Namibia

If I had to pick my favourite country on the trip (so far), it would have to be Namibia. The place is sublime. Incredible scenic driving (on good roads!), incredible wild camping, diverse cultures, unmatched infrastructure and a ludicrously long list of places to stop at and see. We had budgeted a good chunk of time here and I’m glad we did!

Some seriously cool driving in this country!!

As a cheeky little treat, have a listen to this recording of a local Namibian group we heard singing this song called ‘Ti Mama’, meaning ‘mother’s happiness, victory!’.

Ti Mama!

Etosha National Park, Central Northern Namibia

We had heard mixed reviews of Etosha from travellers along the road and so we were keen to see it for ourselves. Etosha is based on a salt pan of considerable size. The southern part that borders the pan is really where the action is in terms of wildlife but the bulk of the park is the impressive lime green pan itself.

Salt, anyone...

The park and its wildlife revolve around a series of water holes dotted around the desert landscape. Water supports life and nowhere else is this more visible than here. Harsh daytime temperatures and a lack of lush water filled vegetation means wildlife here is forced to congregate at these lifesaving water spots.

Normally in herds of thousands, this intrepid little lunatic now realizes he's on his own in lion country..

So we spent a couple of days driving hundreds of kilometres around the park in search of the water holes and hoping to see some of the rarer game that visits them.

A small rumour circulated around Zebra Village that the pub was open..

Driving was along proper gravel roads as opposed to sand or mud tracks we’d been used to in some of the other African game parks we’d visited. Wildlife was evident everywhere and you’d have to be careful you didn’t run any over!

Why did the antelope cross the road...

We were pretty damn lucky. On the very first morning game drive we took a gamble, got up pretty damn early and headed for some of the central northern waterholes to see what we could find. At the third attempt, we came across one of the prettier spots. Rocks strewn across the landscape made the contrast between the lush water hole and its surroundings punctuated. There we found a young pride of lions and lionesses at their morning drink. We were alone at the water hole with no less than 8 lions.

Mary the lioness spotted the 20% sale at John Lewis ahead of anyone..

They even came up from the water hole and sat right next door to us..

Geoff the lion thought the other two staring at the tourists was getting embarrassing..

They were an impressive bunch and a good mix of lions and lionesses.

'I dare you to step out of your car, tourist..'

We continued to drive and saw most of the favourites including these beautiful elephants that had just been for a drink and a good old dusting session at the pan’s edge, hence the lighter colouring of their coats.

You would not want to meet these two down a dark alley..

I also finally got a shot I’d been waiting for of a giraffe drinking. Despite the presence of another evil looking pride of lions at this particular water hole, the giraffe managed to muster the courage to step up for a drink. Younger giraffes in particular are unable to fully arch their necks to drink direct from the water so they tend to spread their front legs and squat down for their drink.

What does a giraffe have to do to get a drink around here...

The beauty of Etosha is that game viewing is not restricted solely to the day light hours as it so often is. A couple of the rest camps have floodlit waterholes. A bit Disney like but pretty damn cool, especially as we saw three of the big five game in one evening session, including a leopard!

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So we sat down at a bench, waiting for more crazy antics at the water hole when this python decided to turn up.. Watch the video and note where he popped up relative to the bench we were sitting on…

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The final morning game drive also proved fruitful. We drove to one of the nearer water holes to our rest camp at Halili and came across a couple of lions having a drink. A further drive to one of the larger water holes in the park led us to this incredible pride of some 11 lions.

Lazy little beggars..

They were a solid little unit with lots of affection between the alpha male and the females. You can feel the chemistry in these shots..

Only the beginning; lady number one..

...followed by lady number two. Lucky boy!

And during the entire two hours we spent with the lions we saw two large herds of keen zebra waiting to approach for a drink. But while we were convinced we’d see our first kill of the trip (there were after all some 80 zebra within 50 metres of the lions..) these lazy little beggars had other ideas, notably a good snooze.

The youth of today; laziness does not fill your stomach, young man..

After waiting an eternity the patience of the zebra paid off and they managed to get a result, unlike us!

'Quick! They're not looking!'

Still, to look this good you need your beauty sleep!

Good or bad hair day; you decide!

People may criticise Etosha’s Disney attitude towards game parks but we had a bloody good time and I’d highly recommend the park to anyone. The opportunity to have a cold beer and watch game from a seat overlooking a floodlit waterhole is pretty damn pleasing!

