LET ME SAY THIS NOW. In this post number 20, instead of John “Ungowa" Golfin placing his head in a Lion, THE LION PLACES HIS HEAD IN ME!!!! (This is my favourite photo…and took ages to capture!)
SOLO5 was 1,809km.
18 PLACES VISITED: ANGOLA: 1) Ondjiva. NAMIBIA: 1) Oshikango, 2) Namutoni Resort (2), Etosha National Park, 3) Halali Resort (2), Etosha National Park, 4) Okaukuejo Resort (2), Etosha National Park, 5) Kamajab, 6) Twyfelfontein (Rock Carvings), 7) Orrelpype (Organ Pipe Rocks), 8) Skeleton Coast (Whale Bones, Shipwrecks, Oil Rig), 9) Swakopmund, 10) Usakos, 11) Okahandja, 12) Windhoek (2), 13) Outjo (2), 14) Rietrog, 15) Maltahohe, 16) Soldatenfriedhof War Grave Cemetery outside town of Aus, 16) Rosh Pinah, 17) Noordoewer (Orange River). The photo above is REAL. NO MANIPULATION!!!
16 OVERNIGHTS: ANGOLA: 1) Bush Camp 8km west of Mongua (Elev 1163m). NAMIBIA: 1) Bush Camp 70km south east of Ondangwa (Elev 1097), 2) Facilities Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m), 3) Bush Camp 12km north of Otjikondo (Elev 1231m), 4) Bush Camp at Mowami Mountain 10km north of Twyfelfontein (Elev 563m), 5) Bush Camp 13km north west of Henties Bay (Elev 147m), 6-7) Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund, 8) Facilities Camp "Okaukuejo Resort", Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m), 9) Facilities Camp “Halali Resort", Etosha National Park (Elev 1069m), 10) Facilities Camp "Okaukuejo Resort", Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m), 11-12) Hotel Dorm “Cardboard Box” Windhoek (Elev 1624m), 13) Bush Camp 11km south of Bullsport (Elev 1491m), 14) Bush Camp 38km south east of Witputz (Elev 1200m), 15) Facilities Camp “Felix Units” 10km west of Noordoewer (Elev 215m).
8 RUNS: NAMIBIA: 1) Otjikondo, 2) Mowami Mountain, 3-4) Swakopmund (2), 5-6) Etosha National Park (2), 7-8) Windhoek (2)
45 UNIQUE WILDLIFE: NAMIBIA (In order of appearance): 1) Springbok (Thompson Gazelle), 2) Blue Wildebeest, 3) Burchell’s Zebra, 4) Black Rhinoceros, 5) Maribou Stalk, 6) Warthog, 7) Blackbacked Jackal, 8) Reticulated Giraffe, 9) African Elephant, 10) Kudu, 11) Common Ostrich, 12) Gemsbok (Oryx), 13) Slender Mongoose, 14) Crocodile, 15) Blackfaced Impala, 16) Kori Bastard, 17) Spotted Hyena, 18) Honey Badger (2), 19) Damara Dik-Dik, 20) Springbok, 21) Helmeted Guineafowl, 22) Red Hartebeest (Topi), 23) Hooded Vulture, 24) Yellow-billed Kite, 25) Blue Waxbill, 26) African Lion (14), 27) Drill Monkeys, 28) Camelion, 29) Cheetah (3), 30) Lilac-breasted Roller, 31) Monteiro’s Horn Bill, 32) Cape Crow, 33) Gabar Goshawk, 34) Secretarybird, 35) Blue Crane, 36) Martial Eagle, 37) Lappet-faced Vulture, 38) Ground Squirrel, 39) Black Stalk, 40) Cape Vulture, 41) Brown Hyena, 42) Leopard (2), 43) Caracal (2), 44) Banded Mongoose, 45) Eland.
BLOG POST TRAILER: Welcome to a BLOCKBUSTER post. Not only does it celebrate the HALFWAY point in my entire trip but it showcases the first real encounter with a menagerie of African wildlife in terms of variety and quantity. Add to this the thrill of the first skydive in my life from the HEAVENS and my own “Solo 5” drive through Etosha National Park and it is set to be the longest and most amazing post to date! “Halfway Heaven” in the making… (Photo right: ZORBA THE ZEBRA!!! O-pa!!!)
All of this took place in amazing NAMIBIA, clearly the most scenic place to date and very modern and cheap to boot! The HALFWAY point in my trip happened on Catholic Easter, Day 136 on 27 March 2016 (away from home) and Day 138 on 29 March 2016 (on the truck). I also celebrated the milestone of 150 days away from home on 10 April 2016, the last day in the post! NAMIBIA is mostly desert but it is the shapes and colours of its mountains, ridges and plains that sets it apart. We will visit NAMIBIA again, in a few weeks, when we set out from Cape Town to Cairo on 21 April 2016. This time we entered NAMIBIA from Mongua in the north and travelled to Etosha National Park, one of the best in term of variety of wildlife. Etosha National Park is a wildlife wonderland with 114 mammal, 340 bird and 16 reptile species over its 20,000 square kilometres.
“The Etosha Pan” is a huge 5,000 square kilometre, white-green salt flat desert which when dry forces all the wildlife to watering holes around the pan hence making it perfect for observation before sunrise and after sunset. Visitors stay in one of three “resorts” in the park which are large fenced compounds with camping spots, toilets, showers, hotel rooms, restaurant, bar, reception and small supermarket. The resorts are evenly spaced east, middle and west and open and close at sunrise and sunset. We used our truck to safari through the park but it was hard to get “close” to the animals because of the size and loudness of the truck. Nevertheless we saw countless animals, culminating in the sighting of two female lions. I saw the potential of the place and together with Roberto’s previous visits here (totalling 3 weeks) I resolved to drive back here with Roberto whilst the truck was in Swakopmund.
The truck overnighted in Halali Resort in Etosha and the water hole there afforded us a spectacular display of animals culminating in a “circus act” of 16 elephants at 11:30pm at night. It was something else watching these huge majestic beasts walk in truck to tail, splash and play and then march out the same way. It was very funny. Some adolescent males refused to leave whilst they wrestled each other in the water so a huge male had to literally drag them out while they carried on honking! We saw most of the animals in the list above to number 27. The rest I saw on my solo trip together with most of the first 27. Swakopmund (Pop 50,000) is one of prettiest, quietest, calmest towns we visited.
Most of us agreed that this is where we would live if we had to chose a place to date. It is a holiday place, by the Atlantic, with “Malibou-style” homes on the beach, belonging mainly to retired South Africans. Add to this, good restaurants, clean streets and more large supermarkets than you can poke a stick at and you have the makings of a great stay. This is also the “adventure capital” of NAMIBIA where you can skydive, quad bike and sand-board on the neighbouring dunes.
Keith, Riza and I signed up for the skydive above the desert 10km out of town and it is one of the milestone events of my life. We completed this thrilling feat on Saturday 2 April 2016 and you can read all about “the experience” under Day 142 below. All I will say here in summary is that you do NOT get that “falling feeling” where your stomach travels to your mouth like in a roll-a-coaster. There are however three other things that I specifically noted when my tandem placed me outside the plane, dangling, before he pushed us both out and into free fall. Read all about it! I was particularly nervous the day before but when you see others jump before you and how they land it is more like an amusement park ride and you actually cannot wait to have your turn. Our nerves left us getting onto the Cessna 206. After the jump you are pumped full of adrenaline - so much so, that we didn’t even noticed that we had drunk four beers with the tandems before we left. I was on a high all that evening and celebrated with a fine fish dinner and bubbles!
Photo left: the THE DAG DANCE at 5000ft and 240km/h!!!
My Solo 5 trip back to Etosha involved me hiring a 4WD fully equipped with two tents on its roof and all the gear we needed to cook and sleep on our own. I invited Roberto and Doug to come along for company and we set out the day after my skydive (3 April) and re-joined the truck on the evening of 6 April in Windhoek, the capital and largest city of NAMIBIA. I was happy to drive again in Africa and the views to Okaukeujo were spectacular. The landscape of NAMIBIA constantly changes but it is never boring. Always large and open with a feeling of space and awe. The night sky is particularly good with the Milky Way so white that you think it is a cloud! The gates to the Etosha National Park had closed 2min before our arrival and we pleaded with the gate guard to let us in - thank goodness he did. Our days at Etosha were simply divine. We saw a total of 14 lions, 4 cheetahs, 2 leopards and 2 caracals out of the cats. There was a male lion just outside our car and I leaned out of the window to take my famous lion-in-the-mouth photo! I would have got outside the car but there were two other cars around that would report us.
Wherever there were no cars I would get out of the car and film myself with the animals - this is what I wanted - animal photos with me in them! What is the point of a whole lot of animal close-ups - you can see these online or on TV! Our favourite sighting was on the morning of our third day in the park when we spotted three male lions just after they killed a zebra. One of the lions stuck his whole head inside the belly of the zebra, pulling out organs and standing up to roar with blood dripping down from his whole head and paws. What a sight - check out the pics later in this post. It was hard leaving the park to go back to the truck. We saw so many animals, drank wine and ate cheese and olives every sunset at the water holes around camp and feasted on BBQ Oryx on our won wood fires. It was a fantastic solo adventure. We joined the truck in Windhoek (Pop 300,000) and the next day was a free day in the city. I toured on my own and the highlight was the “Independence Memorial Museum”, a huge modern arch-de-triumph shaped golden glass building with exhibitions inside, high above the city, explaining the struggle for independence. An external glass elevator was perfect for all those fine shots of the city.
Windhoek has many arcades and supermarkets and two big malls. The place is very clean and has a look and feel similar to Canberra - that big little city feel. It is surrounded by cone shaped mountains and ridges and sits quite high at 1400-1600m. I managed to go the cinema and the highlight was eating 2kg of game meat (Oryx, Kudu, Zebra, Ostrich, Crocodile) together with Roberto at “Joe’s Beerhouse”, a massive 600-seat restaurant institution in the city! The highlight was a 1.4kg slow roasted Kudu leg that just fell of the giant bone! It was a great night and a great way to celebrate our Solo 5 adventure.
It was then two bush camps between Windhoek and Kotzehoop on the Orange River that creates the border with SOUTH AFRICA. This drive continued the visual feast of desert and sprawling landscape. The descent into the Orange River was particularly awesome since table grapes grew near the river and contrasted sharply with the orange/red rocky desolation of the desert mountains and ridges next to the river. On one side NAMINIA and the other SOUTH AFRICA! We had made it!
