Namibia Travel Log
15-Mar
The Ides of March! We got the Truck! Took us some time to get the tutorial and hand off and it wasn't until 1:30ish before we were heading out of Cape Town. Double cab, Diesel, Stick shift, Camping transformer. Fantastic! Ate at a 'Steers' fast food joint on the way up. Like a Hardees.. meh. Then hit the grocery store and got some basics. Made our way to the campsite which was about a half hour on a gravel road off of N7. Gorgeous setting. Set up camp to a rousing success and crashed for the night.
16-Mar
Got up and got on our way to... not sure where as my earlier inquiries into a couple campsites were already full. But thinking we should head up towards Springbok (about 5 hour drive) and we’ll find a place on the road. 1 hour or so into it and we got a call from Amos (the truck guy)—I had forgotten my passport at the office. Ughh! He said to just carry on and he would meet us where ever we were before the border. Too kind! We decided to turn back to Clanwilliam and hit a sportsgood store for matches, flashlights, etc and make our plan. We found a farm campsite not too far off north from where we were in order to stay closer to Amos and get the passport handoff. We arrived at the farm and Dion(Farmer's name) and his son Gideon greeted us. Very friendly and nice place. Goats were there and Dion brought over a bucket of raisins. Gideon and Ari and I played catch while Dion chatted with Katie. Oh, Amos came and did the passport hand off (!) and when we returned to the camp we found we had a flat tire. Grrrrrr. Add a to-do for the morning. Dion took us for a tour around the farm and grabbed us some sweet potatoes. We cooked some sausages on the braai. Turned out great! The night of sleep was not too shabby.
17-Mar
Woke up and changed the flat. Feeling pretty good as we jumped back on the road and heading towards the border! Stopped in Springbok and had some pizza before getting to the border. We got to the Namibia border crossing and we were scolded a bit for not following the proper order of offices to get things checked, fees paid, and papers signed—One could also say, the border crossing could have clearer instructions on how to proceed..
Namibia!! Not too much farther to our next campsite on the Oranje River at Amanzi trails. Very lovely campsite on the river. BTW, Tafel Radler taste like the best beer ever when weather tops 100. Which it looks like it will for the next week. Then the mosquitos came out. So, we ran to our tents for the night. It was miserably hot and mosquitos were frequent visitors as we tried to sleep…
18-Mar
I only got 1 hour of sleep for the night, Katie might have gotten the same... could be a long day... Found there was a gap in the tent which must have worked as a 1 way highway for the mosquitos to get in. Got up and hit the road. Was previously thinking of canoeing, but because of the shitty night of sleep... was more wanting to make tracks as we were going to hit the Fish River Canyon. We made it to Ai Ais and had some lunch. Because the cold water pool was closed, it made our decision of not camping here feel even better. Did I mention it was going to get to 110 today? Carried onto Hobas and entry to Fish River Canyon. Incredible views of the canyon, only to return to our truck to find ANOTHER flat tire... Hmmm... user error? Good thing this truck came with 2 spare tires! We changed that one and hit the road. 16 km's away was the Canyon Road House which we got the flats fixed. Was told we had the tires too inflated. Keep to 1.8 bar. Actually 1.9 since we were a heavy load. (Bar is yet another metric measurement I am unfamiliar with as an American instead of PSI… maybe that’s what I should look into. Make America Metric.) When I asked how many tires did they fix a day from dumb tourists, they replied: about 4. There was a funny poster in the mens bathroom there where it was a nude woman with a 'pandora's box' on her vagina. Upon me opening it, a loud buzzer went off in the restaurant and the wait staff thought it was pretty funny :D. The boys response was even funnier when I told them about it! Once Katie and the boys had some food and the tires were patched we hit the road and carried onto our planned 2 night stop which is a farm with a pool. Apparently the strudel is world famous.
19-Mar
The funky farm campground is ran by an older couple Wally and Maisie (Pronounced Macey). The strudel was indeed a hit. As was the pool, especially as it was still 110. Hand washed some clothes and they dried on the lines quicker than a dryer. It turned out being a pretty good day to stay in one place and catch our breath a little. While we were catching up on journaling, Wally and a foursome that came through from South Africa (1 guy was from Holland originally) visited with us. They were talking about how S.A. was going to shit with education, job opportunities and corruption in politics. (we have been hearing that from more and more local people vs. our experience in Cape Town). It was interesting to chat. They also brought up how we should really do the boat ride on the Nile between Luxor and Aswan when visiting Egypt— Food for thought.
