The Cape West Coast

Whilst getting our puncture fixed we got chatting to some South Africans who were up from Cape Town for the long weekend. (The Beast is quite a conversation starter and attracts a lot of attention from South African campers keen to catch up on the latest way to kit out their Land Cruisers for optimum comfort and performance. I get the impression they are a little disappointed by ours when they actually see inside.) Anyway, these South Africans recommended a campsite, Oewerburg River Camp, on the south side of the Orange River, only 10km or so away from the border crossing point. Given our delays in setting off we decided to make this our destination so headed off down the dirt road. When we found it, it was a lovely spot, with camp sites on the grassy bank down to the river and cosy looking bar. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be anyone around, apart from the cook who didn't speak English, and two gorgeous dogs (Rhodesian Ridgebacks crossed with a bunch of other stuff). We considered trying a different site, but then Rich saw the sign advertising pizza at the bar, and our decision to stay was made.

Eventually the owner turned up - a characterful and relaxed chap named Neville. He had just returned from picking up a family who had been canoeing down the river for a couple of days. Something, which if we ever returned to the area again, would be lovely thing to do. After setting up camp and having a quick, and rather muddy, swim in the river, we settled in for an evening at the bar. Here we got chatting to Hannes, river guide come photographer come barman for the evening. There was one of his books of wildlife photographs (Colours of Southern Africa) on the bar to flick through, and they really are beautiful. The photograph of him with his enormous zoom lens made me particularly jealous! He also is very knowledgeable about the area so he worked out a handy itinerary for us for our journey south. Particularly useful at this stage given we have no map and the Lonely Planet for Southern African basically doesn't cover any of this area. After quite a few G&Ts, our pizzas arrived which were a delicious alternative to all the camping food we have been eating recently.














After some brief mechanical help from Neville the next morning (turns out all the spare wheel lowering mechanism needed was some oil), we headed out onto the N7 south towards Cape Town. We called in at Springbok to get groceries and to visit the Springbok cafe, which reportable is the place to buy maps. Map successfully procured we continued south, turning off the main road after about 300km, in the direction of one of our recommended stops, Strandfontein. This appears to have been purposely built as a holiday town and occupies an attractive bay. Luckily for us, a large proportion of the seafront has been set aside for the municipal camp site. After some searching around the relatively deserted town (its getting a bit chilly for beach holiday) and some assistance from some helpful locals, we secured ourselves a seafront campsite, which comes with its own toilet block. We were just in time to pour a glass of wine as the sun was setting and catch a show from the resident pod of dolphins who were enjoying playing in the surf and doing some of the most amazing jumps and turns I've every seen.














From Strandfontein we continued down the coast to Lamberts Bay. There doesn't appear to be any public roads that run along the coast, so instead you have to pay a toll to use private roads. They are surprisingly pricey for what are essentially potholed dirt tracks. No problem for The Beast however; this is what he is made for.













Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and a damp coastal mist and settled in for the day. As Lambert's Bay is a reasonably large size town for the area, we had been advised to camp and Elands Bay, another 20mins or so down the coast. Given the weather this looked like a very bleak little hamlet. The campsite was right on the beach, and would perhaps have been lovely if sunny. On the day we were there it was desolate and very eerie, but it was probably too far to get to anywhere else that day, so we tried to settle in. We were the only campers, save for a group of grisly looking fishermen. We huddled inside The Beast, trying to stay warm and dry and not to think about what a great place this was to be murdered.

Fish River Canyon

Dropping down the B1 towards the South African boarder, the next major town is Keetmanshoop – there's not much to the town except a Spar and a Telecom Namibia office (we ended up paying a kid N$4 to 'watch' the car). Close to town is a quivertree forest; our destination for the evening.














The Quivertree Forest Restcamp also has a couple of enclosed cheetahs, which they feed at 4, and allow you to stroke them – Kirsten got in just in time. Unfortunately the wind had been gusting all day (making driving the camper-van a bit dodgy at times), and no sooner had the cats been fed, the storm arrived.














We made it back to the van before the heavens really opened, accompanied by a spot of lightening. The van was being buffered heavily by the wind, and it did make us glad (for the first time) not to be in a tent. The storm passed as quickly as it has come, and with it the wind died, leaving some rather nice sunset light on the quivertrees. It also seamed to bring out the most hellish looking insects – two inch long bodies, with evil high pitched squeaks, and as we found out when we ran a few over; luminous green guts.














