A journey to far away horizons

Living in tiny Holland my African roots often make me yearn for vast open spaces and far away horizons. For bright sunny days and clear skies.  For starry starry nights and sand between my toes.  This is exactly what Namibia is all about.  This and so much more....

 

We leave home early on Thursday morning, heading for Schiphol and hoping to get onto the morning flight to Johannesburg. Checking in is quite exciting since we get to rub shoulders with a few of our Dutch cycling heroes - Robert Gesink, Wilco Kelderman and Stephan Kruiswijk to name just a few.

We travel standby and luck is not on our side.  The flight is full and plan B needs to be activated.  At about lunch time we catch a flight to Frankfurt hoping to get onto Air Namibia in the evening.   All goes well and we arrive in Frankfurt as planned.  But with only half our luggage!  First time for everything!   

After organizing the fate of the lost luggage we hang around the Air Namibia counter and are fortunate to get seats on the flight moments after the desk has opened.  Another 2 or 3 hours to relax before we finally leave Europe for the start of our 4-week South West African experience.  Being a little tired we wander around and decide to have a relaxed dinner at what seems to be a really cosy Japanese restaurant with little square wooden lamps and a menu picture of delicious Yippy Yappy noodles.   Feeling like we are now really on holiday, we sit down and place our order of beers and noodles while sending a few last goodbye-apps to friends and family.  And then.  Half way through our noodles we are asked to evacuate the restaurant due to a handbag which had been left unattended out in the passage!  So beer in hand we stood outside watching other anxious passengers behind the the red and white plastic ribbon while some sort of robot is approaching to investigate the contents of the handbag, moments before a middle aged Japanese man came running around the corner searching for his lost handbag!

Windhoek Oct 30,31 and Nov 287 - 29

Waterberg Plateau  Nov 1,2

Onguma Reserve Nov 3

Etosha Day 1 Nov 4

Etosha Day 2 Nov 5

Etosha Day 3 Nov 6

Etosha Day 4 Nov 7

Opuwo Nov 8

Epupa Waterfall Nov 9,10

Sesfontein Nov 11

Twyfelfontein Nov 12

Brandberg Mountain Nov 13 

Henties Bay and Cape Cross Nov 13

Swakopmund Nov 14 - 16

Walvis Bay Nov 15

Homeb Nov 17

Solitaire and the Kuiseb Canyon Nov 18

Sossusvlei\Sesriem  Nov 18,19

Tiras Mountains Nov 20

Luderitz Nov 21

Rosh Pina and the banks of the Orange River Nov 22

Fish River Canyon  Nov 23, 24

Keetmanshoop Nov 24

Kalahari Nov 25

And that's all folks!  (just in time before our next holiday!)

Windhoek. A typical African Capital

Somehow the flight feels long.  During the last hour the flight attendant calls for a doctor or someone with medical expertise.  Why, we never found out.   Just before 7:00 we get the 'fasten your seatbelts' command and feel the pressure changing in our ears.  But then we are informed that we shall not be landing just yet but have to fly another few minutes since everyone on board had not been seated and buckled up in time!  Welcome to Africa!  Where tomorrow is another day.  And if  'it' (or whatever) only sort of half-works, it's totally okay!  It works, doesn't it?  No problem then.

We are met by slightly overcast blue skies and lots of friendly faces. And heat.  Nobody seems to be in much of a hurry, really.

Windhoek. The Namibian Capital.  About as interesting as it gets....

The wat is to become a very long day continues after our 40km + 1 police checkpoint taxi journey to town.  We check in at Vondelhof, our Dutch managed B&B - big swimming pool, spacious and really nice rooms and left over breakfast for us to enjoy.  This is now us and half our luggage, still.

Spacious rooms at Vondelhof Guesthouse

Toilet paper detail at Vondelhof.  And yes, there are people who notice and get totally excited about little things like this!

Later during the day we take a walk to view a view landmarks as pointed out in the Lonely Planet and Bradt guides.  In the scorching heat we walk the 'hill' to the little German Lutheran church and visit the New Memorial museum where we get a view of the city from the 3rd floor.

Christus Kirche.  German Lutheran Church and Windhoek's most recognized landmark.

