Namibia sea, desert and mountains

Namibia Camping Trip

Click on the photo above to get 55 pictures of Namibia camping.

Luxury accommodation.Di

Dining and sleeping in the back of the car

Dave bogged the car

Our camping area for the night on a german speaking farm

Intercape bus to Swakopmund. Leaves almost three hours late as we were waiting for the bus from Cape Town. Drive through red hot deserty mountain landscape to cool Swakopmund on the Atlantic. We have crossed Africa east to west. Paavo takes us to Auriols house, a beautiful old place. Look at the ocean from the lounge, a bit like the Cliffs hotel in Blackpool.

Sat morning and Paavo takes us to get fishing licences and then to Walvis Bay to meet Peter and his brother Mike. Four wheel drive along windswept wild beach. Too windy to catch fish. Back towards Swakop and a more sheltered spot in front of sand dunes. Youngmi catches a baby shark. Amazing. Walk up into big red sand dunes for sun set.

Sunday start with lunch in german restaurant the Europ Hof. Youngmi chooses well with schweinhaxe or pigs leg. Try fishing but huge waves crashing on beach and pier. Dodge waves to reach a smart restaurant at the end of pier and indulge in oysters and wine.

Monday stroll around this modern, german type town until we find a car to hire. 4 wheel drive nissan ute we can sleep in the back of. German sausage dinner in house with Peter. So pleasant.

Car arrives in early afternoon, we load camping gear, food and water. Peter says it looks like rain but that it never rains. Drive down dirt road past moon landscape to Bloedkopje. Herd of zebra and lots of gembok to be seen. Along four wheel drive track to Groote Tinkas a bush camping place next to a rock overhang. No one else anywhere to be seen. Shelter of rock gets us out of the strong wind. Lots of lightening. Glad to lock ourselves in back of ute and go to sleep. Very heavy showers in night but wild animals came visiting.

Early morning we continue on 4 wheel drive track which disappears sometimes so we were very nervous. Eventually the track gets better and we drive quickly seeing lots of magnificent big gemboks with long straight horns. More rain. Look at Kuisib gorge then lunch at Solitaire including Moose's apple crumble.Divert from our sand dunes plan as rain getting heavier and go to Naukluft ntional park.Big mountains and big rain. Cooking sausages in the rain when  a baboon grabs our kettle. Retrieve the damaged pot. Next morning the baboon sneaks in the back of the car and grabs a carrier bag which fortunately just has washing up in. Hard work in baboon land.

Auriol phoned next day as we drive through mountains on wet dirt roads to say weather forecast is better. Get on campground in Sossusvlei park. Dry everything we have in the sun then drive 65kms in park to 4 wheel drive only sign. Continue in deep sand doing well until we are stuck. Dave driving. Youngmi jumps out with the spade Peter gave us and digs the wheels out. With help from two people who give us a push we are off again.

Park at the end of the track on a dry pan surrounded by giant sanddunes. Climb one and sit happily on top until a minor sand storm makes us nervous and sandy. Run down in soft sand great fun. Drive back to deadvlei and climb another dune. See people really high up nearing the top of big daddy.Looks like Mallory and Irving near top of Everest

Dinner in campsite restaurant was baboon free. Try for sunrise at Dune 45 next morning but see it from road instead. 2 hour walk including big climb up a back dune then walk along knife edge of sand to top of 45. Wonderful in sun.

Drive north for rest of the day through changing lands and colours. In dry mountain lands watch giraffes. Just reading in our guide book that some guest houses are german speaking and some english speakers may prefer to go elsewhere. See a campsite sign and drive down a lonely track thinking of Wolf Creek and mysterious germans. We shout hello a few times at a locked house and then an old lady appears saying Guten abend! She is friendly. We are on the only people on the campground. It is beautiful with firewood and hot showers. The hot water is heated by wood and an afrikaner guy brings a black guy in the back of his ute to light the fire. Great night.

On to Usakos where there is a church brai or bbq. As Youngmi said the characters recognised each other and we had a good time with one old timer going on about the war, the Boer war. On past Spitskopje big granite mountain. Lots of local people living in shacks and trying to sell gems and crafts to passng tourists. Long drive to Uis, past Brandberg to khorixas for petrol. A slightly rough looking place. On along a valley with isolated mountains. Stop for petrified forest then pass other petrified forests,the original, the best etc take your pick. Saw a welchwilia plant hundreds of years old and only two leaves but look like more.

