In my early twenties I set a goal of stepping foot on 6 of the worlds 7 continents before I reached thirty and am happy to report that three weeks ago I stepped out of the plane and onto the tarmac in Windhoek, Namibia and reached my goal about 6 months shy of my deadline. Em is now at 5 but she still has a couple years to go.
Here’s a brief history of Namibia for you all. Namibia is one of Africa’s newest countries. It came into existence in 1989 after years of rule by South Africa (which was deemed illegal by the UN). Before being ruled by South Africa, Namibia was Germany’s only colony in Africa and was called German South-West Africa. The Germans laid claim to Namibia in the late 1890’s and only ruled up to world war one. While the German’s left a legacy architectural and colonial atrocities it was the South Africans who left the legacy of racial segregation as Namibia also suffered under the same injustices of apartheid. Where Johannesburg has its SOWETO (south-western townships), Windhoek has its Katutura (which directly translates to ‘we have no permanent place’). Like South Africa, Namibia is also moving forward and is economically one of the most stable countries in Africa (however most of this is still in the hands of the whites).
Namibia is the second least-densely populated country in the world (after Mongolia), which means wide opens spaces, beautiful scenery and next to no public transport. So if you want to see more than just the capital city you either need to be in a tour group or hire a car and head out on your own. We chose the latter and two days after arriving in Windhoek we were off on a two-week road trip to explore the country in a brand new Volkswagen Golf and kitted out hired camping gear.
Northern Namibia is home to Etosha, one of the of the best wildlife viewing parks in Africa. But most importantly they let stupid tourists like us drive around amongst all the animals on their own!
Etosha
Disclaimer: most travelers in Namibia spring for a huge 4x4 and have huge telephoto lens for wildlife pictures. As budget travelers, we had a tiny 2 wheel-drive vehicle and a point and shoot camera…so for the following pictures, we actually did get this close to the animals!
First wildlife spotting after only being in the park for a few minutes: A herd of Punk-Rock Horses.
Never been tamed, Mohawks, Half their bodies covered in tattoos, yup, their definitely punk.
Springboks, they’re everywhere! We didn’t understand why they’re called Springboks until the third day in the park when we noticed one of the junior Springboks gaily springing about in to the bushes.
We were very lucky to spot these two lionesses lazing by the watering hole on our first day in the park. To see lions in the wild in their natural environment is beyond words.
Ostriches. I thought the emu’s in Australia were big birds but, sorry my Australian friends, they ain’t got nothin’ on the ostriches.
On our first night in the park we went down to a watering-hole that had a fenced-in viewing platform to watch the sunset and to spot wildlife at night.
Back at our campsite making dinner by kerosene lantern.
After dinner we headed back to the watering-hole at first it was pretty dull, then out of nowhere a huge black rhino (which are endangered) walked out of the bushes to come down for a drink.
Next, que the spotted hyena.
Huge insect in our campground.
We bought an overpriced park guide that listed all the animals that were living in the park. Most of the animals were unfamiliar to us so it was a bit of a challenge trying to figure out what each species was.
A pretty bird we saw everywhere but couldn’t decisively classify. We found a great technique to get an action shot of it flying. Drive up to it quietly and then at the last second, rev the engine to scare it away. Horrible, I know. But it did make for a good pic.
Watering-holes are the life blood for the animals in the park. In the dry season, taking a drink can mean live or death for the animals. It was incredible to watch the animals approach the watering-hole. About a hundred springboks all walked down in a big group to water, but the lead springbok would always scare easily and run back into the group, it was like one step forward, two steps back. It took the group about 30 mins to finally reach the water.
Funny looking bird called the secretary bird, it hardly flew and just strutted around in the tall grass.
We were having a slow morning on our second day and weren’t really seeing much, then we saw a few cars parked at the side of the road, we stopped to see what everyone else was looking at and couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw this huge African elephant walking through the grass. I just had to get closer and drove within about 20 metres of him. Emily was freaking out (probably for good reason) but it was sooooo cool to see the elephant up close. My heart was racing like crazy. After seeing elephants in captivity in Asia it was so nice to see this elephant roaming freely.
The elephant came out of the bushes and on to the road, he was clearly getting annoyed by all the cars and made motions like he was about to charge this car, given that the elephant was about 4 times its size, the driver made a wise decision to flip it into reverse.
