If you ever want to visit a place that exceeds every overstatement – then visit Namibia!

Late May we decided to go and by mid June we were “oppad”-Friends in Windhoek said the Pretoria to Windhoek trip was “sommer niks”, “jy ry teen 120k, en as jy weer sien is jy daar” Fortunately we left at 4am and a mere 1460 kms later we were at Windhoek-that taught me my first lesson of the Namibian total disregard for Long Distance Travel.

Two nights to recover and party a bit and early morning we were on our way to Sossusvlei via Spreetshoogte Pas, as our trip definitely disregarded tar road travel and included the offroad byways, as much as possible.

All of a sudden we were transported to a dreamlike world with space, peace and quiet stretching on endlessly with nary another human or car in sight. Your eyes actually have to adjust from looking at close by buildings and urban clutter to real open space and vast views of grassland and mountains.You knew you were on the start to a great adventure!

Our first 3 day stop was at Wilderness Safari’s Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp, which is perched on top of a cliff overlooking a Bushman grass plain of around 10000ha.

Of course we visited the eternal terracotta coloured Sossusvlei dunes in what is described as one of the oldest deserts in the world as well as “Dooie Vlei” where the lack of moisture has preserved long dead trees in a mummy like oddity, but we also explored the area and found a wine farm, of all things, deep in the Naukluft mountains – amazing! Kathy attributed this to my unerring ability to locate any good wine, whatever the circumstance.

Make no mistake, we are keen birders-but oft jokingly (?) referred to as “Dudes” which means, I understand, that you are not going to shoot off on a 1000 kilometer trip to see a new bird BUT in these circumstances how do you possibly have a choice NOT to observe all the other varied sights and scenes?

Nevertheless, dudes or no, we enjoyed seeing a huge number of bateleurs (wheeling in the sky like vultures) lesser kestrels, pale chanting goshawks, namaqua sand grouse, burchells courser, black breasted prinia, pied & black crow, and spotted eagle owl, to name a few amongst a wealth of new “other” things such as learning about fog basking beetles and plants that immediately open their flowers if just a single drop of water is dropped on them. Perhaps the dude name should be changed to something like “easy lookers”, meaning the American equivalent of “rubber necks”

After three eventful days we set off on the long 400km dirt road to Swakopmund which entailed driving past “Sesriem” and the evocatively named “Solitaire” which will change your perception of a small place forever. There at this lonely outpost many rosy cheeked parrots were squawking about in the (not many) trees. Again the visual impact is amazing with the far away blue mountains forming a backdrop on your right and the endless rolling dunes disappearing into a blue haze on your left.

Only one bakkie (GP plates) came whizzing past and left us with the sickening tinkling of a stone hitting a headlamp. As the car sped away into the distance there was an astonishing shower of sparks and fire from the heavens and a meteorite, the size of the 75 tonne one at Hoba, hit the speeding vehicle square amidships, burying it 50 meters into the sand, forming the most spectacular tombstone ever! (forget about the Taj Mahal) Only teasing just wishful thinking.

Apart from that, a fuel tank gauge suddenly reading a heart stopping zero, was a cause for much anxiety, which thankfully, was just a malfunctioning gauge and not a stone through the tank – this is one place where you for sure don’t want to run out of diesel!

At Swakopmund we decided to eschew the temptation of nearby pelican point and sandwich bay, as we effectively had only one ‘touring’ day, and concentrate instead on the buildings of this pretty little hamlet. This proved to be an excellent decision as the old German architecture from the old Woermann Shipping line offices with its Damara tower, the castle like barracks in Bismarck Street, the old Administrators House (the original Bezirkgericht or District Court) to the old German iron jetty (needed as the town does not have an effective harbour) including some magnificent houses of “ill repute” (now flats) are architectural gems, with medieval towers and beautiful half timbered style wooden beams built into the brickwork. Even the railway station with its witch’s hat turret (now a hotel) and the prison are surely of the most remarkable buildings of their kind in the world, where the prison’s façade resembles the sumptuous home of a German nobleman. I’m convinced though that the accommodation inside is not as elegant! There were major + points in our favour-the town is small enough to walk all the sights, one can sit on the pleasant promenade and enjoy a beer, while closeby is the Swakop museum, crammed full of well displayed exhibits of the many and varied interests of Namibia AND one can visit a proper Bier St?be and wonder at the amazing proficiency of the German waitresses or a posh restaurant at the old Altona Castle – Don’t miss it!

Two days later and it was “northward ho” again on route through the stark desolation of the Skeleton Coast. The contrast is unique with all the beaches and inland sand coloured deep black by fine granite sand with the powerful Benguela current showing as a dark green border along the coastline, surrounded by the deep blue Atlantic ocean. Past the many “bones” of shipwrecks and Diego Cam’s enigmatic Cape Cross and even the remains of an oil drilling derrick until we turned right at Torra Bay inland to Palmwag. We were told that it had last rained 75 years ago and that the meager vegetation would never survive were it not for the rolling Atlantic fog that brings life-giving moisture.