BLOG POST DETAIL:
DAY 135, Sat 26MAR16, 323km, “Hotel Mirangolo” Lubango to Bush Camp 8km west of Mongua ANGOLA. Today was truck day and the end of Solo 4. We were very well rested and clean and psyched up to return even though we could have kept going solo. There is nothing like it. We arrived at our designated pickup point of Shoprite at 8am and spotted the big yellow truck a few minutes later. We met everyone again - a habit for us and one we would like to keep going!!! Andi did not waste any time assigning us to cook group shopping - we would do lunch and dinner today and brekkie tomorrow morning. I had not done cook shop since IVORY COAST way back in December - a world record indeed!
It was an easy cook shop in Shoprite - Riza, Yuki and I knew this supermarket well given our stay in Lubango. We spent an hour shopping and on our return our truck was surrounded by Mumuila tribal women covered in the red ochre sand and butter!!! The red sand is made into mud for their hair and rubbed into their skin since they rarely bathe and it keeps the mozzies off. At 9:30am farewelled what had been a fabulous city and Solo 4. Our journey towards the NAMIBIA border was rapid given the great paved road. The landscape flattened and we descended steadily surrounded by scattered trees and bush and still green. We arrived at our bush camp at 5:30pm and had covered 323km. It was our cook group tonight and I was thrilled that Yuki, Riza, Roberto and I were in our own new cook group. It made sense given how often we leave the truck! Tonight we gave Roberto a break since he had to do cook group on his own whilst we were on Solo 4. Riza led the charge with a terrific stir-fry. Given our elevation, the night was cool and less humid. Exerting yourself still caused you to sweat but if stationary and relaxed it was comfortable. The sunset today was particularly fantastic. A small group of six of us stayed up enjoying a very good conversation in which we asked each other frank questions. Really enjoyed it as it revealed more about our characters. It was weird sleeping in the tent again on a sleeping bag that I had not seen in a long time.
DAY 136 of 273, Sun 27MAR16, CATHOLIC EASTER SUNDAY AND THE HALFWAY POINT OF MY EPIC ADVENTURE, 258km, Bush Camp 8km west of Mongua ANGOLA to Bush Camp 70km south east of Ondangwa (Elev 1097) NAMIBIA. Wow! I never thought I would see this day! The half-way point of my African journey! Only 137 days left to go!!! Every day that goes by now is a day closer to Cairo and a day closer to home! As I reflect on the first half I cannot imagine doing that half all over again - it was tough and long! People tell me that the east will be a lot easier with more facilities and activities and wildlife to keep us busy and engaged. For this reason I except the second half will go faster than the first. I am looking forward to the wildlife and tribal villages. I am also glad that half-way fell on Catholic Easter Sunday - a time for thanksgiving and reflection.
Orthodox Easter falls on 1 May 2016 because they use an extra criterion from Catholicism that Easter should be celebrated after the Jewish Passover. For me it will be a strange and sad time since I am rarely away during Easter which is very festive and important to me and very family oriented. I met my halfway day at 5:45am so I could do brekkie at 6am. It was a very restful night and cool - I was half in my sleeping bag - first time in months! At 7:30am we were off. The border was still 111km away. We got there at 10am and by noon we were driving in my 76th country of NAMIBIA.
This was the first country after MOROCCO where Ozzies did not need a VISA to enter. We also moved forward by one hour here. We had cook stop in Oshikango for two hours and left at 3pm. Boy was it hot and dry! Just like a desert. We were still above 1100m which explains the reduction in humidity.
The town was definitely neater, cleaner and better serviced with 3 big supermarkets and even a KFC. Other towns further down were similar. This was not the rough and tumble of Africa but something a little more refined. We reached our camping site at around 6pm but sunset this far south is now 7pm so plenty of time to erect tents and start cooking. As I was not permitted to run here, Roberto, Riza, Doug and I went for a long walk just in case we could spot anything but all we came up with was a farmer with cows, donkeys and a dog! Vit reviewed Blog Post 18 and we spent the evening discussing options on how we could spend more days in Etosha.
DAY 137 of 273, Mon 28MAR16, 185km, Bush Camp 70km south east of Ondangwa (Elev 1097) to Facilities Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1069m) NAMIBIA. WHAT A TERRIFIC DAY THIS WAS - A MASSIVE WILDLIFE DAY IN ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK!!! We entered the park from the north at the “King Nehale Iya Mpingana" gate. Just inside the park the wildlife show began with Springbok and Wildebeest. Many of them walking across flat green grassy plains.
This landscape soon dried up revealing the enormous “Etosha Pan”. Etosha National Park is a wildlife wonderland with 114 mammal, 340 bird and 16 reptile species over its 20,000 square kilometres. “The Etosha Pan” is a huge 5,000 square kilometre, white-green salt flat desert which when dry forces all the wildlife to watering holes around the pan hence making it perfect for observation before sunrise and after sunset.
Visitors stay in one of three “resorts” in the park which are large fenced compounds with camping spots, toilets, showers, hotel rooms, restaurant, bar, reception and small supermarket. The resorts are evenly spaced east, middle and west and open and close at sunrise and sunset. Visitors set out each day to serve wildlife in their own cars or in organised resort 4WDs. We would use our truck. The best place to see wildlife is around the many water holes throughout the park and off the main dirt roads, especially after sunrise or before sunset. Visitors must be back at the resort by sunset since you cannot pitch tent outside in the wildlife. Likewise you cannot leave your car or have open windows as you drive through for fear of being eaten! Each resort also has a nearby waterhole that you can walk to and is floodlit all night allowing guests to observe any incoming wildlife - the hole is fenced off. The first water hole we visited was “Andoni”, the name of my dad in Greek - he would have loved what we were about experience today!!! We stopped at the eastern resort called “Namutoni” for lunch.
This resort also contains an old castle, built by the Germans during WWI when they occupied NAMIBIA. The views from the turrets are terrific. Etosha is very flat and contains a number of striking environments. The drive between here and the middle resort of “Halali”, where we would be spending the night, was simply spectacular. We saw all of the animals listed under “UNIQUE WILDLIFE” at the start of this blog post except for the lions! Everyone was thrilled with the elephants and Rhinos because of their size and proximity to the truck. The stand-out favourite was the Giraffes and then Zebras. Giraffes are so graceful, especially when they walk in a herd since they all move in a synchronised fashion! They also have huge eyelashes making them very appealing in looks. An awesome sight is watching them spread their legs to drink water then flip them together to raise themselves. They also walk in pairs and very close together. We had many giraffes only a few meters from the truck! Another surprise for me was Zebras.
Zebras are big animals! I know because many came very close to the truck! Oddly, I read that Zebras are part of the Camel family and not horses. The Zebras we saw had a creamy brown hue through their stripes making them “Burchell’s Zebra”. There is another variety of Zebra that is pure black and white. We saw the rare Black Rhinos instead of the more common White throughout east Africa - that was great. Photography from inside the truck was good. The truck stopped and we used the headrests of the seats to steady our cameras since most wildlife was a fair distance from the truck.
The configuration of seats facing each other rather than standard rows now revealed its true advantage. Not only is it ideal for photos but also more social, encouraging people to speak with each other. We would also walk from side to side capturing animals on both sides of the truck. By the time we got to our overnight resort of Halali we were “soaked in wildlife spotting” and carrying thousands of photos between us. I know I took close to 800 unedited shots - culling these would be a major exercise and probably occupy me all the way to Cape Town! The camping facilities at Halali were the best to date. Clean, tiled bathrooms and showers just like a hotel. Plenty of hot water and power points on poles outside your tent space. There were also many share toilets and showers with no waiting time as a benefit.
You can also upgrade to air-conditioned rooms or the more luxurious “chalets” which are like mini houses, appropriate for families. This was the low season (wet season) so there were not many visitors around - most were from South Africa and Germany. High Season is October/November/December when it is very dry. This resort was further evidence of how well Namibia is organised for tourism and I expect will be much like South Africa - more westernised and advanced. Everyone raced off to the “Moringa” water hole on arrival so that we could watch the sun set and any wildlife approach. It was well set up. Covered wooden chairs and open stone wall seats facing a very close water holes complete with huge floodlight which comes on 15min after the sun sets.
You sit high above the water hole making photography terrific. The best feature however is the ability to bring wine, cheese and olives to this magic place and watch the wildlife like it was a circus show. Not long after it was dark and flood light came on did the show really begin. Two elephants, there rhinos and three hyenas! Then it was time for dinner - boy this was just like a show - fabulous set up. Andi/Grant cooked us up a terrific “game soup” featuring very tender strips of meat from most of the antelope family we had seen earlier today! Springbok, Kudu and Orix. Then it was back to the show. And what a show it was. Another contender for “highlight of highlights of the trip”! It came at 11:30pm for those fortuitous enough to stay up. Four families of 16 elephants literally marched in from left to right, in single file, trunks holding tails, babies walking under their mothers for protection and all assembling around and inside the water hole.
They drank, they washed and they played with each other. It was an amazing site and all wild and natural. The stage was Etosha and the show was natural. The real zoo in this case were the beer and wine drinking tourists sitting on the rocks!!! The funniest moment was the refusal of two younger elephants to leave the stage as the others assembled in single file to walk back out. The young elephants wrestle each other, locking trunks, pushing each other and trumpeting very loudly. Then dad comes along and literally untangles them and pushes them towards the line. He steps behindd them, last in the line and pushes them along. There go 16 elephants single file, exit stage, right to left - hilarious - just like a chorus line in a circus! And best of all, nothing was staged.
This was a natural event. This was Africa. The show concluded at midnight and on my way back to the tent I saw what turned out to be two Honey Badgers. These are mean sons of bitches. About the size of a skunk, they are fearless and ferocious and have”lock jaw syndrome”. You try to take food from them or stand in their way or try to eat them, they will attack and bite with rows of tiny sharp teeth and not let go! They are known to even attack lions, knowing they will loose - they are the kamacuzzies of the animal kingdom! Riza and Roberto also heard a growl and some running German tourists that night. To this day we have not been able to identify the animal that scared them even though the staff told us that they regularly have hyenas entering the grounds - another fearless animal but unlike the honey badger will not attack anything that stands taller than itself. Sleeping was easy that night. It was cool and dry - typical semi-arid desert weather. I would dream of parading elephants tonight!