The Desert Elephants of North Western Namibia

I’ve wanted to see desert elephants in the wild for many years. Himba, my trusty Land Rover was named after a little desert elephant I once saw on a David Attenborough programme on the region and so in many ways it would be a spiritual homecoming for Himba to head to the area. Luckily we had time in our schedule to head to the remote northwest of the country to try and track them. The drive up there was as exciting as the elephants we were lucky enough to see!

One hell of a drive in!

Desert elephants, as their naming suggests, live in extreme semi arid areas. There are only two places on earth to see them; in Mali or here.  We spent a couple of days getting to where we’d been tipped off they could be, wild camping along the windy, barren but beautiful route. Eventually we got to the edge of a canyon and began driving through it. We must have crossed and driven through the small river running through it some twenty times. At times the gorge would narrow and we’d pass to within metres of the canyon walls. It really was impressive.

Desert elephants are smaller and more mobile than their conventional cousins. And they need to be to survive in these conditions. Although the photos look lush, with water and vegetation apparent, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Outside of this canyon, conditions are tough. Sand dune after sand dune from the Skeleton coast in the west to the barren expanse of Etosha pan in the east mean conditions are far from ideal for these animals that conventionally drink some 65 litres and consume significant amounts of fresh vegetation daily.

Desert oasis; a happy family stuff themselves while they can!

But finally we came across a group of four elephants meandering their way through the gorge. We sat on the roof and just watched them.

Time for lunch!

After a while we drove through the whole canyon and had lunch on the barren outcrops on the outer reaches. As we drove back out of the gorge we came across a family of seven elephants. They were heading straight for us.

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Knowing they are a lot more unpredictable in the wild, especially here where tourists are far and few between I reversed back out to a clearing and they gently worked their way round the car.

This intrepid little family on a long walk through the gorge.

They quickly moved elephants up my favourite animal list. They were beautiful. So large and yet so gentle as they moved through the canyon. They even seemed to enjoy our presence.

Look at how happy this little chappy is..

This is a very special place and its remoteness, I hope, will keep visitor numbers to this fragile ecosystem low. With only some 40 elephants in the area, they really are a rare entity and one that needs all the protection they deserve.

One of my favourite animals out there. Gorgeous little things!

Twyfelfontein, Northern Namibia

Twyfelfontein houses or rather openly exhibits Africa’s largest collection of indigenous rock art.  Some of it has been dated up to 4,000 years which is pretty damn impressive! Found in Namibia’s north western Damaraland region, the work is believed to have been carved by San people using stone as both the medium and the method for the carvings.

Can you guess what it is yet..?

The scenery in the valley is beautiful. Twyfelfontein means ‘doubtful spring’ after a temperamental water source at the base of the valley. The carvings were discovered, or rather publicised by a German farmer who bought the plot that the site surrounds.

Long ago, elephants, zebra and giraffe would have passed through this valley..

The paintings are thought to have been used by local shamans as part of their funky activities but also, interestingly as drawings to teach children and even to show future nomads the locations of water holes etc.

One of the famous images showing a lion - loving the tail!

But my favourite had to be this picture of an elephant, the only one on this rock. Can you spot him?

First one to spot the elephant wins..... lots of personal satisfaction!!

The nearby natural ‘organ pipes’ are pretty self explanatory when you see the picture but they’re actually old formations of lava flows in this geologically active area.

Stacked like organ pipes. Beautiful creations of nature.

Brandberg Mountain and the White Lady Rock Painting

Following the rock art theme, we passed through another region with rock art. The setting was spectacular.

Spectacular approach to Brandberg mountain!

The walk up to the rock art sight wasn’t too bad either!

Not a bad day in the office!

And here it is..

Intricate details and colour!

But this particular sight is famous for its supposed white lady depiction..

The White Lady of Brandberg... or is she / he....?

It turns out that the people that discovered this place got it wrong… big time! They thought the depiction was of an early white female settler to the region but in fact it’s a) not a woman and b) an indigenous male shaman rather that a European colonialist!

Oh well, but I liked the dog!

It's not even a dog but I like it!

The Trip So Far

A few of you have asked how far I have traveled to date. Well, the results are in and I can say that the total distance, in miles traveled since I left London in early June is……………………………………..

A whopping  16,220 miles!! With still a decent stretch to go!

