Day 6 more driving but this time looking for big game!!

Last day today with a 2½ hour drive back to Windhoek and the car drop off to look forward to. First off however a drive of a different kind with an early morning game drive looking for another of the radio collared leopards located in the largest of the parks – talk about looking for needles in a haystack!

With Armin guiding us we set off at 6.45 am and eventually after an hour or so after much off road driving around as well as through huge thorn bushes we finally came across xxx drinking from a water station – we continued to follow her and were eventually rewarded with a fantastic walk past right in front of the car!!

Photos shot we then headed off to find some cheetah before finally heading back to the lodge for a full eggs bacon sausage etc... breakfast.

After that with several hours to kill before I was due to leave I headed off with Armin again for what ended up as a personal extra game drive (only me and a couple of the lodge staff to see the star of the game lodge “Wahoo” – a huge captive male leopard who certainly enjoys playing to the camera!!

 After Wahoo we went hyena  tracking and were also again successful finally locating Pooh – a huge spotted hyena – under a tree chilling out !!

I left Okonjima and headed South towards Windhoek again and my flight out of Namibia. Definitely sad to leave this wonderful country but hopefully will come back some day.

A final white knuckle ride from central Windhoek after dropping off the hire car to the Airport which shares at least one thing with London Luton Airport – its miles away from where is is named after – so far in fact I was convinced that Ryan Air and Easy Jet were certain to fly from it!!

Highlight of the day – apart from some of the shots taken of Wahoo at feeding time – a fantastic performer who lived up to his top star billing - clearly the best moment of the day was Eilis meeting me from the plane!

Lowlight of the day – not finding Easyjet or Ryanair staff at the airport to greet me!!!

Thank you again Namibia for providing such wonderful hospitality during my travels – everyone met you with a smile despite the clear poverty that must be endured by many. A land of stunning scenery and wildlife, and fantastic pothole-less traffic free roads despite the distances between petrol stations!   

Definitely sad to leave this wonderful country but hopefully I left enough still to do that I will need to come back again someday!!.

Day 5 - the longest day

longest drive of the tour today and boy did I feel it – the B2 leaving Swakopmund is the only long bit of tar road driving I was doing and conscious to keep speeds down meant I was passed by everything on the road which at times resembled the M25 on a good day!!. Still couldn’t work out the overtaking rules as I thought they were the same as in SA – i pulled over as much as I could but didn’t always work and only 2 thank you acknowledgements – neither by a Namibian!!

First part to Karibib was all Kalihari desert (it said on the signposts!) so sand sand and more sand with several mines thrown in for good measure along the way – turned off just after Karibib and did another 60km before finally turning off onto gravel – yippee!! – able to drive along at own speed and unbothered by any other drivers – didn’t encounter anything for 120 km!!

Much more bush like scenery now with huge termite mounds becoming commonplace. 

A few photo stops on the way. Saw on the map that I was passing “dinosaur footprints” landmark so curiosity got the better of me and I stopped off to view – weird set up – you pitch up essentially someone’s house just off the road, pay $N20 (£2) and you are shown into a field to follow a trail to these tracks! – there are pics to prove it and I can say I have seen them

Eventually arrived at Okinjima entrance at 3.45pm although took another 30 mins to get to reception so missed some activities – time spent thought in R&R at the pool and observing the game on view – oryx and warthog mainly -  from the room.

Dinner later – solo table for me! – then a night drive with the highlight being the sighting of one of 5  leopards located in a 4500 hectare enclosure -  and there he was lying on a rock for warmth right in front of us! – a rare encounter even according to the guides

Early start (5.30am call) tomorrow for a leopard drive out in the bush – will hopefully get to Africat tomorrow for the cheetahs.

Highlight – catching the leopard sighting at night

Lowlight – missing afternoon activities however this turned out for the better - see tomorrows blog!

Day 4 off to the seaside- a mere 319 km away !!

Awoke to cloudy (?) sunrise which made for some dramatic snaps before packing up and heading off for some different sand – the seaside stuff!!       

Called into Solitaire again to fill up with petrol – never pass a station by it says in the guide!!

The scenery gradually changed from  dunes and hills either side to rolling countryside which had the appearance of being green but in reality was merely grass tuft in the sand! Stopped off at the Tropic of Capricorn road sign – hard to believe back into the tropics again though definitely not rainforest country with only the Kuiseb Canyon as any sign that it does rain sometimes ! an eerie descent into a huge canyon complex followed by at least an hours driving across striking rock formations before emerging out into more desert – this time proper stuff with mile after mile (or rather km after km) of unrelenting sand stretching on and on into the distance.

                                                                             lone tree

Passed first hitchhiker of the trip but having stopped only a couple of km down the road for lunch i saw he caught a lift in the back of a truck so he didn’t have to wait long – it was at least 120 km from anywhere – how did he get there??!!  

