We enter the western gate of Etosha National Park at 8:00 this morning. Murray, our truck and I are safari-ing the west side of the park today, driving from waterhole to waterhole. Just after we enter the park, we see a herd of zebras. A great start!
The waterholes are man made and supplied with water from underground. They are spaced about every 10 kms along the gravel road. We read that the animals would be more active in the morning and evening, when it is cooler, but we see activity all day long at the waterholes. One waterhole at a rest stop has a blind to watch from and there are seven elephants there when we arrive. We watch them drink and spray water on themselves and listen to the noises they make when they suck water up their trunk and then blow it over their bodies.
There are thousands of termite mounds dotting the landscape. Many of them have a tree sticking up through them. Our question is, did the tree come first or the mound? Looking across the fields, all the mounds remind us of the fields of temples on Bagan, Myanmar.
We spy many, what we call, dust devils. Mini tornados. They appear out of nowhere, swirl and blow dust and dead leaves around in circles, move across the scrub land and then, poof, disappear.
Did I mention it was 41 C outside today? We are only allowed to get out of the truck at designated rest stops, which are surrounded by fences. When we stop at waterholes, I do roll down my window to take photos, so we feel the heat, but mostly we are in the air conditioned truck!
We stop to watch two ostriches do their mating ritual. The female opens her wings and flaps and then the male responds, and then they run around abit playing hard to get. Fascinating.
We see many different animals and birds today. Eland, red hartebeest, kudu, lion, zebra and elephant. Goshawk, kori bustard, hornbills and ostriches. Luckily, not many tourists, which is a surprise.
Tomorrow we are up early again to drive the eastern half of the park where the landscape changes to the Estosha Pan, a great salt flat. Our goal is to find some white rhino. Wish us luck!
As we drive along highway C40, from the Rhino Camp parking lot towards Etosha National Park, we see small villages. Houses spread out, one or two small shops or bars, dusty yards and very few people about in the heat. This is the real Africa to us.
Also along this highway we come across this sign…..
So we start looking hard for elephants. The elephants are elusive, but guess what crosses the road right in front of us? A giraffe! A giraffe!!
We are staying tonight at the Hobatere Lodge, a 16 km drive on a dirt road. The drive is easy co pared to what we were travelling looking for black rhinos. The lodge is a step down from the swanky places we have been staying. Boy, a person can get spoiled really fast! The best part about this lodge is that it has two watering holes easily viewed from the lodge.
After supper, once it had turned dark, we went to the viewing platform to see if there were any animals at either watering hole. A very nervous jackal made his way to the close one and drank deeply. He is very skitterish and keeps looking around between lapping up water.
He takes off and then Murray spots movement at the far watering hole. Holy Cow! It’s lions! There is a male and about six females and one youngster. They also drink deeply and then sit for a rest before padding regally into the bush. This is a great start to our self-drive safari inside Etosha National Park.
Our small group (4 guests, 2 guides and 2 trackers), standing beside a large bush, is staring at Troy, a humongous male black rhino, who is staring back at us from about 100 feet away. Troy’s eyesight isn’t very good so he thinks we are an extension of the bush, but we keep very still anyway. Every time Murray’s camera shutter clicks, Troy’s ears move as he is picking up the sound. Troy is a beautiful beast and we stare at each other for a good 10 minutes before we slowly back away.
Troy, the black rhino
Earlier in the morning, we connected with the vehicle with the trackers and another guest vehicle. Our guide, Asker, spotted movement and it was a mother black rhino and babe, Unistein and Uli. The mother, being very protective, went off at a run with baby right behind, when she heard our vehicles. We got a quick look at them running away.
Welwitchia, Namibian national plant
The welwitchia is the national plant of Namibia and only the elephants and black rhinos eat it. The rhinos will chew it, getting the moisture and nutrients from it and then spit the debris out, whereas the elephants eat the whole leaves.
