Windhoek
We left by plane from Frankfurt, the only airport not too far from us that offers direct flights to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia. The ticket costed about 1000 EUR round trip with the Air Namibia. The flight was not great, the plane was old but we arrived on time at the right airport which is the only thing that matters in the end. A small passage through customs where we noticed some hunter tourists who were retrieving their hunting guns cases at a special counter, pretty unconventional in an airport. In the hall we waited for a dude that was supposed to take us to the office of the company that rented us our ride for the holidays. He is 15 minutes late and we are already starting to wonder if we have been scammed. Finally we meet him and get on the road. We see some Baboons on the way on the side of the road, the landscapes are rather beautiful, hills and small trees but it’s already really hot.
We arrive in the capital, we notice straight away the barbed wires and electric fences protecting all the big houses along the boulevards, we had read some feedback online about the dubious security of the city, but we didn’t expect that. We pick up our 4×4, a big land rover defender with 2 tents on the roofs and fully equipped for camping: battery fridge, camping chair, folding table, duvets, pillows, cutlery… We rented it via the company Bushlore, from memory the price was about 1500-1600 EUR for 2 weeks. A gay drove from south africa to Windhoek to deliver us the truck, that must have been a fun ride !
In front of our hostel (the chameleon backpackers) we notice a sign asking the residents not to leave the car in the street, as the risk of theft is so great, people do not joke about it here! The hostel is big, nice, there is a small swimming pool, a bar, but the (paid!) wifi is not very good, which is often the case in Africa. We take advantage of this day to discover the city (not much to see here!) and get a nice rest from our night flight.
On the road of the south
We leave early in the morning after breakfast, heading south. Our first stop is the road sign indicating the Tropic of Capricorn, we stretch our legs and we leave. On the way we decide to stop at the Hardap game reserve, a small natural park with a lake, we make a big loop through the park, we are all very excited to see some wild animals, Springbok antelopes, Oryx, some ostriches… But honestly the visit is not especially worth it, you will find these animals in large quantities elsewhere in the country.
We take again the road towards the south, our objective is to sleep at the Quivertree Forest Rest Camp, a camp in the krokerboom forest, a forest with apparently rather strange trees. We drive by a town called Mariental to get some groceries in a big Spar supermarket and we eat in the restaurant of the supermarket, locals are staring intensively at our group of gringos! We arrive at the camp at the end of the afternoon, it is large, it is relatively clean and well organized, it costs us approximately 620 Namibian dollars for the night for 4 people, that is around 47 EUR. Next to the campsite is the forest in question, which is not really a forest per se but rather a rocky field with funny looking scattered trees. We enjoy our first sunset in the company of small local animals, the damans. After a nice Barbecue at the camp, we deploy for the first time the tents on the roof of our land rover defender and we go to bed.
Direction the fish canyon
In the morning we go to the giant’s playground, a rocky field quite close. The stop is not necessary in my opinion. We take some petrol at Ketmanshoop town and we go on the track which leads to the hobas viewpoint at the fish canyon (M2B then C37), everything is well indicated, hot and dusty. We finally arrive at the viewpoint, the fish canyon is the second biggest canyon in the world and the view is splendid. We eat in Hobas on the terrace of the shop of the campsite, fortunately we had planned sandwiches because there was nothing to eat there, plan ahead! We go back up in the car and we set out again towards the south, this evening we sleep at the Ai Ai hot springs camp site. The road is long and tortuous, we see packs of wild animals including some antelopes and ostriches on the way.
We arrive at the end of the afternoon at the camp site, relatively empty. No wi fi but lots of thief baboons stealing food (hide all your stuff while going to bed)! We enjoy the wwimming pool, a dew drinks, a beautiful sunset and dinner at the campsite restaurant, very good and rather cheap. We even ate snails !
On the way to the Ocean!
We leave the next day, and we reach the B4 road, the main path that goes westwards, towards Luderitz and the Ocean. We make a break in Aus to fill up the tank and eat a bite, I treat myself with excellent homemade ribs for about 8 or 9 EUR. We stop to see wild horses at a viewpoint on the way but we don’t stay long as there is only one hors there and he looks pretty close to death. We wanted to visit as well the ghost town of kolmmanskoop in the afternoon but we have the unpleasant surprise to see be denied access, the ghost town is closing in the afternoon, so be careful and plan to visit in the morning! We continue to Luderitz and explore the surroundings of the city ending up at Diaz point with a coffee and fresh oysters in the small local restaurant, excellent. We then decide to go to our campsite for the night, the Luderitz Shark Island Camping Site.
