Toronto, Canada

It took us 42 hours door-to-door to get home from Cape Town, one of the longer journeys home we've had after a vacation. We flew CPT-JNB-LHR-YYZ with a bit of a layover in both JNB and LHR.

Overall it was quite a diverse trip, which we enjoy. The landscape changed with every place we stayed. The highlight for me was Sossusvlei, and Deadvlei in particular. It's hard to pick a favourite lodge because they were all really good, however Hoodia and Mowani did stand out. Namibia is one of the most photogenic countries in the world (Myanmar is still tops), everywhere we looked was so scenic. It's so photogenic, some of our pics look like fake AI-generated pics!

One surprise for me was that we never used mosquito repellant at all over the entire trip. Most of the trip was in very dry conditions across the Namib and Kalahari deserts (where the humidity was 15%). I thought we might have sand flies in the desert, but there was nothing. Around Etosha, we had swarms of big moths, but no mosquitoes. We already had our malaria tablets so just took them anyways. I suppose it must be a seasonal thing, because it is a malarial area.

There were some gadgets that we were glad we packed: the Peak Design car phone mount, the Casetify phone wrist strap, and Solbari UPF driving gloves. All worked really well. The wrist straps came in handy bouncing around in open safari vehicles, as we didn't have to worry about dropping our phone.

We didn't have much down time, especially in the first half of the trip. The excursions took up most of the day, and I could barely keep up with editing pics and posting to our travel blog. When we got home, I realized that some of my Namibia pics were out-of-focus -- I've since replaced with pics that are actually in focus :) We really enjoyed Cape Town at the end of the trip, it was sort of a vacation after the safari.

There were a couple bonus sites along our Namibia route that were pretty cool. Seeing the Hoba Meteorite, the largest meteorite in the world, was really impressive. I can't believe it's just sitting there in a field. The Zeila Shipwreck just outside Swakopmund was cool too.

We were pretty impressed with how easy it is to transfer through JNB nowadays. Ten years ago, there were officials looking for bribes at every opportunity, and long line-ups everywhere. This has all been cleaned up. Immigration is now fully automated, and fairly quick. Unlilke Pearson, which remains one of the worst airports we have flown through. It took us over 90 minutes from landing at Pearson to exiting the airport. Pearson is the only airport that relies on staff yelling out directions to herd passengers through immigration and customs, as opposed to just having clear signage like everywhere else in the world.

We drove over 2,600km in Namibia, further than we traveled in the South Island of NZ, most of it over gravel and sand roads. It really felt like an adventure, in particular the rural areas around Damaraland. Gas stations were fairly common throughout our route, we were able to fill up no problems before we dropped below half a tank (Toyota Fortuners get over 700km per tank). Marissa had a SIM card and got a signal about 80% of the time; offline Google Maps worked for me. There was hardly any traffc on the roads, we passed just a handful of vehicles each direction most days. This matches up with Namibia being the 2nd lowest country in the world by population density (Mongolia is lowest), and being low season for travel.

We were super lucky with lack of rain (Namibia's rainy season goes from November to March). We only got rained on once, and we were just relaxing in our cabin anyways. It didn't rain at all while I was driving, and it didn't rain during any of our excurions. With climate change, we're finding that rainy season doesn't seem to reflect actual rainfall any more, and really just means less tourists.

Next up, Iceland in February!

Cape Town, South Africa

Heather and I wrapped up our vacation with a visit to Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa). Marissa joined a separate excursion to Robben’s Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

The Zeitz MOCAA is built out of former grain silos on the waterfront. It took a couple years to carve away the thick concrete to create the interior space. It’s a stunning building inside.

There’s exhibits across three floors, all curated from their extensive collection of African art. We thought it was really well done.

Walked around the V&A waterfront after. It’s a nice waterfront, with lots of restaurants and boutique shops, filled with tourists. We browsed a bit and then headed over to the Loop St area that we walked through on Jan 1. Things were back to normal hours today. In fact it was a weekday, and so there were office workers in the CBD!