20-Mar
Woke up early, caught the sunrise, packed up and than had our last strudel at the farm before we left. Visited with Wally and mostly Maisie with our coffee and struddle. She was a delightful crumudgeon. She was incredulous about us going to India and asked the kids about Dehli. She laughed loudly when both boys responded 'Crap'. She told us of someone that came thru that told her about a Rat palace and they treated the rats reverently... thought they were crazy. Really enjoyed just visiting with her for an hour before we departed. Onward to Luderitz (the coast) today and then we plan to camp at Aus for the night. It was the first booking I had made on this trip. The deflated tires seem pretty good out of the shoot! No flats on this day. We make pretty good time and make it there in less than 4 hours in time to have lunch at the Portuguese Fisherman (recommended by Maisie). It was good... for fish. We then went to Shark's point for a little rocky point climbing for the boys and a view. Still need to read a little more about the history here... not good is my understanding. We then went back to Aus to our campground for the night. The place had a nice lounge with meh wifi but a good hike from our campsite and we decided we didn't really want to hike back. So, just hung out there for an hour or so before retiring to our campsite for the night.
21-Mar
Woke up and hit the road. We were going on the scenic (again a Wally recomendation) N707 (? - left road on way up) up towards Sesriem. We didn't have a destination... only close to Soussvlai for tomorrow to visit. There weren't any campsites showing up vacancies when we had internet. I assumed incorrectly that we would get some data connection along the way and be able to book as we got closer. We saw some oryx, springbokkes, ostriches and zebras along the way. And then we arrived at Sesriem and stopped for some fuel and refreshments including some ice cream for the boys. During that time, I ran and checked if the campsite inside the park had any vacancy and YES they did. Got us checked in and grabbed the family to bring them back. This site had a cool lounge where we had some beer shandy (lemondade and beer)... fantastic on these hot days. Helped a big tour van get unstuck in the sand with our rugged 4x4 and tow rope! Ate dinner at the lounge and setup the tents for an early night and morning. We were waking up at 5 to get going in the morning for the sunrise in the park!
22-Mar
Woke up and rocked the transformer from tents to truck and got to the gate by 5.55! Gate opens at 6, so we were lined up. When they opened the gate it was like dropping the flag at a car race... we all took off to get towards the sights! We didn't want to pass too many cars, but stay within site of the leader as we weren’t very confident of where we were going. The lead trucks got us to the transition from road to sand and charged on. We continued to follow the and ended up at Deadvlai. We jumped out and started walking along the desert path— Katie and the boys headed up the dune, while I headed for Deadvlai trees. Leo switched gears half way up and joined me. It really is incredible. A couple oryx ran out and one came within a few meters of Leo! I captured it on video. We than headed out of the park and relished in our great morning as we decided to head towards the coast. The data e-sim we bought is proving pretty worthless in Namibia. We are really only getting connection when we find Wifi at campsites or restaurants. No campsites planned yet for the evening. We went to Walvis Bay and had lunch at a restaurant in a shopping mall with wifi and looked for another campsite. Nothing available online. Looks like we need to head up to Swakopmund and cross our fingers. Just a half hour up the road and we roll up to a coffeeshop where they are just soft opening, but welcome us for a cup of coffee and wifi. Not finding much online.. so we decided we should just go to a nearby site and check. They have a spot and wifi right at the site! But only 1 night available and we still want to stick around for another day as we are beat. So we find a hostel for tomorrow: Skeleton Backpackers. We go to bed with at least a plan to go back to coffee shop for breakfast and hang out for the window of time between the campground and when we can get into hostel.
23-Mar
Wake up and head back to our new favorite coffeeshop of all time: Chantilly’s Coffee Bar. The breakfast rocks and the kids double up on the shakes from the night before. We probably overstay our welcome over the next 3-4 hours... but we loved and needed it. Kids got school in. We head our way to Skeleton Backpackers. Great little place for us close to the coast. Katie and I decide we should stay here 1 more day. I go and get us pizza later for dinner and Katie and I relax.. oh and I've got diarrhea.
24-Mar
1 more day here at Skeleton Backpackers. Kids can get another day of school. We can get a timberwolves game in. Katie and I go grocery shopping for upcoming Etosha trip! We get a bunch of rations. (not including beer and wine because we get denied on Sunday). Katie and I hit a food shack on the coast after that and the highly rated one is sold out, so we get icre cream waffles as the pics make them look incredible! Meh... it's still ice cream and waffles, but could be better. Than we go back and go to a restaurant with the boys later for burgers and calamari. Back and get ready for bed. Still got diarhea and Ari has also joined in the fun.
