Journal of This Southern Africa Adventure

Namibia Safari

The safari in Namibia was with Karibu Safaris.  We traveled through semi-arid and arid desert in the northern and central sections of Namibia. 

The trip included 13 guests with one guide and one cook and lots of travelling in a small overland truck.  The group was nationally diverse consisting of 2 Brits (Rob and Jen), 3 Germans (Arnd, Brita, and Peter), 4 Australians (Alison, Helen, Katie, and Steven), 1 South African (Gavin), 1 Irish-German (Birthe), and 2 Americans (Chris and Bessy).   Karibu supplied our guides (Rene, and Paulus)

We stayed in campsites which had excellent facilities.  We all slept in two person dome tents, that is except for Paulus, who liked to sleep on top of the truck.

The roads in Namibia are mostly long and straight stretches of well maintained gravel.  Major highways are tarred as are the roads in the larger towns.

Namibia is a former German colony that was turned over to South Africa after WWI.   Amid the Apartheid years, the UN determined that South Africa's occupation of Namibia was illegal.  Namibia finally got its independence from South Africa in 1990.   English is the official language but the German, Afrikaans, Herero, and Bushman languages, among others, are prevalent. 

We visited Windhoek, Waterberg Plateau Park, Etosha, Damaraland, Swakopmund, Namib-Naukluft Park, and Sossusvlei.  My personal favorites were Etosha and Sossusvlei.

Windhoek

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia is located in the center of the country, is a small, clean, and pretty community.  Its pace is like that of East Podack, Illinois (very slow)!

On the way to the Waterberg Plateau Park we stopped at a  local wood carvers market.

Waterberg Plateau Park

Waterberg Plateau Park is located about 4 hours north of Windhoek.  It is a mesa raised up against red sandstone cliffs.  The top of the plateau is a natural wildlife area and has buffalo, rhino, and cheetah, along with assorted boks.  The facilities at the park were about the best on the entire trip.

(from l. to r.) Bessy, Steven, Katie, and Peter enjoy the view from the top of the red-sandstone plateau.

We were not sure how these sunrays were formed but they appeared a couple of times on the trip.

Etosha

Etosha is Namibia's premiere game park located about 6 hours north of Windhoek.   Its has very large pans which attract the animals in the dry season.  It also has large green open fields.  It is cheetah country (but we did not see any).   In fact Namibia boasts the largest number of cheetah in the world.

We visited Etosha at the end of its wet season.  Etosha's pans contained about the most water than it has ever had.  Game viewing was less than ideal since the game did not have to flock to the human-accessible and viewable waterholes.  However, we still managed to see some interesting game and their activities.

Etosha's three main camps (called restcamps) are Okaukuejo, Halali, Namutoni.  

We stayed at the Namutoni Restcamp, which contains an old fort, on the eastern edge of the park for two nights and at the Okaukuejo Restcamp at the center of the park for two nights.

The restcamps at Etosha are within the park but are surrounded by fencing.  This prevented all but the jackals from entering the campsite.  The jackals would enter at night and attempt to scavenge leftovers from the campers.  They walked around our campsite as we talked by the campfire.  The restcamps are not just campsites, that is, they also have bungalows for rent.  Each of the restcamps also has an adjoining, un-naturally fed waterhole.  These waterholes, assured of water year-round, are often visited by wild game, especially in the dry season (July-October).  These waterholes (along with other nature oriented cams) can be viewed in real time at the Africam web site.

We arrived in Etosha in the afternoon after a long drive from the Waterberg Plateau (with a detour to a large meteorite - yawn).  A late and short afternoon game drive was our first activity after setting up camp.

Etosha is also noted for its large herds of springbok (cheetah food) and the stately Gemsbok (also known as oryx).

A rare sighting of an aardwolf was the highlight of our first afternoon drive in Etosha.

We set off for an early morning game drive on our first full day in Etosha.  The entrance gates to the park (or maybe I should say the exit gates from the restcamp) open at sunrise.  Not too far from the entrance of the gate we saw two male lions finishing a meal from their nighttime kill.

Besides the jackal, there were several other sightings of scavengers, particularly vultures.  On our way to Okaukuejo we came across a large number of vultures devouring a  springbok.  We were very close to the action.  The pictures below are not for the faint of heart.

The vultures were eventually run off, if just temporarily by several jackal.  It appears that other animals, beside cheetah, also have a taste for springbok including the All Blacks and Wallabies. (explanation for my American friends:   "Springboks" is South Africa's national rugby team's name; the All Blacks are from New Zealand and the Wallabies are from Australia; The rivalry among the three teams makes for great matches).

