Wednesday 3rd August. Rundu to Mahango Game Reserve

We all get a nice lie in today.  Awoken at 7.00am by the squawking of Guinea Fowl being silly as always, chasing each other and anything that moves.  Chico is off to get the puncture repaired as we have breakfast.  Hildie’s mum has driven over to meet us and is chatting away to Godfried as the rest of us tuck in.  DHG wanders off the local MTC shop as his phone card has only 1c left on it and Raynee and Olivier are desperate to get on line.  We move out at 10.00am as planned and head into town for a number of essential stops:  beer, wine, gin, tonic, that sort of thing.  Oh and the ATM and tyre garage too.  The town is a very African – colourful and random.  We see women with babies on their back and heaving huge loads on their heads.  Kids at school.  Bustling marketplace.  Shabeens.  Men carrying firewood on bikes.  As we head out of town we pass by dozens of encampments of basic wood and straw huts.  Real Africa.  Then it’s foot down and head due east on the B8 again for the 250km drive to the fertile Caprivi Strip and our next stop – Mahango Game Reserve.  Tonight we are camping again.  Going to be a bit of a shock after the luxury of the last few days…

Tuesday 2nd August. Heading out of the park, going east to Rundu

(Post scriptum:  the staff tell us that Lions have been seen by our truck!  Not long after we arrived a group wandered into the car park.  The staff bus spooked them.  Yikes!  Some of our party get a bit edgy, and think twice about wandering back to the chalets alone)

Hooray! We get a lie in to 7.00am.  Watch the sunrise from our beds.  Below the chalet a lone Oryx munches on savannah grass, and off in the distance a dazzle of zebra gallop towards the waterhole.   Breakfast at 8.30am and we’ve said goodbye to the comfiest beds of the holiday so far.  Nobody wants to leave, and we are all trying to find excuses not to go.  Service is a bit slow but we all fill up on breakfast as we have a 10hr drive ahead and we decide not to stop for lunch.  We lounge by the infinity pool for as long as possible.  Raynee gets a free Wi-Fi signal and everyone dives in and soaks up data downloads.  Harvey tells us from his Kindle than England have won the second test by three hundred and loads.  That puts us no. 1 in the world rankings – but Richard says it’s not official.

We head down the hill to the truck only to find we have a puncture.  No honestly a real one.  Outside nearside rear.  Good spectator sport as we sit around and watch all the men giving advice on how it should be done.  The girls go off and look for Lion footprints!  Left hand threads fox everyone except Kevin and Nick who knew all along.,.

Quotes of the day:

Olivier:  “Godfried was using his wanger in bed.  He hand both hands on it”
Nick: “Namibian ketchup is not as good on my hair as Heinz’s”
Chico: “Ooohhhh yessss”

Today is a 750km yomp.  Hope they are mostly tarmac roads.

Monday 1st August. A day in the park

Up at 5.00am this morning so that we get to the park gate for sunrise.  Hearty breakfast by the camp fire as the edge of the sky begins to turn crimson.  We hit Anderson Gate at 6.25am and have to queue behind two other cars.  Then we are in!  Once again we find animals everywhere.  Chico takes us on a 4hr odyssey around the back lanes of Etosha and we come across amazing sights everywhere.  Rather than try and provide chronological diary, this is what we saw…

·         5 male lions and 1 lioness

·         Oryx

·         Wildebeast

·         Black Faced Impala

·         Black Backed Jackals

·         Elephants

·         Warthog

·         Giraffe

·         Zebra (Burchalls)

·         Secretary Bird

·         Springbok

·         Hartebeest

·         Steenbok

·         Lilac Crested Roller

·         Chanting Goshawk

·         Tawny Eagle

·         Egyptian Goose

·         Rock Kestrel

·         Crowned Lapwing

·         Vultures

·         Great Bustard

·         Oh, and to finish off we see first one, then two, then a family of four White Rhino.  And then another on his own right by the road not 10m away!

·         Wait!  That’s not it.  We see a sitting of vultures up ahead.  They are feasting on a newly killed Zebra.  The carcass is still warm and there is blood & guts all around…

From horizon to horizon it is totally flat.  360deg of pure animal kingdom.  Then it’s back to Okaukuejo for lunch. We all get a bit merry on the wine as we realise we’ve never had lunch quite so early for ages.  All very nice but it feels a bit artificial to have such luxury in the middle of the desert game park.  Set off at 2.30pm for the 3½ hr trek across the dead flat park to Dololmite Camp on the western edge of the park where we will overnight.  Phew!

