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.