We had lunch at a random sushi place that rated highly on Google, it wasn’t too bad. Then browsed through some of the art galleries, we really liked the art at Eclectica Contemporary.

We got back to the hotel around 4pm, exactly when Marissa returned from her excursion. Relaxed, had some excellent chocolate cake (the hotel has freshly baked goodies every day at 4pm), and then started packing up for our return home.

We had dinner at Miller’s Thumb, an happening seafood place on Kloof Nek Rd. Chatted about the trip highlights (there were many), and got home early-ish (9pm) cause we had an early start tomorrow. Cape Town was a nice little vacation after the safari.

Cape Town, South Africa

We arranged through the hotel for a car and driver to take us around the highlights of the Cape Peninsula. It was about the same cost as the three of us booking an excursion with a tour company, but this way we’d have full flexibility.

Our driver, Roger, suggested an early start at 8:15 to beat the crowds. It’s about an hour drive to the park gates, where we paid our entrance fees and continued on towards Cape Point.

Everyone stops at Cape Point to walk up to the lighthouse (there’s also a funicular but it was out of service today). Due to early hour, we had it mostly to ourselves. There’s nice views of the ocean and Cape of Good Hope. We could also see the boardwalk from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope, which was our next activity.

It takes about 45 minutes to walk one way. Roger drove to the other side to pick us up. We saw some elands along the way. The boardwalk is in rough shape - some boards were broken in half, and most felt like a heavy step could snap them. But we survived.

We had lunch reservations at Two Oceans, which overlooks False Bay. Supposedly it’s where you can see the Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean meet, but in reality it’s just all blue water. (We had the same experience in Dominica trying to see where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic meet). The lunch was pretty good, given that you’re really here for the views.

Next on the itinerary was Boulders Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. Unfortunately access was blocked because of overcrowding (too many tourists today!), so we had to skip it.

We cut across the peninsula back to the west side to drive along Chapman’ s Peak, a spectacular drive.

Roger then tried to find something else to fill the time (as we’d missed the penguins). We stopped for a coffee, and then drove through the popular beach communities around Camps Bay and Clifton. It was jam-packed today, and we crawled in traffic for about 90 minutes. I would have preferred to have skipped all of it and just got home early but oh well.

We pushed out our dinner reservations to 8pm cause we were still full from lunch . We ate at Manna Epicure, a French restaurant with snobby waitstaff and good food. Walked back home along the hip and busy Kloof St.

Cape Town, South Africa

Happy New Year! As is our tradition, we booked something for Jan 1 morning that is otherwise very busy. This year it was the cableway up to the top of Table Mountain.

It took a while to get an Uber from the hotel, I guess most drivers were working late last night. We had pre-booked FastTrack tickets for the 10am-10:30 window. We managed to get on the next cable car after arriving (capacity is about 65 people). According to the internet, usually there’s a 2-3 car backlog, about 30 minutes, even for the FastTrack. Our Jan 1 morning strategy paid off again!

We had perfect weather: low wind, about 22C, and not a cloud in the sky. We did a little circuit around the top, about half on the boardwalk and half on the rocky path. There’s pretty orange flowers growing alongside the path, which Marissa initially mistook for flags marking the trail, lol.

We spent about 90 minutes at the top, including lots of stops for pictures, and stopping in at the gift shop.

We caught the next car going down as well. It’s a four minute ride, and the car spins about a one full revolution along the way, so everyone gets a view out the front.

We took another Uber to Bo-Kaap, near the waterfront. (All the Uber rides here are about 8 CAD, it’s a compact city). Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly painted houses & cobblestone streets. It’s a multicultural neighbourhood, about half Muslim. It’s very picturesque.

Had a tasty döner at one of the few places open (Jan 1 is a public holiday). Dropped into an art gallery for photo inspiration, walked around and took more pics.

We then made our way to the boutique shops and cafes along Bree St / Loop St / Long St. Unfortunately almost everything was closed here too. Jan 1 is a tricky day on vacations, but at least we saw Table Mountain and the street scenes in Bo-Kaap.

