I live a retired life in Tasmania, Australia. I love books, travel, animals, photography, motor biking and good friends. I indulge in all these activities with the little Travellin' Penguin who has now shared five continents with me. We love book shops, photography walks and time with friends as all our family is in USA and Canada. I enjoy visitors to my blog so hope you'll stop by.
With starting times to most days at 5:30 am, long days on the road and not finishing with even longer buffet dinners at lodges there was no time for writing on this blog. We were also exhausted at the end of each day and internet connections were dodgy at best.
We arrived home Easter Sunday night about 10:00 pm and although this trip was incredibly beautiful, challenging, often confronting and glorious we are very happy to be home. I will now attempt to catch up with the myriad of photos taken and put some of the highlights here during the next couple of weeks or so.
I am sharing another Namibia day here with photos from a living museum we visited. The day was hot and dusty and the people we met here were so friendly and eager to share their way of life with us. Here are some photos.
This village was a display of life as a bushman.She explained how the various local plant life is used for medicinal purposes and how they work. Another tribesman translated for her.We were treated to a method to light a fire. It was amazing how fast the fire started and how quickly they could make it larger.The people then shared a dance of greeting for us. The dance continued. Outside of the museum we gathered together to have our lunch which we carried with us most days to eat in the desert. This guy helped out with the dishes. He is earning money to study at university in Windhoek. He wants to work as a tour guide and speaks four languages including German. Lovely man.
This is the lodge were checked in later that day.Later that day we went on a desert tour to look for the desert elephants. We came across this old guy.The desert elephants are different to the ones we saw elsewhere. They are tall and this one was reportedly about 45 years old. It is incredible how they survive in the heat of this desert. While touring this desert we came across this common form of transport out here.On the way back to the lodge were were treated with our first sighting of a giraffe in the distance.A glorious Namibian desert sunset. This land is truly spectacular.
I have come down with a sore throat and a cold so no energy at the end of the day to write anything. So I am doing some highlights from the last couple of days. This trip is full on. Up at 5 or 6 am, in the truck and moving about 60 to 90 minutes later after breakfast. The days are long, the activities are interesting and we fall into our beds at night after showering off all of the dust. Here are the highlights of the last two days.
Sundowner. We drove across the desert to a spot near rocks to watch the sun set over the desert. We passed a springbok.
Our shadow across the desert floor.
Our guide sets up a table with bubbly and nibbles. We toast the sunset. The rocks are beautiful in the light.
The next day we get our first blown out tyre in the absolute middle of nowhere. The three guys on board helped change it. Then a couple of hours later the spare blew out. Fortunately we were close enough to our destination where a tyre supply shop was called and they sent someone to put a new tire on the bus and also give us two new spare ones. Thank goodness we weren’t in the remote desert area when the second one happened. We travelled about six hours through the desert yesterday.
This is where we were when the tire blew out. A couple of ladies decided to take a walk.
Changing the tire.
One of our stops was at a cheetah sanctuary. When cheetahs attack cattle or sheep the farmers like to shoot them. There is a movement under way to trap and relocate them that is helping to save these beautiful animals. These animals were a family to a cheetah who had been injured and now lives in the sanctuary.
We continue our rattly, bone shaking journey through the desert. They have not had rain here since 2010.
Today saw us on a harbour cruise in the Atlantic ocean on the west coast of Namibia. I would tell you the name of the city but I can’t pronounce it and I’m too tired to look it up. On the west coast towards the north of the country.
This is lucky. A few seals jump up onto the boat as we leave the harbour. He is a young seal who does not appear to have a mother and the crew see him regularly and help him out a bit. He hangs around the harbour but he is also able to cope in the wild.
This pelican also landed on our boat. He came out of nowhere and startled all of us on the boat. There were only 8 guests on the boat and 3 crew.Coming back into port. We saw cormorants (landed on the boat), gulls, dolphins and thousands of seals.
Passing by flocks of flamingos along the lagoon that leads to the Atlantic Ocean.
After 3 hours on board the boat, more champagne, raw oysters, nibbles and small pastries we transferred to the dune rides. Modern SUV’s took us through incredibly high dunes. We travelled about 120 kms along the beach and sand dunes. Again stopped and were watered and fed with incredible food.
The national park- remote and so much sand.
We saw Ostriches going up and over the sand dunes. We saw quite a few animals in the sand dune area.
Well that is a quick summary of the past couple of days. Having a cold, long hours in the heat and more activities in two days than I do in two months have us resting as much as possible in the evenings. Tomorrow we are off again. I need to consult our paperwork and map to see where.
Today we travelled from Windhoek west through the Namib Desert to Sossusvlei. This amazing desert has been in existence for some 43 million years and its current landscape has remained unchanged for the last two million years. We were in the 4 wheel drive bus for about 6 hours. The road was mostly dirt, full of potholes and had we not been belted in, would probably have hit our heads on the ceiling. What a rough ride. The land is harsh. I saw a meerkat running along a dusty roadside carrying dead prey in its mouth. Not sure what it was. We saw a jackal running as a solitary figure across the stark land. We stopped under a few trees to have a lunch that we put together ourselves. Our guide’s wife baked a lovely spaghetti lasagna type dish and we had baked beans, salad, tea and coffee and a large pack of biscuits for dessert. As we ate our lunch in the welcome shade of the trees we faced a fairly large hillside of rocks. At the top of the rocks we could see baboons sitting across the skyline and we could hear them barking. Angry barking sounds. Nearby there was a skeleton head of a baboon. All teeth were still intact.
Travellers along the road ranged from small cars through to four wheel tour buses. We also passed a donkey cart with a singular man and three little donkeys pulling it. One would not want to get lost in such a place. Hot, dusty, mountainous, eerie, stark with dangerous animals behind every rock. It was always good to get going again.
We arrived at our lodge at 3:30 and the cool showers were a welcome relief. Enjoy that photos. Try not to sweat onto your keyboard.
Our Vehicle
Six hours on these roads.
The donkey cart we passed
These birds are weavers
More road photos
Having lunch under the trees
A rock agana (lizard)
This is a Weaver’s nest. The weavers fly into it from below. More than 1000 birds can be in it. They build the next so eagles will roost above the next. When the snake climbs into the weaver’s next they all make a lot of noise. The eagle hears the weaver’s alarm calls and catches the snake. HE then lifts the snake high into the air, dropping it, catching it, dropping it, catching it until it dies. He then brings it back to earth when he eats it. Clever eh?
More beautiful scenery.
The view from our hotel room now we have stopped. We will be here two nights.
