More desert and dunes and the Deadvlei

Day 18      6^th October

Disappointment as our Balloon Safari for this morning was cancelled due to high winds, so we opted to take the 5 hour road trip instead.  Setting off at 6.30 am, we headed for the desert, watching the sunrise on the way (and the moon setting!)  

Stopping occasionally for photo opportunities, we headed into the valley, with majestic dunes on either side.  We bottled out of climbing the famous Dune 45, as the heat, wind and sand were already mounting, so we carried on to the Deadvlei. 

This is the location of a lake with a white clay bottom, surrounded by red dunes and scattered with ancient dead trees.  Incredibly picturesque.  We had to walk 1.1 kilometers through the sand up and down the dunes to reach it - exhausting but well worth it.  Jeremy found he had a hole in his shoe so had to stop occasionally to empty out the desert!  Once again, a surreal landscape.

On the way home, we stopped to view the Sesriem Canyon, a rocky canyon 60 metres deep.  Jeremy climbed down, Sherry took photos of a bird at the top (plus the views, of course!).

Desert and Dunes - Sossussvlei

Day 17          5^th October

Today we had the most spectacular flight ever.  On leaving Swakopmund we flew up the coast, delaying briefly to look at a couple of wrecks, including the famous ‘Eduard Bohlen’ which ran aground on 5^th September 1909 in thick fog.  Due to the sand dunes' movement it is now 500 metres back from the sea.

Then we turned inland towards Sossussvlei – the scenery was stunning as we flew over desert then between dunes and mountains, the light and shadows making for amazing shapes.  Surreal!

We landed and made the short journey to our lodge – The Mirage Resort and Spa.  Also faintly surreal!  Amazing view over the desert from our balcony, with the odd oryx and zebra wandering by.

 The Airstrip

The Lodge

In the late afternoon we did a 2-hour quad bike ride through the desert – hot and dusty but great fun.

We ended up with a short walk to the top of a dune to watch not only the beautiful sunset on one side, but the full moon rising on the other! 

 Then it was back to the hotel to wash the sand out of our hair before dinner!

Swakopmund and Walvis Bay

Day 16    4th October

We were collected by a minibus and driven to Walvis Bay to go on a catamaran trip around the bay, hopefully seeing seals, dolphins and pelicans.  It was a large craft with room for at least 30 of us, and we enjoyed the seals, not only at the seal colony but also the acclimatised ones that hopped on board for a quick snack! 

Bottle-nosed dolphins escorted us for a little way, and pelicans and gulls were adept at catching a few snacks thrown into the air.   One pelican also landed on the front deck in the hope of a bit of extra grub!

The unplanned highlight was our very first sighting of a humpback whale – very exciting.

Sadly today we also learned of the death as a result of cancer and subsequent chemo of a lovely young woman who grew up with our kids in their teenage years, and whose parents are our close friends.  Our hearts go out to them, and words cannot describe the sadness we are feeling at this tragic and untimely loss.

Made it to the Atlantic Ocean!

Days 16 & 17    2^nd & 3^rd October

We left after breakfast for the short flight to Okutala Lodge, but took a few extra minutes to fly over the park and part of the Etosha Salt Pan.

 Etosha Salt Pan

Okutala is a resort popular with self-drivers from SA and can host around 60 guests, so very different to the lodges we had stayed at.  It is a 24,000 hectare farm with wild animals, but with a fenced area for rescued animals, an animal clinic and a resident vet.  We did a tour in the afternoon to watch the feeding of the elephants that will hopefully be returned to the wild one day and then to watch the feeding of the cheetahs and the leopards, and observe the white rhinos munching on a pile of grass.  3 young cheetah brothers will hopefully return to the wild, whilst 3 older ones are too old to go free and too dependent on being fed.  Same with the leopards and a couple of hyenas.  Beautiful animals though, and a joy to watch and they had large enclosures in which to roam.  We sat up late after dinner with the manager, swapping flying stories!