The other attraction in the area (and owned by the same people) is the Giants Playground – a large area of basalt boulders seemingly piled up in large stacks. It makes for an unusual landscape, and is certainly worth a visit if you're in the area (the same can be said for so many tourist attractions). The 5km road out to the site from the campground was literally covered in the hell insects; every few seconds you'd crunch a few of the monsters, who seemed to be feeding on their fallen brethren.














The main draw card in southern Namibia is Fish River Canyon. Whist it is not as deep as the Grand Canyon (550m versus almost a mile), standing on the rim it is no less impressive. The canyon follows a meandering path, with many large loops which offer fantastic vistas.

We stopped at the main viewpoint (which is the only one many people see), then a couple of the others than are accessible in a 2-wheel drive. There is a 4x4 track that follows the canyon for 20km, and although we had a Land-Cruiser, it's also a camper-van, so we were a little nervous about taking it down; nevertheless we went for it. The track is mainly a bumpy gravel track, but there are a couple of steep section with large boulders, that any vehicle with low clearance would come a cropper on.















After a rattling journey out, the view from Eagle's Rock was simply sublime. From here you can see three giant loops in the river far below you. We passed only one car on the way out here (if we'd broken down we'd have been there a while), so maybe it's better they leave the road as it is, so you don't have to share the view with anyone else.















There is a hike that does the 90km stretch of the canyon floor between just above the main lookout, to where it starts to peter out at Ai-Ais; this takes 5 days and only runs in the winter months between May and September. We stayed in the Hobas campsite near the trail start, and drove down to Ai-Ais the next day – this was arduous enough. From Ai-Ais you can walk into the canyon, the floor of which consist of sand and (further up) large boulder fields; the hike is definitely for those seeking a physical challenge rather than those seeking constantly changing scenery.















We spend our final night in Namibia in a very nice camp site on the Orange river near the boarder crossing at Noordoewer. The couple next to us had driven their Nissan from Switzerland, down west Africa via Gibraltar in four months, and were planning on driving up east Africa back to Switzerland over the next eight (I'm always jealous of people who have more adventurous travel plans than us).















We woke up with the Orange river four metres behind the van, and had a leisurely breakfast before discovering another puncture. I set to work, but couldn't operate the high lift jack (this turned out to be a little knackered). With a borrowed jack from our Swiss friends (who knew what they were doing), we got the wheel off, but couldn't release the spare as the mechanism had rather rusted up. We tried to find the hole to no avail, and this collimated in me rolling the wheel down and into the river , and standing knee deep, submerging a type and looking for bubbles.















After all than effort we put the wheel back on, pumped it up, and drove 20km to the nearest garage, who fixed it for about four quid - in hindsight we could have saved a lot of effort. So, slightly later than planned, we crossed the boarder into South Africa.

Kalahari

To be honest when I first saw our new hire car, which we now affectionately call “The Beast”, I was somewhat daunted. We had struggled to find a rental company that had a suitable vehicle available who would do a one-way hire from Windhoek to Cape Town so we jumped at the first one we found. Having seen it, I'm not entirely sure I would class it as suitable. It is what is referred as Bushcamper, which is a Toyota Land-Cruiser (i.e. a yute or pickup truck) with a large fibreglass box bolted to the back. We've seen some pretty swish looking ones as we have been driving around Namibia, with plushly fitted out interiors and extendable roofs providing extra headroom. However, ours looks rather elderly with a very dusty interior, a bed with about a foot headroom and two foot long cracks in the window screen. Oh, well she is to be our home for the next two weeks, so we better learn to love her.















After the very lengthy handover procedure (it's amazing how much stuff they cram into these hire cars), we headed to the supermarket for supplies. This proved very well stocked and we were pleased to see that The Beast was still in the car park when we were done. How much this had to do with the couple of dollars we have to the security guards (you can't park your car anywhere with out an unofficial guard offering to watch your car) or the fact the car looks like a bit of wreck. Finally with our matching caps with the car's “Just Done It” logo on (they were a free gift with the car) we headed south out of Windhoek, feeling that the caption really was a little premature.














