Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: October 2018

Namibia is a fascinating country. Considering the German colonial occupation lasted barely 50 years, and ended in 1915, their influence is still very strong. In the capital, Windhoek, solid, brick-built churches nestle alongside ultra modern, North Korean-funded museums (of doubtful cultural or historical accuracy) and more traditional (i.e. run down), less high tech, but more interesting single story centres where you feel that the information imparted is probably more balanced and accurate than its more glamorous neighbour.

After spending an intriguing day trying to sort fact from fake news in the political history of Namibia (no help here from the Windhoek Independence Memorial Museum, where it’s a bit like trying to work out the chronology using lots of pictures, but no dates or hard facts – probably a bit like Scrotus’s guide to policy making), we returned to our lovely Airbnb and packed for our visit to Swakopmund.

A straightforward bus trip – just the five hours this time – found us in Swakopmund mid-afternoon relishing the cooler air on the coast. We found our next Airbnb just a short walk from the centre, unpacked and set out to explore the fleshpots of ‘Swakop’. Well, by this time, the air had turned somewhat cooler, something to do with the wind from the southwest, coming up from the Antarctic and bringing with it a dense fog. It rarely rains in Swakop and the surrounding desert, but the air is very damp and it gets very, very cold. Think Scarborough in November, with a sea fret.

Unsurprising, then, that we found little flesh and no pots. But we did find a delightful bar, serving craft beer and very palatable wine at Namibian (i.e. 1980s London) prices. Needless to say, we sampled a couple, then, feeling slightly warmer, went to a singularly forgettable bar/restaurant for something to eat. Nuff said.

We spent the next few days in Swakop, alternately keeping one eye on the threatening horizon, whence came the bank of cloud that presaged the plummet in temperature, and enjoying some marvellous trips – out to sea to visit the flamingoes, dolphins and seal colony and into the desert to find some of the fascinating inhabitants of one of the world’s most inhospitable terrains. One of the eerier sights of the boat trip was when we were steering around and between the mist-swathed oilrigs off the Namibian coast – all a bit apocalyptic. See pix.

We can’t pretend that we were too sad to leave Swakop, but we had enjoyed some lovely times watching the Atlantic rollers, sitting by the beach enjoying some welcome sunshine, visiting the idiosyncratic museum and our two very interesting trips.

We arrived back in Windhoek to re-pack for our safari and trip to Sossusvlei, leaving the next morning. After an early start, we met up with our fellow campers (‘you didn’t tell me we were camping!’ – Gillie) and set off for Etosha National Park.

It’s a long drive to Etosha and we stopped a couple of times for breaks and fuel, but arrived late afternoon and went on a magical game drive. Although we had already seen elephants and giraffes and zebra, it was still quite something to see them again – elephants are bigger in Namibia, by the way. When we got to our campsite, we had to put up the tents, but were able to go to the waterhole and see more game – this time rhinos and lions also had the good grace to come and awe us.

Up at stupid o’clock again to break camp and start the long drive to our next campsite in the west of the park. The trip was broken up by various visits to waterholes to see yet more game. The lions are quite stunning and don’t seem too phased by our proximity, although one of our group did try to test their apparent lassitude by getting out of the vehicle twice to chuck up – we thought a bit of heatstroke – but thankfully Leo wasn’t interested in seconds. On our way to the campsite we went and found Africa’s smallest antelope, the Dik-Dik, subject of many a double entendre, especially as we had just seen the Red-knobbed Hornbill. Oo-er missus. Well we were quite tired by then!

A rather majestic elephant entertained us at the waterhole in our campsite, by simply standing there and eating – yanking up bunches of grass and stuffing them down his throat – for about an hour. There was another elephant nearby and we could hear other sounds out in the darkness – think Jurassic Park – but we were mesmerized.

Another early start and we reluctantly headed back to Windhoek via various other waterholes – more zebra (lots), wildebeest, impala, elephants…you get the picture (see below).

We were treated to a rather nice guesthouse stop in between our two trips and were off again the next morning to start our three-day dunes trip. Quite different from the safari, this was all about the desert, so after another mammoth drive, most of which was on C- and D-roads, i.e. unpaved, gravel, very bumpy, we pitched our tents in the desert with the wind blowing sand everywhere – and we mean everywhere!

Congratulating ourselves on getting the tents up without too many mishaps, we were then informed that we were off on a test hike, up a couple of dunes to see a sunset! OK, off we went and clambered up this relatively minor dune and saw a rather lovely sunset (our regular reader will know that we are rather fond of sunsets). Those of you who have spent much time walking in very soft sand will know that it isn’t easy – especially when temperatures are into the mid-30s C. It’s fun coming down though!

Anyway, we passed the test, which gave us the opportunity to get up the next day at 4.45 to climb Dune 45 and watch the sunrise before it became too hot! Whoopee. Dune 45 is the most photographed dune in the Namib-Naukluft desert and one of its tallest (see pix). It was tough going, but we made it for a beautiful sunrise, then came down and had breakfast, before setting off across the desert for a seven-kilometre hike to Dead Vlei. Great. Mind you, the sun was still relatively cool – a mere 32ºC.

Interestingly (or not) the name Sossusvlei, which is where we were, is one of those words that are kind of tautological (I think). ‘Sossus’, roughly speaking, means ‘place where the waters end’, or ‘dead end’ in Nama, while ‘Vlei’ is the Afrikaans word for ‘place with no water’, so it’s kind of repeating itself. Dead Vlei, where we walked to, is self-explanatory. See pix.

Having shed about 20lb, we made it back to camp as steaming blobs of sweat and relaxed for the afternoon before our last excursion, which was to the Sesriem Canyon for yet another lovely sunset and a puff adder. We crawled into bed after a great braai, courtesy of our lovely cook Franz and were up again (too early) for our drive back to Windhoek, via a stop off at Solitaire for a yummy homemade apple pie.

How grateful were we to get back to our welcoming Airbnb, great shower and comfy bed? Well, I can tell you – Very. Our hosts have promised us a braai tomorrow evening, so we are conserving our strength for that. Chilling here until Sunday when we catch the bus for a 22-hour ride to Cape Town.

Will post again soonish…

P.S. Hi de Hi it’s me again. No bees in my bonnet this time, my bonnet is empty of bees…except the weather in Swakopmund. Being a Scarborough lass you would think I was acclimatised but surely it can’t be as cold as that in Africa can it? Oh yes it can and combined with the ‘end of season’ seaside atmosphere, it felt very very weird. Our original plan was to have a few restful days on the beach in our cossies, best laid plans etc… However the trips were lovely and it was interesting to see another side of Africa. Back to Windhoek and we melted but we didn’t mind, we were ready to see the real Africa and on our safaris that’s exactly what we did. Our group was made up of some lovely people and we had loads of laughs and fun (just like on a school trip when you’re the child not the adult!) We will never forget our trek up dune 45, it’s the stuff dreams are made of, soooooo special. Andy has just started to play his ukulele so I feel a headache coming on...it must be time for me to pop down to the shop for a bottle of wine ‘cos it’s FRIDAY NIGHT weeeeee!

Much love to all Gillie xxxxx