Namibia, the organized Africa
Crossing the border
from Botswana to Namibia was quick. Here not even the carnet (car
customs document) is stamped as the two countries together with
South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland form a customs union.
Just after the
border there is the small but nice Mahango game reserve and when
coming from Botswana the road goes straight across it. We took our
time and saw many animals: kudus, sable antelopes, elephants,
zebras, monkeys, etc. Then we went to the Ngepi Camp, which is quite
famous as a place with a beautiful setting to hang out a few days.
For us it turned out different, but we had a lot of fun. After
checking in and grabbing some drinks, we went to the nice deck on
the river to relax during sunset. There we met a Swiss couple,
Flurina and Michel, who were traveling by bike after living two
years in Tanzania, where they worked for an aid organization. We had
long and interesting conversations about aid and societies in Africa
in general, and suddenly it was 10 pm and the bar was closing. So we
cooked and enjoyed some wine by the fire for a few hours.
Unfortunately, a neighbor came cursing at us (“fucking drunken
idiots”…) at 2.30 am… The next morning he even complained to
the
management, who at its turn came to us very annoyed because we never
made it to our assigned camping spot… It was obvious we had to move
on, so we started our route towards Etosha National Park, on very
straight and empty asphalt roads. Here everything is so civilized;
there are even picnic stops with tables and benches, of course
adequately signalized one km before they are reached. The lodges and
camps in this part of the world are also significantly better than
those further north in Africa; they started being an enjoyable part
of our traveling experiences. That night we stopped at Roy’s Rest
Camp, a very nice rustic place with friendly management, a waterhole
where zebras and eland go drinking during the night and good food.
The next stop was
the city of Grootfontein, where we updated our web-site. We had
heard of nearby
Kalkfontain, a ranch with guesthouse where they have
a domestic lion and also cheetahs, so we went to have a look. We
ended up staying for the night. The huge 9 year old lion is really
like a dog. He is locked in a large compound but he is used to
people. His mane is so long and nice! Caressing it made our fingers
black because of the grease in it. The cocker dog of the house even
kisses him through the fence. Impressive is to hear him in the
mornings, lions are really loud when they roar. The ranch belongs to Sigi, an Austrian who has butcheries (quite convenient to feed a
lion) specialized in game meat. So the next day we bought ourselves
2,5 kilos of kudu filet and steak and continued to Etosha National
Park.
There is something
quite unique about Etosha. It is a sort of “passive” national park.
During the dry season, the
land is barren and almost
vegetation-less, so everything happens around the park’s numerous
waterholes. Some are natural, although most of them would be dried
up by this time of the year. In most, water is pumped artificially.
Even in the three campsites there are waterholes with excellent
facilities to see animals and actually the sensation is that one
does not need to move at all to have the show performing live. In
other parks, it was necessary to go out and “discover” the animals,
a bit like hunters do. Here the animals came to “our” viewpoint, as
if coming to see the tourists. There is a lot of action, especially
at night. For us, it was like going to the movies. We just needed to
sit and wait. The behavior of some animals is also altered by the
artificial waterholes. The elephants, for example, are
experts in
knowing the exact point where the pipes bring in the fresh water and
as a result there were lots of fights going on to get this
privileged spot. They don’t only use their trunks to settle a
dispute but they can also push others away with their feet, which is
very amusing. Still this would not happen in a natural waterhole. It
was interesting to see the interaction between various species.
Elephants and rhinos, for instance, tolerate each other although
some young elephants try to test their scaring skills, to what the
rhinos reply confronting them and holding their ground.
We spent three
nights in Etosha National Park and guess what? I finally saw a
LEOPARD!!! It was at the first waterhole we visited. We were two
cars there and he couldn’t have ignored us more explicitly. After
drinking for a few minutes, he disappeared towards some trees where
we could not follow. Later that day, at the same waterhole we saw
two lions…
In the park we met
Ed and Sue with their Land Rover, a couple we met on the first day
of our trip on the ferry to Tunis and we last saw in Tanzania. We
arranged to meet after Etosha to drive along the Skeleton Coast
together, but we were slightly behind. We bush camped in a very
nice
hilly area around Twyfelfontain and entered the Skeleton Coast Park
early in the morning. This is quite a special place. It is a desert
even many kilometers inland but during the early morning there is a
strange phenomenon: fog. It comes from the Atlantic and goes in like
a very low cloud. Then it dissipates during the day. The Skeleton
Coast is named after its numerous ship wrecks. The boats were washed
ashore in this treacherous, foggy, rocky and sandy coast. For the
sailors, survival in this desert wilderness was out of the question.