After the mad long drives of the last week, we had decided to take it a little easier, so made our first night's stop, after about an hour, at Lake Oanob Resort near the town of Rehoboth. We had a peaceful campsite by the lake, which was created by the construction of Namibia's highest dams. It was good to have a few hours before dark to relax and a treat to be near water after so much desert.

After a leisurely start we continued our journey south with another easy drive to Mariental, and the nearby Kalahari Anib Lodge which you can guess by its name is on the edge of the Kalahari. Mariental is the administrative hub of the region is a reasonably seizable (by Namibia standards) bustly and very dusty place. We stopped in town at the supermarket to pick up supplies, were again pleased to see the car had not been nicked, however when Richard went to start the engine nothing happened, not even a murmur. Rich opened the bonnet to find smoke coming from the battery. Now, I'm not an expert on cars, but I don't think that's a good sign. Luckily we were right next to a garage and within moments of Rich enquiring the car was surrounded by five or so mechanics proffering jump leads. There conclusion was the battery was stuffed, but they soon had us started and instructed us to follow one of there guys across town to the man who sold batteries. He also, concluded the batter was screwed, in fact so much so it was likely to explode and leak acid across the engine. He was very helpful, but unfortunately out of stock of batteries. He directed us down the road to someone else, who was, like everyone else in town by this stage, out for lunch, it being 1pm.














We returned in the afternoon and luckily our battery was in stock and soon The Beast was purring like a rhinoceros again. We also managed to find the Namibia Telecom office, which in smaller towns is the only place to get internet, so Rich was very happy.















The drama of the day successfully resolved we were able to settle in to our lovely private campsite, with uninterrupted views of the Kalahari. The Kalahari Desert is quite different to the sand dune deserts we have seen so far in Namibia. This is because it actually gets too much rain to be technically classified as a desert and as a result is surprisingly green and can support a reasonable amount of game. The campsite, is part of a pleasant resort so, as we were staying for two nights we actually got some time sat by the pool relaxing. The second night we took part in the sundowner game drive. Unfortunately, a bus load of elderly German had just arrived. They were in very high spirits and making such a racket I think they scared most of the game away. We did see some springbok, wildebeest and also some hartebeest, but not a patch on Etosha. However, the free flowing drinks and a spectacular sunset over the Kalahari compensated for this. They really do know how to do sundowners here.

AfriCat

We waived the chance of another early morning game drive in favour of a lie-in, and pulled in at Outjo for some more apple strudel just before lunch. Today's destination, and Judith's last night in Namibia, was Okonjima, home of the AfriCat project.















AfriCat's aim is to rescue and rehabilitate large cats, principally cheetahs, which tend to get shot by farmers. The project funds itself, by providing very high levels of accommodation - we were camping, although even that was a private camp ground, with flush toilets and rather nice outdoor showers. However, it was made very clear to us that we would need to be self-sufficient, and were not welcome at the lodge for dinner; that may have more to do with not having us drive at night (and killing their cats), rather than keeping out the riff-raff.














Shortly after we'd pitched the tents, our safari Land Rover turned up with three guides (perhaps two too many). First off was the cheetahs, seven of which live in a 25 hectare enclosure, in preparation for (possible) release into a much larger and tougher enclosure, followed by eventual release into the wild. Previous cheetahs have not faired so well, not knowing their proper pecking order in the world - one was killed by a oryx (gemsbok) and another by a giraffe, while two more were killed while trying to scavenge food off leopards.













After driving around the enclosure a while, we finally came across two males lazying in the late afternoon sun. They seemed completely undaunted by the guide pulling the Land Rover up right next to them (this may not bode well for their release) – one of them eventually did a bit of a stretch and walked off.













Next was the only enclosed leopard – this was hand reared from birth, having been rescued from a farm, and couldn't cut it in the (semi) wild. It was given a large slab of donkey, and did the proper leopard thing of taking it up a tree to eat. We spend the next 15 minutes watching it eat and make powerful crunching noises – they are considerable bigger than their cheetah cousins.

