Marc & Lizzie's Great Adventure: December 2012

We left cold wet London for Jo’burg, and then on to Windhoek as there are no direct flights. We had no idea what to expect, as I (Marc) had only been to South Africa, and Liz had never set foot on the continent. Two uneventful flights later, we passed through the tiny Windhoek International airport and made for our hotel. Our first impressions were how hot it is, what a lovely garden full of birds the hotel had. After a powernap and a swim it was off into the centre of Windhoek, for dinner. Joe’s Bierhaus was recommended to us, and for good reason. It’s a really cool restaurant where the indoors and outdoors blend seamlessly. We had our first taste of Africa animal, both living and on a plate; We ate Oryx steak (a mountain antelope that tastes like Vension) and while we were enjoying the food, to our surprise, a mongoose wandered into the restaurant.

Next morning we met our travel agent and picked up our rental car - a 4x4 pick up – and hit the road. The 4x4 part would later come in rather handy. After an hour with the luxury of tarmac, the roads turned to gravel. Most Namibian roads are gravel, but on the smoothest ones you can drive at about 60mph. The distances are also vast. It’s uncommon to come to a town less than an hour from the previous one. On that first drive we saw baboons, ostrich, and springbok.

Four hours later we arrived at Zebra River Lodge, set amongst the Tsaris mountains. As we were greeted with a complimentary drink, Liz cried out ‘Macie’. The owner had an 11 week old Pug puppy called Bella. (Liz’s niece has a very similar pug pup called Macie).

We were both amazed what a luxurious place it was. We knew there was a pool, but we didn’t know we’d have a lovely little stone built room set in a beautiful garden.

We enjoyed a wonderful evening. Dinner was served on a veranda overlooking a watering hole. The food was great, and after dinner the staff sang some traditional songs for the guests (all 7 of us). Once the sun set, we were treated to the most amazing sky. The stars are so much brighter and so many more are visible than in Europe with all our light pollution. We could even see Jupiter’s moons through a normal pair of binoculars. Then some visitors came to the watering hole – some Kudu, a warthog, and finally two zebra which looked almost ghost-like under the lights by the watering hole. We also watched an eagle owl up close in the garden of the lodge, flying around looking for dinner.

Next day we joined the owner and his kids on an early morning walk. We bounced along some very rough roads in his truck, then walked along a dried-up river bed for an hour to a beautiful, lush canyon with several turquoise pools where we all had a well-deserved dip to cool off. By the time we got back to the lodge it was seriously hot, which is why siesta’ing is popular here. But there was siesta for us. We had to drive to our next accommodation, a desert camp.

‘Desert camp’ doesn’t really do it justice. We had a simple, part canvas chalet with a brai (BBQ) outside on the veranda, but the view was incredible, across the grass plains to the Tsaris mountains 10 miles or so in the distance. Whilst swimming in the pool we watched an Oryx make its stately way to the watering hole. That night we BBQ’d Kudu and Eland steaks which were delicious, and had an early night because next day we had to be up early. That night we needed to have an early night (which we did) and sleep really well (which we didn’t)

Next Day we 4 x4’ed off into the sun rise to visit Sossusvlei within the Namib-Nauklauf National Park! I can’t remember last time I set the alarm for 4:45am. We were at the gate by 5.40 having collected our picnic hamper from a local hotel, this turned out to be enough food for a small army! At 6 they let us in and we drove the 64km to the first major, and accessible dune. The last 5km were in sand. Low and behold we got stuck, but after letting out some air from our tires we were on our merry way, with a bit of help from Liz pushing us! Why do I always get the good jobs ;) The views were increasingly stunning as we went along and we saw the odd Oryx and impala along the way. We arrived at the huge dune and started our assent, which took about 40 minutes. Quite hard going as we went higher and higher. The views were amazing and as far as the eyes can see. Oranges, apricots and golden sand dunes wow, what a place! The views over Dead Vlei were beautiful too. As you can see (from the pic) it is a white pan area made of dried out clay and salt with dead camel thorn trees protruding out from it. It’s a photographers dream with the dunes in the background. We admired the panoramic view at the top then ran, walked and jostled down the sand dune to investigate Dead Vlei. By now it was around 9am and we began to notice the rise in temperature. But the place was too beautiful to miss exploration and photo opportunity! By the time we began to make our way back to the car the mercury had began to rise…we had ignored instruction to wear closed toed walking boots and this was when we began to regret it. The sand became hotter and hotter on our 30 mins return journey. By the time we arrived at the car Liz especially was incredibly hot and panicky. I think I said “I would have died if we’d had to carry on for 5 more minutes”. Never have I been happier for air conditioning and a bottle of frozen water…In my panic I dropped my sandal and we had to drive back through the 5km of sand to retrieve it. On the upside we had a stunning picnic hamper under the tree J all’s well that ends well! Seriously, we knew it got hot in the desert but by 10am, really?!!!

On the way back to the lodge we stopped off to see the Seisrem Gorge, which is impressive but by then it was too hot to hang around….and needless to say we spent the evening gazing into the horizon with a delicious salad, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and listening to the calls of the wild. Bliss!