DAY 138 of 273, Tue 29MAR16, 137km, Facilities Camp “Halali Resort”, Halali Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) to Bush Camp 12km north of Otjikondo (Elev 1231m) NAMIBIA. ANOTHER TERRIFIC DAY OF WILDLIFE. This time with Lions! Everyone could not wait to get up! We had a morning safari organised for sunrise at 7am when the gates of Halali resort would let us out. I had heard several bins crashing during the night - no doubt Honey Badgers or Mongooses going for it! The wildlife came thick and fast as we travelled north towards the Etosha Pan lookout. We saw most of the same animals as yesterday plus a number of new ones: Damara Dik-Dik, Steenbok, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red Hartebeest, Hooded Vulture, Yellow-billed Kite, Blue Waxbill.
This time the Ostriches were also much closer and huge! They are scardy-cats, running at our shadows however they will get vicious if you try to snatch their eggs. There are also birds everywhere. The weirdest looking has the weirdest name: Kori Bastard! Just who names these animals is besides me. I wish I could. Can you imagine calling something “F- - - Bastard! Ha Ha. This bird is big and ugly and probably is a kori bastard. It has a very strange snout and can be seen walking everywhere even though it can fly! Go figure! Maybe it is just begging to be eaten. I was surprised at how dry it was and how heathy the antelope family of animals looked - just what did they eat to keep them so plump.
The landscape looked very bare - low line scrub with scattered trees. The “Etosha Pan Lookout” reminds me of the “Salta Salt Flats” of Bolivia. Totally flat with white below and blue sky above. Only difference is that Etosha is not a salt flat - it is just a dried lake bed of sand and actually light grey in colour instead of stark white. Nevertheless you can take funny optical illusion photos just like Salta - I took one of Yuki holding a tiny Doug in the palm of his hand (refer photo in this blog). What makes the pan even more stunning is the bright sunny blue sky day.
From here we continued our journey towards the western most resort of “Okaukuejo” visiting many water holes along the way. Giraffes and Kudu featured the most with lots of Ostriches in between.
At precisely 1:10pm the highlight of the day and entire Etosha visit came when we spotted two female African Lions resting under trees some 20m from the side of the road. Another overland truck had told us of their sighting 18km ahead and a small car was parked on the side of the road enjoying them when we went by - lucky - we would not have spotted them otherwise. Although the big cats spend most of their day under trees away from the hot sun, they are known to walk in the open and even sit under trees right next to the road.
The truck filled with excitement and we all got photos. These two cats were huge. One got up and started walking away and the size of the body and head dominated the shrubbery. I was thrilled to see them but wanted to see more - this is the main reason Roberto, Doug and I planned to return in a few days time on our own. We can go anywhere, stake out water holes to see a kill (this is rare but possible) and even take my prized photos with the wildlife BEHIND me! We got to Okaukuejo Resort around 2pm which is where I made bookings for our return visit and researched our 4WD hire. I even booked my hotel in downtown Cape Town - 5 nights in the same hotel as Riza and her husband Robert so that we could visit the wineries together. Our UK to Cape Town finishes 16 April and the Cape Town to Cairo starts on 21 April - I was very much looking forward to the break. I just made the 4pm departure from Okaukuejo Resort.
The western gate was a short drive away and while most were sad to eave I was glad we were coming back! We now headed west towards the Skeleton Coast on the Atlantic - another “desert meets ocean” scenario. The landscape outside Etosha became very semi-arid. Rolling hills with scrub and small trees. White grave roads and absolutely hot and dry. Maintained a height around 1000-1100m.
The scenery looked like it could be in a number of countries including the outback in Australia or New Mexico in the USA. The whole place was crystal clear making sunsets spectacular. A good example was tonight’s bush camp, arriving just in time at 6:30pm. After pitching tent we sat on our stools, cold beers in hand watching the sun’s huge red disk disappear behind the distant hills.
I noticed we were in a very isolated place so I asked Andi and Grant if I could run in the morning - much to my surprise they said YES so I was very happy that night. Running to me is like food to most. I marked out all the animals I saw in a special Etosha booklet and spoke with Gabriela (Polish/USA Chemical Engineer from Chicago) about discussions between the Catholic Pope and Greek Patriarch on celebrating their respective Easters on the same date every year - second Sunday in April. I hot the sack early to get enough sleep for my 71st country run starting at 5:30am.
DAY 139 of 273, Wed 30MAR16, 279km, Bush Camp 12km north of Otjikondo (Elev 1231m, Run1) to Bush Camp at Mowami Mountain, 10km north of Twyfelfontein NAMIBIA. Finally. After 3 days of rest I got to run NAMIBIA. It was simply enchanting. What do I mean by that. Imagine running along a white gravel road lit up by the post Easter moon above in complete silence and isolation with desert smells and a stray sky and rolling hills on either side to enliven every sense - enchanting! I was up at 5:30pm and on the gravel by 6am and watched the sun come up on my return before 7am. I even managed to make the truck brekkie.
The temperature was a cool 15C and dry - not much sweat and easy to baby wipe away given the lack of heat and humidity - I can deal with these conditions without water. We set out at a respectable 8am and the scenery continued to remind me of outback Australia. We enjoyed a coffee and internet at a local hotel in the small town of Kamajab which was well equipped with a great little supermarket and even a gun and ammo shop - this encouraged me since I was planning to go shooting Gazelle or Kudu on a private farm when driving back from Etosha in my own 4WD on the back to the capital of Windhoek. Would this happen?
We had lunch in the middle of nowhere and continues our journey west towards the Atlantic coast. The scenery now was very reminiscent of the Australian outback - very hot and dry, orange dirt, scrub and deep blue cloudless skies. At 4pm a surprise. We arrived at a place called “Twyfelfontein” (meaning “doubtful spring”in Arikaans), a natural sandstone valley with 2,500 ancient rock carvings made by the San peoples some 2,000-6,000 years ago. Discovered in 1921 by a South African, this place is the only UNESCO protected site in NAMIBIA since 2007. We took a guided tour in English (not French!) and saw several animals, most notably giraffes.
There was even one that looked like the giraffe was humping a wildebeest - ouch! As we toured two helicopters flew in depositing a bunch of people who also toured the carvings. Sadly they were not actors or singers but older rich Germans! From here it was a few minutes to another natural rock formation in a small valley called “Orrelpype” or “Organ Pipes” since the rocks look like the said instrument. Our camp was 12km from the organ pipes at a place called “Mowami Mountain” which is actually a huge mound of boulders amongst very scenic cliffs, all earthy colours of brown, orange and red. We camped at the foot of the boulders and this was easily the best bush camp site without water. We camped amongst an “orchard” of trees and the weather was perfect, clear sky, cool and dry. That night each person cooked their own two small fillet steaks of Kudu on the grill -
there was not an ounce of fat on them and they were very dark, almost purple in colour when raw. They were simply marvellous. So tender you could eat them raw - I cooked mine rare and along with a coleslaw and lettuce/tomato salads, this was easily the best meal we have had to date. Andi/Grant bought the meat in Kamanjab for only $AUD7/kg. Roberto and I made a mental note of this because this is the meat we want to eat every night on our solo trip to Etosha. Best camp site and best meal followed by a great chat with Doug under a clear starry sky with the milky way in full view. To top it off I would be running amongst all of this the following morning. What more could we ask.
DAY 140 of 273, Thu 31MAR16, 336km, Bush Camp at Mowami Mountain, 10km north of Twyfelfontein (Elev 563, Run2) to Bush Camp 13km north west of Henties Bay (Elev 147m) NAMIBIA. What a run. Easily one of the best. Surrounded by sandstone cliffs and mountains of boulders under the glow of a half moon in complete isolation and silence - dirt road, no cars. On return, Venus sparkling above the boulders announcing the glow of the rising sun. A nice 17C with no wind and beautifully dry. As I approached our camp site I noticed that there was a small collection of local huts in the orchard and dwellings amongst the boulders themselves. There is even a museum amongst the boulders featuring the history and crafts of the local people there, one of them dressed only in what looked like a grass skirt. The drive towards the Namib Desert against the Atlantic coast was nothing short of breathtaking.
Cone shaped sandstone formations, cliffs of every shade of brown and red with a flat valley floor dotted with just a few trees. The Namib Desert emerged at around noon with vast flat sandy plains first with brown sand then dusty red then a pale cream and grey. At around 11am we entered the Skeleton Coast Park via a gate that we stopped at. Unfortunately the truck engine could not be started - something was wrong with the ignition switch. We all got out and pushed but when that did not work, Grant used the spare battery to by-pass the ignition switch and feed power directly to the starter motor - it worked and we where off. Not a permanent solution but would get us to camp. We also blew some fuses so no more charging for now until the ignition switch could be replaced. Back to the portable battery for me. As we descended towards the coast it became windier and the air cooled. The desert landscape changed again and became sandier and lighter in colour with fewer rocks and almost no trees.
We got to the coast just after noon and it was another planet. White sand dunes with light grey surrounding sand with pebbles and rocks and blowing a gale. There was nothing out here. Just the crashing waves of the Atlantic which was a pale grey/blue colour. We had a very quick lunch due to the high winds and the ocean air was cold - for the first time in a long long time everyone put on wind jackets and some even threw on long pants. We proceeded down the rugged white tuned coastal road which was gravel graded but covered in sand and indistinguishable from its surroundings.
The Skeleton Coast is vast and lives up to its name. We stopped to see a sea of white whale bones, ship wrecks and even a rusted old oil rig. By now the blankets were out - people covering themselves as the cold ocean air burst onto the scene. The dry air of the desert was now replaced by moist ocean air. I was particularly cold and Theresa kindly shared her huge blanket with me first time I really felt the cold and I am certain it was the moisture more than the temperature. Our campsite was a vast open area of sand and small stones, white in colour and no trees - just a few low bushes - buh poo would be a challenge! The wind was still up so some of us sat in the truck (Vit and I reviewed post 20) and the rest around the camp fire. Another terrific “game” dinner - this time Orix. A dark red meat, almost purple in colour but lighter than Kudu but just as tender and edible raw! We all cooked our own but this time accompanied by a jacket potato and coleslaw. Delicious and plentiful. I think the Kudu was marginally tastier. These are terrific meats - healthy and tasty and cheap! Like goat, these little critters eat barely nothing and produce this fine meat. Why are they not farmed in the western world? Given the cold, everyone retired early to tents. The wind settled as we settled into sleep.
