Namibian roundtrip

We are now back in Windhoek after a Namibian roundtrip with Christian and Pernille's family (Marie, Leif, Camilla and Hans).

After picking the family up at the airport we stayed the first night just north of Windhoek on a nice guest farm. The next day we headed towards Etosha National Park. On the drive in we started spotting warthogs, zebras, springboks, all sorts of birds (the bird thing was mainly the two biology experts, Hans and Camilla), etc. But as soon as we entered the park things got even more interesting, as we saw an elephant almost immediately.

During our three night stay we saw more than we ever dreamed of. The first night the water hole at Okakuejo camp was visited by a big group of elephants, and had a visit by three lions and four rhinos. We even got to see a rhino square up to the male lion, resulting in a massive lions roar (which is really some thing you have to hear for yourself, along with an elephant fart...). Aside from this brilliant start to our safari we also saw tons of zebras, springboks, gemsboks, wildebeast, giraffes, plenty of elephants including very cute small ones. But maybe most interestingly we also saw a lion chasing a gemsbok, unfortunately without success. A leopard in a tree with kill, and very surprisingly a leopard in the middle of the road obviously not caring much about us (so much for it being the shy big cat). We also went on a very cold night drive where we again saw lions, elephants and rhino. Nothing short of amazing.

After Etosha we drove down to Swakopmund (with an overnight stay in a hole called Kamanjab), via a petrified forrest, the Skeleton Coast and Cape Cross seal colony. The drive was beautiful, it is just so different for us Danes to see this vast desolate landscape, and the changes along the way. We also saw a giraffe in the middle of the road, and a group of Hartmanns mountain zebras. The seals were also nice, but they really do stink.

In Swakopmund we relaxed, played a bit of football, ate quite a lot and drank plenty (mainly beer i suppose, and I agree Ashley, Tafel is the best of the ones up here). We also went on a drive to see the welvichia plants, that are only found in Namibia. And then we went on a quadbike and sandboarding tour. The quadbiking in the sand dunes was a lot of fun, with surprisingly few restrictions regarding how fast you drive and how steep slopes you attempt to tackle. One thing to remember though, is that the tires grip a lot better on tar than on sand. Christian found out the hard way, and his trousers are currently at the taylors to have the 10 cm tear on his arse repaired, after the quad decided to throw him off :-) Oh, and if you go, the manual 200cc models have quite a lot more power than the automatic ones!

From here on we drove through the Namib Naukluft National Park to Namib Desert Lodge about an hour from the gates to Sossusvlei (the red dunes of Namibia). We went to the dunes, which was probably on of the best experiences of our trip so far. The landscape was stunning, even if the walk up the dunes was very tiring. We went up Dead Vlei and Big Daddy. One of the great things was getting down again, you can gather a lot (and I mean a lot) of speed down these dunes, and thus jump very far and high. The only downside is that you have sand absolutely everywhere afterwards.

Our final night we spent just outside Windhoek (Christian, Pernille and I in a tent in yet another freezing night with temperatures around -5, thank god we bought proper sleeping bags, well Christians isn't quite warm enough, so he seems to be looking forward to warmer nights...).

Now we are in Windhoek waiting for our Hilux, that Toyota have just called to say we wont get back untill tomorrow at 15.00 as we have to have the bearing in our suspension changed.... We sort of expected this, as the left front wheel was very loose.

Hereafter we plan to go on to Khaudom National Park for some rough bush camping (meaning no toilets, and apparently no fences around camp), and then through the Caprivi Strip to Botswana. So we do not expect to have another update for at couple of weeks.

Thank you all for your comments and interest, and my apologies for putting the pictures in the wrong order this time (I cannot seem to figure out how to move them around).

Cape Town to Windhoek via Kgalagadi, Fish River Canyon and a 1 kg steak

Having left Cape Town to go to Franschoek for our 'final' supper (which we enjoyed massively) we then finally headed north to start the outback/camping life. The first stop was Beaverlak National Reserve, just for a night. The decent to the camp site was very rough, and we engaged four wheel drive here, only a few hours from Cape Town (hurraahhh).

The next stop was Springbok, only as we had to sleep, but even if the town is very dull it turned out to be a nice night. We went to the local steakhouse, Taurus, where Christian happily found they had a 1 kg rump steak on the menu at the moderate price of around 70 danish kroner. As a price for finishing it (as he duly did, including all the chips, veggies and half a dessert) he now has his name on the wall in this restaurant. So if any of you are ever there, be sure to check it out, and please sent a picture of it :-)

While digesting the steaks we moved on to Augrabis Falls National Park, which is a nice place with tons of Dassies (nice little mammals of some sort). We had a couple of great days with a bit of hiking, and brushing up on our camping abilities and most importantly braai'ing skills (BBQ'ing to most of you guys...)

From there on we headed into the Khalahari, or at least the fringes of it. We spent three days in, and around the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, which is a wonderfull place. Unfortunately on the way there I ran over a mongoose or maybe meercat (see our front page picture), which is very much a favourite animal of mine, so we now have our first road kill... could it only have been a cat or bird or something. In the park we were quite lucky, we saw tons of Springbok, Gemsbok, Wildebeast, Hartebeast, Foxes etc, but also a Lion strolling next to the car, two Cheetas resting after a meal and a Caracal (quite rare at daytime).

From the Kgalagadi we crossed into Namibia, heading for Fish River Canyon, which is the worlds second largest canyon. Just before we reached the camp site there was a sign that it was closed and we had to go to Hobas at the other end of the canyon. Luckily they had room for us. The canyon itself was very nice.

After a couple of days we went to Windhoek, where we are now. The city itself is nothing special, but there are restaurants, internet, cinema and even vegetables of the menus! This is very much a meat lovers paradise. Steaks are never less than 300g, and you get very little vitamin. After an afternoon i Windhoek we found out that Namibia is an hour behind South Africa, which explained a lot of things, such as the sun taking forever to set over the canyon, why people had looked oddly at us for going to bed at 21.00 (or 20.00 as it turns out) etc.

From here on we will head north with the Flojgaard clan, going to Etosha, then back down the Skeleton Coast to Swakopmund and finally to Sossusvlei and Sesriem. Thereafter they go back to Denmark, and will start planning the next leg of our journey.

We hope you are all well, and please leave comments on the blog!