We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel, about 30 minutes. It’s way more pedestrian-friendly in Cape Town vs Johannesburg, and as safe as any big city in the central areas of town.

We relaxed back at the hotel, still full from our döners at lunch. We had dinner reservations at Carne on Kloof at 7pm, which was okay. I think most restaurants had trouble staffing Jan 1.

Cape Town, South Africa

We drove from Windhoek to the airport at dawn. The car rental return with Europcar was quick and easy. We drove 2,637km over the past two weeks, averaging about 300km per driving day. That’s more than I imagined, and further than we drove on the South Island in NZ. Most of it was over gravel roads too. Our Toyota Fortuner held up pretty well over all the bumps, and I was was suitably impressed with our Peak Design car mount.

Check-in with Airlink was also quick and easy. We had some time to kill cause everything had been so quick, so grabbed a cappuccino and croissant before dumping our water and going through security and immigration.

Windhoek’s international airport is pretty small - there were only eight gates, and about ten departures today. Checked out the souvenir shops and used up our remaining Namibian dollars.

The flight to Cape Town took under two hours. Airlink served a decent meal again - they’re a really good regional airline. Not sure what I will do with my Skybucks frequent flyer points though.

The immigration line up at Cape Town was huge - it looked like all the big jets from Europe arrived just before us. We took bets, Heather won with a guess of 1h15 that was almost bang-on. (I had guessed 2h, and Marissa 1h30). The immigration officer was very friendly once we actually got to the front of the line, maybe cause we’re commonwealth.

As expected, our luggage was waiting for us (I had checked the AirTags so we knew it had made it here). Customs waved us through and then we searched for our driver. The poor guy had been waiting the whole time, holding up the sign with our names for the past 90 minutes as passengers slowly streamed out. Marissa quickly got a SIM card, and then we were off.

Got a whirlwind tour of Cape Town on the drive into the hotel. We’re staying at Derwent Boutique Hotel in the Tamboerskloof neighbourhood of Cape Town, walking distance to all the restaurants along Kloof St.

Relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and then met up for the NYE mini-celebration at 5pm for the hotel guests. Chatted with the owners, who are Canadian. At 6pm we left for dinner at the Black Sheep, we had the early seating and had to be done by 8pm. The food and service were excellent, with an amazing view of Table Mountain as a bonus. (All the restaurants we are dining at in Cape Town are recommendations from the hotel owners).

We stayed up until midnight to celebrate the New Year for the first time in years. We had a nice view of the fireworks over the V&A Waterfront from our deck. The air had cooled to about 18C, very comfortable for sleeping.

Windhoek, Namibia

We ended the safari part of our trip today. Marissa got up early for the morning game drive. Heather and I had a leisurely breakfast, watching the wildlife grazing in the savannah.

We were on the road by 10am, on the B1 back to Windhoek. There was nice scenery but boring to drive, just a straight road and no other cars.

Marissa had learned about the different types of fences on one of her educational excursions. At the time she thought it was knowledge she’d never use, but now we found it really interesting because we could identify private reserves vs farms or other land uses. A lot of the land approaching Windhoek was private reserves.

The guidebook said there was a good curio place just outside Otjiwarongo but we didn’t see anything. The A1 started shortly after, a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, speed limit 120km/h and devoid of other vehicles. Seemed like a lot of infrastructure for us.

We reached our hotel, the Olive Grove, around 1pm. Checked in, had some lunch, and then went into town for some souvenir shopping. Unfortunately the main curio shop, Namibia Craft Centre, was closed over the holidays. There were a handful of stalls outside.

Back at the hotel, we reconfigured our packs for airplane mode, had a nice dinner and settled up our hotel so we could just leave in the morning. The weather was really comfortable for dinner, about 24C and low humidity.

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

It was nice and cool for our morning safari, about 18C and overcast. Marissa had joined the excursion to see the cheetah rehabilitation centre; Heather and I went on a nature drive. It was just the two of us plus our guide, Mathew.