Palmwag is the oldest resort area in Namibia, we stayed at Wilderness Safari’s Palmwag lodge which is situated on their 450,000 ha concession. The area is rich in grassland and surrounded by the Grootberg mountains. They have a lovely walk along the Uniab River to a place called twin palms which grow in a gorge in the dry river bed. During our 3 night stay we spent a day Black Rhino photo hunting which took us way into the far corners of the concession in really beautiful country. We eventually found two but had to set out on foot to get close, ducking into valleys and ravines to stay out of sight and smell. Although we got nearby, these animals have an amazing sixth sense and were somehow aware of us, discretion being the better part of valour made us turn back, as black rhinos do not have the friendliest disposition.

At lunch under a tree in a dry river bed, while the tables were being set up I noticed something shiny in the sand, after several up and downs I located what I am convinced is a lovely diamond. So ladies and gentlemen, if we arrive at the next Sci-Enza meeting in a Bentley GT-it was! If however we are still in the hard used Terrano-it wasn’t!

Our stay was not without an adrenalin rush when six lions strolled into the camp early one morning and entertained all the foreign guests, but it did give a new significance to the meaning of “a hurried breakfast”

We were amused by the reaction of Ruppels Korhaan to the call from our PDA as it made them scoot towards us from all directions and gather around croaking away like demented frogs. We spotted stark lark, cut throat finch, pale winged starlings, lark like buntings, Benguela bunting, fork tailed drongo, little & white fronted bee eaters, black & red eyed bulbuls and scaly headed finch.

Our next stop was Doro Nawas deep in Damaraland, a beautiful camp situated on top of an extinct volcano (we hoped) It only has 10 little thatch huts with the beds on wheels so one can pull them out on to the veranda at night and marvel at the stars while the dark massifs of the Entendeka mountains surround the camp completely.

This is desert elephant country and sure enough we were lucky to find them in the dry Aba-Huab river These huge animals have small tusks and do not destroy trees like their “Kruger” equals, Rather they browse very carefully to be sure that next time the tree, and leaves, are still around, just goes to show how your habits change when food is not bountiful. On the foothills of the very high mountains the area looks just like Switzerland with deep blue peaks and valleys all around while the plains are endlessly covered by the rolling golden yellow “snow’ of bushman grass – quite a place to have a sundowner in a splendid remoteness!

Close by is the World heritage Site of Twyfelfontein, where San art over a period of 5000 years or so has engraved a wide range of animals and humans on rocks scattered all over the place. It is understood to be the biggest collection of such petroglyphs in Africa. Much of the art depicts Shaman in human or animal form communicating with the underworld where the engravings are near a crack in the rock, through which a trance like state, would allow them to slip into the underworld to pray for the sick, or rain or a good hunt and also to ask advice or guidance from their ancestors. There is an excellent museum on the site which really gives insight into San-Shaman traditions and beliefs. I learnt a lot about Cupules-little dots in rocks-which mothers (for example) would make on the birth of a child and grind the remains of the umbilical cord for good fortune and other prayers; Strangely enough another country where such is found in abundance is the UK.

Generally speaking such places of worship and communication had to be near water, food, shelter, good hunting and high enough to give both protection and view-meaning beautiful and scenic, which Twyfelfontein definitely is! In my travels I have come across Shamanism in Australia, Korea, Siberia and North America. One marvels at how did this belief and worship travel to such diverse places before ships planes telegraph or any means of such communication existed.

Nearby, as well, are the remains of petrified forests of trees, which washed down from the Congo area 80 million years ago when the continents were still forming

Absolutely Fascinating!

In all too short a time, back in the car, on the long 400km road to Ongava Camp, Etosha! - and its staggering canvas of blue sky and flat yellow plains. Well nearly! Because of extensive rains in central Africa and also Angola a year ago, the shimmering salt pans were still an enormous inland sea, although normally it would have been dry by April. We stayed near Andersson’s gate, (the discoverer of Etosha together with Sir Francis Galton in 1851) and made daily excursions into this “lake of mirages” One wonders where the “immense troops of galloping Zebras, blue wildebeest, springbok, elephant, kudu gemsbok and ostrich” have gone to? This as Lawrence Green describes “the ruthless hunters of old could have shot a thousand buck a day at this spot without thinning out the herds”. Oh for the ability to move back in time!

Early one morning we sat inside a hide near a waterhole, and used the sound of the tarentaal on the PDA to calm the animals to our presence-it worked wonderfully- we admired huge Kudu bulls with magnificent trophy horns, zebra and eland drinking as close as 3 meters away. Even a black rhino and calf took an early drink, and made one speculate about the hot, dusty, day long search at Palmwag to get within about 75 meters of them before!

We had the company of a wonderful little pearl spotted owl at our hut that called and called early morning and night and made us feel at home, we were sorry to leave him behind.

