Au revoir Namibia

Unfortunately the planned game drive to see the cheetahs on our last evening was defeated by a very dramatic storm, this was the view from the bedroom window.

 

All the animals disappeared as the roads turned into rivers and the only suitable activity involved Sauvignon.

It was a shame not to see the puddytats, but it gives us another reason to return to this amazing country.

The trip has been magical, memorable and beyond even my very high expectations. There is still so much of Namibia left to explore - we will be back.

Okonjima

It was hard to leave magical Mundulea and the weather provided a suitably dramatic background as we drove away.

 

 

Our final destination in Namibia is Okonjima, the base for the AfriCat Foundation which raises awareness of cheetah conservation. 

 

The lodge feels very luxurious after the past few days, but still surrounded by wildlife. I'm currently watching swallows building a nest under the roof - no need for an alarm clock in the morning I suspect.

 

This is the view from the terrace, I'm getting rather obsessed with warthogs!

We have had hardly any rain during this trip which is surprising and not great for the Namibians given the expected rainy season, but the storm well and truly arrived this evening. The frogs are noisily happy and a spotted genet was spotted at dinner - what a fabulous tail

 

As expected, it was quite a noisy night, not helped by the patio door falling out with a loud crash! But a fantastic view from bed in the morning

 

After breakfast, we walked the 5k 'giraffe trail'. No sign of the actual giraffe, just prints and poo again, but we did see kudu

And you can never have too many warthog photos..

 

No rhinos here so he is actually smiling during our walk!

 

The storms are arriving again so time for a cold beer.

 

Mundulea Bush Camp

This was one of the parts of the holiday that I was really looking forward to - 3 nights in a remote back-to-nature wilderness camp.

 

Bruno, the owner and guide has spent 17 years restoring this 42000 acre reserve and there are now numerous wild animals, birds, fauna and flora. His knowledge and passion for conservation of the biosphere is inspiring (if occasionally slightly intimidating!) and there are now over 3500 game on land that had been destroyed by years of cattle farming.

 

We were woken/deafened at dawn by the birds and went for a four hour walk before it got too hot. The first morning walk involved rhino tracking which we could hear munching in the dense bush, Rusty wasn't happy!

The second morning walk was to a big waterhole where we watched oryx, impala, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs and tortoises.

 

This tortoise apparently brought down a wildebeest...

 

The afternoons were for reading and snoozing, followed by another long walk in beautiful light to vantage points in the surrounding hills.

 

 

Delicious lunches and dinners were cooked in this kitchen with all the mod cons.

My limbs are scratched and bug bitten, I'm mucky and sweaty, but it was a magical experience. You can see more animals on a traditional game drive, but it is so much more exciting to walk in their territory with all the sounds and smells and have a staring match with a huge eland.

It's going to be very hard to go back to mass humanity after this experience. 

 

Waterhole soap opera

After an early dinner, we took our box of Sauvignon (so classy) to the waterhole.

 

We watched the sunset as the zebras drank 

 

I'm in my own personal sunset competition!

The floodlights came on as the zebras left and four jackals siezed the opportunity to raid the nests of the birds near the water. The birds yelled their heads off but the jackals' swagger made it look like they had had their evening meal.

We set the alarm and went to the waterhole for the sunrise.

This tree was full of noisy birds 

 

The jackals were around again

 

And the grand total of just two zebras!

 

Okaukuejo

No need for an alarm call this morning, the dawn chorus was quite something.

Dolomite camp is in a fabulous location, such a shame that it isn't operated to its full potential.

 

We set off early to drive the 95 miles to Okaukuejo camp. It was like driving in a huge version of Woburn safari camp but with more animals and only 4 other cars throughout the entire drive.

We finally saw an elephant as well as numerous wildebeest, oryx, zebras, giraffes, springboks, ostrich, eagles...

This zebra didn't want her face in the photo 

This was one of the many waterholes 

 

 I'm a gnu, how do you do...

Etosha pan is spectacular expanse of nothingness

 

Apart from the occasional traffic jam

  The camp is big, but the staff are much friendlier and the waterhole is very special

 

Etosha

Desert Rhino camp was a really special place with such warm, fun and friendly staff. I was really quite sad to leave.

 

But.. onwards and north eastwards, first more coccyx damage bumping back to where we left the tank 

 

Then a cold beer before the next 3 1/2 hour drive to Dolomite Camp on the western edge of Etosha National Park. We saw giraffes, zebras, some sort of antelopes, funky birds and a rock that I thought was an elephant - Rusty is not impressed at my guiding skills.

It was an interesting arrival at the lodge perched on a big hill - the luggage van wasn't working, it was pouring with rain, I was wearing flip flops and we had to carry our luggage to our room perched on the edge of the hill - I needed the exercise!

A government owned lodge is a bit different to what we have been used to in Namibia in terms of the service culture, but the view is pretty good.

 

Given the choice of a pork chop or grilled oryx, I asked what the vegetarian option was...  'vegetables'... how do you do them? 'cooked'.

You can never have too many sunset photos...

 

Eyeballing rhino

I was very grumpy at 5am this morning, not really looking forward to yet more time being battered and bumped on a long drive. To add insult to injured coccyx and the realisation that I should have worn a sports bra, it was freezing cold.

The landscape was beautiful in the sunrise, but empty apart from a snake eagle.

 

 

The journey bumped on, interspersed with 'we woz ere' poo and prints, but no sign of our elusive objective.

We had entered a spot the rhino competition but the Save the Rhino Trust guides had done this before

 

It's out there somewhere...

 

And then something magical happened, the guides spotted something, we drove towards it and got out of the vehicle in silence, Rusty's nightmare was about to happen - walking towards a black rhino, but there were two...

 

Mum and two year old baby - magical but ever so slightly terrifying being eyeballed by a massive, completely wild, very protective mummy

 

 

They can't see you if you stand still, but Mum knew something was up and started heading towards us. We then had to walk backwards in single file hoping she would decide to back off. As I'm now typing this, the result is fairly obvious! Mum has been de-horned to protect her from the poachers who have decimated the black rhino population.

Bit of a contrast to my usual holiday attire, but apparently fluorescent lycra isn't a good idea out here..

 

After a tea stop, the bumpy torture resumed

 

But these gorgeous creatures made it all worthwhile 

 

A few cold beers, delicious lunch, Sauvignon and a snooze was a great way to spend the rest of the afternoon, followed of course by sundowner backgammon.

 

And a picturesque spot for dinner