The landscape is from another planet. The human traces, quite strict
though. Everywhere there are signs reminding the visitor what is not
allowed, but that is Namibia in general. Everything, even the
desert, seems organized. In the Skeleton Coast there are some
diamond fields and of course some ship wrecks can be visited.
On the way out we
stopped at Cape Cross Seal Reserve, where we enjoyed being
entertained by the large seal colony. It is one of the first spots
visited by Europeans. Back in 1486 the Portuguese explorer
Diego Cão put up a stone cross here. Ed and Sue we finally met
in Swakopmund – to our surprise, there was no mobile phone reception
between Etosha National Park and here, so we did not meet as planned
before. This part of the coast is very cold, and it was drizzling in
the fog. But the restaurant and the food were good. The town is the
second biggest city in Namibia but even five km before we reached
it, there were no signs of a town at all. Just sand and more sand.
And then it comes suddenly, a proper, very clean, very German
feeling, organized urbanization. If it’s a city, I can not tell. To
me it looked like a relaxed and relatively small place, with nice
shops and some well preserved colonial German buildings.
Into the sand dunes again
The next day we
attempted to drive to Sandwich Harbor, and adventurous 4x4 tour
along the beach and crossing a sand sea, previously getting the
compulsory permits as the place is in a national park (as just about
any point of
interest in Namibia). Our perception of these permits
is not very good. They seem to be a good source of income for the
government, and not at all a control on safety for the tourists.
Permits are issued without looking if the tourists have proper
equipment. It’s about 55 km to Sandwich Harbor on sand along the
beach or in sand dunes, the place can only be reached at low tide
and people had warned us it is a tough drive. But our main problem
was that we were a bit late. We did about half the way without major
problems and then crossing a salt pan Ed drove just half a meter
beside the track and sunk in immediately. It looked quite scary. As
only one side of their car was stuck, it was tilted that way and it
did not look easy to get it out without risking to flip it on the
side. But we were lucky, another car came by and after analyzing the
situation a few minutes, he pulled Ed backwards until he was on
solid ground. Ed and Sue decided to return and we continued another
10 km or so and drove on the dunes (much to Reto’s happiness). We
even got stuck for a short while. Continuing along the beach,
Turnstone, a well known tour operator, crossed our way and told us
we were a bit late, everybody was coming back already. The seas were
rough, which meant that even with low tide the water was quite high.
So we continued just to the dunes and then turned back.
We met again with
Ed and Sue and bush camped that night. It was an unpleasant, foggy
and windy cold, so we ended up in their car for dinner. The next
morning, Reto wanted to drive down a large dune nearby, so there we
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went (I took the pictures…). Sue went down with Reto and Ed watched
them. It turned out that they also liked the idea and went down with
their car as well.
The piste from
Walvis Bay through the Namib Desert towards Sossusvlei, the famous
red sand dunes with an occasional lake at their base, is very nice.
It is not all sand but also very dry grass. Springboks, Oryx and
ostriches are a common sight. We really enjoyed bush camping just
outside the national park, with a wonderful kudu filet barbeque and
wine…
Our next stop was
sort of obliged. Solitaire is a gas station with restaurant, famous
for its apple pie. We heard about it the first time in Mozambique…
And then came
Sesriem, the entrance to Sossusvlei. It is not much more than a
couple of lodges, the government camping and the gate to the park.
We were lucky to get a campsite for that night without a
reservation. After all
Sossusvlei is the number one tourist
attraction in Namibia and these are the second biggest sand dunes in
the world (Saudi Arabia has bigger ones). In Namibia nothing seems
to be possible without a reservation, which for overlander’s who on
one hand can not plan specific dates very long in advance and on the
other hand normally do not want to do so either, it can be quite
frustrating. Sossusvlei is beautiful, especially at sunset and
sunrise when the sun and the shades dramatically delineate the
dune-shapes. Still we had again a strange feeling. There is a very
nice tarmac road for 65 km and then a few km of sand and as it is
Namibian custom, everything is very organized. Everywhere there are
signs of what is not allowed, etc. On the way Reto and Ed walked up
the famous dune 45. To them it seemed like walking on snow along a
cliff in the alps. The next day in the morning we all went up the
dune beside Sossusvlei and up there we even met a Japanese TV crew
filming a documentary. Nearby Deadvlei has a surreal atmosphere.