The new Independence Memorial Museum with statue of the first president Sam Nujoma

In the afternoon we visit the nearby Bushlore offices to get our 4x4 Toyota Hilux.  Very competent staff explains everything we need to know and more.  About the 120 liter fuel tank, 60 liter drinking water tank, 2 spare wheels and changing a rear wheel with a rather huge jack! And about setting up the tent and what to hide from baboons!

Since the well known Joe's Beer House requires a taxi ride, we opt for diner at Nice, about 100 meters from Vondelhof.  I indulge in slow cooked lamb shank while Maarten enjoyed salmon.

On saturday morning we checked again at the airport, but the other half of our luggage has not arrived with the morning flight.  We decide to stay another night in Windhoek to wait on the bag in stead of taking the risk of having the bag sent to Waterberg and end up traveling one day ahead of the bag for the next 4 weeks!  We are in Africa after all.  At the local Pick 'n Pay Supermarket we hunt for a trolley and quickly got the hang of how things work.  Whenever you see a trolley unattended, you grab and hold onto it and guard it with your life! Under no circumstances leave it unattended while for instance choosing jam! You may just end up finding someone unpacking your stuff when by the time you get back!

We made a reservation for a camping site at the Trans Kalahari Inn which is on the way to the airport.  May just as well try out this tent-on-top-of-truck experience while we're still in the vicinity of the Buschlore offices.

First night camping at the Trans Kalahari Inn outside Windhoek.

Camping went well and the first stop on Sunday is the Airport.  And yes!  The lost luggage has arrived!!!  The morning before already!!!  Good thing we're on a no-stress holiday in a no-stress country!! 

 <<<   And back to Windhoek where it all started

Waterberg Plateau and the valley of imported wild life.

The Rhino had been brought here by helicopter!  And neighboring country Botswana is about 8000 km to the east.  Hmm, okay, clearly this is a place where one should not believe everything you see or hear!

Happy having been reunited with our lost bag  -  the one containing all the Bear Grills gadgets, the medical selection and anything else one might need when camping in the 'wild'  -   we drive north via Okahandja and turn right just before Otjiwarongo to the Waterberg Plateau Reserve.  A flat topped 50 x 16 km sandstone plateau resembling the shape of Karoo koppies (small mountains) in the Great Karoo.  A 150m high plateau amidst the grassy desert plain.

Waterberg

Waterberg Valley from the top of the plateau.

Early evening we walk the 1km to the reception area and restaurant for cold beers and the set menu of the day.  We are rather surprised to see that the restaurant was almost full.  Campsites in the Waterberg Wilderness reserve are spread out over different locations with about 4 sites each.  This means that one does get the feeling of remoteness, which this certainly is.  Afterwards we walk back in the dark not considering the fact that we never entered any closed gates on our way in from the main road.

The next day we get up early to walk to the nearby resort on the other side to meet our guide for the hiking trail on top of the mountain.  We notice a few rather large footprints on the dirt road where we walked the night before and found out that we shared the road with the Rhino who pays nightly visits to the area from the other side of the valley.  And the guide matter of factly mentions that it would not be such a great idea for us to do this again.

Taking a break during our guided walk on top of the mountain, staring in the direction of Okakarara.

There was also wild life which had not been brought in by helicopter.  Seeing the dassies lying in the sun it was clear that they are probably to lazy to go anywhere anyway.

Dassies (rock rabbits\rock badgers) soaking up the sun.

In the afternoon we go on a game drive to another part of the valley to take a look at what turned out to be wild life flown in by helicopter!  3 Rhino, Blue Wildebeest and giraffe.  The rhino is being guarded by a ranger and finding them is therefor just a phone call away!   The whole experience feels  a little staged, but being our first wild life encounter this holiday we had no trouble enjoying the afternoon.

 

Much needed pool at Anderson Camping site and the start of the Anderson trail which leads to the reception area about 1km away.

Our spot at the Anderson Camping site

 <<<   And back to Windhoek where it all started

Onguma Game Reserve

 On Tuesday we leave Waterberg to continue our way north, driving past towns with names I remember so well from the time of the bush war on the Angolan boarder and school friends who had no choice but to spend 24 months of their lives in army camps fighting another unecessary war.