DAY 141 of 273, Fri 1APR16, 87km, Bush Camp 13km north west of Henties Bay (Elev 147m) to Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund NAMIBIA (Run3). I was surprised by the overnight conditions - I slept with my bag open and wearing my usual red nylon running gear - short pants and singlet - it was not cold. I had bashed my ribs against my truck seat when I was holding my camera with both hands to photograph wildlife at Etosha whilst the truck was moving. My ribs were now quite sore - I must have bruised them. I could not sleep in my favourite position, on my stomach, so the night was unsettled.
The area had clouded over so everything was white and flat and a little chilly. I also realised that today was the first day of April - another month gone and we were now seriously into 2016! April was the month we would reach Cape Town, on the 16th and it was hard to believe it was here now - it always seemed a lifetime away at the start of the trip. Did not run this morning since we were due in Swakopmund in two hours - I would run later today in warmer weather after making our solo arrangements for Etosha.
The drive to Swakopmund continued the Skeleton Coast theme of flat beige sandy desert against a wild ocean. No trees, just shrub and small bushes. The day was still cloudy and foggy but by the time we arrived into Swakopmund at 9:30am it was starting to clear up. We had free time until 10:30am when we would meet at the “Far Out” adventure agency to view a film on available activities and then book them. Roberto, Riza and I discovered what was to become our “home base” whilst in Swakopmund - “Beryl’s” - a classic takeaway and restaurant with a good WIFI! We enjoyed a $AUD1.60 cappuccino here and most food was between $AUD5-10, cheaper than ANGOLA! The adventure video was great but Riza and I were already decided on what we were going to do before we even entered NAMIBIA, let alone Swakopmund. Skydiving! Yes, skydiving.
I was finally going to give in to my principle of never placing my life in gravity’s hands or in the principle of “drag” (of a parachute) as opposed to the “lift” of a wing that I had studied so hard. More on this later. More free time for us until 2pm when the truck would take us to our hotel - unreal - no tents while we were here. Most people would stay for 4 nights but it was only 2 for Roberto, Doug and myself because we were due to leave on our Solo 5 to Etosha on Sunday. So by 2pm, Roberto and I organised our trip to Etosha. I booked and paid for a Toyota Hylux 4 cycler 2.4L Turbo Diesel fully equipped for camping with two, 2-person pop-up tents on top complete with bedding and downstairs in the back we will have a fridge, gas BBQ and all cooking and eating utensils. The car also has 2 spare tyres and a double fuel tank. All this for a mere $AUD153/day for 4 days fully insured including windscreen and tyre damage! The company was “Swakopmund Car Hire” but we would need to pickup the car and drop it off at Windhoek. No trouble since there was a local minivan that would pick us up from our hotel at 7am on Sundey and take us straight to the car hire place at 11am for only $AUD26 each. Done.
The next thing I had to do was secure camp spot bookings inside the Okaukuejo and Halali Resorts inside Etosha National Park. Done. The lady who sold me our minivan tickets graciously rang the NWR Etosha Resorts office and helped me secure the spots.We were ready. I went back to Beryl’s to email Thomas to join us since he had contacted me earlier to say that his hand was better and that he had plans to go back to Etosha. Thomas was already there! He had arrived on 30 March and was leaving 3 April to travel to Windhoek with the truck from where he would fly to Cape Town and home to take care of his hand. So no Thomas! Pity - he and Roberto would have been a positive “wildlife cocktail” of excitement. Our hotels were terrific. More like little houses with dining area, kitchen, separate toilet/bathroom and two bedrooms, each with two single beds. Roberto, Riza, Doug and I settled in to our new home and I went for a run. My this time (3pm) the sky was blue and the temperature a comfortable 18C. I ran into the suburbs of Swakopmund to find reasonably good conditions - everyone had brick homes, some with tiles but mots with iron roofs. Wide streets but sandy rocky footpaths. Not as flash as the city but galaxies better than the Africa we had seen in the west and centre.
After my run I discovered the city of Swakopmund. Walked around town and down to the beach and wharf. Terrific place. Swakopmund (Pop 50,000) could be a place in any western country including Australia. Wide streets, paved footpaths, no rubbish, ornate street lamps, cute arcades with boutique clothing, antiques, coffee houses, book stores, cafes and restaurants. It appeared a 50-50 mix of black NAMIBIANS and white SOUTH AFRICANS. Predominant language is Afrikans but most people also speak English. Many South Africans have holiday homes here given the significantly cheaper food and drink. Most coffees are $AUD1-2 and most restaurant meals $AUD5-15. The main industry in town is tourism followed by manufacture of residential construction materials (bricks, aluminium, compressed fibro etc) and home base to three uranium mines located a few kilometres out of town. Swakop (for short) is also known as the “Adventure Capital of NAMIBIA” offering skydiving, kayaking, sand-boarding and quad-bike riding on the dunes next door. Swakop was also the film crew home base for “Mad Max 5” for 6 months which was mainly filmed around Fish Canyon that we would visit on our way back towards Cairo. Many of the locals we met told us how much the film has boosted the town’s and country’s popularity with many new visitors coming out since the film. Swakop was also the place where Angela Joli gave birth to baby daughter fathered by Brad Pitt. More visitors, especially Americans.
I really enjoyed my solo walk around town showcased by blue sky and the golden glow of a setting sun with a cool autumn breeze fanning my brisk walking. The four of us then met at Beryl’s at 6pm for pre-dinner drinks. Tonight the whole truck would meet at a nearby Italian Restaurant to be treated to a fancy sit-down dinner. It was strange seeing most people dressed up for the occasion. It was a blast. The food was terrific. FINALLY, I had my first 500g rump steak since my Australian farewell dinner just over 4.5mths ago! Boy was it good and even better at $AUD16. Everyone was in high spirits given the hotel houses, good food, great town and many activities. Afterwards we had shots and danced our way to midnight in a nearby club. It was like leaving Africa to go back home for a short break. Surreal indeed. I had dreamt of this many times in my trip - going back to Roscoe Street Bondi in Sydney just for the weekend then rejoining the truck on Monday. Weird. I was now living it...
DAY 142 of 273, Sat 2APR16, 0km, Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund NAMIBIA (Run4). TODAY WAS THE DAY I FINALLY FELL OUT OF THE HEAVENS!!! To celebrate my half-way and to overcome a lifelong fear of edges and heights, I jumped out of a Cessna 206 today, albeit with a man and parachute on my back!!! More this later… It was a cloudy, misty, coldish morning when I started my 7am run but locals told me that this is how all autumn days start and by 2pm the mist and cloud (more like a morning fog) burns off under a still hot sun to reveal blue skies, warm temperatures and a sun that can still burn you over time. I was nervous while I ran, thinking about today’s jump. I even prayed. Would this be the last day of my life or the greatest day of my life? I selected a company that has been operating since 1997 with a collective 92,000 jumps and no fatalities. The original owner still runs it and still jumps - he has clocked up an amazing 9,500 jumps. I felt better. Surely I was not going to be the one to break these statistics!
I had a chance to get it off my mind during the morning when the entire group came together to clean the truck and all of its contents. It was a hive of activity from 9am to 11am. I got the job of cleaning and refilling the “Spice Locker” and all of its contents. A fiddly job but enjoyable since I used our kitchen whilst playing my laptop music. After this activity I headed to Berryl’s to call my mum and best friend Nick Drinias. I had called my brother Nick last night. I had to do it given the jump. I did not say a thing. Did not even call them after the jump - I am surprising them with this blog just as I am surprising you now! Ha Ha! How is that for “blog ratings”!!! At least my last meal before this jump was last night’s 500g rump! Fitting. At 1:45pm I was pacing up and down our hotel reception. Riza and Keith kept asking me to sit down because I was making her nervous! 2:30pm, the “Ground Rush Adventures” company van turned up to pick us for our jump. Riza and I were thinking the same thing - it was late but we would not feel so bad if it had not turned up at all - nerves. Our driver was a 50yr old jumper originally from Luxembourg called “Bobby”. Very fit and fully funny. We picked up another two first-time jumpers who worked in a tourist office - their work offered them to do the jump so that they could properly advise clients.
Both were born in Swakop and spoke extensively about Mad Max 5. It was a 20min, 10km ride out of town along a flat dusty desert road, just passed a big Chinese satellite tracking station. The “drop station” was a small assembly of 6 wooden buildings with a covered area, small gravel strip and two Cessnas parked on it. Our first job was to peer into the “packing room” where all the open parachutes are repacked. The tandem chutes are a narrow rectangular shape made from a combination of nylon, teflon and polypropylene. Solo jumpers and camera people used a much smaller rectangular box-shaped chute with perforations in it - looked very small and high-tech - when they landed and walked away they simply tucked it under their arm like a sleeping bag. When I mentioned this to our tandems (professional jumpers who take us down as passengers) they laughed - never heard it called “a sleeping bag” before. Most of the high tech advances in chutes were in the materials and designs of the attachments (strings) connecting the actual chute to the back pack. The other advance was in chutes that could never stall or get tangled as they opened. The other rooms in the small “camp” was the dressing room (jump suit and connection pack), an office, audio/visual room (where they process film and photos of you jumping), toilets and even a bar!
After being shown the packing room we received a briefing on exactly what would happen and what we needed to do. I will describe this during the actual jump. There were 6 college students from the USA already there so it was some time before we suited up. We sat in the covered outdoor viewing area and watched them go up - two at a time in two separate Cessnas. One was an older model with no door!!! Watching the tandems jump from down here and land gracefully right in from of you with beaming smiles and high-fives on the ground was actually quite soothing - it took my worries away because it looked easy and enjoyable, almost like it was a pre-programmed roller coaster ride. I was now more keen to have my turn rather than think of ways to avoid being nervous. One student came down after the other. The smiles, the comments, the elation has to be seen rather than described. I was now looking forward to that feeling. I cannot recall the time that Riza, Keith and I got called up to suit up. A simple and quick affair. You empty all your pockets and place a one piece, lightweight nylon and cotton jump suit over your clothes. A metallic arrangement with large thick steel hooks and thick leg and arm belts is then strapped to your back much like a regular back pack.