Mathew was really knowledgeable about the local wildlife and fauna. We learnt quite a bit, even though we’ve been going on lots of game drives the past week or so. We saw a number of species we hadn’t yet seen on this trip, including dik-diks, duikers, and warthogs. We also saw a family of bat-eared foxes, and a canary, which I’ve not previously seen in the wild.

We returned to the lodge around 9:30am, and had a large breakfast (probably better classified as a brunch given the time and the amount we ate).

The safari schedule here at Okonjima Bush Camp is more what we were accustomed to - breakfast after the morning safari, a long break over the afternoon, and then an evening safari. It’s much more relaxing than the six hour excursions we had earlier on the trip.

The afternoon safari was tracking leopards, which are collared here. We started with spotting a non-collared one, which was a bonus! Our guide then used an antenna to locate two other leopards. Unfortunately they were sleeping in dense underbrush and not photographable. (I took some anyways).

The collared leopards are all named by the researchers. Our guide said that one of the leopard’s name was Luka, and we all wondered the same thing, if it lived on the 2nd floor.

We ended the game drive with a collared leopard who was resting after eating. It wasn’t interested in us and was habitualized to the vehicle, but we still got a little close to it for our comfort and the leopards imo.

Anyways we got back to the lodge a little after 8pm. We were still full from our brunch and then lunch, so it was a small dinner.

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

We’ve seen a lot of cool stuff this trip, but today we saw something that was out of this world! We checked out of the Mushara Outpost and headed east on the C38. It’s paved roads the rest of the road trip, yay!

We had a detour past Grootfontein to see the Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth. It’s estimated at 60 tonnes, and remains where it landed. It skipped into the ground, so there’s no crater. Up until 1987, it just sat in a farmer’s field, when it was donated by the farmer to the state. Combined with Namibia’s independence in 1990, it has become a proper tourist attraction, with security to prevent vandalism and the like. We paid our admission (about 20 CAD), had a short 10 minute guided tour, took our pics and touched the meteorite. It’s probably the only time I’ll touch something not from earth.

We stopped for a break in Otavi. Had some really good chips (french fries), topped up the gas tank, and carried on to Okonjima Bush Camp, our final safari lodge of the trip. The landscape had changed back to dry desert and shrubs. We had just gotten used to the humidity around Etosha!

The chalets at Okonjima Bush Camp are spaced about 100m apart and all have private views of the savannah. There’s no a/c, but unlike the pizza ovens we slept in at Rostock Ritz, these actually worked at cooling down the inside.

We were too late for the afternoon game drive so just relaxed in our chalets. We had dinner after sunset, enjoying the lack of big moths we encountered in the (wet) Etosha area. We had an early start for safari tomorrow morning so went to bed early.

Etosha, Namibia

Today was big cat day! We were hoping to see the big cats today in Etosha NP: lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

We had an excellent breakfast as we watched dawn break and listened to the birds and other creatures wake up the day.

At 6:30am we met our guide (we never caught her name) and were off, just the three of us in the back.

We retraced our route from yesterday for the first hour, until we cut off from the C38 in the park. Along the way in we saw a Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, a type of owl. Either our guide spotted it, or more likely knew its favourite spot; both boded well for the safari :)

We saw a clan of spotted hyenas, including a very young one. Watched them play around for a few minutes. Our guide was in contact over the radio with her colleagues to find out where game had been spotted. They used a numbered code to identify animals, by size. We were most interested in the 3s (lion), 4s (leopard) and 5s (cheetah).

We got word of some 5s beside some road. Our guide checked with us if we were okay with doing 60km/h (the speed limit, although in an open air safari vehicle on dirt roads, it was dusty), and then took off like a bat out of hell, at 80km/h. She was quite the character, we really liked her as a guide.

We saw the two cheetahs at a distance, not really worth a pic yet. Our guide said they might come towards the road, so we waited. She had a tea in the meantime. Then her radio called out about a 4, in action, and she quickly turned, said ‘Hold my tea’ and we took off at 80km/h again.

