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.