On the drive home, we happened across Unies, a 32 year old female, and mother of Troy. We watch her for some time also and she is a beautiful beast too.
Unies, mother of Troy
This area is a protected area of about 1,300 sq km and has about 20 free roaming rhinos in it. The trackers patrol the area and check on the rhinos, but the rhinos are free to live their lives. The area is part of the Save the Rhino Trust.
Murray’s addendum
We are on the road by 7am. It seems to be the way here. Road is a rather loose term for where the wheels for the Toyota Landcruiser touch down. This is real 4-wheel drive terrain. Our guide Akser is quite adept at changing from 4 wheel high to 4 wheel low and managing the 5 gears at the same time. Steep slopes that make Debbie yelp, big rocks that need traversing, deep loose gravel or sand, all of which need a change in gear. We don’t get stuck or even close to it.
The first pair of rhinos we see run off so the trackers feel they should find at least one that is willing to stick around and stare at us while we stare at them. This takes us far afield, zone 4, according to Ceasar, one of the trackers. We travelled most of the way there at a relative high speed. They find a willing subject and we spend time with Troy. At that point it is about 2.30pm and we should be heading back. Akser informs us it will be about a 4 hour trip. Holy, we went that far. On the return road another willing victim is found and we stand motionless trying to stare down Unies. After 12 hours of bone shaking African massage we arrive back at camp, 7pm, just in time for dinner.
And the wind howls. We leave our little paradise at the Shipwreck Lodge and head to the main lodge and walk directly into the SW wind. It is strong and cold coming off the Atlantic. The wind in Soussvlei, where the temp is +30C, has a cooling affect. On the coast, where the temp in the morning is 15C, the wind makes it cold. Damn cold. We were not expecting this when we planned our trip to Namibia. Our warm layer suffices but it is still chilly.
Skeleton Coast drive
It is a long drive to where the car is parked so one must plan to leave early. We are treated to an ‘African Massage’ on the trip out. The term refers to the extremely rough roads and the stiff suspension of the 4-wheel drive vehicle and how we get bounced around as we travel at 60kph on a road suited for 20.
Jackal
Arriving at the truck on time we head to Damaraland. As with all wild life we come across animals at random. There is movement at the side of the road. I take note and say to Debbie ‘coyote.’ First thing that came into my head. Of course, it is not a coyote. We quickly recognize the canine as a jackal. We pull up beside it and the dog isn’t concerned at all. He heads off doing exactly what it had started out to do, his nose in the air.
When we entered the Skeleton Coast National Park at the south gate the building was appropriately official and the staff although friendly were the same. On the way out at the western gate the buildings were the same however I thought the staff was kind of sketchy. No uniform, rough looking and rough talking. They did not suit the position at all. Kind of odd as it did not match the Nambian way. I thought maybe it was me but after we passed through the gates Debbie said the same thing. First sketchy people we have run into since we arrived.
The highlight of today’s journey, for me at least, is the giraffe walking along parallel to the road munching on leaves at it progressed. We stopped; I got out of the car to take a few pictures. Totally unconcerned about the presence of a human, the tall lanky animal just sauntered along enjoying lunch.
Just off the main highway we park our car in a designated lot and hitch a ride on a shuttle with a guide, Akser, from the Desert Rhino Lodge. About 2 more hours of African massaging and we arrive at a cluster of walled tents with a central large tent that serves as the living and dining area.
We drive inland on the river bed of the Hoarusib River. The river extends about 360 km inland. There is no water in the river right now but when there are heavy rains inland, the river flows. It has been a couple of years since the water flowed in the river due to the drought Namibia is suffering.
Bodo, our guide for the day from the Shipwreck Lodge, tells us when the river is dry, the rocks are dead but the sand is alive. The sand blows with the wind and covers the stationary rocks. But when the river has water in it, the sand is dead and the rocks are alive. The sand just gets carried away by the water, but the rocks are alive and the water causes them to move and fall into the water.