Twyflfontaine campground good. Dave lights stove which we had refilled earlier. Flames everywhere and the singed Dave dives under a tap with water running on his face. Youngmi and two ladies run over and put burn pad on his face. The chef at the campground recommends Dr Khoosals treatment of toothpaste and this helps heaps.bNext day much better. Good old toothpaste. One of ladies rica? went to school on Namibia with Peter.

See the rock art at Twyflfontaine. Lots of carvings in a gorgeous rocky valley. Red hot. Drive the dirt roads for a fewhours back to Uis. Road then flat and sandy to Henties Bay. Cold, grey dump. Salt road back to Swakop stopping to see a ship wreck. Almost Skeleton coast.

Get car back safely by 6pm and then Dave settles into the bath for the evening. Four days of relaxing and walking on the beach before bus back to Windhoek. Have more oysters on the pier but pass on Zebra steak

Sosusvlei

Boerwurst at the local Brai

Petrified forest in Northern Namibia

Dr Khoosal's advice and good luck saved me after the gas stove blew up in my face. Toothpaste saved my skin

Namibia , Windhoek

Windhoek, Namibia

9am bright sun, modern buildings and Windhoek. A car collected us for Chameleon backpackers and we took two dorm beds. 18 private rooms were all full. Lovely clean place with a pool, bar and great kitchen. Walked 5mins to shopping centre and went in a big outdoor store Cymot. The manager a white namibian guy is very welcoming and shows us around. We have a great coffee and brotchen in their coffee bar and the manager then helps us to find Auriol Ashby who Dave was at university with almost 40 years ago!!!.He finds her on facebook we send a message and hope for the best. Look around the very modern city centre, old german church, dinner in craft shop and back to hostel before dark. Bottle of wine and chat to Frank in the evening. Very enjoyable.

Move from dorm to a very fancy room next day. Tour city again including old fort. See two wonderful looking african ladies who are covered in red ochre and fat to protect them from the sun and wearing nothing above the waist. Auriol calls the hostel in the afternoon and says she will come to pick us up. She takes us her beautiful home about 10mins drive away and introduced us to her husband Peter Mueller, duaghter Helen, a visiting german girl, two dogs and a cat. The dogs keep walking out of the back of the house then coming around to the front and knocking on the door. We all drink tea while Peter keeps asking for a cup. Walk around Alvis Dam which is very nice in the setting sun. Fish, salad and white wine for dinner -very nice then a south american slide show from Helen who has recently been there for four months.

Peter and Auriol tell us lots of places to visit in Namibia and offer to lend their camping gear. We are assured that it is unusual for elephants to walk on the tent. Peter drove us home at 10pm and the streets were completely deserted. This must be why the advice is not to walk around after dark.

Swakopmund

Chameleon had no rooms for next night so we checked the cardboard box hostel. You were lucky I lived in a cardboard box. Not our favourite place and luckily Auriol offerred us a room Auriol collected us from the Chameleon backpackers in a wonderful old citroen. Many admiring looks for the old girl. Lunch at Chateau Auriol with Venta and Petrus with conversation in english, africans and ovambo. Used a washing machine for the first time in 5 weeks.To the theatre in the evening for a great musical by local kids. Dinner and drinks at the theatre after with Sandy the theatre director. She is planning a Namibian version of Inspector Calls by JB Priestly ,one of Daves favourites.Then to a Windhoek music venue, lots of people and great fun. Bus next morning to Swakopmund

Zambia

We were so well looked after by Mr and Mrs Cho at the Korea Garden Lodge. 5.30am Mrs Cho drove us to Lilongwe bus station. Luckily it was just coming light. The bus station looked as rough as ever but this time with fires for people to sit around and lots of fish being sold from mats on the ground. The bus was the best we had seen in Malawi which was lucky as it was going for 14 hours to Lusaka. People and luggage in the aisle but we left at 6am with gospel music playing.no stops for the 100kms to the border, looks good but then everyone out and all the luggage and then the luggage wouldn't go back in. 2 hours to clear the border then to Chipata.