This is used to attach you to the tandem on the plane as it climbs. Both Riza, Keith and I had opted for a camera person to jump with us to take video and pictures of our fall. They would film getting on the plane, inside the plane, the actual exit from the plane, the free fall and the landing and post ground shots. They could not shoot the chute release or descent because of the risk of entanglement. It was time. As we walked to the plane I remember looking up to see a perfect blue sky, hot sun and very calm, cool conditions. It was a gorgeous day to be victorious or as flat as a pancake - did not even think about the latter. Six of us climber aboard the seatless rear cavity of the Cessna 206. Myself, Riza, our tandems and our camera men. 38 year old Frank from South Africa was my tandem with 4,500 jumps to his name. My camera man was 30 yr old David who was training to be a tandem. Frank and I were due to jump first. You sit in the lap of your tandem on the plane floor with the cameramen opposite. The cameramen use GoPro Session 4s attached to a kevlar helmet. Some also use SLRs attached to the same helmet and operated by bluetooth. Tandems and cameramen wear the life saving altimeters on their wrists to correctly time the ripcord - yes it is still called this! Before we knew it we were rolling. The Cessna picked up speed with dust and gravel flying up in both directions and gently lifted into the desert sky. I recorded the whole event on my Ambit2 GPS watch.
We would jump at 10,000 feet (approx 3,300m).It took us 20min to get there and we enjoyed spectacular views of Swakop, the Atlantic, the beige-white desert below, distant Mt Brandberg (highest mountain in NAMIBIA at 2,527m) and even the rocky mountains of Spitzkopf that we would visit in the truck on our way to Cairo. I was not nervous or anxious. I was used to small planes and the sense of our height was not obvious. About half way up, the tandem joins you to him. You can feel his hooks lock into yours and he pulls you close to his chest. Just before the jump he puts googles on. Then the moment of truth! The shutter style door comes up and reveals the loud sound of the gushing airflow outside. My heart skipped a beat at this point but no watery hands or nervousness - just the eery desire to experience the fall. My camera person David was the first to go. He puts his back into the air whilst holding the rear of the opening and pushes himself out, back first. I cannot even describe how quickly he disappeared from view. Approx 5sec later we go out. Frank places me whole OUTSIDE the plane. My feet are bent under the planes entry lip, my hands are on my shoulders, my back is arched forward with stomach sticking out and my head is way back - I look like the letter “C” side on.
I can feel Frank nestling close to me and positioning himself to push out. A spilt second before the push I peer down at the desert floor below and blue sky ahead of me. The wind is gushing past my head and body but I am not cold. I actually wanted to pee on the way up but have forgotten all about it now.
Then comes the push. There are THREE things that I remember about “the push”.
The FIRST is that there is no “stomach in your mouth” feeling like on a roller coaster, i.e., there is no falling sensation. Amazing number one! Apparently all first jumpers expect this feeling but are surprised not to get it.
The SECOND thing I remember about “the push” is the incredible acceleration from what I know was a stationary position to what I am told is 240km/h in just 5 seconds! Think about that. This is faster than any supercar, formula one car, aircraft, spaceship or any other man-made device on whole planet Earth! Think about that again! The fastest accelerator on Earth that a person can feel is a person!!! This to me is the essence of the thrill of free fall. That sling shot feeling that pulls back every tissue on your face.
The THIRD thing I remember about “the push” is just how bloody fast the plane disappears from sight. It literally disappears like Samantha Stephens just zapped it out of sight on an episode of Bewitched. This is because as soon as leave the plane, you curl your legs back under the tandem like you want to kick him in the arse, you leave your hands on your shoulders and then the tandem does a summersault and you glimpse the plane as you fall back first upside-down. You free fall for a total of 35 seconds after “the push", including the 5 second acceleration. In that time you fall half way to 5,000 feet (approx 1,650m). The actual free fall at 240km/h for 30sec is like being in a windy storm. There is no falling feeling. Just loads of very loud whooshing air blowing past you like you were stationary on the ground with a cyclone whizzing past you. In that time the camera person does all their in-fall filming. Not when the parachute opens or descends. After a few seconds of free fall, Frank tapped me on the shoulder so I can take my hands off my shoulders and stretch them out like a bird. David moved up to me as I fell to film the dag dance using just my arms because my feet must remain under the tandem.
I organised this with David and the tandem before the jump because ordinarily they do not like people moving their limbs too much because it may destabilise the fall and set us into a tumble. At the 35sec and 5,000ft mark comes the next fabulous sensation - the deployment of the chute! No warning. All of a sudden you go from falling on your face with arms outstretched, parallel to the ground to flipping up vertically, feet flinging out in front of you, and your head stretched back towards the sky with an incredible stretchy slow-down. You catch glimpses of the chute as it opens and then you see it in fall arched position when you stare upwards, head tilted back. The slowing down sensation is not the reverse of the acceleration stage after the push. Far from it. It is a steady slow down, much like driving into an invisible spider web that bends and flexes with you, stretching to slow you down like a bungy then recoils to ensure a comfortable transition to the gliding phase. Now it is another 5min of glorious and quiet views as you float down like a feather to the emerging drop camp below. More views of the desert, ocean and distant mountains. It is here that you can talk to your tandem and it is here that you feel “safe”, “relieved” and start ordering your champagne!!! Much to the shock and delight of Frank, I started to sing to express my joy of what I had just done, even though there was no camera. It is here that I told Frank that I was a graduate aeronautical engineer and why I had done this jump.
He handed me the reigns of the chute and I turned it left and right. He then guided me to stall it and explained that it could not stall. Frank also helped me put us in a spiral spin with the world spinning around below us at a great rate - fantastic. We then spun the other way. It was a fabulous 5 minutes. Magic. I still remember my green ASICS running shoes dancing above the desert floor with nothing underneath. It is here that I flapped my arms yelling like a child, "look at me mum - I am flying". It was a funny moment that made Frank laugh. The landing is also terrific. Frank dips the chute to build up speed and we come in very fast like we are going to plough into the ground! He then suddenly pulls the chute back and we slow completely down to the point where we are vertically placed on the ground. Your tandem tells you to raise your legs, knees to your chest, at the last minute for the landing and then he steps onto he ground first. When he yells “stand” you place your feet down and step back onto Mother Earth! Right in front of the drop camp. Spot on. Frank released me immediately and two packers rush forward to release him from his cute just in case a sudden wind picks up and flings us both backwards which is were most injuries occur.
The other is when unsuspecting waiting jumpers venture out past the jump camp barrier and someone lands on them! David is already on the ground and films the entire landing sequence, the look on my face as I take my first post-jump steps on the ground and Frank when he high-fives me. I thanked God that I was on the ground and that I had experienced one of the greatest sensations in life. Crazy but sensational. As I walked, Frank invited me to stay and watch Riza land. He asked me to stand still. I should have known why but did not expect it. Riza and her tandem, David come sailing towards me passing inches over my head and landing almost right in front of me. That alone was another amazing site and sound. The swoosh and swish of the airflow over the white as that happened was like the sound of vortices coming off a big jet aircraft as it lands if you are at the start of the runway - I used to do this with my brother Nick and best friend Nick Drinias. This was the moment to cherish. Smiles ear to ear. Adrenalin that just kept us standing, talking and cheering. It was hard to settle down. As we were the last jumpers, the tandems invited us for a few beers.
What a scene. The five of us with three tandems, two camera men and two learners sitting on plastic chairs in the afternoon sun, sinking beers and sharing our experiences and learning all about the industry. This is another “cult following”. Jumpers are people with passion and devotion from all over the world coming together, like a global family, to share a craze that few will ever experience and understand. Would I do it again? Part of me says “no” because the risk is till there and to preserve that “first feeling” of that “first drop”. Part of me says “yes” if I do it with a friend so I can see the look on their face and hear their account of the jump afterwards. Right now I am just glad I did it and it ranks as the second highlight of the trip so far just a bacterial length behind Sir Victor only because the former was “organised" but the latter was "sheer luck" and a very African experience for me. On our way back to town with the entire crew (they closed shop for the day as it was after 5:30pm) I could not help feeling “how do I top this?” Lion chasing me? Swimming with sharks? Time would only tell! That night we celebrated our day with Yuki and Roberto at the “Fish Deli”, a very famous seafood restaurant in Swakop. It was Yuki’s last night with us since Riza, Roberto and I would start our solo trip tomorrow and Yuki would bus it to Windhoek to fly to Cape Town to visit a friend there before flying back to Japan to finish his last year of a three year tourism degree. It was a sad moment but that is travel. You meet so many people, that logistically, you cannot stay in touch with. Slept early that night since my ribs were quite sore from today’s adventure and I had a lot of driving to do tomorrow on another solo adventure to Etosha!
DAY 143 of 273, Sun 3APR16, 799km, (Solo 5) Hotel “Swakopmund Rest Camp (Municipal Bungalows)” Swakopmund to Camp “Okaukuejo Resort”, Okaukuejo Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) NAMIBIA. What an exciting day. Roberto, Doug and myself were up at 5:30am to be collected by our air-conditioned minivan shuttle directly from our hotel to the car hire place in Windhoek, the capital. Solo 5 to Etosha started officially at 6:30am. A fast drive past more white/beige sandy/rocky desert until our first stop in Usakos. From here the terrain became greener and hillier but still looked like outback Australia with scrubs, low bush and large rocky hills.
We started to ascend reaching 1650m and this took us into our second stop at Okahandja. Both stops were made at very well-equipped, modern petrol stations with a mini supermarket, ATM, clean toilets and espresso machine coffee - very impressive. It was not long until Windhoek emerged - a very green and hilly city with well-kept modern buildings, monuments and shops. Once again this could have been a city in any first world country. I looked forward to coming back here to visit the city on 7 April. We were dropped off at our car hire place at around 11:30am where we met Phillipe. He presented us with a near new Toyota Hilux Dual Cab 2.5L 4 Cycliner Bi-Turbo Diesel 4WD complete with all the camping trimmings. Two tents on top of the car, accessible by ladder and huge complete with pillows, sheets. blankets and even towels. At the back a big 40L fridge on its own battery and cold along with a gas BBQ, foldout chairs and tables and all cooking gear and utensils including a kettle! Add dual fuel tanks and jerry can and we were all set for a truly independent journey!
Phillipe was kind enough to take his car and have us follow him to the nearest supermarket so we could stock up on food and drink. A huge shopping centre just like home with a “Pick and Pay” megastore. We stocked up on plenty of fresh beef and lamb. There was wine but it could not be sold on a Sunday - thank goodness I had brought tons of my own, now sitting in our fridge cooling down. Plenty of cheap cheese, milk and olives as well. The food bill for the three of us over three days was a terrific $AUD40 each. Things are cheap in NAMIBIA. We farewelled Phillipe and not once did he ask for a handout - what a great guy. Our drive to Etosha began at 1:30pm. The opening scenery was terrific. Open plains with red dirt and scrub with distant cone shaped mountains - very much like new Mexico USA or parts of Australia. Fluffy clouds overhead stretching way into the horizon completed the picture.