We continue past Otjiwarongo  and arrive in Tsumeb just in time for lunch at the local Spur steakhouse.  After grocery shopping and a drive around the town, we decide to drive further and spend the night just outside of the eastern entrance of the Etosha National Park so that we can start our Etosha experience as early as possible the next morning.

 

We spend the night at the brand new facilities of the Onguma Tamboti Campsite.

Onguma Tamboti Campsite

 <<<   And back to Windhoek where it all started

Etosha Day 1. Pans, Plains and a huge white fort

We drive through Von Lindequist Gate moments after opening time on Wednesday morning.  And yeh!  Still traveling with a South African passport, I get to enter for €1 less than my Dutch partner!  

Having to first buy entrance permits at Namutoni, we drive there and spend some time checking out the old German Fort and the waterhole. 

On the way to Namutoni.  Being welcomed in Etosha by a Martial Eagle

The German Fort at Namutoni rest camp

The waterhole at Namutoni

Afterwards we drive around Fischer's Pan, past Twee Palms en the Aroe waterholes,  exploring the north eastern corner of Etosha.

Springbok (of dan, biltong op bene!)

Kudu

Blue Wildebeest

Blue Wildebeest leaving the waterhole

   

Ostrich

The rest of the morning we spend driving around the area south east of Namutoni.  Stopping at Chudop, Kalkheuwel and Bahia waterholes.

By now we are used to driving a 4x4 and got the idea that you can drive just about anywhere with it!  That was when we suddenly heard a loud noise, like a huge rock stuck somewhere under the truck, shaking and bumping against everything.  Not being allowed to get out of the vehicle, I took a quick look, but saw nothing unusual.  As we started the engine, the noise began again.  This time I stick my head out the window and realize that the noise is coming from the top of the cabin and saw that one of the brackets that holds the roofrack, had broken off!  Something which could only be fixed by welding it back together.  We drove back to Numatoni, me hanging onto the roofrack with one hand.  Suprisingly, they have a huge garage and a very friendly man only needed half an hour to remove and fix the bracket.  Hoorah!  We left Namutoni for the second time and continue our jouney in the direction of Halali rest camp were we have camping reservations for 3 nights.

Happy gathering at one of the waterholes.  Giraffe, zebra and a jackal.

This is how it's done!!

African hoopoe

Blue wildebeest

Warthog



Red hartebeest

Near Halali we made a quick stop at Goas waterhole and saw this!  A dead zebra with its guts popping out!  We immediately realize that this is to become supper to something!  Not being able to wait much longer since we have to be at the camp before the gate closes for the evening, we left and decided to be back here early tomorrow morning!

At Halali camp we pick a spot and set up the tent for our first evening in Etosha.  After supper we walked to the nearby waterhole and sat watching the sun sets while a young rhino came out of the bushes for a drink of water.

Night time visitor at the Halali waterhole.

 <<<   And back to Windhoek where it all started

Etosha Day 2. A lion's breakfast.

Day 2 in Etosha starts with us getting up early to leave as the gate opens, hoping to see some action back at the Goas waterhole where we saw the dead zebra last night.

Leaving Halali as the gate opens at 5:15!

Mother Nature again did not dissappoint us!  Three lions had already finished most of the zebra, but were still guarding the left overs. 

We spent about an hour and a half watching these beautiful animals lazing around in the early morning sun. 

Taking too many photo's from only about 20 meters away.

Rubbing heads before taking another bite!

 Not being bothered by other animals, no matter what size they are!

Impala.  Watching from a safe distance!

Keeping an eye on things while the other 2 take a nap.

And meanwhile back on the other side of the waterhole and not believing their eyes either  ....

We eventually left to check out the surroundings around Halali and stopped at the Etosha Lookout, right on the edge of the pan, looking out on a whole lot of nothing!

The comings and goings at Rietfontein, my favourite waterhole.

Steenbok.  If you stand really still and stare straight ahead, the tourists won't notice you!

West of Halali we drive past Salvadora and noticed another lion couple.  Really, really lazy and we never saw them move.  So we named them  -  The lazy lions of Salvadora - it just sounded do book-title-good!

The lazy lions of Salvadora

Gemsbok \ Oryx

And sitting on his heels all day, Kori bustard.

Spending time back at Rietfontein before returning to Halali for the night.

The end! (of our second day in Ethosha)

 <<<   And back to Windhoek where it all started