We got out at a modern shopping area and sat down to recover. ATM dispensed Zambia Kwacha so we had money. How to we get to South Luangwa game park?Taxi to bus station then minibus.

Minibus looked almost full so we bought tickets then waited 1.5hours while "doorman" found more passengers and squeezed them in. Usual problems when we set off. Stop for petrol, find the tyre is flat, drive around looking for air line, luggage falls off roof and out of the back door. Three hours after setting off we have done 100kms and reached Marula Lodge. 12 hours from lilongwe for 230kms. We were fed up.

We were greeted by Douglas who took us to the restaurant, gave us a drink, said they had rooms and tents and showed us the river in the moonlight. We were given a really nice room for the price of a tent. We were no longer fed up. While we had dinner and chatted to Mike and Jenny who ran the place we were visited by elephants and hippos. Amazing. After dark we always had to wait for one of the staff to take us to or from our rooms to make sure we didnt get killed by the wildlife.

Five wonderful days followed. Sit by the riverbank watching hippos, elephants, crocodiles and birds. Swim in the pool, chat to the other guests including Jenny, Ben and Andrew from Melbourne. No one wanted to know the aussie election result.

6am one morning we went on a walking safari with a guide and an armed ranger. Crocodiles, birds, hippos, impala,zebra etc.So nice. We also had three driving safaris where we saw loads of animals including lions either sleeping or eating zebra leg,wilderbeest, lots of warthogs, cobra, mongoose, a leopard in the darkness walking through trees and eventually a leopard right next to the track. So many animals in such a beautiful place.

We went with Jenny to the little Mfuwe airport for the ATM. Dave got money and the machine ate Youngmis card. Edna at the airport said we should be OK for standby tickets to Lusaka next day and the bank would be open for Youngmi to get her card back. Both were right. On the drive back to the lodge we saw lots of little villages made of grass and mud huts, just like the pictures we had seen. We also saw ladies who had dug a hole in the dry river bed to reach water in which they were doing their laundry.

Marula Lodge and the South Luangwa game park were wonderful.

South Luangwa,Zambia

Good one hour flight on 29 seat plane to Lusaka. Wait four hours at Lusaka airport for possible standby flight to Livingstone but it gets full and at 4pm taxi to Flintstones backpackers in centre. Cheap beer at backpackers but otherwise no good. Lusaka a dump except for big modern shopping centres. Bus station full of characters and we book tickets for next day with Shalom bus co which is said to be OK. Before bus ride walk around Lusaka which is hot, dusty, full of rubbish then take refuge in a shopping centre.
Bus ride is better than any in Africa so far and gets us to Livingstone about 9pm. Taxi to Jollyboys backpackers. Friendly, relaxed place.

Victoria Falls

Look around town and sit by the pool. Everyday for weeks has been hot and sunny and so it continues. Check out Fawlty Towers back packers but not so relaxed.

Day trip to Victoria Falls. Walk around view points and see three big falls plunging into the gorge. In the wet season the falls are 1.7kms wide but in the dry we could walk part way across the top of the falls. Visited the Royal Livingstone Hotel, Very fancy with Zebras and impalas in the grounds and a beautiful swimming pool in parkland leading to the Zambezi river. Said to be $700 ppn. After a beer back to the falls and the long descent through palm trees to the boiling pot. on the top walk past a giant baboon which a few minutes later attacks a lady and rips apart her back pack looking for food.

Next day in Livingstone visit rail, jewish and Livingstone museums and go for a beer at the golf club, The story of Edward prince of wales staying there in 1927 was a good read. Dinner at Olgas with Klaus and Kristen who we met at the falls.

Book the intercape bus from Livingstone to Windhoek for next day. 1500kms, 20 hours and $65. Sounds too good to be true but it was true. Intercape bus is very smart. The conductor says a prayer and off we go at exactly 12 noon Sunday. Takes a while to get through the hot Zambia Namibia border then on we go along the Caprivi strip. A selection of christian films for entertainment including family time. About every four hours an old guy Angus appears on the screen riding a horse, carrying his grandson and encouraging us to praise the lord. By the end of the journey we felt like Angus was an old friend. The feature film of an australian guy suing the devil was heaving going.