All over Etosha there are signs reminding tourists to stay in the car….for good reason.
A herd of wildebeests. They’re ugly. It’s not hard to imagine where they’re name comes from.
A couple of hours later when we were off all on our own in the park, this family of elephants roamed right past us, we only them in time to take a shot of their backsides.
Yellow-billed Hornbill bird
The utterly prehistoric looking Giraffe glistening in the golden setting sun.
In Africa the variety of mammals is astounding. With so many predators the lesser animals have to adapt defense mechanisms. Even the pigs have horns! (yes I know, it’s not a pig, it’s a warthog).
The third camp ground in the park is actually an old german garrison used during the first world war.
On our third and final day we decided to do less driving and just sit at one watering-hole and watch the animals for a few hours. It seemed like there was an unwritten rule about which animals had right of way. First the Orxys took their turn.
Then the wildebeests
Then the giraffes
Then the Zebras.
Then the Kudus
And in the end it was just one big animal party, lucky for them, the predators weren’t invited.
After three days in the park, we were all ‘animal’ed out and headed to Damaraland (so called because of the Damara people who live there) to check out the scenery. Here’s me having a little r&r after a long drive.
Even though we were all ‘animal’ed I couldn’t resist this peacock inside the campground.
Our rented camping gear. It seemed like it was all army surplus stuff, but it worked great.
Once the sun goes down in Namibia there isn’t much else to do. So Emily and I have been battling it on the chess board, for the record I am about 20-0 but Emily is fiercely determined.
Petrified forest. This log is over 280 million years old.
It had hardened like a rock but you could knock on it and it still had the hollow familiar sound of a tree. Our guide at the Petrified Forest taught us the 4 “click” sounds of the Damara language. So far we’re still working on the first one. They’re hard!
Our car. It was the dry season which meant that almost all of the river crossings had dried up. This was the first river crossing we came to and our poor little car didn’t have the ground clearance to make it. It took us about 15 mins to get ‘unstuck’. Lucky for us this local in the background was close by and helped us dig the car out. We were very grateful to him. A few minutes down the road we came across a stranded family who needed some petrol to continue on. We let them siphon 5 litres from our tank. With our karma back to neutral we were off again.
Namibia has the most unequal wealth distribution on the planet. There are some tribal groups that still do not use money for a currency. Some Namibians drive merecedes, some drive donkey carts. However, all will return a passing wave on the road.
Just a fraction of Namibia’s incredible vistas.
Baboons. They’re everywhere in Namibia, not just the nature parks.
Enroute to Namibia’s first UNESCO world heritage site on the Lion-Man route.
What is the Lion-Man you ask? Rock Art! This was carved here over 5000 years ago by nomadic people. The lion man was interpreted to represent a human sorcerer that turns into a lion.
The lion man was just one of thousands of rock art in the area. This carving is a map. The two circles represent watering holes. Because there are smaller filled-in circles inside the larger circles, it represents a permanent watering-hole, as opposed to a seasonal one. The oryx between the two circles means that you can find orxy’s between the two watering holes.
Namibia is short on people, but not on scenery
Last month in Australia there were signs on the side of the road warning us to watch out for kangaroos…I think I like our chances with a kangaroo collision rather than what Africa has on offer.
Heading out of the Damaraland and to the skeleton coast, known for heavy fog, shipwrecks and extremely dry deserts.
First steps into the frigid Atlantic coast.
Our car in the barren landscape
Em walking on salt
This one goes out to all my surfing friends….such a beautiful perfect wave…
However, you’ll all shed a tear to learn that it is completely unsurfable, because there are about 10,000 seals ready to drop in on you!
Here's a couple seals acting all innocent
And the rest of their 10,000 friends sunning themselves on the shore
Lucky for you, you didn’t have to smell them.
Gemstones that were being sold by the honour system on the skeleton coast. If you take one, you’re asked to drop some Nam Dollars in the can.
More Skeleton Coast
Cruising on the Skeleton Coast on a highway made of salt.
Shipwreck
After our first of two weeks in Namibia we took two nights respite in Swakopmund, a touristy coastal town that is said to be more German than Germany. I’ve never been to Germany, but I’m pretty sure it was still in Africa. Here’s some pics taken from the pier.
Swakopmund town
Just outside of Swakopmund we took a self-drive tour of the lunar landscape of the Namib Desert. I almost drove over this lizard. Lucky for him, I saw him at the last second and drove back to take pictures of him.
