Namibia

We’d heard great things about Namibia and were looking forward to the picturesque dunes and spectacular scenery promised. We’d also heard that the country had also suffered dreadful rains this year so were preparing for some wet driving.

Ngepi Camp was our first stop just over the Namibian border in the Caprivi Strip. It had been highly recommended by fellow travellers and we weren’t disappointed. The track from the main road was being re-built after the floods but things were certainly dry now. The riverside camp was idyllic with a caged portion of the river serving as a safe swimming spot and toilets that had to be seen to be believed. Bill and I had an al fresco bubble bath watching the river flow past and waiting for elephants to appear on the opposite bank.

    Bath with a view

KT was running a bit hot so the next day was slow going and we stopped in another fabby campsite on a game farm. Bill had Springbok for breakfast and whilst we were eating our dinner one night a tame Eland came to investigate and tried to pinch our supper. We left with game meat supplies for several nights. I was initially not keen on eating game but came round to the idea after discussions with the locals. The beef and lamb farmers shoot cheetahs that attack their herds, whereas, the game herds are wild with no antibiotics and are left to fight off the predators naturally.

Before arriving in Etosha National Park, we made a short detour to the site of the Hoba Meteorite. This is the biggest meteorite in the world at 54,000 kg. It is the first meteorite we’ve seen and is unusually square and shiny but certainly less dramatic than we expected.

    Hoba Meteorite

Etosha was somewhere that everyone had incredible stories about. The campsites have permanent waterholes that attract the full spectrum of wildlife as you sit and watch sipping your gin. Alas, this was not the case on our visit. The plentiful rains meant the entire park had become a wetland and the animals were favouring other watering holes. The plus side was the carpet of wildflowers that covered the park for the first time in 50 years. Namibians were amazed at the change in scenery that they were witnessing for the first time in their lives. We still managed to see lions, a leopard and huge numbers of zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and antelope.

    Lions on a carpet of red flowers   

Unknown to us, the clocks changed whilst we were in the park. This explained the closed gates as we exited for an early game drive at 6am. The park is closed from 6pm to 6am and we were surprised to be the only ones up at the correct time. Turns out it was 5am but we had a great hour all by ourselves albeit against the rules.

    Sunrise in Etosha

    More rain

Our next stop was a cheetah sanctuary run by a farmer who encourages the local landowners to trap rather than shoot the cats. He has several massive fenced enclosures on his land that now house the animals. You can accompany the staff at feeding time on the back of a pick-up truck whilst huge chunks of donkey meat are thrown to the drooling cheetahs just beside the car. It’s an amazing experience to be so close to these elegant but deadly creatures.

    Cheetahs fighting over a bit of donkey

The owner also has 3 house cheetahs that were raised from birth and now act as excellent guards.

    Pet cheetah

That night we chatted about the trip further south with a couple travelling north called Lara and John. They drove a professionally kitted out Land Rover, which we lusted over whilst feasting on our Kudu steak.

The next few days we saw some of the most spectacular scenery so far on the trip. Damaraland is a truly beautiful semi desert and we were disappointed to not be able to make the trip further north to fully explore this region. KT was continuing to overheat so we needed to get to a town and sort out the problem.

We met up with Rich and Camilla in Biggles at the lodge in Palmwag and also met Wim and Sophie from Belgium in their Land Cruiser. We’d heard from other travellers about this courageous couple who had rolled their car in Northern Kenya. They’d managed to fix the damage and continue on with the trip despite contracting Malaria in Zanzibar whilst recovering from the crash. The boys scratched their heads over the overheating issue and the girls caught up with each other’s travel news.

It was slow going to Twyfelfontein, the site of some rock paintings and unusual stone formations. We decided that we’d seen enough rock art though and spent the night at Brandberg Mountain (Fire Mountain) watching the sunset light up the granite.

Despite an early start to change the thermostat and drive in the cool early temperatures the Landy continued to overheat. Bill tried to bleed the cooling system but the plastic bolt sheered and he was sprayed with boiling hot water. We had to sit and wait for a passing car to assist, as there was no mobile reception. Luckily a South African in a 4x4 offered us a tow to the nearest garage where they were able to use a plumbing bolt as a temporary fix.

We only got 10kms out of town before KT was in the red and we couldn’t continue. Rich came to the rescue and towed us the 120kms to Swakopmund. He was an absolute star despite having to drive from Swakopmund to fetch us after finding out that morning Biggles had 2 punctures.

    Rich and Biggles to the rescue

That night we had dinner with fellow overlanders Marica and Noel in a restaurant named “Cape to Cairo”. They had spent the past six months driving from Holland down the west side of Africa and had a further six months to drive home via the eastern route. Marica had just had a book published about another trip she did a few years previously. She spent 18 months cycling from the southern tip of Chile to Alaska. We both want to read the book but so far it’s only published in Dutch. Marica is a professional photographer so the pictures are amazing.