One of the most endangered of Africa's mammals is the wild dog - almost impossible to see in the wild. The project (for reasons I forget) had a small pack of these dogs in captivity, which were making very undog-like noises; they don't bark so much as emit a high pitched squeak. They are however, pretty spectacular creatures, with swathes of different coloured fur earning them the title of the painted dogs of Africa. After watching them for ten minutes or so Kirsten was very keen to take one home.
















Shortly after dark, two guys turned up with a walkie-talkie for us, in the event of an emergency (I don't think running out of gin counted). The project covers some 22,000 hectares, and contains many oryx, steenbok, kudo, warthogs and (apparently) giraffes, along with the big cats. It's possible to do leopard tracking with a guide, and some great leopard wildlife shots come from this.
















We got Judith safely to the airport (she subsequently had a 12 hour delay in Jo'burg), and returned the car in Windhoek - they ripped us off for a 'damaged' tyre, but failed to notice the missing gas cylinder, so I didn't complain too hard. The guesthouse (Puccini House) was a relaxed place set around a pool, and it was a shame we only stayed one night; we had a great dinner at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Excellence (NICE), just around the corner. In the morning a South African lady turned up with our Land-Crusier Bushcamper – she'd drove it up from Cape Town in 2 days, we were going to take 2 weeks getting it back down there.

Etosha

Just a few moments inside the gates and we had our first game spot. It was only zebra and springbok, but despite them being very common here, they are still beautiful animals and quite exciting when you have not seen them in the wild before which Rich and Mum had not. Anyway, we were keen to find more interesting animals, so based on a report of a lion kill in the logbook, we headed straight out on our first game drive, up north to the Okondeka waterhole. Unfortunately other than a few jackals and vultures feasting on a dead zebra, there was not much going on, and as you have to get to your rest camp before sunset, we started the drive back. Just as we were beginning to think there was nothing to be see except zebra and springbok, a giraffe appeared on the horizon, and completed unfazed by our presence crossed the road behind our car and headed off into the sunset.














Our base for our two night stay at Etosha was the Okaukuejo Rest Camp, not far from the Andersson Gate. We had splashed out on a two bedroom family chalet which after camping was a luxurious treat, especially given the four poster beds and ornately folded bath towels. One of the advantages of staying here is that it has one of the best waterholes in the park, which you can sit by at any time of day or night as it is floodlit. Outside of the rest camps you are not allowed to get out of your car (and after seeing a couple of lions you have not desire to), so it is nice to have easy access to somewhere you can sit outside and watch at leisure. We therefore used this as an opportunity to sip our G&Ts watching the zebra drink form the waterhole as the sun set.















After dinner at the restaurant (I decided I needed a night off from cooking over an open fire) we headed back the waterhole and were greeted by a crowd of people madly snapping and flashing away. Finally we worked out that the cause of the excitement was a dark grey mass by the waterhole which was on closer inspection was a black rhino. This was a great end to the day, although it's not clear the rhino enjoyed to paparazzi treatment.

The next morning we headed off soon after dawn to see what we could find. Top of my list were lions, and miraculously about twenty minutes in we turned a corner to find a lioness with 3 cubs walking down the middle of the road towards us. They crept back in to the grass, and quickly disappeared, only to reappear behind the car - they seemed to be using the road as a handy route through a very thick patch of thorny bushes. Rich turned the car around, and we followed them for sometime at a respectful distance and they didn't seem at all bothered by us – awesome.














From after breakfast to lunch we didn't have so much luck, perhaps this was because I was driving. I blame mum and Rich who were meant to be acting as spotters. No sooner did Rich take over and we found 7 giraffe which crossed the road directly in front of us followed swiftly by a black rhino and a herd of wildebeest.














In the evening I had signed us up for the three hour night safari drive. As you are not allowed to drive yourself in the park at night this the only way to get out and about. We were prepared for it being chilly in our open top vehicle so took fleeces, but this was not enough and we spent the entire three hours close to hypothermia. Things stared well with male and female lion pretty close to the road, but then after two hours with nothing but owls we were starting to feel a little disheartened (this showing you owls is a standard trick when the guide can't find more interesting animal, I've seen it before). We did find two black rhino, but these were really too far away to be anything more than black shadows.

