Keir and Robyn

Namibia!

[June 2019] Namibia has been on our shortlist for a long time.  Until now, we’ve been deterred by the time and expense of getting there and finding enough time to do it justice once we are there.  This summer, we found 23 days to visit and had a great time.  It’s a beautiful country with tons to do and it’s cheap, easy and safe to boot – a no brainer!

Contrary to our normal traveling habits, we organized a set trip through ‘The Cardboard Box’, which I highly recommend.  They organized a Hilux with all the camping gear, negotiated an itinerary with us and made hotel/camping reservations for us.  It worked out to about $150 a day for the car, camping equipment and accommodation, which I think is an incredible deal!

There was so much to do in Namibia that almost every day we had an experience that we would have considered a ‘highlight of the trip’ on any other trip.

We were super excited to track and find the elusive desert elephants.

Wow – our first night camping southern African style – you almost always have electricity. Private ablutions while camping were another novelty for us – about half the time we had our own electricity, shower, toilet and sink! It feels like cheating, but it sure is comfortable!

Quirky accommodation – this one near Fish Canyon was called ‘Route 66’.

We camped at Route 66.

Fish Canyon in the south, near South Africa. Reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. There is a classic 4 day hike through the canyon – another day!

Wild horses in the desert between Fish Canyon and Luderitz. A bus of Chinese tourists stopped near us and went crazy!

We mostly camped, but also stayed in a couple of guesthouses. All of them were excellent. This was our guesthouse in Luderitz, a small and very German town on the southern coast.

German houses in Luderitz.

I loved this German bar in Luderitz – ‘Barrels’.

Running with Zoe in preparation for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. We had good intentions, but I think we clocked about 5 runs * 2 kms =10kms total!

Fish + Chips and a beer on the water in Luderitz.

The deserted town of Kolmanskop, just outside Luderitz. A company town for mining diamonds, built in the late 1800s and abandoned in 1956. When they originally started collecting diamonds, they picked them up right off the ground!

Here we are in Soussusvlei. Robyn and I used a ground tent, but Zoe had fun sleeping in a roof top tent.

The dramatic dunes of Sossusvlei.

Climbing ‘Big Daddy’ in Sossusvlei- at 325m tall, this one took us an hour to climb.

We surfed down ‘Big Daddy’ on our feet, which was much faster and tons of fun!

Another quirky accommodation, this one called ‘The Alternative Space’, in Swakopmund. Lots of nude art around, lots of space and a bathtub in the middle of the room. Very friendly owners.

Great seafood everywhere.

An aquarium in Swakopmund.

Te dunes around Swakopmund reminded us of Egypt.

The national plant of Namibia – Welwitschia. These bizarre desert plants can live up to 2000 years! This one is probably 1000 years old.

A shipwreck on the treacherous Skeleton Coast. Because of the strong tides that cause the wrecks, the wrecks don’t stick around long. This one is an Angolan fishing ship that wrecked about 10 years ago.

100,000 seals at Cape Cross on the Skeleton Coast.

They smell!

But are so cute.

On a morning safari looking for the desert elephants in Darmaraland – this wasn’t even a National Park.

Desert elephants are smaller (less nutrition in their environment) and have bigger feet to support them in the sand.

Ancient rock art from the San people from a time when the climate was different (about 10,000 years ago).

Night safari in Etosha National Park.

Since Etosha is a desert, game life viewing centers around manmade watering holes that are established all over the park. This one was inside our campground. The watering hole is separated from the campsite by a ditch and a wall.

Oryx are rare in Kenya but common in Nambia. They are often called ‘gemsbok’ there.

Robyn made us wait an hour to see this skittish giraffe drink.

Another quirky campground – Ngepi Camp in the Caprivi Strip. This lav-o-tree had great views!

Our room over the Kavanga River. The Kavanga river feeds the famous Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Hanging out on our deck above the Kvango River.

Most campgrounds had potable water from a well, so we bought a funnel and tried to avoid buying more plastic bottles.

Our campground on the Chobe Rive was beautiful. We had it all to ourselves.

The Namibian side of the Chobe River.

Zoe getting into the photography.

At our campsite on the Namibian side of the Chobe river. A camp vehicle’s emergency brake failed and the pick up rolled into the river in the dark of the night. I tried to help and spent about an hour in the dark up to my mid-thighs in water before it occurred to me that 1) there were probably crocodiles in the river and 2) I’ve never seen a better breeding area for bilharzia. We could not get the vehicle out as it was stuck in deep, soft mud.

River safari on the Kwando River.

At the end of a river safari on the Kwando River we rounded a bend in the river and saw these elephants crossing.

Viewing large buffalo herds from a hide on the Waterberg Plateau.

It’s been a while since I’ve driven a stick!

Travel Notes

• People in Southern Africa have the camping gear down. They have tons of rugged, effective and cheap camping gear.  ‘Bushwhackers’ in Windhoek and Swakopmund is a great place to buy gear.  We bought great folding sleeping mattresses and camping chairs (I highly recommend Frontrunner folding directors chairs.)
• I highly recommend ‘The Cardboard Box’ (namibian.org), especially ‘Lilly’ (lilly@namibian.org). They organized a great trip for a very reasonable cost.  They took care of small details like providing a SIM in your welcome pack and quickly solved any small problems that we had.
• Water can be bought in bulk from many Spar Supermarkets (you fill your own containers with a tap), or using campground potable water.  Save a lot of plastic.
• The car rental companies give you a lot of camping equipment, a lot of which is not necessary. Consider leaving some of it with them – we found jerry cans for fuel and water totally unnecessary, and didn’t need some of the larger cooking equipment such as the Potjie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potjiekos) or Brie equipment (we are vegetarians).