We also had lots of sightings of giraffe, zebra, and wildebeest and another lion (below) but no cheetah .

There was also a quick sighting of several rare black rhinos but they ran off very quickly and not everyone in the group saw the shy and elusive animals.

Damaraland

Damaraland is an area which is mostly a semi-arid desert.  Its land formation is very similar to the US Southwest with lots of buttes and mesas.  The area is also know for it desert elephants which run freely.  These elephants are larger than normal African elephants.  Although we saw some recent elephant footprints, we did not see any of the large animals.

We stayed at a restcamp called Palmwag (pronounced palim-vag).  At this place I developed a urinary tract infection and had to be airlifted out to Swakopmund to rejoin the tour one and half  days later; hence we missed the rock paintings at Twfelfontein and the Seal colony in Cape Cross. However, Bessy got the most beautiful awesome aerial view of Namibia  from the rescue charter flight (and no pictures) at an uncomfortable and large expense to myself!!

Swakopmund

The small city is located along a river on the Atlantic Ocean.  It is a small oasis on the edge of an arid desert.  The town is a resort area for Namibia's residents. 

Seals and dolphins are prevalent in its waters.  Large seal colonies boasting upwards of a 100,000 seals exist just north of Swakopmund.  Fishing is Namibia along this coast could be the best in the world.

We stayed in Swakopmund for only one night at some small A-frames, our only night for which we did not camp out. Six of us shared each A-frame.  Most of us would have preferred to camp out.

We also took a short drive down to Walvis Bay.  This was a small English colony before it was released by the British.  It is noted for its large colony of pink flamingos.

There are many jewelry and gemstone shops in Swakopmund due, in part, to the vast quantities and diversity of the gems in the area.  Namibia is known for its diamond mines.  Another favorite in the jewelry stores is the Epika.  This decorated piece of ivory is worn by the herero as a sign of wealth.  While in one antiques store, a couple of fellows approached the store owner.  The store owner, in a rather loud voice, indicated that he does not buy raw ivory.  Apparently the two fellows were trying to sell him some.  Hmmm!  We were not sure if it was all part of a show!

Namib-Naukluft Park

This is one of the largest parks in Africa and consists of all sorts of desert terrain which seemed to change every 30 minutes.   Moon Valley and other diverse areas are part of the Park. 

	Moon Valley is purported to be the actual touchdown of Neil Armstrong's lunar module, says Rene!
	Welvitchies look almost dead but are very old plants that have survived the desert for hundreds of years.
	The northern edge of the park reminded me on Zion National Park.
	The quiver tree is so-named because its branches are hollowed out and are used as quivers by the bushman.

Sessriem and Sossusvlei

We stayed at the Sessriem campsite outside of Sossusvlei.  The area was hot, hot, hot.  Walking a hundred meters to the local store to buy water would in itself waste two liters of body water.

In the evening of the first day we climbed a  dune which was only a few kms from the campsite.

Gavin and Rene are pictured here walking to the very top of the dune.   Rene is the one carrying the wine.  The dune is at the edge of area consisting of 100 kms of dunes extending to the ocean and an area consisting of the rocky mountains of the Namib-Naukluft Park.

Brita, Arnd, and Bessy are pictured above.  We made it up the dune without much difficulty but waited a little too late to proceed down.  It was very dark.

Deadvlei is an area that use to contain several trees and shrubs but has been cut off of all water except for occasional rainfall.

Sossusvlei (vlei is pronounced 'vlay') is the land of very high beautiful red sand dunes.  The red sand is caused by oxidation of particles within the sand.

Rarely does Sossusvlei have water but on this occasion, it contained two large vleis (an area that collects water).  This marks only third time in a hundred years that Sossusvlei has had water.

The pictures above are taken from the top of a large dune known as Big Momma.  Obviously it is not the largest of the dunes in the area.  (There is also a Big Daddy).

Alison, Helen, Bessy, Rene, and Rob are pictured above, middle. 

Sessriem is not too far from Sossusvlei.  It is a short canyon which is usually suitable for a short hike.  On this occasion, it was suitable for a short swim.  Much of the canyon contained water down to a three meter depth.

Naukluft

Our last night in Namibia was spent at a very nice campsite within the Namib-Naukluft Park.  A short hike to some mountains pools and a brief swim were a nice end to our Namibia trip.

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This page was last updated on 04/15/02.