We are lucky to see the resident bush elephant and sit watching him munch grass. Springbok and oryx are in abundance as there is greenery for grazing on. We also see plovers, ducks and a hawk.
The land formations are moonlike, with granite, basalt and limestone interspersed with the desert sand.
Lunch is eaten on the beach looking out to the waters of the Atlantic. I can see now why this stretch of coast is called the Skeleton Coast. The waters are turbulent with strong currents and the waves are large. The wind is relentless.
Swakopmund and the front right tire is flat. We have the trip timing to a T and the car is not moving properly as Debbie tries to back out. I don’t get it. I have had maybe 3 flat tires in my life and when we get our trip briefing one of the main subjects is flat tires. “You have two spares, they say, if you get a flat phone us and we will tell you where to get the tire fixed or replaced. DON’T drive with just one spare.” 4 in 10 people have at least one flat. All the while I’m thinking how in the hell do people get flats, it’s only gravel. Well, I don’t know how it happened but the tire was as flat as can be. Twenty minutes to change the tire. Debbie phones the truck rental place and the tire shop is just down the road. An hour and a half later and we were on the road. Two hours behind schedule. That would have been OK had we just been driving to the lodge but to the Shipwreck Lodge that is not possible. We were to get picked up at the end of the road and shuttled to the lodge. Oh well. We made it about ½ hour late and are met by a guide, things are all good.
Swakopmund is OK. A real tourist city. Nambians holiday there and every international tourist stops at least one day there. It is clean and there seems to be quite a bit do, boating on the ocean, quading on the dunes, sand boarding, small plane flights along the coast, any sort of tourist activity you can think of. Only thing it is probably the only tourist ocean side town I have ever been to where swimming it not allowed.
We left and the SE Atlantic wind was howling. The wind was howling at Sossusvlei but the big difference is at Swatopmund the wind is cold. The temp here is less than 20C, not something we expected but we will survive.
Our trip north is mostly along the coast. It will be a long day so we need to gas up at Hentiesbaai. It looks like a nice place. Not a westerner’s idea of an African town. The streets are paved the sidewalks are in good shape and the house are quite modern. It looked interesting but we are late so no time to explore.
At Hentiesbaai the road changes from asphalt to ‘the salt road’. We are not sure what we are getting into but it is fantastic road. Hard and smooth, except for the occasional sand drift, and 100 kph all the way.
The landscape is constantly changing. It starts our fairly ordinary desert. (if there is such a thing.) We travel further and Debbie notes were are in the midst of a ‘moonscape’, 30 km on we are on Mars, a few more kilometres and things change to resemble Saturn. Sand, big rocks, small rocks, combinations of them, small mountains, big dunes, bushes and no bushes. The colours change as well. The prominent colour of the landscape changes and the surface does. There is blueish sand, pink sand, tan sand, teal rocks, grey rocks, white rocks and yellow everything.
At Mowe Bay we park our car under a canopy and meet up with Bodo, our guide for the next couple of days. First stop is the sea lion colony about 200M from the Skeleton Coast Park gates. Cute little fellows, there are somewhere between 18 and 20,000 of the them in residence at that particular spot. Many of the ones we see are small 10 to 12 weeks old Bodo says. Twenty or thirty of the older ones are playing in the water. Jumping, frolicking, and surfing the breakers. Looks to me like a sea lions life is not too hard. There is a sad piece to the story. As we progress north there a few baby sea lions on the shoreline stranded. They are too exhausted to continue the journey south to the colony’s home and they are most likely going to die. They are cute but the weak are not to survive.
The Skeleton Coast is named that for a reason. It is rugged, it has extraordinarily strong winds which make for very big waves and it is where the cold air meets the warm air making for very dense fog. Ships have been running aground here since ship have sailed the coast and even thought is it a known danger spot, daring captains still try to traverse these waters. The latest wreck was a Japanese fishing boat in 2016. It is not legal to fish here but they thought they might chance it and got hung up on the rocks. After a few attempts of free it, it was left to the seas.
