Adventures in Namibia

Namibia is one of the least poplulated countries in the world, with about 1 person per square kilometer - yes, I'm getting sort of used to the metric system. Most of the country is desert and it is very German, with lots of German named towns. We started our tour here around Etosha National Park. We were very happy to find great swimming pools at our campsites, staying at one on each end of the park for a night. Since Etosha is mostly desert, the game viewing here was different then other parks we've been to. While we saw lots of Giraffe all over, the best place to spot most of the other animals was at the watering holes. At one hole, we saw giraffe, sringbok, oryx, jackels, elephant, zebra and warthogs all at once. In the evening we could watch a waterhole right from the campsites. That was great, even with the noisy German tourists. We watched some white rhinos for quite some time before they left and other animals came for a drink.

The next night we spent at a cheetah farm. Actually got to pet some of them! Only the tame ones, and only while the owner or his son were holding on to their leash. That was still kind of nerve-wracking. The son than grabbed my beanie hat off my head and used it as a toy to tease one the cheetahs. Got it back with no teeth marks, just cheetah spit. It was then time for the wild cheetahs to be fed. We all piled into the back of pick-ups and went for a ride around the farm. Soon cheetah were following us, knowing that lunch was not far off. We were lucky (?) that were had the bucket of food on our truck. Mario, the son, did the feeding by throwing pieces of meat (I think donkey, but didn't really want to know) to each cat, making them wait their turn. One eager cat jumped up on the hood of our truck, but didn't bother anyone. Quite a close encounter though. We got to see baby cubs when we got back by the campsite. Didn't get too close to the cage, as the mother was very protective. The cheetah farm is trying to protect the wild cheetahs of Namibia, but is having a hard time. The government tells the farmers that have problems with cheetahs to shoot them and it is actually illegal for Mario and his father to buy them from the farmers. They are trying to raise money to increase the size of the farm and be able to save more cheetahs. Seems strange that elephants are a protected species but not cheetah when there are far fewer cheetah left in the world. Also, no live cheetah are allowed to leave the country, but 150 skins can every year. They are working on a new website for the farm, but could really use the help of a web designer - if anyone's interested, let me know.

From there we went north to visit a Himba village. The Himba people still live a very traditional nomadic life, living in mud huts. The women cover their skin with vasoline mixed with ochre, giving it a very beautiful color and protecting it from the harsh sun.

After that, Jacko and Jane (our driver and tour leader) decided to try a new route trhough the desert. That turned out to be quite an adventure. We got stuck in the sand - good thing we now have lots of guys on the truck! and also got a flat tire. After several hours we figured out we weren't on the road we thought we were. We stopped just before dark and camped just off the road. The next morning we kept on going. We didn't get far before the sand got very deep and we were once again stuck. Jane and a passenger walked to a local village while the guys dug us out. Some of the villagers came back and also a safari jeep came by. We found ou the road was to get much worse before it got better and Jacko made the hard decision to go back. This meant 8 hours of driving just to get back to where we were. It was a very long day, and for Jacko a very long night as well. While alot of us slept on the truck, he drove until 2am, than was up again at 6 for still another long drive to keep us on track.

We stopped to see million year old rock paintings and also the largest known meteorite in the world. Than we drove down the skeleton coast. Some of the landscape looked more like the moon than the coast. Many ships have wrecked off the coast, giving it it's name. It's a very harsh area and many sailors died on land if they survived the wreck. We did see the remains of a wreck from 1976. Everyone survived that one. Next was Cape Cross, which is full of cape fur seals.

We spent 3 nights in the coastal town of Swakopmund. Nice treat to have a room and a bed. There are huge sand dunes and I decided to give sandboarding a try. They use snowboards but it's easier on the sand and much softer to fall in. I thought I did pretty well for my first time, fell of course, but boarded down quite a bit of the dune. The really hard part was walking back up - that was killer! They also had flat boards to ride down laying on your stomach. These were really fun. Very fast - up to 80kph, and the dunes were much steeper. The wind kicked up and sand was everywhere. Especially in my camera, which I was very stupid to bring along and just have in my jacket pocket that I left on the dune. It's in the shop right now, as it quit working. Hopefully soon to be fixed.

The next morning I went on a dolphin cruise. We went out on large speed boats. Saw lots of dolphin and even more seals. We had seals jump right up in our boat! 3 different ones were supposed to, but another one jumped up, wouldn't get off and kept nudging the captain. They are huge animals and we had to wait for it to tire of us and get back in the water. I spent to afternoon hanging out on the beach. Funny being at the Atlantic ocean, when not long ago we were on the Indian ocean.

The next morning drove further down the coast and camped in yet another German campsite. Climbed up a dune to watch the sunset. The dunes in this are are deeper in color and very beautiful, some a rusty orange and some almost red. We got up early to watch the sunrise over the dunes and take a guided walk. We than drove further down the coast to Fish River Canyon, the 3rd largest canyon in the world. Doesn't quite compare to the Grand Canyon, but still quite spectacular. Another beautiful sunset following by sunrise over the canyon. Watching the sky doesn't ever seem to get tiring.

Next, on to South Africa!