In the evening we eat in a restaurant of the city, the ritzi’s seafood, oysters and a seafood platter. One of us has the bad idea to order the chef’s special dish, a kind of antelope steak stuffed with bacon, mussels, cheese and mushrooms, surprising! The seafood was pretty good though.
Beware the campsite is windy and it is cold at night.
The ascent towards the Desert
We leave very early to enter the ghost town as soon as possible, we’re the first to get in. It’s really nice, the town is completely invaded by the sand from the desert and offers quite interesting views and nice pictures. In one hour we visit the whole place and we leave with a smile on our face.
Next we go to Sesriem, we have to pass again by Aus on the B4, we fill up again the tank and we exit the asphalt road and get on tracks going north. We covered a lot of distance this day. We pass by the D707, one of the most beautiful roads in Namibia, we alternate several types of roads and tracks and after a final sprint at 100km/h on gravel we arrive in Sesriem in time for the sunset. And considering the gorgeous show we were happy that we got there in time ! The sunset on the plains is absolutely beautiful, the colors of the sky on the mountains magnificent, a great moment. The red sand is awsome and offers a nice blend with the dying light.
We go back to the campsite, we unfold the tents, we grill the meat and we take the aperitif quietly under the eyes of many jackals who roam around our camp and who do not hesitate to approach really close to us.
Deadvlei and the west road
In the morning we drive about 45-50km westward to see deadvlei and sossuvlei, the main view points in the desert. On the way we marvel at the dune45, and see some people actually climbing it. Deadvlei is magical, too bad there are a lot of tourists but we can still slip a few shots without anyone around, the contrast of brown sand, white dry soil and blue sky is striking. We stay around thirty minutes and we go back to the camp of Sesriem to eat an average burger at the restaurant of the campsite and we leave towards our next destination: the camp site of Homeb.
After half a day on the road, we ride along a wild zebra pack galloping next to us, the occasion to brighten up a rather dull way.
The camp of Homeb is tiny, no reception, no village next door, no one, a dry river bed nearby. Luckily, another group of tourists was spending the night there to confirm us that it is indeed the right place! Good luck to find it in the bush !
Walvis bay
We leave in the morning, we go drive along the tracks towards the north west without seeing much people, we enter Walvis Bay in the early afternoon, the city is rather rich, we see many white people, golf courses, quad biking… We are not in the bush anymore. We eat in a small restaurant at the entry of the city and we go towards the bed and breakfast that we booked: Loubser’s B&B. Our host is an old gentle lady, she opens the door and settles us in a huge room, there is wifi, it’s nice and quiet, we take advantage of this afternoon to rest, contact our relatives and do some shopping in the city. Profit from the big cities to buy food because it’s very complicated to find anything elsewhere !
Activity day
The next day we meet at the Dolphins coffee shop at 7:30 am for a kayak excursion in the ocean. We opted for eco marine kayak tours, the guide is very talkative (too much?) but friendly, after 45 minutes of car we arrive at the end of the peninsula, we grab the kayaks and we paddle quietly near the seals. Dolphins swim right next to us, flamingos show up. An activity not really necessary but kinda nice. We are offered sandwiches at the end and coffee, and then get dropped off again at the Dolphins coffee shop where we left our car.
We grab our luggage and eat a bite, then we leave north to Swakopmund, the touristic city. We booked 3 hours of quad with the organization “desert explorers”. For 50 EUR/head 2h of quad and 1h of sand boarding is rather cheap. After a short briefing they give us the most powerful quads, 250cm3. The machines don’t look in great condition, on mine the speed pedal doesn’t work very well, but we have a great time. The feeling of speed is great, we go into the dunes, we climb them full speed, then turn and get down, awesome. Sand boarding was nice too but it’s not very pleasant to walk up the big dune under scorching heat once surfed down. On the way back a German from our group falls down with one of us, the guides are more interested in the damages to the quads than in the health of the drivers… On the way back to the base the guide tries to scam us asking 400 EUR from our friend for a tiny scratch on the plastic bumper of the quad, we refuse, we ask to speak to the manager, and the guide let us go. The activity was great but we keep a very very bitter taste considering the way the incident was handled.
We then speed north to reach henties bay, we sleep at the Buck Camp for 18 EUR, quite a bargain. The camp is ugly though, empty, surrounded by a small fence, right next to a township.The guard doesn’t look very fit and has a huge scar on the face. I woud advise to not stop there, the price is cheap but the scenery is really not great…
Skeleton Coast and Damarland
We head back north the next morning, we stop first at Cape Cross to see the seal colony, hundreds, thousands of them are on the beach in front of us, a lot of dead babies, a lot of babies being born right there, it doesn’t smell very good but it’s quite a view.
