Fish River Canyon

Fish River Canyon is the destination of a long drive day (640km).  The canyon is the 2nd largest in the world (the Grand Canyon is first).  It measures 160 km in length and 27 km wide at the widest spot.  It’s 550 km deep.  The scenery of the area reminded us of Arizona, with high, [...]

No sushi in the desert

We drove through Namib Naukluft Park on the way to our desert walk in Sesriem (gateway to Sossusvlei).  The dunes are numbered from the sea inland, and are some of the highest in the world.  There are many types of dunes as well.  The Namib dunes shift with the winds giving them the desgnation “dynamic [...]

Sandboard Namibia

Clearly Swakopmund is a tourist town. Hotel managers, activities instructors and shop-keepers all wait for the next crop of tourists to roll in be it on overland trucks or in group tours from Germany (most likely). Tourists are ripe for the picking, too, looking for adventure and ready to embrace a new experience.  At the [...]

Swakkie Parasail

Swakopmund is truly an adrenaline capital, and our trip optional activities included sand boarding, quad biking, fishing, sky-diving, sea kayak, etc.  We chose para-sailing for our first activity.  It was a great experience, though hiking up the dunes in a harness laden down with glider wasn’t easy.  After a brief instruction from the pro, we started [...]

Cape Cross Seals and on to Swapokmund

The Cape Cross Seal Colony is a breeding reserve for the Cape fur seals who lay and play along the shore.  Seals are truly smelly, but it was fun to watch their antics: fighting, nursing, barking, swimming. 
We continued down the Skeleton Coast (named for all the shipwrecks dotting the shores).  The seas are trecherous, and [...]

Spitzkoppe Bushman Paradise

We spent the night bush camping near Spitzkoppe, a huge collection of boulders and rock formed by the collpse of a huge volcano and subsequent erosion.  Spitzkoppe is now called the Matterhorn of Namibia.  The landscape was striking, and reminded us a great deal of Arizona or southern Utah.  There were some bushman rock paintings under one of [...]

Okuhepa Is Thank You

The Himba are a semi-nomadic people who lived mostly in northern Namibia’s Kaokoland.  They herd cattle and goats, moving from place to place with the sesons.  The houses they build are left behind when they move, and sometimes reused when they return.   The Himba have fairly successfully resisted outside influence, and still live in a [...]

Outjo and Onward

We stocked up on provisions at Outjo(settled in 1880).  There was a yummy German bakery there, and lunch was sausage rolls and meat pies. Mmmm.  By late afternoon we reached the Cheetah Park.  This conservation project is run by a farming family.  The boys of the family grew up there, and have taken over most [...]

Lion by the Pool

Our morning game drive highlight was a close encounter with a lion.  We had seen a few from a distance, including a male clearly annoyed his female companion had strayed so far.  Around the corner, the same male crossed the road just in front of and then just in back of the truck.  We got [...]

Halali

Our next camp was Halali, set in an area of dolomite outcrops and with it’s own floodlit waterhole.  It was dustier and more spread out than Namutoni, and our site made for some rather large lumps under the tent. 
Etosha’s wildlife was again truly remarkable.  The park is much smaller than it was originally, but Lonley [...]