A few of these wrecks were either run aground or washed ashore and we visit the remains. In 1976 a crab boat from South Africa ran aground and we stop to see the few pieces of rusted metal left after 45 years for being beaten by the brutal weather. In 1970 a wooden fishing boat left Walvisbaai and did not return. It has been ravaged but passers by. It is said that a group of tourists used it as a fire pit when they were camped near by. Not much is left of it. On a mission to rescue an wrecked ship near the Angolan border, in 1942, and airplane the Ventura Bomba crashed on the shore while returning to Swatopmund for more supplies. A few persistent metal pieces remain.
Shipwreck Lodge
An hour and a half after leaving our pick-up point at Mowebaai we arrive and the very funky Shipwreck Lodge. It is the only lodge on the Shipwreck Coast. Not many get to stay here and we are lucky enough to get this far north. Tomorrow we explore the Hoarusib River.
We are on the road by 9:00 this morning as we have a six hour drive to Swakopmund. The terrain changes slowly from scrub to grassland to desert sand back to scrub back to sand. We drive through three passes, each with their own personality. A number of ostriches are spotted far into the fields.
There is a large lagoon near Wallis Bay that we stop at to look at the flamingos. A school group of young children are making their way deeper into the lagoon on the sand and, unfortunately, scare away the birds, who move deeper into the lagoon.
We are now close to the Atlantic Ocean and the breeze is chilly compared to the Sossusvlei desert area. There
We arrive in Swakopmund around 3:00, right on schedule, check into our hotel and go for a walk. The town is oddly set up with extra wide streets and avenues. There is no traffic and hardly any people, a ghost town almost. We think that it turns into a busy place in the summer when everyone heads to the coast to get away from the heat, but right now now it is eerie.
Tomorrow, another long drive north towards the Skeleton Coast.
Today, we go out with Lucas, one of the guides from the Hoodia Desert Lodge. We are headed to Sossusvlei, Deadvlei, the Namib Desert and Big Daddy.
Our first stop is an area beside the road where we are going to look at small desert life. Lucas guides us through the sand and around the brush pointing out animal tracks. We spy jackal, rabbit, gecko, scorpion and the Dancing White Lady Spider tracks. Lucas finds the spider’s lair and starts digging, suddenly out pops this huge spider! We all jump back!
Dancing White Lady Spider
One of our goals on this trip is to climb Big Daddy. Big Daddy is the tallest sand dune in this part of the Namib Desert. The other four people are not going to climb, but Murray and I are determined. We each take three bottles of water, a Coke and a power bar and head out. The distances are large here, it took us almost 20 minutes to get to the bottom of the dune. And then we start to climb. I follow Murray, right in his footsteps, as it is easier to use an existing footprint. It takes us just over an hour to get to the top. I think many people we meet are surprised to find two “old” people climbing this dune. Our backcountry ski climbing has paid off on this climb. The fun part is walking down the steep slope into Deadlei. Step, squeak, slide, step, squeak, slide. Lucas meets us down on the Deadlei, he has been keeping an eye on us as we climb and descend.
On the top of Big Daddy
Lunch, set table with ceramic dinner ware, cutlery and wine glasses, is under a tree at a picnic area. An oryx wanders close and is slightly put out as we are in his afternoon nap spot. Our companions for the day are M&O from Switzerland and C&N from England. We all get along wonderfully and enjoy our lunch in the dessert.
Deadvlei
After a quick stop at a canyon we head back to the lodge. We are all happy, tired and in desperate need of showers. It was a great day!
Day One on the road! Debbie’s driving first as we leave Windhoek behind and travel south on a paved road. Two lane road and the speed limit is 120kph although we are advised to keep it at 100 kph, which I do. We drive the pavement for about an hour, turn west onto a gravel road and switch drivers. We are told that there are many driving accidents involving tourist and speed, so we are to keep our speed down to 70 kph on the gravel. Both of us endeavour to keep our speed down, but it does creep up and then we correct to a slower pace. The gravel roads here are very wide and well compacted, although there are sections of corrugated gravel.