It was a leopard stalking a baby zebra! I think every guided safari in the park was at the location, at least a dozen vehicles (one disadvantage of national parks vs private reserves). Marissa wasn’t comfortable with watching a kill, so we took some pics and then went back to the cheetahs.

The cheetahs had since made their way to the road! And were drinking from a small puddle at the side of the road. We took lots of pics. Our guide got on the radio excitedly to her colleagues ‘5 on the road! You must push!’ (meaning go fast). We found her hilarious.

Drove around some more, and saw another pair of cheetahs, and then a leopard in a tree! Our guide was very surprised at the volume of cats - normally these are very difficult to spot in rainy season.

We returned back to the lodge around noon, a very enjoyable game drive thanks to our guide.

The afternoon game drive was at 3pm, which didn’t leave much down time. Instead, Heather and I opted out, and were planning to do some birdwatching on the property. Marissa went on the drive, joined by some other random guests. The guide saved her the full front row though :)

Our bird watching didn’t pan out as it absolutely poured rain all afternoon. We actually enjoyed relaxing in our tent with the rain coming down, so it all worked out :)

We chatted with some of the other guests in the main lodge. Everyone had done the same circuit (it’s really just a choice of clockwise or counterclockwise) and in fact we had mostly stayed at the same places (also not a surprise, as there’s not many options at each price point).

Marissa arrived after her game drive and we sat down for dinner. It was at a communal table, so we chatted some more with the other guests. Marissa had seen a lion, We had grilled beef with a pepper sauce, it was the yummiest yet. The kitchen here at Mushara Outpost is excellent.

Etosha, Namibia

Another day, another safari lodge. Today we drove through Etosha to our next lodge, Mushara Outpost, at the east end of the national park.

We packed up at Safarihoek and said our goodbyes to the staff. The staff here are great, one of our favourites.

We started on yet more bumpy gravel roads. After a couple hours, reached a gas stop just before the southern gate of Etosha NP at Okaukuejo. It was a nice stop, with very clean bathrooms and a decent curio shop. Got some more cash from an ATM, this time without the lineups or cultural exchange.

We arrived at the park border where there was a checkpoint. Marissa had her passport on her (ours were packed in our suitcases), so she completed our paperwork to enter the park. We’ve been changing lodges every 2nd day and it’s hard to remember where we’re coming from or going to - which unfortunately were some of questions Marissa had to answer. We had to look up on our phones. At least we knew we didn’t have any firearms or drones (or plastic bags).

A couple km later at the park gate, we showed our completed paperwork, paid our park fees (150 NAD per person, 50 NAD for the vehicle, about $40 CAD total) and drove in.

We have a couple game drives in Etosha tomorrow with a guide, so just drove straight through today. We did see quite a variety of animals, including zebras, ostriches, blue wildebeest, eland, springbok and oryx. Pretty good for us amateurs!

The roads were bumpy gravel, with a max speed of 60km in the park. It was slow going. We originally had plans to stop for lunch at a camp in the park, but that would have added about 45 minutes of driving time, so instead just headed for our lodge. We could see rain falling from storms all around us, but somehow our route avoided all of them.

Showed our paperwork again at the eastern gate at Namutoni. Our lodge, Mushara Outpost, was another 10km down the C38. We passed by a couple dazzle of black-faced impalas, a vulnerable species, for which we stopped to take some pics.

We arrived at our lodge, but weren’t sure if we were at the right spot, as there was no signage. We thought it was maybe a private house. So jumped back in the vehicle and followed the arrows. We then realized the arrows pointed to the exit; and so we looped around, parked, and emptied out of the car again, trying unsuccessfully to act cool like nothing happened.

Anyways we were in the right spot :) had our welcome drink (rooibos iced tea), and settled into our rooms. It’s another different setting - each chalet is nestled in the woods, like a fancy cottage. The main lodge reminded us of going to a friend-of-a-friend’s cottage, with leather couches, large antiques and artwork.

