Day 16: Wednesday, 8
August 2012
Etosha National Park
(Halali – Okaukeujo)
Today was all about the lions. That said we saw some other
really interesting things. We decided to have a lie on this morning, and while
all the tour groups packed up and headed off at 6.30am, we took it easy, had
breakfast and decided to visit the waterhole at our campsite for a little bit.
When we got there, there were no animals at the waterhole and just one other
person in the viewing area. It can be very peaceful just sitting there and
looking out on the surrounding area. There were some birds about (probably a
type of swallow) and then all of a sudden they were tweeting loudly, and then
groups of them would fly together, left to right, right to left, and what we
saw could be characterised as a swarm.
The birds flew towards the waterhole, landed on some hard rock in the middle, and then flew away again. This must
have gone on for about 30 minutes – it was mesmerising. When they flew back to
the trees (they had their favourite few), up to 10 birds would sit in a row on
the branch. It was lovely to see something
like this, and it was very unexpected for us.
We packed up soon after, and
drove along to visit some more waterholes. Some of the first few were described
as being places where you always see animals, but they were completely empty.
That said, the setting was beautiful, and worthy of a short stop. Soon after we
came along to a dry waterhole, and on top of the grass, three lionesses were
relaxing. You can see them when they sit up, but they really like to lie down,
and then they disappear again. We stayed there for a while, and then had to
move as there was a I-want-to-see-a-lion traffic jam forming behind us. We
drove on and enjoyed the magnificent landscape that makes up Etosha NP.
Late in the afternoon we stopped at one of the last waterholes before
our accommodation stop. We stopped before the waterhole along the road to admire
the zebras (yes, we’re zebra fans!). When we arrived at the waterhole, a few
cars were driving away. There were many zebras playing in the water, so we
enjoyed this. And then an impala was doing funny things with its legs, like
stretching movements. Anyhow, in terms of viewing animals, many would have
considered it a little boring. At this stage, we were the only car there. All
of a sudden, the zebras start making noises, and running to the far left in a
large group, away from the waterhole. I thought this was a little strange, and
looked out into the distance across the flat pan. And then I saw her – a
lioness was approaching the waterhole. She came right up to the waterhole and
starting drinking water. All the other animals were standing a safe distance
away just staring at her. It was quite amusing to see the other animals looking
at the lioness, and the power she had over the other herds of animals; they didn't make a sound. After
she finished, she sauntered back toward the direction she had come from, and
it was like the zebras and impalas all heaved a sigh of relief. Back to the waterhole, they probably thought!
We then drove to our accommodation to check the closing times of the gates, and
had just enough time to drive to the final waterhole. The road was dreadful,
and we bumped along for 20km. When we got there, there was a large herd of
wildebeests, and then it was time to head back. On the way back, we saw a sign
for another waterhole 1km away, so decided to make a quite detour. When we
arrived, there were quite a few 4WDs all lined up along the side of the road –
something is going on. We asked some tourists, and were told that there were three lionesses
lying in the long grass. At one stage you just saw four paws of one of them,
obviously enjoying the afternoon sun. So after seeing many lions (1 male, 7
female), we happily set off on the journey back to enjoy the sunset at the campsite waterhole.
When I did some research on this trip a few months ago, everyone who had been
to this campsite had commented on the number of animals at the waterhole. They
even discuss it in the lonely planet – “animals come by – not two by two, but
in the hundreds”. They weren’t talking specifically about this waterhole, true
enough, but from what I had read, I thought that this waterhole in particular
would be crowded. However, given that we had already seen so many beautiful animals, my
hopes couldn’t be dashed in any way. When we arrived at the waterhole for sunset (along
with about 50 other people), the waterhole was deserted. Apart from a bird flying
overhead. Everyone was waiting – sunset, and no animals at the waterhole. Oh
wait, here comes an impala (they are the trusty animals who always make an
appearance). Phew, at least one showed up. And that was it for the late
afternoon.