The road was great and the speed limit was 120km/h - I did 130km/h to win us some time since we needed to be at the park gates at 7pm (sunset) and we were running behind by my quick calculation. Given this we decided to gun it for Outjo, approx 300km away and only 100km from Etosha’s Andersson Gate. AT one stage of our trip distant storm clouds gathered with lightning and together with the landscape reminded me of the “back of Bourke” back in Australia - I remember the same scene around 2001 when my cousin Paris visited from California. At Outjo we finally found some game meat - 3kg of Oryx - fantastic - we had this meat on the truck and it was so tender you could eat it raw! Roberto and Doug took almost 50min finding the Oryx and getting cut so I was now in panic about making the gates by sun down. I drove 140km/h for the next 2hrs and made it to Andersson gate at 6:02pm even though it was usually dark. To our horror the gate was shut! Of course! The clocks had gone back one hour just the day before so sunset was now at 6pm instead of 7pm when we were last here on the truck! We called out to the uniformed woman behind the gate and I simply begged her to let us in - for the sake of 2 minutes and a firm booking. She did it. We were in and on our way to the Okaukuejo Resort just 17km away.
The gate to the resort was also closed but they let us in given that the Andersson gate had let us in. We checked in and headed to our camp site, now well under darkness. Out came our head torches and we managed to pop up our roof-top tents and unpack our cooking gear in good time. We were starving so we gathered wood and cooked up plenty of BBQ Oryx together with BBQ eggplant and a medley of fresh capsicum salad! Even hot rice! Gourmet stuff. The night sky was clear and the sounds of Hyenas all around us - it was magic. A pack of Jackals entered the campsite and made of with one of our plastic bags before we cooked - they would be very disappointed with their catch of coffee, mixed herbs and olive oil! It was a magic night but we were exhausted from the drive. We decided to shower and call it quits so we could rise at 5am and head out on our first solo safari at sunrise at 6am.
DAY 144 of 273, Mon 4APR16, 274km, (Solo 5) Facilities Camp “Okaukuejo Resort” to Facilities Camp “Halali Resort” Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) NAMIBIA (Run5). It was a good night’s sleep but tough to wake up at 5am given it was dark and we were tired. Slept until 5:30am when first light emerged. The place was packed - full of campers. Managed to get out of the resort gate at 6:15am. Not bad. Our morning safari took us to the following water holes: Nebrowni, Ondongab, Homob, Sueda, Salvadora, Charitsaub, Riefontein, Hello, Goas, Noniams, Batia and Springbokfontein. Just after our very first water hole of Nebrowni around 6:45am we struck gold! Not the yellow stuff but better - lions! Nine of them walking parallel to the road around 10 away in a single file in pairs with the male at the back. One male and the rest females. Lucky guy. They then moved to the side of the road and on it! So close. Our camera’s overheated! They were big cats. The male was very scary. They seemed used to people. Several cars and two overland trucks parked right beside them along with us and they seem very calm. Many just sat on the ground next to the vehicles including ours. The pride then congregated around a drain that run under the road. Some of the females crawled inside and the male sat behind a bush just in front. We were so happy - 30min into our solo Etosha and we saw 9 lions! We also saw a huge Hyena close to this spot and lots of Jackals.
Apparently Jackals always follow the Lions trying to get a free feed on the leftover carcass. Lions are not known to eat everything unless they are starving. From here onwards we saw many Zebras, Giraffes, Gazelles, Wildebeests, Ostriches and Springboks. New animals included the Camelion, Lilac-breasted Sted Roller and wait for it - Cheetah! Yes, we could not believe our eyes around 9km west of Namutoni. A lone Cheetah sitting under a tree. Cheetahs mostly travel and hunt solo - not in packs like Lions. This is because they can only catch and eat smaller prey than Lions and so what they catch is usually only enough for one. As we pulled into Namutoni Resort for lunch and a swim we celebrated our incredible two-cat success in what was our first half day out of two and a half days in Etosha! Whilst Roberto and Doug lunched and rested,
I drove the car to the “Von Lindquist Gate”, 10km further east of Namutoni so that I could go for a run. Cannot run inside the park for obvious reasons. It was a tough run - 35C but dry - wonderful semi-desert scenery and all alone. I drove back to Namutoni to pick up Roberto and Doug and start our afternoon safari at 4pm. We visited the water holes of: Chudop, Batia, Goas, Salvadora. No new animals on this leg, just a repeat of many of the animals we had already seen. The only difference is that I was now getting out of the car to have Roberto photograph and film me WITH the animals.
This was the main reason for this solo trip. The other main reason was to see more lions and at least one Cheetah and Leopard. Anyone can download the image of a lone animal. Even your own phot of a lone animal gets boring after a while unless the subject is doing something out of the ordinary like killing another animal or yawning or playing games. But to have YOURSELF in the photo is hilarious and fun taking it! That is what I wanted and it was NEVER going to be possible in a truck with 20 other people! We had a hilarious time watching out for other cars and even the big cats as I left the car and ran out into the wild!!! It was a risk but a calculated one and very low at that since most of the cats were well-fed since the rainy season was a good one (we were told). We arrived at our second overnight camp of Halali Resort just before the gate closed at sunset - 5:50pm and checked in. The good news was that this place was empty. Could camp anywhere we wanted. We picked a place close to the water hole entrance and near scrub for wood. We set up our tents and wood whilst it was still light. Given all the driving we decided to shower before cooking. Tonight we had more Oryx but with canned veggies, lentils and chickpeas. Doug surprised us with some beer and it was another great feast under the stars and the howling Hyenas!
DAY 145 of 273, Tue 5APR16, 252km, (Solo 5) Facilities Camp “Halali Resort” Etosha National Park (Elev 1133m) to Facilities Camp “Okaukuejo Resort” (Elev 1163m) NAMIBIA (Run6). I was woken at around 5:45am by the sound of crashing bins. On my way to the toilet I found out why. A lone huge Honey Badger was touring the grounds, pushing over bins, crawling inside and examining their contents! I grabbed my camera and approached. I got close and then looking through the viewfinder I saw the creature suddenly stop, pluck its head out of the bin, turn around and growl at me showing all if its rows of razor sharp teeth - I backed off and retreated. I had heard from Dan how this thing is fearless and will attack Lions and Hyenas if threatened even though it knows it will be killed by them. If a Honey Badger gets its teeth into you it is game over. It possesses “lock-jaw” and it will crush bones and cut deep. Roberto and Doug were both amused by the encounter.
We departed Halali at 6:30am for our morning safari of: Goas, Springbokfontein, Batia, Noniams, Etosha Lookout, Salvadora, Nebrowni. New animals spotted: Horn Bill, Hawk, Secretarybird, Crane, Eagle, Vulture. We visited the Etosha Lookout in order to film several jogging scenes of me outside the car featuring my “Ungowa” and “Bondi” cozzies against the stunning flat white/green landscape of the Etosha Pan. We had tons of fun filing this. Once again by some miracle we saw another male Lion in almost exactly the same location as the none lions yesterday, just after Nebrowni from Okaukuejo. This Lion was very old with glazed eyes and a failing mane.
He looked at us with “cow eyes” and was so close I could see cataracts in its eyes - it was very thin so I am not surprised if it was party blind which explained its thin body. We took the best special effects photos with me and the lion’s mouth. We did not get out of the car but we did hear someone yelling “no no” as I stuck my head of the window. The yelling continued so we finished up and drove to Okaukuejo Resort 10km away for our lunchtime break. As we parked, another blue van with park rangers pulled up next to us and approached us. We were busted. Turns out that the yelling back at the lion was them! They asked us to slow down when driving and not to stick any of our body out of the window. We apologised.
They let us go with no penalty. Phew. I knew it would happen sooner or later but was very unlucky that they happened to pull up right behind us at only our second lion sighting! We would also not see behind us because of the covered tray. Another close shave! But worth it! Those photos! Just look at this blog! Once again I jumped in the car and drove to the Andersson Gate for a run whilst Roberto and Doug lunched and relaxed. I left at around 1pm and was back by 3pm. At 3:30pm we set off for our afternoon safari visiting the west for the first time for all of us: Wolfnes, Ondeka and Leeubron. Fantastic landscape. Super flat with red earth and small green bushes like cotton balls. Blue sky with fluffy clouds but way out on the horizon huge cumulonimbus thunder clouds giving it a feeling of awe. No new animals but Ondeka was full of wild life, lots of typos and many in number. In Ondeka we came across many jackals, vultures and the carcass of a dead zebra and giraffe - this spells “lions”.
There were even trees with bushes around them on the tops of ridges looking down slopes and into the water holes - these are like “lion bunkers” were the lions hide, observe then strike without being seen. We were determined to come back here in the morning in search of our lions. We arrived at our third overnight at Okaukuejo Resort early around 5pm on purpose - we would set up quickly and then go to the water hole for sunset. Great plan. We got to the water hole just as the sun was setting and a Lion was approaching to drink! Fabulous! Another Lion! This one was also an elder male with a shrinking mane and very bony. A rhino was already there.
The Lion drank for some time and hid behind some bushes very close to the hole. As we sipped our cold beers (we had a car fridge - nah nah nah!) we observed countless Zebras, Giraffes and Gazelles lining up for the water hole. It was an amazing scene - all that was missing was Noah’s Ark! It got darker and no one moved! They knew the Lion was close by. Three Zebra’s took the plunge and took many minutes to get to the water’s edge. After a few minutes of drinking safely the other animals approached. Then panic. Once of the Zebras made a run for it and the others followed. Pretty soon all the animals were out of the picture and back to square one. This was a good time to call it quits, shower and prepare dinner. This was a great dinner. We grilled some ore eggplant and BBQed the rest of the Oryx. The best was the BBQ lamb at the end. It was delicious. By 10:30pm we settled down so that we could be up at 5:30am for more Lions… I dreamt of them that night...