The food here at Mushara Outpost is excellent, the best we’ve had on the trip. We were swarmed again by the big moths that come out after it rains. (We had them at Safarihoek as well). Had a tense walk back to our cottage in the dark, hoping that lions didn’t get us. (Lions did in fact walk through the grounds later in the night).

Etosha Heights, Namibia

Merry Christmas! We were awakened by a passing rainstorm around 5am. We had to get up soon anyways so just stayed up and watched the rain over the plains.

It was still drizzling when we headed to the main lodge for breakfast, so we got to break out our new travel umbrellas we bought for the trip. We were the only guests so just left them to dry in the lodge when we went on safari.

We boarded the safari vehicle and headed out. We heard a lion rumbling in the distance. Drove through the reserve slowly, looking for animal tracks. I actually spotted a large bull elephant in the hills, munching away on branches as thick as my arm.

On the safari we saw lots of giraffes, some including an Angolan giraffe with very different markings than what we’ve seen previously. We also saw lots of bird species, and a turtle.

We returned to the lodge for lunch, and then had a few hours to relax before the afternoon activities. It was the first extended down time we’ve had and I used it to catch up on my blog and pics. We usually build in more down time to relax; however the excursions and safaris have lasted much longer than I expected. We’re still glad we saw what we have, even though it’s been jam packed. Woe is us :)

I skipped out on the afternoon safari so I could hang out at the photography hide. The three of us were driven down to the hide at 4:30pm (there’s predators about, so it’s not safe to walk), and then Heather and Marissa were picked up at 5:30pm for their safari.

I really enjoyed watching the animals from the hide (and got some cool pics too!) The hide windows are at ground level, and the perspective from that angle is great. Got some pics of giraffes drinking which I hadn’t seen before.

It’s easy to get focused on an animal through the lens and miss out on other activity around the watering hole. I almost missed a confusion of guinea fowl right in front of me. I only noticed when they started chatting with each other. I’ve always had trouble getting a good pic of one - they tend to run off at first sight of humans and like poor lighting conditions. Here I was able to get some in focus, with some bokeh to boot.

Also in the hide was Olwen Evans, the photographer who designed the hide for Safarihoek Lodge. She gave me a couple wildlife photography tips, for example that smaller birds love the puddles in the roads after a rain shower, and that low light pics usually look better in b/w.

Later we had our Christmas dinner in the lodge, including a roasted turkey. The staff provided a little entertainment, singing some traditional songs. I really like how Safarihoek promotes the local culture. Yesterday our server had provided click language translations for the menu options. We tried to learn thank-you, and sort of got it, minus the clicks. We really enjoyed our time at this lodge.

Etosha Heights, Namibia

We had breakfast, packed up while enjoying the view from the room, and were on the road by 10am. We stopped at a couple large boulders near the entrance to Mowani Mountain Lodge for some pics for Marissa.

We enjoyed about 10km of pavement before we turned off onto gravel roads yet again. The route from Damaraland to Etosha Heights is not a common one, and this was reflected in the lack of upkeep of the road.

We stopped at the 2nd gas station in Khorixas, to fuel up and get cash from the ATM. The Mowani folks had said this was the less-busier gas station; they also told us how to pronounce the name of the town which I’ve since forgotten.

There were about 10 people in line for the ATM. Heather and Marissa waited in line while I got gas. The ATM line took over half an hour, as some folks seemed unfamiliar with using one, and others had trouble getting cash. Christmas Eve is a popular time to get cash, as most everything shuts down at noon for a couple days.

Heather and Marissa had a good time chatting with the other folks in line, one of the few interactions we’ve had with locals.

The ATM looked like it might be broken or out of cash by the time they got to the front. They gave it a try, and immediately got their cash. They made a beeline for the car (I had the engine running) in case they did in fact empty out the ATM, leaving a long line of cash-less people behind.

The directions became conflicted between ExpertAfrica, our physical map and Google Maps. The road conditions weren’t quite as bad as the way into Mowani, but certainly couldn’t be called good.