Scenes from the lunar landscape
Em and the lunar vista
Old tank treads from South African Tanks left over from WW1
Volcanic rock that came up through cracks in the mountains
More desert….
Welwitschia plants. They are considered to be a living fossil because they can live for 2000 years and were voted by lonely planet to be the strangest plant in the world!
Namibia doesn’t have the population base to pave the majority of its roads. We were getting pretty sick of getting dirty on the gravel roads and weren’t too happy when we approached this paved road only to be redirected to the gravel road adjacent to it.
Sorry, more scenery
Huge birds nest. They were everywhere.
Self explanatory
Sunset over the namib
Headshot time.
Solitare’s international airport. We spend two nights camped here and it wasn’t much more than a dirt patch for a campground with a couple stores.
Most people come to Namibia just to see the Namib Dunes around Sesriem, South-West of Windhoek. The dunes cover an area 300 km long by 150 km wide and reach heights of about 300 metres. They are constantly changing due to the wind and are absolutely spectacular. And so, we’ve dedicated lots of pictures to show them to you:
Em running down the dunes. It took 30 mins to climb and 10 seconds to run down.
This is the famous Sossusvlei dune with it’s trademark S-shaped ridge.
Oryx footprint
The dunes are classified as parabolic dunes, which should be fairly apparent from this shot.
Cool trees in front of dune 45
Hanging out on the windward side of the dune
The following morning we got up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise over the desert.
Sand angels
More dunes…
For those with deep pockets, balloon rides over the dunes.
A lone Oryx wandering the desert.
Shots from a nearby canyon.
After the dunes we headed to the Naukluft national park where we planned to do a long day hike. We ran out of a money a few days before and weren’t able to find a cash machine in any of the small towns so the only place we could stay was an upscale private campground that accepted credit cards. At first we were a bit upset at having to drop so much money for a campsite, but in the end we agreed it was fully worth it. We had the entire valley of the canyon to ourselves and the next home was several kilometers away. This ruin close to our camp and was used a police station over a 100 years ago.
The campground was very secluded which was nice during the day, but at night it was pretty scary to listen to baboons howling around the tent and then in the early morning we heard a group of zebras walking right beside the tent and they even drank up all the left over water in the sink beside the tent.This was the skull of what was likely a young springbok that we found on our warm-up hike around our campground.
Part of the canyon around our campsite.
Next morning we arrived early at Naukluft park and started out on the 17km Waterkloof trail. Waterkloof means water canyon, we spend the first 1/3 of the hike climbing up a long series of water falls and pools that were like an oasis in the dry desert.
Half-way point.
Us at the summit, no I’m not balding, it was just really windy.
View from the summit
Africa also has cactuses
Baobab tree. This is the first only one we’ve seen so far. I love them, they look like they’re about to explode from sucking up too much water.
Moon rising over the canyon as the sun was setting.
The entire way of the trail was marked by these yellow footprints. Some were easier to spot than others, we lost the trail a few times, at one point when it was getting late and we were a bit lost we got stuck on top of a 30 metre water fall.
After being out of a major town for 5 days we were running low on food and didn’t have any access to cash. Our last bush breakfast consisted of rice, lentils, onions and Tabasco sauce…
The ancient water heater for the shower, we had to start a wood fire underneath it to heat the water. Even then it was only lukewarm…and the mornings in the desert were freezing cold.
Well that’s it for Namibia. We are currently living it up in Cape Town and we had a such a great time in Namibia with our little rental car that we decided to rent another VW Golf which we have for the next 35 days and will be road tripping up the east coast of South Africa and into Swaziland and Mozambique…but that will have to wait til our next blog.I’ve now been fortunate enough to spend a fair amount of time on the western coasts of all three major southern landmasses, Chile, Western Australia and now Namibia. All three share similar dry climates with sparse vegetation, vast wide open wilderness and small population densities. It has been a great explore the three regions and recognize their similarities….and it has also taught me that I am definitely a west-coaster for life!
Namibia was definitely one of trip highlights for us for sure. We would highly recommend it to anyone that likes to travel independently, can handle a little dust, likes exotic animals and craves wide open spaces.
That's lights out for us now.
love, Chris & Em
P.S. We'll be off to spot more animals in Kruger National park in about a month and have two more seats in the car if anyone would like to hop aboard