After dinner, we decided to pop back for a look, as rhinos tend to
come back during darkness. And sure enough there were three rhinos drinking
water. Then we could hear something approaching along the stones, and it was a
mother and baby giraffe – they were being very cautious, a few steps, stop,
wait, listen, a few more steps, and so this continued until they finally
reached the waterhole. The rhinos had headed off at this stage. Once they made
it to the waterhole, I had to go to bed. It was so cold, that I found it almost
unbearable to stand there (even with my winter jacket on!). Esben stayed on and
took some video, but left soon after. It was one of the coldest nights so far,
and it meant that neither of us slept that well – I had the weirdest dreams,
and Esben’s feet were like two ice-blocks, even when we got up in the morning. That
said, it was definitely a day to remember in terms of viewing wildlife!
Day 17: Thursday, 9
August 2012
Etosha National Park –
Cheetah Wildlife Park
After breakfast, we called to the waterhole once again, and
we were fortunate to see a herd of zebras drinking and bathing in the
waterhole. Today we left Etosha NP and headed south towards Outjo, to
call to a cheetah wildlife park, where there are some tame and wild cheetahs.
The roads out of the park were very good, allowing an (almost) trouble-free drive to the
next campsite. On the way to the next campsite, there were signs on the road warning us of
warthogs in the area. As we were driving along the main road (120km/h speed
limit), there were two 4WDs in front of us, but at a good distance. Then all of
a sudden we could see a warthog running from the grass verge towards the road,
and there was no time for the first 4WD to stop – our first sighting of
roadkill. The second 4WD was able to stop, and then we stopped behind them. The
driver looked a little shaken, but we checked that he was ok. Not too sure about
this car though, even though he had a bull-bar on the front. And well, it was the end of the road for the poor warthog. After
that, we were more vigilant, and noticed that there were quite a few warthogs grazing
very near to the roadside. Somehow I don’t think our car would have survived a
meeting with a warthog.
After we set up camp at the cheetah park, we were
picked up at 2pm to be introduced to the tame cheetahs. It was surreal to be
standing so close to one, and we were allowed to pet them (it was just like
petting my pet cat at home, Phoebe RIP), only when they started to move or something
distracted them, I’m not sure I was as confident that it wouldn’t turn on me!
We saw feeding time, which consisted of each of the cheetahs getting a 700g
lump of meat. We were told not to approach them during this time – no problem!
There was also a little dog in the garden of the house, a terrier I think. He
had some food, and when the cheetah approached him, he was having none of it,
and snarled really loudly at the cheetah. Given his size you think that he
wouldn’t take the cheetah on, but it was evident that they were used to
fighting their own corner! Later on we went to see the ‘wild’ cheetahs. I say
that, because they are certainly not tame, but they are also not totally wild –
they are fed lumps of meat by the owners of the park. They are currently in a
240 acre park area, and the plan is to increase this to 700 acres. I’m not too
sure if you could rub the top of their heads so easily! It sounds a little strange to us, but cheetahs are actually a bit of nuisance for many of the local farmers. They kill livestock, and farmers just want to shoot them. This is how the cheetah farm began, and then it became a tourist attraction. The owners take many of the cheetahs that would have been killed by the farmers, and try to keep them in the 'wild' as much as possible.We were camping at the cheetah farm and had our own private camping space. As we were in the countryside, there were no city lights or polluted skies, which makes looking at the stars an absolute dream. It felt like we were in a planetarium, and the stars just went on forever. I have never experienced this at home, and could lie and watch them for hours. The weather had improved a little, and it wasn’t as cold in the evening. The lady who runs this place with her family said that she heard on the news that the nine provinces in South Africa all got snow a few days ago, and this hasn’t happened since 1909! Uh oh, there might be some snow waiting for us the week after next.
Day 18: Friday, 10
August 2012
Cheetah wildlife park
– Himba Village – Uis, Namibia
We got up for sunrise, and it was another, lovely warm day
in Namibia. When you are camping, you notice that everyone sets off early in
search of something, so when we left at 8.30am, we were the last to get going.
We wanted to visit the Himba village nearby, and knew that they would not
expect anyone before 8.30/9, so when we pulled up just before 9, there was a
guide there ready to greet us. We didn’t know what to expect from this visit.
