Month: June 2019

Today a peacock, a rooster and two alpacas kept us company during breakfast. Then we left in the direction of the Caprivi Game Reserve. We stopped at a mud house and asked the resident if we could take a picture.

In a moment there were 4 children watching with interest. These kids were friendly and laughed a lot. We gave them something else to snack on.

Every now and then you pass through a police checkpoint. They look at the driver’s license and the vehicle sticker. About 3 km behind such a checkpoint, near Mukwe, several kids jumped in front of our car on the road, so we had to drive slowly. They wanted something and threatened us with stones. Since we didn’t stop, they threw the stones at the car. We have a thick dent with paint damage and again lucky that it was not the window. Since we knew that the police was behind us on the road, we turned around and reported the incident. Two plainclothes officers drove with us to catch the “perpetrators” in the act. But since the guys probably expected it, they didn’t show up. The policemen assured us that they would talk to the parents, and we drove on. The throwing of stones happens more often, because here in the camp it also happened to Dutch tourists the day before. Hopefully the insurance will cover it. Our campsite is idyllically located directly on the Kwando River and we watched several hippos splashing around at sunset. For dinner we had potatoes with butternut squash in coconut milk curry.

Silke

After a hearty breakfast we continued to Rundu. Once again on tarred roads. Here you can see a bit more trees and bushes. In Grootfontein there was a big construction site, so we took our break a bit further along the road. Palm trees and huge termite mounds, which partly look like sculptures are on the left and right of the road.

Shortly before Rundu there are many small villages, where people live partly in round mud huts with thatched roofs, in the simplest conditions. Many people (including children) were on the road with containers to get water. There were some stalls on the side of the road. We bought two small carved elephants. In Rundu we refueled the car – 102 liters/1444,50 N$. Then we did some shopping and drove over a 7 km long sand road to Kaisosi River Lodge, our campsite today. Here one looks directly on the Okavango – river. For dinner we had vegetable allsorts with cheese sauce.

Silke

After a short night we went to the Halali waterhole “Moringa” again this morning. It was not as spectacular as last night. “Only” a Marabou stork, a Kudu, ducks and guinea fowl. We then continued through Etosha National Park to Camp Namutoni a former German fort. There many zebra mongooses made the area unsafe. Totally cute!

Herds of zebras, blue wildebeests, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, springboks and the big bird “giant bustard” were spotted.

At the Kalkheuwel waterhole (artificial), zebras literally jostled for the best spot with springboks and warthogs. Out to the eastern Lindquist Gate we turned immediately left into Onguma Tamboti Camp. Here we have a new “campsite” today. In the evening we went for dinner. The restaurant offers a view of an in-house waterhole. A few giraffes, antelopes and ducks did the honors. I had a pizza and Reiner an oryx steak..

Silke

This morning we started into the Etosha National Park. At Andersson’s Gate we started our midday game drive and drove via Okaukuejo to Camp Halali. Maximum speed is 60 Km/h but you can only drive at walking pace in parts. At the Rietfontein waterhole were many ibex, ostrich and zebra drinking. Two shield ravens kept an eye on us. At Camp Halali we opted for a night game drive. We were already at the camp at 16:00 and cooked ourselves first noodles with Schakalaka. At 19:00 o’clock we started in the jeep with guide Dennis. Since there was only one group with us, we had the second jeep to ourselves. The first 1.5 hours there were hardly any animals to discover. Then we were back at the waterhole from noon and suddenly two leopards stepped out of the bush. A wonderful sight under the starry sky at the water with reflection.

We have “accompanied” the two leopards still a piece and are then at 22:00 o’clock again in the camp. Dennis gave us the tip to go to the Halali Camp waterhole. We sat there until 2:00 o’clock in the night. We were quite frozen afterwards, but there was a real theatrical spectacle. A lion was “guarding” the water hole. A small jackal came running from time to time. A rhinoceros came and went again. It did not dare to drink at first because of the lion. When the lion stroked around the waterhole once and then disappeared into the bush three more rhinos and a spotted hyena came to drink.

Silke

We enjoyed our stay in Swakopmund very much. We went to the beach promenade this morning and went to the Jetty to the lookout point. The fog from the early morning had lifted. A few seals were swimming in the waves.

There are German names on every corner in Swakopmund, as the town was built during the German colonial period (founded in 1892). Really pretty houses and streets. We then hit the road again and drove 514 km to Outjo to Modjila Safari Camp. We have a nice spot and are the only campers here today. For dinner we made a delicious barbecue. It is windless and pleasant and a few bats are buzzing around.

Silke

The first view out of the tent showed an Oryx antelope right in front of our site. Fun blue-headed guinea fowl were also walking around the property.

After breakfast, we hit the road again. We drove 310 km exclusively unpaved roads towards the coast to Swakopmund.

On the way we have reached the Tropic of Capricorn, (the Tropic of South). On this circle of latitude the sun is at its zenith once a year at the summer solstice (21.-22,12,). We made a break on a gigantic rock in the middle of the desert, the bird feather mountain. In Swakopmund first of all the food was restocked. We decided today for a “firm” accommodation since it is quite fresh and landed in the Villa Sohrada. We have here a complete huge house with open fireplace for us. The parents of our hosts, family Schwietering (“Haus Westwisch”) come from Thedinghausen. We took advantage of the kitchen and fried pancakes.

Silke

At sunrise we drove into the Namib-Naukluft National Park. At the first view point we already got a nice impression of the desert landscape and especially the huge sand dunes. A hot air balloon could be seen in the sky. Then we walked up to Dune 45. A wonderful view, great colors and contrasts. Since there were also several tour buses at the parking lot, people first ran like ants in a row up the dune crest. That has then but “cleared”, the further you got away from the parking lot. Once around the dune, we had real breakfast appetite and built our table. There was fried egg with (German) brown bread. A small starling kept us company. On we went to Deadvley, a dried up lake with whimsical tree skeletons.

Here we hiked the “Big Daddy Dune” trail. A loop trail that goes through deadvley up a big dune (Approx 4.5 km).

Also the car ride there was adventurous, because it went through deep sand and over dunes. There the 4×4 proved itself well and fortunately everything remained intact.

On the way back we drove a young German couple (Fine and Henning from Munich) to their camper. They preferred not to do the off-road route through the sand and walked the additional 3.5 km. Since the sand has become hot in the meantime and their water was already all up on the dune, we first refilled their bottle, cleared our back seat and invited them. A short side trip we drove still to the Sesriem Canyon. Then we left the park and went about 50 km north to the beautiful campsite Weltevrede (again with its own bathroom). For dinner we had noodles in cheese sauce and salad at sunset.

Silke