelped helplessly into the CB radio!

We celebrated our arrival in Namibia with T bone steaks and great red wine. Krissy looked very content with quality wine in her hand for a change.

The next day after a trip to the Pharmacy to find something for the mystery rashes we had to drive to Oshakati to do our laundry and internet stuff. We shot into Spar and found chocolate, biltong, rusks (not baby food but a SA thingy) and other goodies. Krissy and Slade were to be found in the meat section buying dried Wors and were hard to remove.  They had been talking about Wors and biltong for 10 months so this was a big moment!

In the internet café the owner told us how he had been robbed and warned us to watch our cars, wise advice considering what happened the next day. We spent the rest of the day in the supermarket, Mr Price (clothes shop looking for warm stuff) and in Nandos, another place on Connies hit list. We had a massive braai that night with flippin massive Boerewors sausage, curled up like a python, 2kg in weight and 2km in length.  Slade had a big grin on his face, home at last.

We had a full fry up for breakfast the next morning, the first bacon for 10 months! Great yes, we are eating like pigs! Connie, Krissy and Jen went off to find a Laundromat. Whilst Kriss was asking directions in the service station a guy reached through her open window and grabbed her bag and sprinted off.  Connie leapt out of the car and started chasing him down the street yelling 018STOP THEIF019. The guy shocked by this unexpected behavior shot off into the market but Connie kept coming. The man chucked the bag to an accomplice and took off in another direction.  The crowds in the market alerted by Connie019s shouting stopped what they were doing and started chasing the guy with the bag as well. So Connie had a big crowd following her. Jen, left in the car wound up the windows locked the doors and took off full speed after Connie who was fast disappearing into the distance. Kriss coming out of the garage unaware to what is going on sees Jen leaving in a cloud of dust and guesses what has happened and sprints off after her.  Connie continues the pursuit until flagging, the crowd catch her up, old ladies grabbing her and pulling her along.  (Seems like the locals have had enough of the crime here also). Several security guards jump on the guys and several shots are fired into the air and one guy gets beaten by the crowds! Jen pulls up with Krissy who has caught up and heads off to get the boys just in case more trouble erupts. Luckily everyone is alright and the bag gets returned minus the cash.  Everyone then piles into Jens landy and head off to the police station for statements. Luckily 2 of the men are caught and will be banged up and the police have the name of the address of the guy who took the cash.

We are now on full paranoid and security conscious mode. Yesterday David was told by a local guy he had a flat tyre, when he looked down another guy tried to grab his bag. Luckily David caught them at it.

Off to Etosha National Park and out of this town, once we get the flippin laundry done, as soon as possible!

The next day we left Urs, Elsa and Bayo at the rest camp, where they would be forced to stay for the next 2 weeks whilst they waited for the Pinzy parts to arrive from Switzerland. It was sad to leave them, they had been our traveling companions for 6 months, and it is crazy how the time is running now. 

Etosha was fantastic, according to Lonely Planet it is one of the world019s greatest wildlife viewing parks in the world. Its name which means the great white place of dry water refers to the massive white Etosha pan which is surrounded by savannah and grasslands. We spent 4 days there driving between the three camping spots within the park and managed to see lots of wild life.  Giraffes were everywhere, sticking their heads out from above trees and gliding gracefully past, they were especially lovely to see at sunset when there silhouetted shapes loped past. We spotted elephants several times, big family groups going about their business. They were especially amusing at the waterhole when the youngsters kept chasing away the giraffes to stop them from sharing the water.  They all played about and seemed to be having a great time spraying themselves with mud and water whilst Wart hogs patrolled around the pool. We had lunch watching the elephants and listening to them trumpet and splash around, not everyday you get to have lunch with elephants. We saw hundreds of Springbok as well as wildebeest, hartebeest, ostriches, zebra, Gemsbok Oyx, black backed jackals, mating lions, impala, dik diks (smalls antelope), hyena and rhino and lots of other tourists. Also, lots of birds especially secretary birds and bustards (the heaviest bird that can fly) slades particular favourite he enjoyed yelling out the window, It is a BUSTARD, it sounded like he was saying something else! 

It was all change after Etosha, Tubbs decamped into Witt and Jens landy whilst Krissy and Slade returned to the crime capital of Northern Namibia to help Urs fit the parts for the Pinzy. Graham and Connie headed for Windhoek to get their new shock turrets (the strap had been holding the spring to the axle since Gabon!) and David and Nadine, the Frenchies, decided to travel with Witt and Jen.