The lady at the cheetah farm had given us a few tips in relation to what to pay
and what to believe. Other people had visited the village and had been overcharged,
told quite a few made-up stories, and were constantly asked for tips. Our guide was a bit like the cool guy at the
village – he was dressed in western clothes and so was his colleague. However,
as the tour went on, I think he relaxed and so did we, and it ended up being
very informative and insightful. The Himba people are originally from
north-west Namibia, but some have moved down to this area. The women
traditionally rub a mix of orche and butter all over their skin to give their
skin a red colour. This cream protects them from the sun and insects. They also
rub it on their hair (traditionally horse hair extentions, but now they use
extentions bought at the local shop). They look like they have dreads, with red
paint on them. They also wear a headdress on top made from goat skin. All of
this is to look more beautiful. The same can be said for the jewellery they
wear. The more bracelets on their arms, the better. They also wear metal-like
socks on their ankles. On these metal pieces they add strips of material, and
this symbolizses how many children they have. If a girl/woman is wearing a
large, thick necklace, it means that they do not have any children. In Himba
culture, there are arranged marriages and non-arranged marriages, which is
different to the San people.
One girl
showed us how they bathe themselves – using a mix of twigs and smoke to create
a sweet-smelling smoke. The women then lean into the smoke for about a half an
hour, similar to being in a sauna, and as the body heats up, they sweat out any
toxins or dirt. They do not use water to clean themselves. It was quite
pleasant to be sitting in a small hut filled with this smoke – not something I
would admit about regular smoke from a fire. Many of the children came up to us
while we were taking photos, and they wanted to see the photos of
themselves. It was really interesting to meet this tribe, and to hear about their way of life.
We then drove on to the Petrified Forest. This is a place where petrified tree trunks were discovered
in the early 1900s. Some of the trees are thought to be more than 270 million
years old. Because no roots of the trees were found in the area, it is thought
that they were carried here by floods after the ice age. What were once trees
are now pieces of rock, with traces of iron and magnesium in the trees. You can
see the rings of many of the trees, and where there are no rings, the guide
said that the tree must have been hollow before arriving here. The short tour
of the area was very interesting, and we got to see some welwitschia plants.
It’s the first plant that has leaves that feel like hard plastic – hence, it
lives well in the semi-desert region.
After our tour of the petrified forest, we decided to see if
we could find a sinkhole, supposedly nearby. It was mentioned in the guidebook,
and our forest guide talked about it too, but we were glad that he told us it’s
not signposted whatsoever. The road wasn’t great on the way there. We were
bumping along for so long, it was impossible to talk or listen to music. When
we turned off the C road onto the D road we feared the worse – could the
bumping be any worse on this new road? And to our delight, it was much smoother
to drive on, even though (or possibly because) it was mostly sand. Eventually
we found the sinkhole or Wondergat, and yes it was impressive – I had never
seen one before. The surrounding area was very impressive as well, with red
rocks and mountains that looked amazing with the shadows from the late
afternoon sun.
When we got to Uis, we first drove to the camp site to pitch our tent as usual, and then immediately after walked to the local restaurant to treat ourselves to a cooked meal German style (including German schlager music, complete with disco beat and all). We had a few beers and dessert, and walked back to the campsite and went to bed at around 9.30 pm, absolutely shattered.
Day 19: Satruday, 11
August 2012
Uis - Swakopmund – Namib-Naukluft National Park –
Solitaire, Namibia
We got up a bit later than planned today, because we decided
to lie on for another hour. When we got up, we saw that it had been raining
during the night – that was a first! And it was even still completely overcast
– also quite a change from the ever blue sky that we have had on the entire
trip. After breakfast, we decided to have a nice hot shower – quite a nice change
from yesterday’s cold endeavour. So a good bit delayed, but happily washed and
warm we headed for Swakopmund. Well, so we thought at least. We asked our
Tom-Tom gps, Tobias, to direct us to Swakopmund. And Tobias happily started
calling out directions to us, which we followed… Until we ended up in something
that looked like a mixture of a dump site and the backgarden of the local
favellah, and Tobias kept on insisting that we’d drive into the dumpsite. We
then decided to turn him off, and tried to find our way back to the main road.
We should probably mention that Tobias has come up with many funny suggestions
for routes when asked to calculate the “best available route” – some of them
more than ten times as long as the ones that we found ourselves instead then.
This time, however, his suggestion looked reasonable – until the point where he
wanted us to drive through the dump site and presumably afterwards through the
brick wall and over the cliff behind it. Once again, we were fascinated that
Tom-Tom had charged us 60 euro for something that was at best useless, and
which in less fortunate circumstances could be very, very misleading!