Fences run along side the road and we eventually spy a cow and then lots of sheep. The scrub land looks rather inhospitable, but it seems the livestock can find enough to eat. We are now able to recognize baboons at a 100 paces and we see groups of them. After awhile we spot our first Springbok!
Spreetshoogte Pass
Murray is driving as we are headed over Spreetshoogte Pass. We’ve have be warned the drive down the pass is very steep. We arrive at the top of the pass without climbing too much as we were already high up. The vista is expansive. Fortunately the road down is laid with paving stones and not gravel, which makes the descent easier. It is very steep in places but Murray drives it with practised ease.
Down on the flats we spy some Oryx. They are pretty animals with great long straight horns. It is exciting to start to see wildlife that we are finding ourselves. A trick we have learned scuba diving is that we look for movement. Whether under water or on the plains, that movement will indicate wildlife.
We trade drivers again after a quick stop in Solitaire for a snack of peanut butter, crackers and bread, and continue on our way. It isn’t long before we arrive at the Hoodia Desert Lodge, tucked away off the road. It is a paradise with a welcoming host. We are in our own separate “chalet” with large bedroom, indoor bathroom and outdoor shower.
Namibia Sunset
At 6:00 pm two other couples and us are taken to a nearby small hill to watch the sunset. It’s supposed to be romantic! Murray and Debbie romantic! Hah! Anyway, each couple has their own private space with chairs, table, drinks and snacks. Murray and I talk photography and shoot interesting angles until the sun starts to set, then we shoot sunsets. It was a cute couple of hours and we got some interesting shots.
Namibia is about 824,000 km2, slightly larger than Alberta, with a population of about half of Alberta’s. Windhoek, the capital has a population of about a half million, which makes it the perfect size to acclimate in.
The folks at the Olive Grove Guesthouse, a quiet and comfortable small boutique hotel, where we are spending our first two nights in Namibia, advise against walking at night. The sun goes down around 7:00, so we figure if we walk to a restaurant for an early supper and be back by 7:00, we will be good. We walk to Joe’s Beerhouse, a local institution, and have pizza and a lovely chat with a couple from Michigan. We were all surprised how much in common we had and talked hiking, skiing and traveling.
After a very long sleep and breakfast, we go out for a walk to downtown to see the local sights and buy a few groceries for the road. The first thing we notice is that it is very hilly here, which our unused legs complain about right from the start. Folks we meet on the sidewalk are friendly and offer a Goodmorning or Hello. The official language is English here, although Oshawambo, Afrikaans and German are spoken more often.
As we walk about in downtown, we notice local fellows with cameras and wonder what there schtick is. We eventually see one taking photos of a local mom and two kids dressed for church. Money exchanged hands so he took photos and perhaps sent them to her phone for a few bucks. Very entrepreneurial.
Seems the local place to grab lunch, supper or a snack is the Hungry Lion, a KFC like fast food place. We walk by three Hungry Lion’s on our tour and when a light lunch is needed, we pop into one by the grocery store and order a chicken thigh and fries from a very happy young woman dancing as she worked. We learned some terminology too…..we were asked “Swipe or cash?”. Swipe? Oh, credit card!
We find the local craft market, Namibia Craft Centre. We are impressed with the quality and variety of the crafts. We spy artwork and fabric that are possibilities, but we won’t buy anything just yet. We will look along our route and if we don’t find what we want, we have time when we get back to Windhoek for serious shopping.
We enjoy interacting with the locals and chat to the cashiers in the grocery store and a young fellow helping set up for a religious graduation outside Parliament House.
We finish our walk just when the heat of the day starts and are now sitting in the shade and slight breeze of the Olive Grove veranda. Tomorrow we head out on the road towards the sand dunes.