We passed through six gates where we had to manually open and close, I guess to protect farm animals. They each had a sign mak toe asb which Marissa Google translated as Afrikaans meaning close the gate please and not something bad like ‘road closed due to flooding’ or ‘keep out’.

We finally saw a sign for our next lodge, Safarihoek, and knew we were on the right track. Followed the signs to the private reserve main gate, where we signed in with a guard, and then a few km to the lodge itself.

We had the whole place to ourselves, as we were the only guests tonight. The view from the lodge and our rooms is a vast plain all the way at to the horizon. Quite the contrast from our previous lodge!

We had a mini-lunch (it was 3pm and we didn’t want to ruin our dinner). We had plans to head to the photography hide for the sundowner, but a large herd of elephants (20+ including some babies) had walked by earlier, so instead we had a small safari to track them down.

We saw them just before the border with Etosha! It was quite cool to watch them walk by, protecting the little ones. Our guide, Mamsi, said they were less than one month old. We had a fake charge by one of the males, we kept calm and they just went on their way.

We got to the hide just in time for a sundowner. Chatted with Olwen, the in-house photographer who helped design the photography hide.

Dinner was outside on the deck. There were dozens of large moths flying about, which happens every time there’s a big downpour. We ate quickly and went to bed. There was a fireplace in the main lodge, so maybe a chance for Santa to visit.

Damarland, Namibia

We had a normal safari-time start to the day - up at 5:30am, breakfast at 6am, and then out on safari by 6:30am.

We wore our puffy jackets to start the day, it was about 18C, and in an open-air safari vehicle. We were hoping to see the desert-adapted elephants, in the Torra Conservancy.

We crossed them off our list within an hour, as we saw a herd of five elephants. They have larger feet for the sand, and longer trunks. We watched them at a watering hole for a few minutes, then continued on further into the conservancy. We spent the next few hours tracking down elephants, giraffes and other wildlife.

We were back for lunch, had a brief hour-long break and then were back on the road at 3pm, to see the ancient rock engravings in Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had mistakenly thought these were rock paintings in caves, but in fact they’re engraved, and exposed to the weather. There’s thousands of engravings scattered around the area.

Twyfelfontein is the colonial name, the official name is ǀUi-ǁAis which means jumping waterhole in the clicking language of Nama/Damara. Our guide spoke Nama/Damara, which is the first time I’ve heard the use of click consonants in real life.

Our guide took us on the 45 minute circuit. The highlight is an engraving of multiple animals including a lion.

We were back at Mowani Mountain Camp around 5:30pm. We decided just to relax in our rooms until dinner, as the view was the same as the sundowner spot. We haven’t had much down time this trip, what with these lengthy excursions, so I was falling behind in my blog and pics.

Dinner was excellent yet again. It was busier at the lodge; they said they were fully booked from here through New Year’s. And so ended another full day of vacation :)

Damaraland, Namibia

We had a really nice breakfast at the Strand Hotel, one of the more extensive buffets we’ve had this trip. Watched the beach activity come to life with beach volleyball players, surfers and other water sports. It was only 18C but I guess it’s all relative.

Packed up the car and headed north on the C34. We made a quick stop to see the Zeila Shipwreck, a few metres off shore. We then turned inland around Henties Bay, our last look at the ocean until Cape Town.

The temperature slowly climbed as we drove east on the C35. By the time we got to Uis in Damaraland, where we stopped for lunch, it was over 30C.

Uis is a cute little town. We had relaxing lunch at the Cactus and Coffee Teagarden, including a home-made iced tea. They had some nice souvenirs too; both Marissa and Heather bought some curios.

Filled up on gas, and then continued along the C35. The road condition was the worst we’ve had this trip, sandy/gravelly and very bumpy. The scenery however was spectacular, with giant rectangular boulders the size of houses and piles of other large boulders.

The road switched back to pavement and it felt amazing. After a few km we reached the turn off to Mowani Mountain Camp, our lodge for the next two nights.

The lodge and rooms are built in and around the boulders. It’s one of the more scenic entrances to a lodge we’ve seen. As usual, the staff were waiting for us at the entrance with cool towels and a refreshing drink.