25-Mar
Hit the road up towards Skeleton Coast. We see a ship wreck from 2008. Seal skeleton and Whale bones. Pretty cool. Than continue up and get to Cape Cross. Where we plan on seeing some seals-- Holy Shit! SO MANY SEALS! The smell, the fur, the sounds. There are seals everywhere! Thousands-- in the waves, on the shore, up the beach, sunning, running, itching, barking. Wow. Did I mention the smell? We eat lunch at the accompanying lodge. It's fine. I still have diarhea and my butt hurts. We hit the road and plan on wild camping tonight. We go further up the coast, and thru Skeleton coast national park. There are places where sand blowing over the road reminds me of a blizzard where you can't see the road and just white in front of you. This is the same just sand instead of snow. We turn inward and exit the park. It gets clearer and we start looking for some place to wild camp. We pull off the road at one place based on review from iOverlander but don't find exactly what we are looking for. We carry on. About another half hour later we find an office for a campsite, but it's empty. Ari needs to use the toilet pretty badly so I lift him over the wall so he can use the toilet. Whew.. we see a wild camping further south and shoot for it. It ends up looking great and we put up camp. Get some pancakes cooking and the family is able to eat. Then while in the middle of eating, we have a truck coming towards us. Multiple people jump out and approach us to let us know it's private land and unsafe for us to camp there. So, they 'help' us pack back up and go back to the campsite where the office was empty earlier. It's a nice site and we meet Ferdinand with the walkie talkie. We finish our pancakes and I visit the bathroom only to find a good amount of blood in my underwear.. this diarhea has turned into a hemroid?? I'm just glad we made it to an actual toilet at this point instead of being out and wild camping.
26-Mar
Wake up at 6 and have a great night sleep since 11. Need to use the toilet and check I didn't bleed everywhere again. Whew.. at least that's improved. Warm up the left over pancakes and hit the road. About 2.5 hours later we have reached just outside Etosha! We will be here for the next 3 nights and and looks like this place will work out great for us! The gas station has a little grocery store inside and the pool is great! The site is nice with a shanty and electricity. Wifi near the reception, but it works great! It think we will like this just fine! Oh, my bloody ass seems to be healing as well! Caught up on my journaling until now! WHEW! And really excited about getting into the park tomorrow.
27-Mar
We hear lions roaring during the night into the early morning! So incredible! Wake up and get going to the Park.
Etosha Park Day 1: Springboks, Oryxs, Elephants!! (48ish?), Giraffes, Ostriches, Wildebeests, Zebras. Wow! I love this. Driving around the park, looking for wildlife around the assorted water holes and everywhere in between. Back to campsite and heavy(!) storm forces us to go to bed. I’m only putting a few of our pics here. If you want to see all the Etosha pics, check it out here.
28-Mar
Woke up after bad night of sleep. Katie and I got wet and mosquitos got in... found out there was a rip... tried tape… will see if it works tonight.
Etosha Park Day 2: Jackal, Hyena (eating giraffe neck!!), Rhino and her little one (who we almost hit in truck!), Oryx, ostrich, giraffe, springbok, Urdo, Elephants. No lions.
29-Mar
Woke up earlier and hit the sunrise.. want to see a lion after continually hearing one (or more) each night. We are now planning on extending Etosha and checking if there are sites available inside the park. We can and we are off!
Etosha Park Day 3: We basically parked our truck around the Gemsbokvlakte and staked out for the morning into early afternoon. We saw herds of Springboks, Urdus, Giraffes, ostriches come fill up on water. But still no lions. We then headed to our Okaukuejo campsite and swimming at the pool before heading to the water hole there. I got some great sunsetting pics with Giraffes! And a rhino did come just as the night had come down!
30-Mar
Woke up to rain rain everywhere. Basically ended up just hanging out the morning and into lunch at the pool side breakfast area playing yahtzee. Went and sat by the water hall in the early evening to catch the sunset. It was nice to have an excuse to have a chill day even though it meant 1 less day for us to see a lion. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!
31-Mar
Easter Sunday and on our last full planned day in Etosha, we finally see a lion! We get to spend about a half hour catching glimpses of a lion and lioness sauntering about. Taking it really up to the end made it feel like such a successful conquest! What an incredible experience being at this park for the past 5 days!
1-Apr
Drove out of Etosha park and headed down to Windhook. We will spend the next 2 days there in a hostel before flying out of Namibia. What a trip. I loved it. For another perspective, see Katie’s.
