Namibia

After spring comes fall, and after fall comes summer. We have now crossed the Equator 7 times, and have one more crossing when we fly to Finland in a few weeks.

Namibia - ‘Africa Light’ per some blogs I read last summer.

An independent nation only since the 1990’s. A decent road network, and one of, if not the most, popular tourist destination in Africa in 2016. Friends Bev&Chris had recommended we consider coming here, so we decided to rent a car, and drive to Etosha National Park. To view the wildlife.
Politically, Namibia seems to be better managed than many another country in Africa.

Link to Namibia pictures


Craig’s videos:
Elephant in Etosha
Lion encounter in Etosha
Leopard in Okonjima



Fly the South African Airways ‘Air Link’ plane to the capital, Windhoek. You will have engines designed by Craig, and the food was great! We expected nothing, as the flight takes 2 hrs, and I thought it was their budget line. Might still be a budget, or a commuter line, but there were 2 choices of boxed meat dishes, and when I declined, she pulled out a veggie box without me asking! The chocolate baked thing, like a small cupcake, was fresh, moist and very tasty - and there also was a piece of dark chocolate! Am afraid I can’t remember the only other time we were impressed with the food on a flight since we left home, but it has happened once.

Driving from Windhoek, to Otjivarongo, which is half way to Etosha National Park, we saw a few warthogs and a couple of babboons by the road, lots and lots of reddish and later grey, termite mounds, and in the distance, I saw what looked like antelope of some kind. Like Craig observed: the country could be one huge park! Sparsely populated at least on this stretch, wide open, and mostly flat country side with dry grassy areas, thorny bushes and low trees. They have fences on both sides of the road for miles on end, presumably to protect the wildlife from us drivers.

We are unfortunately no wildlife photographers, and for the first time ever, Craig wished he had a better camera than the one his best friend, his phone, comes with. A large telephoto lens would come in handy here.

After 1.5 days we had already seen: dozens of giraffe, springbok, wildebeest, banded mongoose, jackal, zebra, pink flamingoes (very pretty), lots of birds we can’t identify except ostrich, gemsbok (straight horns), kudu (curved horns), black faced impala, butterflies.
Craig identifies the animals with the help of an online guide, when there is reception.
I loved watching young zebra play - they chased each other just like human kids do. A warthog mom with 2 juveniles, chased away a large gemsbok at the waterhole they shared with zebra, small birds and several ostriches, the various antelopes, and next to where the wildebeest were sleeping.
In the late afternoon of our first full day, we saw a large male elephant, who looked very healthy! He was max 5-6m in front of us, when he decided to cross the road, to continue his dinner. This was only a beginning for us!

We have shared the road with zebra, giraffe, several elephants, various antelopes, and lots of birds. Would be fun to be out on some type of bike sturdier than ours, except it is not safe - the animals roam free and we stay in our closed cars. Which is how it is supposed to be - this is their Park, where they are protected.
Maybe in the future, the park should not allow us tourists to drive around in our own cars, but instead minimize pollution, and include the game drives in the price of your stay here. Fortunately, it does not seem crowded, as the park is large, and the road network extensive.

The air feels clean and crisp, with absolutely no humidity. Typical desert like temperatures, with cool evenings, but a very warm, and bright sun during the day.

The German colonial past is evident in the food served at the ‘camps’ we stayed at (one quite luxurious for us) - heavy on thick slices of cheese and meats. The a la carte menu listed several pages of beer and liquor, to one page with basic food. We chose the buffet instead. The bread is definitely better than typical white bread at home.

After 2 nights in one place, we spent one night at one of the newest camps, Onkoshi, which is situated at the edge of the vast salt pan, one of the famous features at Etosha. It used to be a lake thousands of years ago, and during the rainy season, can have quite a bit of water. Right now it is mostly dry, but we can see water in the distance.

On the way here we had a brief glimpse of a large snake, on his way in to the brush. At least 3-4’ (>1m) long, and some 2” (~5cm) in diameter.

The sunsets are deservedly famous here, but I dawdled on the way back, so we only saw the last several minutes. The sun sets for a long time, though!
On our late afternoon drive we saw more elephant, and giraffe, and the various types of antelope. The elephants today seemed older than the large one from last night - but still clean, just a little ‘battle scarred’ -maybe the elephant version of our grey hair, and wrinkles..
We also saw a tiny antelope, that Craig believes is called a Dik Dik.

By mid day on our third full day here, we had again seen almost every animal we already had seen - and we had shared the road with 3 lionesses!! We have not mentioned the bikes again.
By afternoon, we had lost count of our many truly close encounters with elephants - we have been as close as we ever would want to be to many very large and wild animals!
Almost all the animals ignore cars, and move at a slow and relaxed pace most of the time.

A new animal, except the lion, was the Red Hartebeest - we saw a couple of herds, and they seem to get along with other antelopes.

Our first 3.5 days were nothing but amazing. Then the animals decided we had seen enough, and we spent hours driving on bumpy dirt roads without seeing much. When leaving Etosha, we saw a Steenbok - bigger than a Dik Dik, but still a small antelope.

After Etosha, we spent one night at the Okonjima Lodge, which is a part of the non profit AfriCats Foundation. We are very happy we learned of this through friends of Bev’s - a totally luxurious stay for us with delicious food, super staff, and what I hope is a successful, and very worthwhile goal for the organization.

And the icing on the cake for Craig especially - we saw a wild Leopard when out looking for Cheetah with our guide. This, and the fact we also got to see a Brown Hyena (the rarest of them), was unexpected. It was sad to see the Cheetah, though, as our guide said they believe she is ‘depressed’ after the death of her sister last year, killed by a leopard. They have 6 rescued, and collared cheetahs, and these 2 had been brought here as orphaned babies. The survivor is now less active, and stays in terrain atypical for a cheetah.

Am finishing this in Windhoek, and hope to get some pictures uploaded after almost a week of no internet. This morning, we went for our only walk, an easy 6km, on a path in Okonjima, inside the gates, where they ‘typically’ don’t see leopards...  Out guide last night, though, mentioned one female which keeps returning here as they are territorial, and she considers this her area. We went out mid day, when they sleep.. and made it without seeing anything but a few warthogs, and antelope.

After a very special and exciting week, despite sitting in a car the entire time, we hope to go for a few walks over the coming week near Cape Town, where we will see Bev & Chris, and their family!