A little further up we enter the Skeleton Coast Park, chance to take a nice picture in front of entrance. This coast is one of the wildest in the world, hundreds of km without anybody, filled with shipwrecks. Apparently to see the bigger ones we had to go far north but we didn’t have the time, we just saw a small boat and an oil platform before branching west before Tora bay, anyway you need a permit to go further north.
The landscape changes very quickly and we switch from the deserted and cool coast to the wooded and warm plateaus of the damarland, it’s very beautiful and it is a welcome change from the desert landscapes that we had before. We see some Himbas (local tribe) at a gas station and we finally arrive to our camp. We make the check-in in the lodge (the Grootberg Lodge) from which depends the camp, the view is magnificent there but the rooms are too expensive for us… We set our camp at the camp site and we eat quietly, the setting is quite good, calm and we enjoy beautiful stars.
Supply run and Etosha
We’re starting to run seriously low on food, and we can’t find any half descent shop with supply since days. We decide to make a supply run to the big local town, Kamanjab, before heading to the Etosha Wildlife Park. The town is small, but we see a super market. As soon as we park people start to gather around the car and aggressively beg for food and money. We don’t feel great, we catch aggressive and threatening glances. We decide to go somewhere else as we don’t feel comfortable. Namibia did not strike us as particularly friendly and welcoming. We decide to try another town called Outjo before Etosha.
We park like tourists in front of a shop on the main street of the city and we get surrounded again in 10 seconds by a crowd trying to sell us stuff, and begging for money. It starts to get annoying, the crowd is insistent and get angry when one of us refuses to put down the window on his side. We end up moving and looking for another supermarket, we park in a quieter street, and we spot a supermarket that looks good, called “so food”. I stay to guard the car (we heard some stories about tourists getting their windows smashed by locals), the others go shopping. Hallelujah, the meat looks ok and the supermarket is well supplied.
We take the northern road to Etosha, to the Okaukuejo camp. We arrive at the entrance of the park, we get a permit and get funny looks from the guard asking us if we are gay as we are a group of guys… The guard then asks us who is cooking and doing the chores if we have no woman with us. We check in 17km later at the reception of the camp, there are many tourists, there is a swimming pool, the camp is big. We unfold the tents, and we go to the water point next to the campsite to watch the first sunset of Etosha, we see some elephants, giraffes, a rhino… The show is superb.
Etosha
The next day we leave the table and chairs on our camp site and start driving through the park, we go to all the water points in the west, we see zebus, zebras, antelopes of all kinds, giraffes, warthogs … And towards the end of the afternoon our first lioness! Awesome!
In the evening we see the sunset again. During the night some of us go to the waterhole, and see no less than 8 Rhinoceros and a pack of lion feasting on a carcass. A rare spectacle.
Etosha more
After these two nights, we leave the camp in the west and head towards the east of the reserve, our third night is at the Halali camp. We visit the water points on the way, we see again a whole bunch of animals, it’s almost too easy. In the evening we arrive in Halali under a shady and threatening sky, we still manage to cook something to eat. This time the camp is not infested with jackals, but with honey badgers, a kind of demonic and scary creature! The sunset with the lightning on the horizon was a nice ending touch to this day.
On the way to Okonjima
The next day we make a tour on the water points in the east of the park and we refuel at the last campsite, Namutoni. We leave the park and head south. We picnic on the way and in the middle of the afternoon we finally arrive at our last stop in the namibian adventure, Okonjima (Baboon Territory in local language). A guide on a quad leads us to our peaceful campsite. Okonjima also welcomes the association “Africat” specialized in the rescue of felines and the prevention of their hunting. They have in the park leopards and cheetahs that we will see the next morning. As we did not find any shops on the way there our supplies are running low, our guide contacts the lodge of the reserve and we book a dinner there. The dinner is very nice, but rather expensive for local standards.
Last day in Namibia
A guide picks us up at 7am to visit the reserve. He takes us into a huge enclosure with cheetahs, we enjoy this opportunity to take nice pictures. We then go to see wuthu the leopard. After a final speech about the association, the guide takes us back to the camp and we pack our luggage.
It’s time to give back the car and fly back to Frankfurt. We are tanned, tired, but with a huge smile on our face, the trip was great. It is November and apparently it has snowed in Europe during our stay…