The scenery in Northern Namibia is fabulous (I know we always say the scenery is great but it really is.)  Tubbs, Witt, Jen and the Frenchies went up to Kamanjab and Palmwag and the hills and winding passes were great.  It turns out it was a long Namibian holiday and the roads were full of 4x4 vehicles. Its funny seeing so many vehicles kitted out with roof top tents and all the overland equipment. At Palmwag, an animal disease control point, a name which could put you off going but is very nice, we found that all the campsites were full so after racing some other tourists for one particular camping spot we gave up and headed out to bushcamp. We spent the night in a dry river bed, Tubbs feeling rather vulnerable in her ground tent just in case she got trampled by a passing elephant of gnawed on by  a leopard.  After a day 4x4ing in the area and getting lost due to a very rubbish map we headed toward Twyfontein, famous for its cave paintings and the nearby Petrified Forest. On the way we stopped at another great bushcamp in a gorge which glowed orange as the sun set. The gorge was full of caves which, looking at the various paw and hoof prints in the sand we wondered what could be living close by! It was a really clear night and thousands of stars and lots of shooting stars was great to watch, strange howling finished the evening off.

The Petrified Forest was interesting. The trees several million years old had by processes of compression, heat and the intrusion of quartz into the cells had preserved the trunks perfectly. Onto Twyfontein, which is one of the worlds largest rock art galleries in the world.  We saw only a small part of it, the pictures of giraffes, ostriches, elephants, oyx or people were either painted in ostrich fat or carved into the sandstone. Apparently the carvings were used to teach the children about hunting because next to the pictures of the animals were drawings of the hooves, for tracking purposes.

Next to Twyfontein is burnt mountain which was not that impressive, resembling a small slag heap but the organ pipes, a series of rectangular rocks was good to see once we had managed to find them. By this time it was late and we managed to find another bushcamp overlooking the hills.

The Brandberg Mountain was next on our whirlwind tour of this area, after shopping in the one horse town of Uis or click Uis we headed there.  The clicking language of the Kaoson people is very amusing to try, a click made by drawing the tongue from the front of the mouth to the back is used in front of Uis but there are other clicks used in place of exclamation marks (a sound like clicking at a horse) and other clicks for other emphasing other things!

Witt and Jen are going to be climbing Mt Kilamanjaro at the beginning of June so wanted to get some hiking in as they were getting rather concerned that 6 months of sitting in a landy was not good training.  A few hours climbing on the Brandberg seemed like a good training exercise. Tubbs and  David were keen to go to so after lots of explaining to the lady at the entrance about only wanting to hike for 5 hours and not take a tour we went off to find a bush camp for the night.  For the first time on the trip we had to share our camp.  As we turned onto a grass track we saw a minibus coming up the hill, we spotted a good spot but it seems we had nicked their camp. We thought it was funny but the tour guide did not seem that amused. We did not end up sharing our fire that night, which is strange when 2 groups of people are out in the middle of nowhere.  Mind you there was a very loud American girl that kept up a monologue for hours so we were secretly pleased we had separate camps!

Our 5 hour hike the next day turned out to be a 3 hour tour but was a nice walk anyway to see the white lady (cave painting) and lots of other paintings that our guide wanted to show us. Oh well, it was a little bit of training. We were meeting Krissy, Slade and the others in Swakopmund the next evening so after a lot of discussion on which way to head we decided to drive towards the skeleton coast. The drive took us past a volcanic landscape and isolated plains and desert. Any poor bugger that got shipwrecked on this coast line would not have survived long in the desert and empty plains that run for hundreds of kilometers next to the coast. The notorious skeleton coast renowned for its mist caused by the cold air from the Benguela, Antarctic current and the hot air of the desert creating a pea soup fog was really windy when we arrived. The beach stretched for miles in both direction and was pretty wild. Somehow we found a less windy spot and bushcamped for the night, there were only a few hardy sea anglers to been seen dotted down the coast.

Just down the road was the Cape Seal Colony. We have never seen so many seals, there are over 100,000 here and they occupied every available space, it was like looking at a crowded beach in Spain. They lounged on rocks in the sun or were laid out next to each or climbing over each other on the beach.  The air was full of the sound of them crying and bleating (they sound like sheep). They were hilarious to watch, they bickered with each other for space on the beach but out at sea, the waves were full of their black bodies diving and leaping over and in the waves.  We could have spent hours there. 

We reached Swakopmund after a few hours of driving down the coast. It is a very German town with lots of German buildings. We found the campsite but no one had arrived so headed off to look for laundry and internet, amazingly the Laundromat had an internet connection, post office and chocolate machine so we had everything we needed! Krissy and Slade found us there after spending quite a bit of time driving around looking for us.

