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| If there are no trees, no forest, and no-one to see them fall, then what? Etosha panning. |
Namibia: vast, barren and beautiful.
No-ones land.
So it came as no surprise that as soon as we crossed the border, we found ourselves in wide, open spaces with no one around. Just us on a dirt road driving to nowhere. We had arrived...
Our road trip through Namibia started off with the Fish River Canyon (a taste of things to come!), winding up to Etosha in the north, then heading west through Damaraland all the way to the coast and back south through the Namib Desert.
19 days of camping in the outback, dirt roads and dust, smothered by incredible landscapes, dazzled by sun and stunning sunsets and washed away by thousands of stars every night. Only to start all over again the next day.
We arrived at the canyon in the rain, which was the last drop of water that we saw fall out of the sky on our trip. The rain left the world awash and sparkling as we drove out of our camp at sunrise to try the canyon a second time. We gulped down the spectacular views down with a cup tea and not another soul around.
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| roadtrip anyone? totally equipped including surfboard and potjie pot. |
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| wide open spaces |
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| the only rain we had was at the fish river canyon... |
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| ...which was all gone the next morning! |
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| tea anyone? |
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| breakfast table |
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| the 2nd largest canyon in the world |
When we had drunk our full, we packed up camp and continued on our journey north. The Canyon Roadhouse offered a quick refill of our coffee cups and a glimps at its museum of funny ancient car wrecks. Although the dirt roads in Namibia are generally very good, the rain from the day before had left huge, seamingly bottomless puddles that sucked at our tires with every attempted crossing. Slowing down in the middle just wasn't an option.
The road to Etosha was rather boring compared to where we had just come from, but the kilometres of horizon made up for it. We stopped shortly before Windhoek, at Lake Oanob, sleeping on the deck of our camp overlooking the lake and enjoying our very first potjie.
Windhoek (the city, not the beer) didn't really speak to us so we just picked up our supply of biltong, droewors and the best springbok fillet we ever had. And kept driving north. Just before Okahandja we found a guest farm where we set up camp, and then chased up the hill to watch the sunset over the edge of the world.
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| endless horizon |
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| lake oanob camp and the mozzi attacks |
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| hike up the hill at beaver rock guest farm |
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| sunset at the edge of the world |
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| as far as the eye can see |
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| full moon, springbok fillets on the braai |
And after driving for 3 days we arrived at Etosha for 5 days of gaming! We were marvelled by the immense size of herds of antelope, zebra and giraffe on the wide open plains. And their total absence. A good wet season had spread the animals far and wide, meaning that the stretch between the 2 camps offered up no animals. But the scenery was awesome and despite the park being a major tourist trap, most days involved seeing very few other cars on the road.
Our first camp in Okaukuejo was rather busy compared to the solitude of our camps before. We saw tons of springbok, black faced impala, gemsbok, zebra, rhino, ground squirrels getting buzzed by a jackal and hyena sneaking off with an earlier kill. Much to our surprise we were almost sitting on top of the lion that was responsible for the kill.
At Namutoni we bumped into huge herds of prancing giraffe. Strange, curious animals that are too funny to watch. We were also entertained by a huge family of mongoose (mongeese?) playing along the road, damara dikdik, an eagle, and a big group of lion with cubs. Lion being lion, meant as usual that they were lazy and just sleeping! The Fisherpan was an interesting excursion to see stork, herons and flamingos.
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| our next few days were filled with huge herds like this one |
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| not such a lucky one |
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| one of many lazy lions |
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| giraffe at sunrise |
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| springbok |
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| another lazy lion watching a hyena enjoy the remnants of it's kill |
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| gemsbok |
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| etosha pan |
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| what's up, ET? |
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| lion cubs finally moving, but only to get out of the sun |
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| kudu? |
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| last goodbyes |
On Easter Sunday it was time to leave Etosha and we decided to drive back through the park to Outjo. Our idea was to camp somewhere nice and relax for the afternoon, but it turned out differently. Not having booked anything we ran into trouble twice and ended up driving almost to Khorixas and finally found our last chance at a campsite in the dark. The restaurant of the farm was full, so we defrosted dinner while setting up the tent in the dark. And had encounters with the first scorpion and the spider, on whose nest we built our tent on! Needless to say, they were somewhat less docile than there brothers in the south.
We carried on to Kamanjab and into the heart of Damaraland to Grootberg, where we stayed in the stunning Hoada campsite, one of the many community campsites of the country. After exploring the boulders and a stunner sunset, we headed back through the bush. Despite carefully marking our way, a nervous feeling crept over us as we chased back to camp as darkness fell. But we found our way, only to enjoy a nice hot rock shower before cooking another lekker potjie.
Not bad at all! Happy Easter!
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