The following day was Rich’s 30^th birthday and we celebrated by jumping 10,000ft out of a plane. Well Bill, Rich and Camilla did as I watched anxiously from the ground as official photographer.

    Camilla and Rich post jump

    Dunes around Swakopmund

Bill spent the rest of the Easter bank holiday trying to fix the car. With Noel’s help he replaced the radiator and viscous coupling but unfortunately this did not solve the problem. We’d have to wait till Tuesday and the shops opening to replace the temperature gauge sender and see if that worked. We camped with a South African couple called John and Cathy who were keen fishermen. They took us all fishing and we feasted on mussels and fresh barbequed fish in the evenings. I even managed to catch a baby shark by accident whilst holding the rod for Cathy as she retrieved her lost flip-flop.

Disappointingly, the replacement temperature sender didn’t do the trick and we were now worried about the head gasket. We took the car to a recommended garage in town and they found a blocked pipe. As Bill drove it back from the workshop it continued to overheat but was noticeably worse when he turned a corner and applied the brakes. Bingo! It turned out to be a faulty earth fixed with a nail file.

After a frustrating 9 days in Swakopmund we needed some sunshine and fresh air so headed to the Naukluft Mountains with Noel and Marica. We spend 2 days walking in the hills trying to regain some of the fitness we’d lost. One section of the Olive Trail involved hanging onto a chain to traverse a pool lower down the gorge. It was stunningly beautiful.

    Climbing round the pools

    Quiver Tree

We arranged to meet up with Cathy and John, Wim and Sophie, Rich and Camilla and Noel and Marica for our next stop at the dunes of Soususvlei. The weather was still bad and the driving rain our first night left us all soaked. Normally it’s recommended to take plenty of water into the desert but this year was the exception and you were more likely to drown than die of thirst. The road was severely flooded and the last 5kms to the dunes were closed, as it no longer resembled a 4x4 track but a raging river.

    Crossing the road in the dunes

It was a surreal experience to be wading knee deep in water in an area normally bone dry. The dunes were covered in grass and flowers and despite the clouds were very beautiful.

    The tarmac road to Soususvlei

    Rich, Camilla, Marica, Noel and Claire

    Gemsbok in the dunes

Luderitz, our next stop further south also suffered due to the rain. The town’s campsite was flooded and the football stadium was apparently unsafe, as the water had damaged the foundations. Typically, they get 4mm of rain a year but over the preceeding 4 days they had received a record 140mm. We met a German chap in the hotel who was trying to dry out his tent. He’d been coming to this area for the past 35 years and never bothered to bring his flysheet, as the weather was always too hot.

The area around Luderitz is diamond-mining country and we visited one of the deserted mining settlements. The desert is reclaiming the town at an alarming rate but it makes for some cool photographs. You’re advised not to pick anything up from the floor as the place is covered in diamond company security cameras.

    The deserted diamond town

We then spent a few days in a log cabin in Aus and did some hiking in the surrounding hills. Pete, the owner of the lodge took us on a guided 4x4 day into the dunes locally. Rich and Camilla did amazingly well despite suffering a broken spring in the fist hour of the trip. There were four cars, Noel and Marica in their old diesel Landcruiser, Rich and Camilla in Biggles and a couple of South Africans took the guide in a newish petrol Landcruiser.

    Biggles airborne

The steep climbs usually required a good run up from the older cars and on one occasion entailed a long section downhill to get the momentum to make it up the other side. After repeated attempts all three of us had to take the easy alternative route. The petrol Landcruiser made it first go so we were very pleased when they had to be towed off the top of the final dune after failing to make it. We had all seen this and were determined to make it first go. We got it exactly right, but Rich really went for it and managed to get his front wheels a couple of feet in the air.

    The boys and their toys

Our last few days in Namibia were some of the best. We accompanied Rich and Camilla to a farm outside Keetmanshoop that also doubled up as a Land Rover workshop. Bill was happy as a pig in mud exploring the vast numbers of old Land Rovers lying about the place. We ended up staying 2 nights and bush camped in the garden of the owners Ina and Johann. I say garden in the loosest sense of the word, as the place was over 22,000 hectares. They were amazingly hospitable and fed us as well. We had desert truffles still crunchy from the grains of sand trapped in the skin.

    Breakfast on Ina and Johann's farm

We were nearing the end of the trip and heading to the South African border but had one last sight to see in Namibia. Fish River Canyon is a 160km long gorge that feeds into the Orange River. It is suitably dramatic and fitting end to the spectacular scenery we had seen in Namibia.

    This photo does not do it justice

We were sad to be leaving the dirt tracks of Namibia and hitting the tarmac roads of RSA but the country had one last surprise in store. The D road took us through our own gorge along the dry Gamchab River and made us want to turn around and drive back to the UK ourselves.

    Our own private gorge

Our first Cape Town road sign was a definite photo opportunity and we both felt sad at the though of ending the trip. The efficient border crossing took 5 minutes and we spend our last Namibian currency on a well-earned ice cream.

    Nearly there