They had had a good time, even managing to have a few days traveling alone together which was a nice treat! They had returned to Ondangwa via Etosha Park. Unfortunately the camping prices worked out to be the same whether 8 or 2 people stayed there. So, they had an expensive night. Back in Ondangwa Urs, Elza and Bayo were very excited to see them again. Having been stuck there for a week they were going stir crazy and really needed to get out of the campsite. Bayo was probably more excited as it meant there would now be more food available! It turns out that the parts had still not left Switzerland and would not be arriving to the following week so, after spending a few days together Krissy and Slade started the journey to Swakopmund.   

They stopped off along the way at Zoum Potjie where they were treated to fantastic hospitality and a huge South African style breakfast.  It was an interesting place even having a little museum with all the old farming and household gear that was brought out when the land was settled.

Eventually all 11 of us were back together and we went out to a pub to celebrate and make new plans.

The next day we spent the morning in town and bumped into Eric and Denise, some Dutch overlanders met at the Music Festival back in January. They had ended up shipping from Ghana to SA. By the time we had everyone back together (its tricky organizing 11 people when we are not all wanting to do the same thing at the same time) we went in the direction of Sandwich harbour. Luckily Krissy read that we needed to get a permit before driving to the harbour so in Walvis Bay after a visit to the fisheries office (nearly signing up to become fishermen for the season), then the ministry of tourism and finally the tourist information office we found out that getting to Sandwich harbour would be trickier than we thought.  It is only accessible at low tide, which was at 3.20 am and would involve trying to navigate many trails. Once there, there is not much to see and we would have to wait until the next low tide to return. Along the way however you would be treated to sights of flamingos and hundreds of other types of birds.  Low tide being at 3.20am put us off so we decided to watch the sun go down over looking the lagoon.  It was dark by the time we left and luckily found a camping spot behind Dune 7.  The dune is huge and of course everyone wanted to climb to the top.  We started by running but soon ended up on all fours; it was flippin hard work and took about 20 minutes to recover!

The group split again the next day. Witt, Jen, Tubbs ad the Frenchies were going to try more walking in the Nauklauft Mountains and Krissy and Slade were going to drive up the skeleton coast and go inland a bit.  We would meet a few days later in Sesriem, near the famous sand dunes.  Tubbs, Witt, Jen and David had signed up for a sea kayaking trip at Pelican point where seals and dolphins and sea birds were abundant.  It was well worth it.  The seals followed the kayaks, popping their heads out of the water and looking at us curiously. They loved it when we got up speed and chased the kayaks or swam in front. They swam under the kayaks and dived around, sometimes chasing the oars. Then we saw the hard shouldered dolphin which can only be seen in this part of the world.  A couple jumped in front of us and other swam centremetres below the water in front of the kayaks, a great experience. 

The drive to the Nauklauft Mountains was yet again through some fantastic country. Prehistoric looking gorges and cascading, rocky canyons and passes ended up in Solitaire- where they sold great apple strudel and home made bread.  Fueled up we got to the park, we hid Witt as we had been charged double camping charges for having 5 people and not 4 before. We then felt bad as the charges for the park were actually quite small. The camp was lovely, next to a dry river bed, 1000m high up and surrounded by hills. We got up early the next morning and started down the 17km Waterkloof trail. It was a stunning walk. We walked in the Rocky River bed, past little pools and started to see lots of different birds. We were in the gorge for the first half of the walk and were keeping an eye out for cats, leopards or cheetahs but of course did not see any. However, we spotted a huge baboon sat on a rock on the other side of the gorge watching us. 5 minutes later we saw the rest of his troop. Apparently the baboons have adapted to this dry environment and can go without water for a long time and their body temperatures can vary by over 5 degrees in one day. By 1pm we had been walking for nearly 5 hours and were only about half way around. Nadine especially was feeling tired and we wondered if we make it around and manage to get to the campsite at Sesriem before it closed at sunset. Somehow we made it.  We finished the walk; we spotted mountain zebra and eagles and had great views towards the Namib Desert. We then raced to the campsite, Jen counting down the kilometers on the GPS hoping we would make it before sunset. The reason for wanting to get to Sesriem is because it is the gate way to soussvlei an area full of sand dunes some of them the oldest and highest at 200m in the world. Luckily we got in but the office had closed so we could not buy a permit to get into the dunes or officially camped. We gate crashed the campsite in search of the others but they were no where to be seen. Hoping we would find them the next morning we found a site which luckily a nice German couple let us share.