With a bit of map reading and with a few directions from the
owner of the camp site, who happened to pass by and saw us that we were a little 'lost', we managed to find
the right way towards Swakopmund. Decent gravel road until Henties Bay, and an
even more pleasant sandy road from there to Swakopmund – great! We passed by a
few trucks carrying mad looking cars. They all looked like they had been
tampered to make them able to go at least 700 miles per hour, and some of them
even had pretty vicious looking spikes on them. Maybe a Namibia desert death
rally of some sort?
With a bit of map reading and with a few directions from the
owner of the camp site, who happened to pass by and saw us that we were a little 'lost', we managed to find
the right way towards Swakopmund. Decent gravel road until Henties Bay, and an
even more pleasant sandy road from there to Swakopmund – great! We passed by a
few trucks carrying mad looking cars. They all looked like they had been
tampered to make them able to go at least 700 miles per hour, and some of them
even had pretty vicious looking spikes on them. Maybe a Namibia desert death
rally of some sort?
In Swakopmund, we decided to get “kaffe og kage” takeout, so
we brought our coffee and cakes to the beach (also the first time on our trip
that we had seen the sea!), and enjoy it in the car while overlooking the waves
coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. Swakopmund seemed like a nice small city
where you could have hung around for a bit – especially if you’d want to enjoy
a few adrenaline based desert activities like quad biking, sand boarding, camel
riding (well, desert activity at least) etc. We decided to leave this to the
adrenaline junkies hanging around, and left the Swakopmund after having spent
the afternoon there.
After Swakopmund, we enjoyed the coastal drive along the
sand dunes until the road took us inland at Walvis Bay. All tarmac road,
brilliant! But sadly, the people making the road seemed to have run out of
tarmac shortly after Walvis Bay, so instead the road turned into yet another
bumpy ride. At least we didn’t totally miss out on the desert adrenaline
activities then! The road kept bumping past sand dunes, then more grassy
landscapes with mountains of the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the
background, then through the mountains and over green rolling hills. The
bumping nearly did our heads in, but at least the landscape was nothing short
of breathtaking, so it made it worth the bumpiness.
As the evening was approaching and the sun began to set, we reached the town of Solitaire and decided to camp here for the night. The first campsite was full, but we managed to secure a spot at the second one, down by the petrol station. The shop at the petrol station looked like it was from 1950s America, and there were loads of memerobelia around the place, including rusted old cars in the front driveway, with their headlights turned on to direct you into the petrol station!
As the evening was approaching and the sun began to set, we reached the town of Solitaire and decided to camp here for the night. The first campsite was full, but we managed to secure a spot at the second one, down by the petrol station. The shop at the petrol station looked like it was from 1950s America, and there were loads of memerobelia around the place, including rusted old cars in the front driveway, with their headlights turned on to direct you into the petrol station!
Day 20: Sunday, 12
August 2012
Solitaire – Naukluft
– Sesriem, Namibia
We woke early the next day to get on the road to Naukluft.
Naukluft is a national park area, and is very mountaineous. In part of the
park, some trails are marked out, and we decided to do the 11km Olive trail, as
we didn’t have time to do any longer ones. It sounded interesting and it would
be good to get out of the car a bit! We called up to the park office, and the
lady went through the route with me. She pointed out that at one point there
are anchored chains and that you should hold on tight while you step on the
stones at the pool of water – no problem, doesn’t sound too bad. Obviously they
are just some stepping stones through water, and there are safety chains to
help you on your way. After registering and paying, we went back to the start
of the trail and set off. With the map in hand it was still difficult to find
the stat of the walk – this wasn’t helped by the fact that there was a ‘no
entry’ sign just before the start of the walk (which we ignored and kept on
walking). All seemed to be going fine – there were white ‘footprints’ painted
on rocks as you went along, to guide you somewhat, although these footprints
often disappeared at the most crucial times. So the first part went straight up
the mountain – steep, a little tough on the breathing, but breathtaking views
as you ascended.