Having been to Etosha before myself, I would recommend trying to go nearer the end of the dry season (October). At the moment it is just the start of the dry (and apparently there was more rain than usual this wet season). This means that the animals don't need to come to the waterholes as much, so are more dispersed throughout the park. When I was here last time there were literally hundreds of animals at the Okaukuejo waterhole, and I saw at least 30 elephants, which this time were unfortunately very elusive. Overall, however, our experience at Etosha was great. It really is quite exciting driving yourself around and not knowing what is going to be around the next corner.

The Skeleton Coast

The Skeleton Coast is so called because if a ship was wrecked on the shifting sand banks off the coast (and many were), all the surviving sailors had to look forward to was a certain death in the waterless desert. Kirsten's mother (Judith) took control of the Nissan Beast (it does an impressive 6km/l while sounding like a tank), along the salt road following the coast north. The shore is dotted with evenly spaced toilet blocks serving the coastal camp site – apparently South Africans and Namibians like to come here to sea fish; they must really like their fishing to camp out here.














Twenty miles or so north of Swakopmund is the 'town' of Wlotzasbaken – perhaps one of the oddest looking places on earth. There are around 100 brightly painted houses spread around the desert, each with its own water tower, serving as holiday homes for the fishing mad. As we drove though the town it seemed deserted, save for the odd 4x4 parked in a drive. Further along the coast a modern wreck lay listing to starboard 30 metre from shore. Nearby, many bearded men were sea fishing from in front of their 4x4s parked on the beach.














The road inland to Uis is an almost straight dirt track across the desert - the telegraph poles that follow the road disappear into the distant mirage, looking like they are floating above the horizon. This part of Namibia is noticeably more poor; people try to flag you down to their roadside stalls selling semi-precious stones, and at the petrol station in Uis the car was quickly surrounded by people selling their wares.















Our destination for the evening was the Xaragu camp site in Damaraland; notable for its vulgar baboon on a chain. Although if you can overlook this, the setting is beautiful. Along the way women stood bare breasted, enticing you to stop for a photo-opt. Heading back east you hit the town of Outjo on the main road from Windhoek to Etosha. This has a rather good German bakery (with free WiFi), together with a collect of tourist gift shops. From here we reached the gates of Etosha National Park around mid-afternoon.

Swakopmund

Fuelled up and with fresh ice in the coolbox, we joined the dust cloud convoy moving north to Solitaire – the first place to refuel and get coffee. Here a dozen or so 4x4 were parked up, along with six middle-aged guys doing their trans-africa on motorbikes, and a couple of brave souls in salon cars.















North of Solitaire the scenery becomes stereotypically African – vast planes of grassland, punctuated by craggy hills. The picture cried out for huge herds of wildebeest, but alas all our game sightings turned out to be misshaped trees or rocks. We had lunch at the only shaded picnic spot for miles, just after one overland tour had left, and getting the table just before another arrived - dozens of tours run this route; we'll be doing one from Jo'burg to Nairobi in June/July, but for now we can be smug about being independent travellers.














Turning back towards the coast at Walvis Bay, the land rapidly becomes drier, transforming into an almost lunar landscape. Close to Walvis Bay is Dune 7 – one of the Swakopmund area's main dune based activity centres. Pretty soon we (meaning I) were sold into a 45 minute quad-bike dune safari. Kirsten and I, together with the guide zoomed off and up a dune. It was at this point that Kirsten saw down the dune, and decided enough was enough. After some persuasion she got on the back of the guide's bike, and again we took off, up and down dunes, and doing the rather disconcerting manoeuvre where you shoot up a very steep dune, turn the bike across the slop, slide a bit, then turn back down the slope. Kirsten did much of this with her eyes shut, starving the guide of much needed oxygen.















After the exhilaration of quad-biking, it was time for the more relaxed pursuit of Zorbing. I couldn't persuade Kirsten to climb into a giant inflatable ball with me, so alone I was pushed down a small dune, in a ball containing about 20 litres of blue coloured water. The effect, I guess, is similar to being in a washing machine.















Swakopmund is only 20 miles along the coast from Walvis Bay – this is the start of the Skeleton Coast, a bleak coastal desert running for several hundred miles up to and beyond the Angolan boarder. Swakopmund itself is a relaxed town, which gave us a night in a real bed, a decent meal out, and the chance to buy a replacement number-10 gas cylinder.