DAY 146 of 273, Wed 6APR16, 583km, (Solo 5) Facilities Camp “Okaukuejo Resort” (Elev 1163m) to Hotel Dorm “Cardboard Box” Windhoek (Elev 1624m) NAMIBIA. No problems getting up this time. Well rested and in a routine and looking forward to Okondeka. We were out of the gate at 6:15am and on our way. The morning was cool and the sky clear. The rising golden sun just lit up the broad open plains. Our morning safari took us to: Wolfnes, Okondeka, Leeubron, Natco, Adamax and Grunewald. The minute we got close to Okendeka we spotted a lonesome stationary 4WD pointed towards the a hill. Our heart raced. We then heard a familiar roar! A Lion! We pulled up behind the 4WD and looked where they were looking. Success with a capital “S”! Not only was there a huge younger male Lion sitting there but he was sitting next to a freshly killed Zebra!!! Killed that morning judging from the blood covered Lion and the fresh cuts in the Zebra.
The Lion then began feasting on his kill, burying its huge head right inside the belly of the Zebra! Amazing site. Amazing film! Several Jackals and Vultures approached but each time the Lion would get up and growl at them and they would make themselves scare! Quickly! That is why the Lion is “the king of the jungle”!!! But wait - there is more! We heard a second roar coming from the opposite side. There they were. Two more male Lions feasting on another (second) kill - another Zebra. We did not know where to look and who to photograph and film. Left, right, left right. That problem was solved when the original Lio descended towards us, crossed the road in front of us and joined the other two lions on the other side.
All three lions started to feast on the second kill. Bums in the air, heads inside the Zebra! What a site! Then one of two second sighted Lions pops his head out and walks over to feast on the original kill of the first Lion that we saw. Amazing. These three Lions had hunted together and ate together, sharing their kills. Nature was unfolding in front of us. Lions eat so much at one time that many males must get together to bring down multiple animals to be able to feed themselves and their pack. Cheetah’s on the other hand hunt by themselves, for themselves! We were at Okondeka for ages. Time finally got theatre of us and we moved on so that we could visit some new water holes in the less-often visited west of Etosha National Park. This was beautiful country. A vast ocean of short trees on a flat semi-arid landscape just like a “desert orchard”!
We saw plenty of Vultures and Stalks of different kinds (see lost at the top of this post). We got back to Okaukuejo Resort at 10am and by 10:30am we farewelled Etosha to start our journey back to Windhoek. We also left a little earlier so we could drive past a private ranch called “El Dorado” which was 27km south of the resort or 10km south of the Anderssen Gate. What a place. Run by four generations over the last 85yrs and covering 6,500 acres. They have their own animals and very good camping facilities and rooms for visitors. For only $AUD15 they took us on an hour-long walking safari where we saw two Leopards, three Cheetahs, two Hyenas and two Caracals (smaller cats). Fantastic. We finally saw our Leopard and Caracal which we could not find in Etosha - they are rare and hard to find - you need a lot of time. We then returned to the lodge to make enquiries about staying here when the truck passes through here again on our way up to Cairo. Then my day was made! Avri, the owner then said to me “sure you can shoot game here”, not endangered stuff but anything from the antelope family is fine - Oryx, Elan, Gazelle or Springbok.
I told Avri I would do the hunting on my return with the truck. Roberto and I decided here and now that we would leave the truck and stay here instead - we had seen plenty in Etosha! The truck was due back in Etosha in 2-3 weeks with the new group travelling from Cape Town to Nairobi and then Cairo. Unreal. For only $AUD330 I could hunt and kill one smaller animal for a whole day with a guide and this included skinning and packing the 18kg of meat for our truck! Unreal! Could not wait to tell Andi/Grant. Roberto and I were so excited about this. Finally I had a certain place to fulfil my dream of hunting in Africa and the price was right too!!! We found it hard to leave El Dorado. We set off at 12:30pm and made it to Ouija in good time. This was a fabulous little town with a terrific cafe/restaurant, local arts/crafts shop and several supermarkets.
Very well equipped for tourists. We filled up our car for only $AUD1/L and had a terrific lunch at the "Farmhouse Bakery” which was like an Queensland pub house. The arts/craft shop was unreal. I saw my dream wooden carved thin giraffe standing 2m tall for only $AUD160. This thing cost $AUD3000 in Lagos NIGERIA. If that shop arranged shipping I would have bought it! Our last duty in Ouija was to buy a little more Oryx to have with our rump steak tonight to celebrate our fantastic animal sightings. We had bought our original Oryx here on our way up. The drive from Ouija to Windhoek was non-stop since we knew would be getting there at night because of our stay in El Dorado and Oryx but these were well worth it. The scenery was stunning. Arizona style mountains with huge sunlit storm clouds in the distance. We arrived into Windhoek just on sunset at 6pm and managed to find our hostel very quickly. Good to see everyone again. Andi/grant were especially interested in what we saw and we compared quality and price for all the meats each of us had been eating. Meat is so cheap in NAMIBIA. Rump steak is $AUD7/kg, Lamb is $AUD6/kg and most game meats go for $AUD5/kg.
No wonder the white people of NAMBIA are so big! Roberto and I upgraded to a dorm room since we will receive a credit for our camping fees. Always good to be in a bed. After a quick shower we joined the others and cooked our Oryx and Rump Steak on the same BBQ as the truck. This hostel was very well equipped and very central. WIFI, billiard tables, DVD videos, fully equipped kitchen, an covered outdoor bar and pool. Fabulous. That night we had a ball. Caught up with Riza as she ate her truck dinner of an impressive range of meats including pork and huge beef round steaks. We were offered this food by Andi but opted to cook the rest of our Oryx. Riza was amazed with what we saw at Etosha and told us about her plans to fly to Johannesburg the following morning in order to visit Lesoto and Swaziland - a country count, no doubt. We would next see her with Robert in Cape Town on the 16th.
Roberto and I cooked up the rest of our Oryx and it was delicious. Then the fun started. For the first time in a long time I sat with Andi and Grant and Jacob and shouted beers. We talked about the countries we had visited and how progressed they all were since Andi and Grant drove a “Trans-Africa” five years ago. We compared meat prices in NAMIBIA like it was a competition! Let me tell you, Andi won! $AUD2/kg for beef steak is incredible. Grant also asked about our 4WD and was amazed at how cheap it was ($AUD150/day) - he was keen to inspect it the next morning. I also announced my plan to shoot game and bring 18kg of meat back to the truck! Jacob loved the sound of that and announced his interest. I told him I would keep him in the loop - El Dorado, on our return to Etosha. Andi/grant were now aware of the next solo! This night was very memorable and enjoyable. I felt welcomed back and looked forward to my visit of Windhoek the next day and sojourn south towards the South African border… We had driven a total of 688km inside the Etosha National Park itself.
DAY 147 of 273, Thu 7APR16, 0km, Hotel Dorm “Cardboard Box” Windhoek (Elev 1624m) NAMIBIA (Run7). A sleep-in today by comparison to Etosha - 6am! Had to get up to fit in a run and transfer of gear from car to truck. The run was good not great. I had a mozzie bite on the top of my right heal which was aggravated by the run. Don’t know where it came from but it would not easily heal. Not sore but noticeable. As a result the run was slow but sure. Windhoek gets very busy very early. Cars galore. It is like Canberra, nested between surrounding mountains, quite high up and very dry. At 9am Roberto and I were driving out of our compound headed to the Brazilian Embassy so that Roberto could get a new passport - he was running out of pages! Topped up the car, dropped Roberto off and returned the car.
I met the owner of the car hire business and he explained to me that NAMIBIA has been in drought for some time. This was obvious in Etosha and the fact that it did not rain while we there at the end of the “wet season” - what wet season? Philipe, the champ, dropped me off in the centre of town at the Old National Museum which looks likes an old English Fort and the oldest building in town. Next to it is the amazing “Independence Memorial Museum” a giant golden steel monolith towering high above the city and showcasing over three levels the entire struggle for independence. From the early days of SWAPO (the political party that Sam Nujoma started - first President of NAMIBIA) to the modern day cabinet and Prime Minister and Chief system. Elections are free and stable since the first President handed over to only the second since 1990! The first is still alive - 87yrs old and there are enough monuments of him around town to suggest that he dies a long time ago…
The "Owela National Museum" was next and comprehensive. Features the key peoples and wildlife of NAMIBIA under one roof - more like a Cultural and Natural Museum under one roof. A tribe of 5-6yr olds and Uni students visited inside and this confirmed for me the importance of this place - all free - a proud peoples with a story to tell. I was now done with the “official” sites of my “tourist agenda” and headed onto the main street of shops, cafes and malls. This is a thoroughly modern city with all the conveniences of malls, coffee shops and restaurants. The city even had a syringe so I could pump warm water into my ear to remove the countless runs and sleeps of blu-tac stuck in there and causing me to go partly deaf in one ear!!!
I parked myself in the “Zoo Park” Cafe and emailed while watching the day’s office workers eat their lunch under the shady trees - there is no zoo there - just trees! I then walked through the “Post Street Mall” and two other malls which are very popular in this city. Could not get over how clean and organised things were. I looked down my watch and it was only 1:30pm and my map showed a huge shopping centre with cinemas - decision made. I bought a tai there of for only $AUD1 and watched “Risen”, a strange film centred around the resurrection of Christ as witnessed by a Roman Tribune who actually witnessed Christ’s death and organised the guard around His Tomb. He then stumbled upon the Upper Room of the Disciples when St Thomas visited and saw Christ alive. He then followed the disciples to Galilee and witnessed more appearances and the Ascension into Heaven. I was the only one in the cinema ($AUD5.50).
After the film I took a taxi back to the hotel and he spoke the classic Nam dialect with “clicking” sounds like the Kalahari Bushman in the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. Once at the hotel it started to rain lightly and for a few minutes - passing rain cloud - perfect for this blog and photos. Tonight was our last night in Windhoek before another two days of bush camps so I decided to celebrate and thank Roberto for his expert guidance. I shouted him dinner at the famous “Joe’s Beerhouse” which is 2km out of town. It is positively huge and an institution. Seats 600 people in a huge covered outdoor area complete with wooden tables, thatched roofing and plenty of jungle style plants. What it is famous for is its game dishes: Zebra, Oryx, Kudu steaks along with marinated strips of crocodile and ostrich. I ordered their signature dish: a huge 1.4kg leg of Kudu, slow cooked in wine.
Roberto ordered the “mixed grill” of all the game meats. We shared. The Kudu just fell off the bone like Osso Buko and tasted very much like lean lamb. The zebra steak was delicious, lean but still very tasty and tender. No aromas, no strange flavours - just like having a high quality beef or lamb. We also sank two bottles of “Gracias”, a Portuguese dry white grape grown in SOUTH AFRICA. All this for $AUD53. It was a great night of recapping our solo Etosha adventure and making plans to shoot at El Dorado on our way back. A great way to finish the day.