Saturday 30th July. White Lady rock paintings, and travel to the Twelfelfontien area

First stop after a short 10km drive is the valley of the White Lady rock paintings. Turns out the lady is in fact a man (the willie gives it away).  Actually a Shaman with white legs (ash from the fire) and a cloak of Springbok skin – half man half beast (some 6000 years before DHG).  We have a delightful guide Enid who explains everything about the flora and fauna on the 45min walk up the valley.  We see Dassie Rats, Rock Dassie – more like mini rabbit/guinea pigs, Ogamma Lizards, and loads of pretty  little birds.  As well as castor oil plants (for indigestion), papaya reeds (to make baskets, matting, and roofing), camphor (for asthma), Lemon Grass (to ward off mozzies) Brown Acacia, trumpet flowers, Albino Acacias, volcanic Dolerite rock formations.  It’s all here – nature’s own drug store.

Friday 29th July - Raynee's 60th Birthday

Today at breakfast we all sing Happy Birthday to Raynee who is 60 today.  She is showered with presents!  Service is super fast this morning.  They got the message.  Today it’s a relatively short 150km drive up the coast then turn right into the desert on the way to the Brandberg Mountains.  First bit is dead straight NNW to Henties Bay.  On the way we stop off to see a new addition to the skeleton coast – the three year old wreck of a fishing boat.  Then a bit further on it’s desert lichens.  Apparently the tyre tracks from the German expeditionary forces from the 1920s can still be seen carving their way through the gravel.  After Henties Bay (a one horse town built around the German Herr Henties who went fishing here) it’s a right turn inland and NE on the C35 for 120km.  Immediately we are back in the gravel desert and we can see the Brandbergs over a 100km away!  Rising up to 2,573m this is the highest mountain in Namibia.  A single solid pink granite plug of magma left behind after an ancient volcano was eroded away some 130m years old….

We get to the White Lady Lodge around 2.00pm and have lunch then its off to the (very) basic campsite to put up our tents.  It is very much hotter here. Fabulous views of the mountauins from the amazing desert gardens around the pool.  We are joined by the pet Meerkat, who likes being stroked.  Quick dip in the freezing pool and its more drinks all round.

Staff singing happy biryhday to Raynee.  Big cake.  Traditional singing brings tears to everyone’s eyes…

• Godfried & Olivier sleep on the roof of the truck

• Hornbills

• Campfire singing

Wednesday 27t July - travel to Swakopmund

Blimey, it was freezing last night!  Almost a frost on the desert grass this morning.  Break camp and load up the truck as we head back out to Solitaire on the C14 gravel road.  The dune mountains fade into the distance as the landscape flattens out to the grasses we saw before, with only distant island mountains punching up through the plains.  After a quick coffee and apple pie stop at Solitaire (real filter coffee!  Some of us almost wet themselves with excitement), we retrace our route on the C19 on the road to Walvis Bay.  As we get near the grasses give way to gravel then yellow sand, and that’s all there is.  We pass a uranium mine (or was it zinc?  Who said salt?  It’s all minerals whatever).  Worse, blue sky gives way to clouds Urrgh!  Walvis Bay (meaning Bay of Whales) is a small industrial town built around a massive deep water port.  One of the biggest on the West African Coast.  We spot some Flamingos.  But they look a bit drab under the cloudy sky. Back in the truck and 30 mins later we reach Swakopmund – a much nicer town.  Very much an adrenaline junkies hot spot.  There’s everything here: quad biking and sand boarding on the dunes, parapenting, sailing, fishing, skydiving, whale watching, kite surfing etc.  And that’s before lunch!  After we unpack at the Fischreier Guest House, it’s off to the dunes.  Combo quad biking and sand boarding.  And as Barry Smith would say if he were here – it’s a good as it gets.  Fantastic ear-to-ear-grinning fun (and a mouthful of sand to boot).  After 3 hours we crest the final dune to see the (non-existent) sun set.  Pity it was cloudy.  In the evening we head off to The Wreck – best restaurant in town allegedly.   We have a fun time and see off all the other guests by 8.30pm.  The bill is over £500.

(Post script Friday evening.  Hello to all our chums at the Griffins Head on Friday night.  Get Jerry to put one in the wood for us.  We are currently at the Brandberg Mountain.  White Lady Lodge.  This really is the middle of nowhere)

Picture library

Hi readers.  We are now uploading a selection of photos to Picasaweb due to popular demand.  Go here for the first folder taken at Sossusvlei and Dune 45 on Tuesday 26th July.  The link is here....

https://picasaweb.google.com/Southbarn/NamibiaTrip26July?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPyW8Yfy4djEzAE&feat=directlink

Today we leave the coast at Swakopmund and head inland to Brandberg Mountain.  See ya.