When we reached the top of the plateau we stopped for a bit of lunch. It was sunny, but also quite windy, so we didn’t stop for long at the top. We thought the walk would go along the top ridge for a while, but we seemed to descend quite quickly down to the bed of the river (no river at the moment). We had to clamber over quite a few rocks and some very big boulders. Both of us commented that it was a difficult enough walk, as it’s quite easy to twist your ankle if you are walking for about 4km on rocks, stones and boulders. At one point I thought that we might have taken a wrong turn, but then saw some more white footprints painted on the boulders.
The views from the
bottom of the gorge were fantastic, and we were both really glad that we had
decided to do this trail. We checked our map again and the river-crossing with
the chains were coming up soon. Before that, we came to a pool of water, and
first we thought that there was no way around, but were able to clamber up on a
ledge, and ease ourselves down onto a plank of wood sticking up from the pool
of water – ok, that wasn’t too easy. Should we be going this way. And then we
rounded the corner and saw the chains anchored onto the side of the cliff face.
Before the walk, I had the impression that it meant we would have to walk on
some stepping stones in the water, and to hold onto the chains to help with balance.
Esben had thought that it meant there were stones in the water that we walked
on, and that there were chains either side that you held onto, kind of like a
bridge. Well, it was neither. I’ll say it now – it was a nightmare!
I am afraid
of heights. I sometimes forget this, but then when I have to do something
involving heights, my fear comes alive again. And today was no different. We assessed the situation, and there was no
way that you could use the chains on the right hand side. We think they were put
in place for the adventurer type, like say, Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.
So we went for the chains on the left hand side. Esben led the way – I could
hardly move. We did the first bit – that was ok, walk along a ledge and hold
onto the chain. By the way, there was about a 4 meter drop into a very dark
pool of water. We had no idea how deep the water was either. The second bit was
a little more scary – there wasn’t an obvious ledge to put your feet on, but
somehow I managed to get passed it. And then came the final (long) bit. Esben
was contemplating which way to do it, and even that made me scared. He ended up
doing something like abseiling along the wall, and was able to get to the next
ledge. When I say abseiling, he had to lean right back, hold on tight to the
chain, and have his feet nearly perpendicular to the rock face. Then it was my
turn, and that’s when my fear of heights really reared his ugly head. I froze.
Just couldn’t move an inch. Esben was trying to talk me through it, but I was
so petrified of falling – this wasn’t good. So Esben kept talking me through
it, and I knew deep down that if I don’t do this, I’ll either have to walk the
whole way back (there wouldn’t be enough time before sunset) or else I have to
wait until someone comes to my rescue, which wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
So I’m not sure how I did it (a lot of nice words from Esben definitely
helped), I leaned right back, my feet perpendicular to the rock face (which was
very flat and smooth), and inched my way across. I have never gripped onto
something so tightly; my hands were killing me, but I knew if I didn’t do this,
I would fall. Once I got over to Esben, I could stand on a little ledge and
haul myself up onto the bigger ledge. I was safe. My whole body was shaking all
over; I felt weak. Esben admitted afterwards that he thought it was quite
difficult, but obviously didn’t want to say that to me then.
The next 3km back to the start of the walk
were a little easier along the river bed, and the scenery was stunning. I was still
glad that we had done the walk, but seriously, how do they not describe this in
more detail when you set off – and clearly the guy who described it in the LP
guide book had gotten the description from the park office. It was a day to
remember!
We left the park at about 3.30pm, and set off for Sesriem – base camp for exploring the dunes. The roads weren’t so bad, and we reached there in time for sunset at Elim dune, 5km from the campsite. It was spectacular – all the mountains and dunes lit up by the sun. And even though this is Namibia’s number one tourist attraction, it still feels like you are the only one there – amazing. Putting up the tent was the next challenge – it was so windy (warm wind luckily), we just couldn’t set up the tent. Our tent needs to be secured with pegs, but the sand wasn’t very deep, and the wind was so strong, that this just wasn’t working. Plan b: tie the tent to the small posts surrounding the campsite on one side – and use rocks to tie it down the other side. And throw in a 15 litre water container to secure it even more! Amazing how imaginative you have to become in times of need :o) After wrestling with the tent, we were ready for a nice warm meal courtesy of the camping stove, and then hit the sack soon after.