 Highlight of the day: apart from the hitchhiker another mad cyclist this time alone and hunkered up beneath a sunshade at 2pm in the afternoon taking a respite – he was at least 100 km from Walvis Bay and nothing in the way of any sort of large town for at least 200km!!.... mad !!!.

Late post – another highlight bumping into an old work colleague Dave Rodwell and his wife from Hillier Parker days (1985-87) in the Tug restaurant – life is indeed a small world!!!!     

Disappointment of the day: - losing bet with myself about the number of cars seen in first hour – I said 4 – it was 2!!

Off to Okonjima tomorrow to shoot some cheetahs from the Cheetah Kingdom series on ITV!!! Oh and its a public holiday here so only petrol stations open – hope breakfast is good as it may otherwise be haribos for lunch again!! 

      

Day 3 Sunrise to sunset.....

Alarm call at 5.30 though didn’t really need it as the jackal foraging in the bin kept me awake most of the night!!

Gates to the park opened at 6am (sunrise) and I sailed through at 6.10 am 20^th on the signing in register and not a queue in sight! Although I’d read the books it nevertheless still further  than the mere 63 km journey to the dunes but the scenery more than made up for it.

Frequent photo stops on the way and at Dune 45 a stop to marvel at those already nearing the summit – they must have sprinted up!!

7.30 am I was scaling my first big dune, Sossusvlei  and regretted it immediately as I sank 6inches into the sand for every step taken – although not the first of the day – several sets of feet led the way I was the only one on the way up so didn’t hold anyone up with frequent stops!!  As always though with these things the view from the top made it all worthwhile and it was a lot quicker coming down !!

Nearly there!!

A stop at Nava Vlei for some more pics – i never did find the signposts to the other  and I staggered back to the car for a well earned still reasonably cold water.

Lots more stops for pics on the way back before getting back to camp at noon for some R&R.

Back into the park at 5pm to catch the late evening sun and wow was it worth it with every dune seeming to vie with its neighbour for best dune shadow !

Dinner across road in hotel with barbequed warthog kudu and blue wildebeest on the menu tonight !!! mmmmmm!

Off to Walvis (valfisch) Bay then Swakopmund tomorrow so another day back on the road – yippee!!

Highlight of the day: warthog on the menu for dinner!!

Disappointment of the day : - nothnig - a superb day from start to finish!!

Day 2 – the road that went back in time – literally!!

As I set off from Windhoek just after 9am destination Sestriem approx 320 km away it didn’t take long to realise : 1) it was going to be a long day driving  - the guide said up to 6 hrs!! - and 2) the relatively nice tar road wasn’t going to last long – barely 5km into the journey and it was onto the gravel which actually in places was far better- a lot smoother and way less potholes  than many of the main roads back home!!   

The C26 twisted higher and higher and the scenery became more rugged and timeless – a bit like the choices on Kudu FM – “Painter Man” by Boney M, “if I said you had a beautiful body” the Bellamy Brothers and “wasted again in Marguerittavitte” by  Freddy Fender sounding as old as the rocks piled up beside the road!

On and on the road went – the searing blue sky dotted with clouds and the temperature climbing all the time – frequent stops for photo opportunities broke up the monotony and each car coming the other way – there weren’t many!! – announced by a cloud of dust in the distance.

Finally Kudu faded into static and whilst the scenery kept going back in time at least the music managed to return to the here and now via the ipod!!

Finally after some 5 hrs almost the first real bit of civilisation around through the dust cloud though somewhat ironically called Solitaire it was good to get out stretch the legs and tuck into  a Magnum ice cream from the general store!!

Arrived at my Destination Desert Camp – not really tents at all but very well appointed washblocks with canvas roofed bedroom section and a deck with a view to die for. Used all my scouts backwoodsman badge knowledge to build a fire form scratch and braai for tea!!. Watched the sunset casting longer and longer shadows until it finally disappeared over the mountains behind me.

Nightlife has a totally different context here as various animals appear from out the bush chattering away to each other

Early night as an early start tomorrow to the Dunes for sunrise!!..........

day 1 and internet access achieved!!

Such a contrast getting on the plane at Heathrow last night where they spent 30 mins deicing the wings to enable us to get away as the temperature plumetted again to getting off the plane in tropical Windhoek with the palm trees swaying and the oven furnace blasting out with added sauna level humidity. Welcome to Namibia!!

With the hire car rep slightly miffed that he had only one passenger to collect – i think he was expecting a horde of Parkers - he filled me in on the local weather  threatening rain but not quite delivering yet and with the grey clouds rolling in to remind me of home.

Found Rivendell Guesthouse behind the security gates and barbed wire but strangely no hobbits or Gollum to greet me!!.

Dashed out for some cloud pics but only just made it as the clouds rolled in – hopefully a cloudless sky tomorrow as I set off for the desert dunes of the Namib- Nakluft at Sesriem

72 hours to go - almost!!

starting to wonder if the snow will clear before I set off on Sunday evening!!

:-)