Our room was nestled between two giant boulders, overlooking the plains below and the rocky hills in the distance. It even had a/c :)

After our really hot stay at Rostock Ritz, we had looked at which other places didn’t have a/c, this was one of them. On the drive up we were dreading another couple hot nights. But the design of these lodges created a natural draft that cooled the place down even without a/c. Anyways it was quite a relief to us.

Relaxed and washed up, and then met up for a sundowner. This was the same view as from our room :) although with a Rock Shandy, the local non-alcoholic drink of choice (soda water, lemonade and bitters, technically not 100% non-alcoholic but close enough).

After the sunset we had an excellent dinner under the stars.

Swakopmund, Namibia

I was up early before the sun rose. Decided to stay up with the hopes of seeing a meerkat from our front balcony. The temperature was pleasant outside when I first got up but it was discernibly rising. By 7am it was already too hot in the sun. Didn’t see any meerkat.

Anyways we had breakfast, packed up and headed to Swakopmund. The hotel folks had suggested we check out the pink flamingoes along the way in Walvis Bay, with some vague directions. The guide book, Google maps and hotel all had different suggestions on exactly where to find them.

The drive was really scenic through the Kuiseb Canyon. About 30km outside Walvis Bay, the highway became a divided highway with two lanes each direction (and only us on the road).

First we tried going down the exit to Dune 7, a tall sand dune that visitors can climb. Supposedly there were flamingos nearby, but we didn’t see any.

Closer to town, Marissa navigated to get us to a ‘flamingo viewpoint’, according to her phone. Sure enough, there was a parking lot, boardwalk and hundreds of flamingos! Gave a tip to the car watcher (20 NAD) and got out of the car to get pics. It was then that the temperature change hit us. It was only 19C with a mist blowing in from the ocean, almost a 20C swing from Rostock. Brrr.

Our flamingo watching didn’t last long. Back in the car, turned the dial to heat, and continued onto Swakopmund. We took the more scenic B2 rather than the new highway a little inland.

Got to the Strand Hotel, the place to stay in Swakopmund. Marissa went in to reception to sort out parking etc. They seemed to be expecting us, which seemed odd. Then we remembered that our last hotel had asked us to deliver a bag left behind by other guests, who were also staying at the Strand. As I had mentioned, the place to stay :)

We cleaned up and headed down for lunch. It was nice to be back in an urban setting, although it’s not like we’ve been roughing it by any stretch.

At 3pm we headed to the lobby to meet the Sossusfly folks. We had booked an excursion to fly over the dunes, south to Sossusvlei and then over some ship wrecks on the way back. Heather and I had always wanted to do a flying safari along the Skeleton Coast, and this was a good way to get the same view.

We picked up another couple tourists who were doing a different flight. Got to the airport, security let us through the gate and we drove on the tarmac right beside the plane. I thought it was really cool, like a private jet experience :)

It was just the three of us in a little prop plane that seated five plus the pilot. She gave us the safety blurb and then we were off!

It was cool to retrace a bit of our path over the last couple days, this time from the air. The sand dunes are fractal and it’s hard to get scale, so just enjoyed the view. It was warm in the plane (I had thought it would be cooler at an altitude), almost hot.

Sossusvlei looked very different from the air, but we did recognize it. Flew back up along the coast. The ship wrecks were interesting, although hard to get pics in the slight turbulence. The large sand dunes dropping into the ocean were cool too. Reaching Swakopmund, we flew over stands of flamingos (another collective noun I had to look up). This was the highlight of the flight imo. I just took lots of pics and hoped some were in focus (only one turned out). The last sight was of the salt pans, also cool to see, before we landed back at Swakopmund Municipal Aerodome. Overall it was a great experience, and we didn’t feel airsick at all :)

We were dropped off at our hotel around 6pm. We barely had enough time to sort through our pics before heading down to dinner. I thought I had built in down time on this trip, but apparently not! It was a rather full day, another transit day that did not feel like it.