Read more at Our Travels: Part 5
When we reached the top of the plateau we stopped for a bit of lunch. It was sunny, but also quite windy, so we didn’t stop for long at the top. We thought the walk would go along the top ridge for a while, but we seemed to descend quite quickly down to the bed of the river (no river at the moment). We had to clamber over quite a few rocks and some very big boulders. Both of us commented that it was a difficult enough walk, as it’s quite easy to twist your ankle if you are walking for about 4km on rocks, stones and boulders. At one point I thought that we might have taken a wrong turn, but then saw some more white footprints painted on the boulders.
The views from the
bottom of the gorge were fantastic, and we were both really glad that we had
decided to do this trail. We checked our map again and the river-crossing with
the chains were coming up soon. Before that, we came to a pool of water, and
first we thought that there was no way around, but were able to clamber up on a
ledge, and ease ourselves down onto a plank of wood sticking up from the pool
of water – ok, that wasn’t too easy. Should we be going this way. And then we
rounded the corner and saw the chains anchored onto the side of the cliff face.
Before the walk, I had the impression that it meant we would have to walk on
some stepping stones in the water, and to hold onto the chains to help with balance.
Esben had thought that it meant there were stones in the water that we walked
on, and that there were chains either side that you held onto, kind of like a
bridge. Well, it was neither. I’ll say it now – it was a nightmare!
I am afraid
of heights. I sometimes forget this, but then when I have to do something
involving heights, my fear comes alive again. And today was no different. We assessed the situation, and there was no
way that you could use the chains on the right hand side. We think they were put
in place for the adventurer type, like say, Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.
So we went for the chains on the left hand side. Esben led the way – I could
hardly move. We did the first bit – that was ok, walk along a ledge and hold
onto the chain. By the way, there was about a 4 meter drop into a very dark
pool of water. We had no idea how deep the water was either. The second bit was
a little more scary – there wasn’t an obvious ledge to put your feet on, but
somehow I managed to get passed it. And then came the final (long) bit. Esben
was contemplating which way to do it, and even that made me scared. He ended up
doing something like abseiling along the wall, and was able to get to the next
ledge. When I say abseiling, he had to lean right back, hold on tight to the
chain, and have his feet nearly perpendicular to the rock face. Then it was my
turn, and that’s when my fear of heights really reared his ugly head. I froze.
Just couldn’t move an inch. Esben was trying to talk me through it, but I was
so petrified of falling – this wasn’t good. So Esben kept talking me through
it, and I knew deep down that if I don’t do this, I’ll either have to walk the
whole way back (there wouldn’t be enough time before sunset) or else I have to
wait until someone comes to my rescue, which wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
So I’m not sure how I did it (a lot of nice words from Esben definitely
helped), I leaned right back, my feet perpendicular to the rock face (which was
very flat and smooth), and inched my way across. I have never gripped onto
something so tightly; my hands were killing me, but I knew if I didn’t do this,
I would fall. Once I got over to Esben, I could stand on a little ledge and
haul myself up onto the bigger ledge. I was safe. My whole body was shaking all
over; I felt weak. Esben admitted afterwards that he thought it was quite
difficult, but obviously didn’t want to say that to me then.
The next 3km back to the start of the walk
were a little easier along the river bed, and the scenery was stunning. I was still
glad that we had done the walk, but seriously, how do they not describe this in
more detail when you set off – and clearly the guy who described it in the LP
guide book had gotten the description from the park office. It was a day to
remember!We left the park at about 3.30pm, and set off for Sesriem – base camp for exploring the dunes. The roads weren’t so bad, and we reached there in time for sunset at Elim dune, 5km from the campsite. It was spectacular – all the mountains and dunes lit up by the sun. And even though this is Namibia’s number one tourist attraction, it still feels like you are the only one there – amazing. Putting up the tent was the next challenge – it was so windy (warm wind luckily), we just couldn’t set up the tent. Our tent needs to be secured with pegs, but the sand wasn’t very deep, and the wind was so strong, that this just wasn’t working. Plan b: tie the tent to the small posts surrounding the campsite on one side – and use rocks to tie it down the other side. And throw in a 15 litre water container to secure it even more! Amazing how imaginative you have to become in times of need :o) After wrestling with the tent, we were ready for a nice warm meal courtesy of the camping stove, and then hit the sack soon after.
Read more at Our Travels: Part 5
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