Hey guys,
No doubt you've all been living a depressed and meaningless existence whilst our blog remained un-updated - Sorry about that.
Following Botswana we finally got into South Africa and collected our hire car (Nissan Tida) to begin our 10 day camping trip in Namibia. From the moment we crossed the border, we could tell things we're going to be a little shaky - The roads went from being paved to dusty/dirt/sand roads with potholes most Iraqi's would deem big! Was the Tida going to survive Namibia?
Windhoek
First stop was the sleepy capital city of Windhoek - Quieter than the Canberra CBD on Christmas Day, Windhoek was a cute town surrounded by lovely mountains - Other than this salient feature, the town didn't have much more to offer other than zebra, wildebeest and giraffe steak, which was definitely worth the stop!
You can't touch this.
Next we headed to Namibia's prime game reserve, the Etosha National Park. Whilst we'd seen lots of game, this was our first time game driving in our own car which gave us the chance to harrass the animals without being told to 'please be quiet' from a guide.
Etosha NP
Rainbows make everything nice!
Never had we seen such a high concentration of varied animals in the same place. Because Etosha is so hot all the animal are forced to drink from the limited waterholes. Hyena's and wild dogs chasing flocks of birds with zebras's keeping and eye on their every move. Giraffe's scouting for wildebeest with lions lazily resting only 100 metres away. It was amazing! All of this created a true game watching paradise. In addition to the great game watching we also witnessed another amazing African sunset across the park.
Wassup, Zebs
Wazoooooo!
After Etosha, we headed to the petrified forest where the trees are over 260 million years old. Old they may be, but boring they were to see - Picture attached. We then continued to the area of Twyfelfontein, which holds bushman rock carvings from over 5,000 years ago. Our favourite was a picture of a warthog nursing a giraffe with the inscription 'Jane was here - 2009'.
Rocks with carvings.
Petrified trees - If you're in the forest, but there isn't a forest, can you still see a forest?
Finshed with Twyfelfontein we continued the drive via the Skeleton Coast. The Skeleton Coast is one of the most inhospital places on earth, is the home to many shipwrecks, and where the harsh Namibian deserts meet the swelling Antlantic. Driving on the salt roads through this bizarre landscape was an out of this world experience and made us feel very isolated.
Along this profound coastline we went to the Cape Seal colony where thousands of Cape Seals congregate, lay on and bite off each others faces. Seeing to fully grown male seals fight was quite the specticle!
Lazing seals.
At this point in the trip we were starting to notice how the car was holding up - One of the hubcaps had broken off and two chips in the windscreen were starting to split. It looked as if the Tida was taking a turn for the worse!
Our main destination on the Skeleton Coast was the lovely town of Swakopmund with it's German influence and architechtual style. Stores closed at 12pm on Saturday and everyone used gas ovens.
Swakop pier and oyster restaurant.
In Swakop, we road into the desert on a ATV motorbike surfing the dunes up and then back down - With about 2 minutes training the was an exhilirating and scary experience, but definately a highlight of Namibia. We even sandboarded down some of the deserts largets dunes hitting speeds of 70km per hour!
Ready... set...
Broom, broom.
We also did a seal and dolphin tour in Walvis Bay where the seals get onto the boat to pat! The reason we actually joined the tour was for the lunch including oysters. Thankfully the rest of the tourists didn't like oysters so Ren and I had them all to ourselves :)
Terminator seal.
Patting of the seal.
From Swakop we headed to Sossusvlei, Namibia's number 1 tourist attraction. We had thought the roads were bad, but Jesus, the road to Sossus was abismal! Half way through our journey the boot latch snapped and leaving it wide open. As the boot wouldn't close the car was now open to the thick dust clouds we'd so badly avoided by keeping the windows up - Within 10 mintues of driving the car was engulfed with dust everywhere!
Marshmellows - McBryde, style!
Making it to Sossus and feeling rather dusty, we set up camp for an early night to make the best of next mornings sunrise. Sossusvlei at sunrise was spectacular - We watched the moving shadows silhouette across the red dunes creating a natural live art work.
Sossusvlei
Sand hugging hippies.
We climbed to the top off several of the dunes and enjoyed 'skiing' down bare foot, feeling the sand between our toes and taking in the hot morning sun. Hopefully the pictures do some justice to how unreal this place is.
A tough climb.
Endless horizons!
Bomb's away!
From Sossus we continued to our final destination in Namibia, the Quiver Tree forests. Unfortunately, the dirt roads continued and somewhere along the way we lost a 2nd hub cap - The car was starting to resemble the bomb Clark W. Criswald drove in National Lampoons Vacation!
Tida woes :(
Skeptical of our previous visit to the petrified 'forest', we were pleasently supprised to find the Quiver Tree forest very interesting and photogenic - Who thought trees could be so cool! At the forest we enjoyed our last night camping in Namibia and once again witnessed a truly amazing African sunset with a springbok steak in hand!
Quiver tree sunsets
Over all Namibia was a scenic highlight of great proportions - Deserts, mountains, sea and trees! Despite the long distances the place was a wonderful travel destination and was a nice change to the other African countries we had visited.
Hope you enjoyed the read and photo :)
Many thanks,
John and Renee
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