Our route took us through the park past Halali camp and the gleaming white “beau geste” fort of Namutomi, pity one can no longer sleep there, we have pleasant memories of this when we were touring with Round Tablers. And so to Onguma treetop camp as a 1 night stopover to Rundu. All of a sudden the weather turned bitterly cold and we sat shivering in -5° degrees in an open treetop dining room and flimsy tent bedrooms not designed for icy weather, with only a huge giant eagle owl in a enormous thorn tree to keep us company. I’m sure he was enviously eyeing us huddled around our evening “gesels vuur” When we left the next morning it took three hours before the car registered an outside temperature of over zero! A bitter cold night not to be easily forgotten!

By the time we reached Tsumeb we were “lekker warm” and it was hard to believe the ice age we been through that morning.

Otjisume, Herero for the ‘place of algae’, because of the surface outcrops of highly coloured green copper ore, was origin the town. Apart from copper zinc and lead, over 184 other minerals were found causing it to called the “world’s greatest mineral region”. This fantastic ore pipe includes veins of pure chalcocite (copper) running through rich galena (precious metal) and unexpected jewelry boxes of beautiful rarities – this I learnt from the curator of the Tsumeb museum-10 types of stone are found nowhere else in the world! The most complete collection of Tsumeb mineral specimens is in the Natural History Smithsonian Museum in the US of A. The wonderful little Tsumeb museum has a lot to say about the area and inhabitants who collected “klippies” in prehistoric times long before the mine was founded. It also has a collection of beautifully restored German cannon thrown into the oTjikoto sink hole just before the end of the world war, when the whole mine was sold by the “Custodian of Enemy Property” in 1946. Not surprisingly the interest was vigorous, and a cartel of American, English, the Union of South Africa and SWA corporations bought the mine for just over ?1 000 000. What a bargain – I’ll tell you there are a couple of stones in that museum that I wouldn’t mind gracing Kathy’s fingers. It is a place is to be visited!

Nkwazi lodge at Rundu is a lovely place to sleep over; it is right on the Kavango river with attractive thatch chalets and the owners Helmut and Valerie, make you feel very welcome. There are a host of birds on the river which we regrettably had to close the eyes to as Helmut told us to turn off at a Game Reserve named “Buffalo” on the way which he said was exceptional and not as “degraded and over populated” as the bush next to the main road. Buffalo is beautiful and unknown; it is an old SA Army base and borders on the Okavango river. Never before have we seen such huge flocks (swarms would be a better word) of open billed storks and white faced ducks with plenty of fish eagles, including immature, which took some identification! All this interspersed between lots of hippo, yellow billed duck, grey and black headed herons, crowned and black lapwings and herds of at least 500 Buffalo. It is also on the toughest 4x4 tracks of the whole trip and it was nail biting when we were really struggling to extricate ourselves from deep sand and mud. If you get stuck there you will know all about big problems-“as there ain’t nobody home but us chickens”

The tar road along the Caprivi is a huge pity as a beautiful and isolated area is now packed with all manner of detritus, which, after the vastness and solitude we had so happily become accustomed too, was a bit of a shock

After a short hop? of 400km we reached Lianshulu Lodge-late at night on the most abominable roads AND the clock had moved forward an hour, tired and exhausted after the detour through Buffalo. But what a place on the Mashi River, after a good night’s sleep, a huge breakfast and a little cruise on the crystal clear waters, we were ready to go. The Mudumu Park has a lot to offer. We watched little dabchicks seem to stay underwater for absolute hours, were thrilled to see an African Skimmer at a water hole, while wild dog and elephant were plentiful.

On our last evening there while chugging up the river watching the beautiful sunset, Namibia gave us a wonderful goodbye present with a perfect view of a Western Banded Snake Eagle, perched in a nearby tree and eating a snake nogal, was marvelously silhouetted by the setting sun-what bliss. WHAT? You can’t see it on the photo?! Well then- in the words of Paul J Getty “force yourself man – force yourself”

We saw a great variety of birds, to mention them all would mean another 135 names, too many for this story Suffice it to say we saw 35 “lifers” WHAT a terrible name-sounds like someone out of C-Max! Wouldn’t it be an excellent idea to swop this term for say “firsts”.

Finally for the sake of completeness here are some our firsts” which included: hartlaubs babbler, swamp boubou, Ludwigs bustard, Arnots & tractrac chat, coppery tailed cougal, double banded courser, red necked falcon, collared flycatcher, cape dove – just checking - red billed francolin, African marsh harrier, red billed hornbill, greater & lesser kestrel, northern, long billed lark, Meyers parrot, southern pouchard, shelduck, cape shoveller, greater blue eared glossy starling, pale winged starling, dusky sunbird and black & red crested Korhaan,

After this it was our long journey home through Botswana ending our over 7000km holiday BUT rest assured in the words of Arnie Schwarzenegger ‘We’ll be back”