DAY 148 of 273, Fri 8APR16, 208km, Hotel Dorm “Cardboard Box” Windhoek (Elev 1624m, Run8) to Bush Camp 11km south of Bullsport (Elev 1491m) NAMIBIA. Slept-in until 7:45am since checkout was at 10am. Ran to airport under a cloudy sky and cool conditions. My insect bite was getting worse. A big black scab had formed but was not healing.
Kept going since the shoe was not rubbing against it - just the sock and that was bearable. Checked out just in time and settled down to a coffee and blog until the truck’s departure at 1pm. The drive south continued the semi-desert themes we had seen heading north to Etosha. We had a short break at Rietrag and then headed inland off the main road onto first roads. This was some of the remotest territory we had seen. Very few villages and usually a few farm houses located together with a local school and grocery store. Today we passed the Tropic of Capricorn a few kilometres south of Retrog but there was no sign since we left the main bitumen road running south of Windhoek to a gravel road over which the Tropic would have passed - no one is going to put up signs on secondary roads. No worries. We would hopefully use a main road in NAMIBIA on our way back up to Cairo. It was still very dry and dusty as we stuck to roughly 1500m above sea level. We saw some baboons on some cliff tops next to us but after that the odd cow and goat.
We arrived at our camp site at 5pm. Roberto, Doug and I were cooking dinner tonight (and brekkie tomorrow). We were lucky to skip lunch today. Dinner turned out well. Sweet & sour chicken with veggies and rice. Lots of very tender chicken breast. I opted for an early sleep given that I wanted to rise at 5:30am to light the brekkie fire...
DAY 149 of 273, Sat 9APR16, 449km, Bush Camp 11km south of Bullsport (Elev 1491m) to Bush Camp 38km south east of Witputz (Elev 1200m) NAMIBIA. Lovely cool morning with plenty of light from the yet-to-rise sun to light a fire. We got off to an early start today at 7:15am. The scenery got drier and redder - just like Australia’s top end. Many of us had jackets to fend of the morning cool but the day quickly warmed up. Clear blue skies and distant ridges as far as the eye could see. We made a brief stop at a very small village called Maltahohe, very reminiscent of Australian outback towns. It had a great supermarket with a large range of items including wine and ice cream! I spotted a farmer stocking up and would not be surprised if there was a mine near by judging from the size of the supermarket. Roberto and I found an old cafe with antiques and walls full of tourist signatures and we made our own instant coffee from a central table.
It was rustic and charming and the coffee also hit the spot! It was then that I noticed that the black scab on my heal now had a puss bag forming below it and that my whole heel was swollen and red. Shit. It was infected! I consulted Lucy (32yr old Ambulance medic from England) on what action I should take and she advised on removing the scab and puss, cleaning the wound and applying Savlon cream or Betadyne and taking a particular antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. I would do all of this tonight. Our journey continued deep into the south west of the country traversing a vast semi-desert plain bound by red ridges. I say “semi-desert” because there were cattle stations along the way with strangely designed wind mills so there was obviously enough grazing shrub and water for a descent cattle industry - this would also explain why beef was so plentiful and cheap in this country. It was hot but now very dry having fallen below the Tropic of Capricorn and still at elevations around 1500m.
I spent most of yesterday and all day today culling my photos, especially the wildlife of Etosha and manages to brig the numbers down from around 1000 to 400. This post would be the most work to date. The after lunch landscape was now looking less like Australia and more like the desert east of Patagonia in Chile / Argentina. Vast open flat plains of orange cut hardly any vegetation bound by walls of sandstone ridges looking like they had been lifted from the Grand Canyon in the USA. My heel was now very sore. The swelling and puss had increased. I was looking forward to treating it. Around 3pm we made quite a strange stop. We visited the Soldatenfriedhof War Grave Cemetery outside the town of “Aus”. It was a small place with approx 120 graves of German, South African and British soldiers from the end of WWI. There was a WWI German prisoner-of-war camp located at the airstrip of Aus.
At the end of WWI there was a worldwide influenza epidemic that swept through this area. The soldiers in this War Grave are victims of the flu from the prison camp. The late afternoon scenery became very desolate but striking with its cliffs and orange/red colours. We got stuck trying to get the truck onto an off-road camp site - I felt bad that I could not help but that heel could not go anywhere near all that dust and it was painful to walk. We got unstuck fairly quickly and found a camp very soon after a short drive. It was not such a great spot but the temperature was very comfortable and a nice breeze was blowing. I went into heel action straight away. Alex gave me his antibiotic, having used it before and because he was leaving in Cape Town. I soaked my foot in warm water (dinner kettle plus jerry can water) with liquid Savlon in it until the scab became soft. I then burnt one of big safety pins with Dan’s lighter and dug in! Burst the puss bag and removed the scab - painful but quick thanks to the hot water and some wine that I had on the side! Applied the Betadyne and wrapped it up. Put on a sock and my runners. I was relieved but had the shits because I could not run tomorrow. It was painful walking around so I decided to take my drugs and hit the sack after dinner.
DAY 150 of 273, Sun 10APR16, 191km, Bush Camp 38km south east of Witputz (Elev 1200m) to Facilities Camp “Felix Units” 10km west of Noordoewer (Elev 215m). NAMIBIA. The drugs did the trick. I had one of the best sleeps on the trip overnight. Think the study, cool wind blowing all night also helped. The air was also very dry. The stars and milky way were unbelievable. Jupiter and Mars was out and the all-too familiar Southern Cross and Pointers always made me pine for home! Another 7:30am departure so we could make the Orange River on the South African border with enough time for river kayaking this afternoon.
I planned to take a break to recover my heel and hopefully finish this blog post. Our morning drive was interesting and then striking. “Interesting” because we passed through two isolated mining towns nestled amongst bare ship-edged cliffs and ridges. Diamonds and copper are the staple here with most of the bottom of coastal NAMIBIA restored from the public! Very modern towns with almost-new houses (brick render with tiles), new roads and well-stocked supermarkets. We stopped in one of them, Rosh Pinah for cook shop. I decided do ruck guard as I was half-way through downloading my pictures. “
Striking” because about 30min beyond Rosh Pinah emerged an incredible panorama of the Orange River border and its green edges winding its way through bare-backed canyons of rock much like the top of the Atlas ranges in MOROCCO! What a scene. We drove along the edges of the river surrounded by ridges and mountains. On one side NAMIBIA and the other SOUTH AFRICA! We had made it! A warm feeling came over me like home was just across the river. I always saw Cape Town as an important milestone. We drove almost 100km along the Orange River with this terrific scenery and came across several irrigated fields which contrasted sharply with the bare rocky ridges on either side. Mostly table grapes are grown here. Strange but it must be sunny most of the year. We arrived at our camp facility at noon. This place is made for overland. Positioned on the river with lawn areas for tents and very good toilets and showers.
Two other overland trucks were here (one was Intrepid). I skipped lunch so I could get into finishing this blog post. But not before a cool shower and heel re-bandage. It was still inflamed and raw but the pain was less. Started my post by the pool bar where there was coffee. Later I moved to an air-conditioned computer room. The internet was off but the place was nice and cool. Blogged all afternoon and into the evening since I had a mountain of pictures to cull and enhance. Choosing the best animal photos was not so hard since not many had me in them! I was relieved to finally finish the blog but could not post it today since the internet was down. Would have to do this in SOUTH AFRICA. It was 10:30pm and I was too tired to continue, especially with my sore heel so I slept in my sleeping bag inside the air-conditioned office - great idea! I dreamt of entering SOUTH AFRICA the next day and a triumphant arrival into Cape Town this week...
PS: A LITTLE ABOUT NAMIBIA:
NAMIBIA (Pop 2.2m) is a huge country with a tiny population! It is the 34th largest country in the world with only 2 people per square kilometre! The Tropic of Capricorn also passes through the middle of NAMIBIA. This country was first inhabited by the “Gokomere” culture around 300-400AD. By the 16th Century three more major ethnic groups had also settled in the area and the “Herero” dominated. NAMIBIA has a desert coastline along the Atlantic so it was unattractive to most European navigators - only the Portuguese erected crosses along the coast in the late 1400’s as markers towards the Indian Ocean. In 1884 it became a German protectorate with forced labour causing several rebellions until 1915 when the German forces in the country surrendered to the victorious South Africans in WWI.
There was a lot of conflict in “SOUTH WEST AFRICA" during the South African reign until the UN stepped in to negotiate independence in 1990 - late compared to other colonies. Diamonds and Uranium were discovered which boosted the economy and it broke even in 2007. Add huge offshore oil deposits and that’s why the country is so “western looking” and progressive.
Unfortunately the 11 major ethnic groups in NAMIBIA are still not cohesive and there is a lot pf racism and internal conflict. There is also a huge divide between rich and poor with most people still living traditional village lives, each with its own Chief and a Council of Chiefs that advises the government, much like in GHANA. NAMIBIA is a treasure trove of wildlife and extreme landscapes. I
t has every wild African animal with spectacular deserts, canyons, surf beaches and sand dunes. Sadly AIDS was the no 1 killer in NAMIBIA in 1996. Oddly, NAMIBIA does not have its own or music and traditional food is very plain - a paste of millet and water dipped in veggie or meat stew. English is the main language but some German and Afrikans is also spoken.
NAMIBIA is also home to the “Himba” (Pop 50,000), a traditional people whose women cover their hair and bodies with a striking looking mixture of ochre, butter and bush herbs to protect themselves from the sun and insects and to avoid bathing in water given the desert conditions of their home. Politically, NAMIBIA is now considered stable but the economy is struggling with 60% unemployment and 7% inflation.
PPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:
20% of the African population believes in traditional indigenous faiths, all of which believe in a supreme “creator” but believe that objects such as trees, caves, certain musical instruments can be endowed with spiritual powers that heal or bring good fortune.
I'm jealous. If I was with you, I would be sitting ontop of the truck with my rifle
ReplyDeleteIs there any excitement left on this earth for you?? One of my bucket list items is bring ticked off in Japan shortly, a game of golf in Kobe🏌🍾😀. A friend who plays golf and bridge here in Sanctuary Cove
ReplyDeleteSorry got cut off. Friend who plays golf and bridge here also lives in Kobe and has arranged it. Maureen
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