4.30am a sandstorm was blowing and we battled our way out of our tents, packed up and headed for the dunes to see the sun rise. Luckily the permit lady did not stop us and we drove into the park.  We saw the sun come up in Soussevlei 60km from the campsite.  The dunes were very impressive and with sand blowing off the dunes and into our eyes, ears, cameras, we began to blend in quite nicely to the scenery! The colours of Dune 45, Namibia019s most famous dune, were mixture of reds and oranges and were very impressive to see. Knackered we returned to the campsite to wait for the others and rest. By the evening there was still no sign of Krissy and Slade, Graham and Connie. We started getting worried with visions of them stranded on the skeleton coast or broken down miles from anywhere, not Sid obviously but the others.  Luckily we got a cryptic phone call that evening from Graham which said they were fine but Sid had broken down and been helped by an overland truck. As this was meant to be our last night together as a big group and we knew the others were ok we broke open a bottle of champagne brought for the occasion and ate pears and melted chocolate, very good!

4.30am we were up again to watch the sunrise, this time without a sandstorm raging. The beautiful ridge of Dune 45 was being trampled by loads of tourists climbing to the top; we found an adjacent dune and watched from there. It was worth getting up early. Jen and Witt had to get to Windhoek that day before they drove solidly for 3 days to get to Joburg to catch their plane to Kilimanjaro. We had arranged to meet the others on the road to Windhoek which 4 hours later we did. With visions of having to go to Windhoek to get landy spares we were relieved to see they were all fine and no parts were needed. In fact, so much for our worry they had been having a great time sight seeing and had just misjudged distances and time. Our cryptic message was all wrong, Sid had broken down temporarily the four wheel drive linkage had broken on the Skeleton coast. Slade had sorted it out then they had met Grant and his Oasis overland truck, a huge chance meeting, the last time we had seen him had been in Cameroon. Then they met a Swiss couple that Krissy had been emailing before we left. The Swiss did not seem too happy; they had many problems with their landy and seemed a bit daunted by the rest of their trip back to Europe! Grant told them that the Cheetah Farm in Kamanjab was well worth the visit and was only a half day drive away; unfortunately the drive was in the opposite direction to the sand dune meeting point. The Cheetah Park was well worth the drive. Cheetahs were everywhere and the tame ones especially liked licking Slade with their sandpaper tongues.

We said goodbye to Witt and Jen and a few hours later we said did the same with David and Nadine. Now there were just 5 of us and we headed back to Sesriem and Soussovlei.

For the third morning in a row Tubbs got up at 4.30am to see the sunrise at Dune 45. Soussevlei looked completely different in calm weather. We walked out to Dead Vlei a dried white pan in the dunes which was beautiful.

After spending the day there we drove out and ended up spending the night camping at Hammerstein Lodge. It was a memorable place as they had a crazy zebra there, who took a liking to Grahams rusk, see photos as well as a baby leopard and a Cheetah. 

We went to Aus an area famous for its 150 wild horses. Tubbs wanted to see them but we only found one. Any ideas about horse riding at the Klein Aus Vista were soon dashed as they had stopped doing it. It was a lovely place and we ended up staying 2 nights. We drove to Luderitz across the Namib Desert as Slade wanted to see the abandoned diamond mining town there.  We took a tour around which was interesting.  The houses there are all filling up with sand, you could walk around inside. Sometimes there was so much sand inside that our heads were almost on the ceiling. Apparently there used to be so many diamonds here that people used to play with them.  They are even to be found in the walls of the houses. 

Another highlight of Namibia was the Fish River Canyon.  The canyon the second largest in the world was very impressive. It is actually 2 canyons with the fish river at the bottom, although it was dry when we were there. We drove up and down the canyon and then watched the sunset with wine and cheese, very civilized!

We decided to go to South Africa with Connie and Graham as we were very close to the border.  It was exciting to think that after 10.5 months and 40,000km we were nearly at our destination. The border crossing was small and we walked around calling out for attention. Eventually a guy turned up, smelling strongly of alcohol and shakily stamped us out of Namibia. We crossed the Orange River and we were in South Africa!

Namibia Summary

Piste Information

All the roads were in good condition either tarmaced or well maintained dirt roads.  The worst road was the road from Sesriem to Soussevlei, Namibias number one tourist information.

Places to visit

Etosha Park, great wild life viewing; Kamanjab Cheeter Farm; Palmwag area; Twyfontein and the Petrified Forest; Brandberg mountain especially for walking; Skeleton coast; Cape Seal Colony, over 100,000 seals; Swakopmund; Walvis Bay and Jeannes Sea Kayaking, go to tourist info for more details; Namib - Naukluft Park - fantastic walking on Waterkloof Trail; the dunes of Soussevlei and Fish River Canyon.