I’ve had just one puncture, from a nail in Sudan, a couple of dodgy alternators (the thing that charges your car’s batteries), a fuel tank that has more holes in it than our colander, one broken shock absorber, an episode of dodgy electrics (including one very funny time when Conor literally had sparks flying under his bottom from one of the batteries!) and lots of spent bushes and bits and bobs.. Not bad for this kind of trip!!

Swakopmund, Western Namibian Coast

There is one main reason to go to Swakopmund. It’s not the Skeleton Coast or a visit to the historic whaling stations or seal colonies, oh no. It’s to do seriously stupid things that would give your parents a heart attack and possibly you too. Swakopmund is the adrenaline capital of Namibia. You can snowboard down sand dunes, quad bike through sand dunes, throw yourself out of a plane from ten thousand feet, abseil and climb stupidly steep canyons and that’s just for starters.

Not a bad day in the office it has to be said!

Conor and me opted firstly for a spot of quad biking, which we thought would be a pretty chilled out affair. I’ve quad biked in many locations in the world and normally you are supplied with an automatic 125cc bike, capable of getting up to good speeds and providing a thrill. Not here.  We were given an option; a ‘tame’ ride on a 125cc automatic bike or a ‘proper’ ride on a 250 cc fully manual bike. Having not riden a manual motorbike or quad before, naturally this was the choice to go for and bloomin ‘eck was it a good choice made. These things flew over the bloody sand dunes. I must have consumed near enough three kilos of sand in the two hour stint.

It was absolutely awesome. You literally drive up and over huge towering sand dunes. Check out this video for a flavour. The occasional shake is just me changing gear whilst desperately trying to hold on..!

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The next morning we were due to leave and, having tried (not particularly hard..) to arrange sky diving we were devastated (…) to find out we couldn’t do the jump due to bad visibility. Unfortunately our luck worsened and the weather cleared meaning we were able to drive back to the airstrip (it was a gravel runway in the middle of the desert!) and actually take part in this ludicrous sport. Throwing yourself out of a perfectly good moving aircraft at 150mph is a stupid idea. The only consolation was we didn’t have a perfectly good moving aircraft and so it made exiting slightly more justified. We had a tiny single prop plane, just about big enough to fit the three of us jumping in and the pilot and there was no bloody door. No seatbelts either while I’m at it! I had the pleasure of having a lunatic as a skydive instructor who had hair like Edward Scissor Hands tucked under a purpose built beanie and a slightly nervous disposition. But in fairness he was good fun and once we jumped he allowed me to ‘fly’ us which basically involves flicking your hand a tiny amount and being put into a stomach destroying spin. Further, the millisecond the chute opened (a rather pleasing result) he handed the two stirrups over to which I proclaimed ‘what do you want me to do with these’ only to be answered ‘to fly us home, stupid’. I liked the guy! After a reasonable landing it became quickly apparent that despite being third out of the plane, we were second to land. The lunatic had got us down quicker than the rest just for kicks. Cracking stuff!

Sossusvlei, Western Namibia

And so the adventure continued with a brief visit to the towering dunes at Sossusvlei, near the western Namibian coastline.

The towering dunes make this tree feel inadequate..

And what visit to a sand dune national park is complete without a slow, painful ascent to one of the peaks for a nice view?! Well I wish this one was. It was bloody hard work. The drive in was bad enough let alone the calf crunching step by step ascent.

The drive in was fun!

 

And if the steep climb wasn’t bad enough or the blister producing scorching sand (we stupidly wore flip flops..) then the little cheeky acacia thorns were the final straw. One of these little buggers could (and did!)  pierce straight through the rubber of your flip flop to deliver a nasty bite!

Just one example of the little beggars..

The tiring but beautiful ascent up one of the huge dunes!

But what goes up must come down and so did we. In fact we ran down, partly for fun and partly to stop our feet melting any more!

35 minutes up, about 45 seconds down!!

Fish River Canyon, Southern Namibia

And so the final trek south began with a brief stop at the spectacular fish river canyon. Smaller than its American cousin but just as beautiful, our time here was particularly special as we had many of the view points to ourselves.

Pure beauty. Not a bad place for a break!

Fish river is the second biggest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa. 160km long and 27km wide in parts it plunges up to 500m deep. A truly spectacular sight.

Another stunning view of the canyon from the rim.

And what a place to spend sunset!!

Conor admires yet another ludicrously beautiful African sunset..

 

And so our great time in Namibia drew to a close and it was a short hop across to the border with South Africa, the final country in the London to Cape Town saga!