It’s a dried lake with many strange-shaped dead trees, which make
wonderful pictures.
It was time to say
good bye to our friends Ed and Sue, who stayed longer in the area.
We needed to rush
south and enter South Africa as soon as possible.
But we decided to take pistes through the Namib Rand as the area
promised to be nice. It was beautiful. It is one of those places
that are so vast, so immense and empty, that one feels very small.
Unfortunately, the tires took revenge of Reto’s fast driving on
pistes. One tube blew up so we had to put a new one and pump the
tire again (our spare tires were not very healthy either). The next
day we continued fast towards Fish River Canyon and already at
midday our repaired tire decided to give up totally, not only the
tube but the tire itself was useless. So we put a bad looking spare
(we had two) that finally made it all the way to Capetown and even
further… The Fish River formed an incredible landscape. The rocks,
the shapes, the river far below, all in earthy colors… Only the
Grand Canyon in the USA is deeper. It was too bad that we did not
have very much time.
In general we had a
good impression of Namibia. It would be a perfect place for
holidays; everything works (provided it is previously reserved).
Some say that it is “Africa for beginners” and it definitely is a
very soft landing in Africa. Still the Europeans we met who are
living in the country since many years seem to think it has become
very corrupt, but as a tourist this is not obvious. It is an empty
vastness with beautiful landscapes and a well developed tourism
infrastructure. It is also a country where things are easy to find
and supermarkets are well stocked. With a population of about 2
million on a surface more than double the size of Germany, it
however does not have many towns.
The end of Africa
We entered South
Africa on Mon 24th of September. The landscape starts getting slowly
greener and the flowers are remarkable. Towns are scarce, but a lot
bigger than in Namibia. In the afternoon
we arrived at the Olifants River Valley, with its vineyards and we got a glimpse of what we
encountered afterwards in the Cape peninsula: beautifully cultivated
hills, nice farms and houses, a European touch. We drove almost 600
km on excellent roads that day. Having lots of things to solve in
Capetown, we went first to the internet to arrange my plane ticket,
then looking for tires, then for a hotel. For us it was time to
celebrate. So we did it with a nice dinner at the Waterfront.
Capetown turned out to be a real culinary experience…
But the trip was
not over. In the north we drove from further north than Cairo. We
drove first to the northernmost point in Africa (in Tunisia), so
here it was given that we had to do the same. The southernmost point
is not the Cape of Good Hope as many people imagine. It is Cape
Agulhas, about 200 km to the South-East. So we had to go to both…We
did not mind as the Cape peninsula is gorgeous. There is beauty all
around and things are easy too. Everywhere there are nice farms that
have restaurants and guesthouses. Everywhere there are good camping
places or caravan parks.
Close to the Cape
of Good Hope Park we looked for a place to stay and found a great
restaurant as well. We visited the Cape on a grey and windy morning.
As it was very early, we were completely alone. One can imagine the
Cape could be quite nasty to sailors. On the way to Cape Agulhas we
stopped quickly in Simons town to get pastries for breakfast. At
Africa’s most southern point, the atmosphere was quite different:
windy but sunny and with tourists. Also the area seems to be lively
with a lot of construction going on in the last years. We spent
quite some time at the monument with the plaque stating that it is
Africa’s southernmost point, as it was “the end” of our trip and we
had to make all the pertinent pictures…
That afternoon we
drove back towards Stellenbosh, the famous wine area, near Capetown.
We had a wonderful last dinner together at the Volkombuis Restaurant
and slept in a nearby camping.
My last day in
Africa was quite stressy. I had to pack and Reto was on the phone
getting a job at Swiss as of November. At 1.30 pm we went to the
airport and I flew to Jo’burg and then on to Zurich. Reto stayed in
Capetown in order to arrange shipping the car to Europe. It was sad
to leave and especially to leave our almost eight month adventure
behind… We are very happy we could do it and are still very
surprised about how easy and well it all went.
Thanks a lot for
all the messages and good wishes during these moths and we hope to
see you sometime, somewhere!
Take care,
Victoria + Reto