This morning we waited till 10 am to leave, giving time for the fog to clear at Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast.  We flew past a well-known mountain called Mount Brandberg, then got our first taste of the desert and the Skeleton Coast.  Very different area – and weather.  Drop in temperature to around 16 degrees! Brrrr!

Mount Brandberg

The Skeleton Coast - note the band of fog rolling back.

Off to do a catamaran trip from Walvis Bay to see seals and dolphins tomorrow morning, weather permitting….

Ongava Lodge, Etosha National Park

Days 14 & 15    30th September & 1st October

Morning Game Drive to Etosha National Park.  We had visions of a huge salt pan with water holes surrounded by elephants and antelopes, etc., but found that there was a lot of fairly barren, dry park with only a short visit to the edge of the salt pan.  Had we gone on a full day trip with a private guide then we may have been able to get to the area we imagined.  However, the highlight of the drive was watching a Honey Badger appear over a small dune and come towards us to a tiny patch of water for a drink, and also a beautiful Pale Chanting Goshawk, and of course the picturesque Oryx, Springbok and Red Hartebeest, etc.

Naively, we had not expected so much traffic - we queued for half an hour at the gate to get into the park, and then were often in a group of vehicles, buses and trucks.  The roads were dusty and very corrugated, and after 5 hours we (esp Sherry's back!) were quite glad to get back to the lodge for a nice cool swim!

That night there was an incredible storm on  the horizon and we stayed up until midnight watching the amazing lightning show.

We decided to stay at the lodge the following morning and spent a wonderful few hours simply enjoying the incredible procession of animals and birds to the waterhole - especially a Kori Bustard that decided to see off a female Kudu!

We enjoyed a swim in the afternoon and then went on the evening game drive, which was a lot more fruitful than the previous one.  We saw some ellys (which had escaped from the Park into Ongava Conservancy) and some nice white rhinos, but the highlight had to be a group of 5 lion siblings - 4 females and 1 male, right beside the road, yawning and stretching, then getting up and wandering off to the water hole.  We followed and had a delightful sundowner whilst watching them against the sunset - magical!

Windhoek and night-time rhinos

Days 11,12 &13     27^th -29th  September

Spent the day doing touristy stuff in Windhoek, the Namibia museum (check out the size of an elephant skull!) and the famous Christuskirhe Church, which made us aware of the German history of the city during the First World War – huge memorial plaque on the wall and a massive cemetery, which we flew over as we left.   

Some not-so-essential shopping for Sherry (new dress!!), then back to our hotel for the night.  Aimed on getting away v.early next morning to avoid the heat and the bumps, but as usual, Africa won again, as we were unable to contact the fuel truck to come and refuel the plane as all their phones were ‘off’. Eventually snagged one, but so far we have never managed to get through an airport in less than an hour – even on an in-country flight with no customs to worry about!  Windhoek is situated in a sort of crater with hills and mountains around it, then flat, flat with sudden ridges popping up out of nowhere.

We eventually took off for the 2 hour flight to Ongava Lodge and the Etosha National Park.  Beautiful place, stunning room with veranda overlooking the water hole.  Constant traffic – black-faced impala, wildebeest, red hartebeest, zebra, giraffe, springbok, oryx, kudu, guineafowl, kori bustards, warthogs, huge flurries of red-billed quaelia, Namaqua doves, a spotted eagle-owl, black-chested snake-eagles – forget the game drives – we could have sat there all day with camera and binocs!

We did a pleasant evening game drive, the highlight of which was a pair of Purple Rollers, plus a few new birds such as the Red-crested and the Northern Black Korfan, and a lovely sundowner watching grazing zebra and wildebeest.

The highlight of the day came after dinner as to our delight we saw a Black Rhino wander down to drink at the water hole.  Mad flurry of activity to get down to the ‘hide’ beside the water hole, where we could get amazing views (+photos and video) of this magnificent beast.  Just as he wandered off another appeared and hung around enjoying a salt lick as well as a drink.  I was too excited to sleep for quite a while!