Wow! What a place! … Vast and full of contrast.
Smiling people, amazing landscapes, extraordinary vistas, mountain passes, wildlife, and views as far as you can see, with sea mists rolling in.
And they know how to look after tourists. Little things like making sure all the gravel roads are in good condition. They have invested in graders to maintain the roads. It’s as if someone very smart in the tourism sector said, “If we keep the roads good, those wealthy tourists will keep coming,” and that’s exactly what happened. There are literally thousands of Hilux Toyotas with rooftop campers driving all over this vast country.
The National Parks service works in tandem with accommodation services to provide very high-quality services, although the places can be a bit expensive for you get by Australian standard.
Outlined below is a little travelogue of our time moving around the Namibian landscape.
We arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, on the 15th of July. We were greeted by the very gracious Gabriel, whose WhatsApp number is here (+264 81 7641 817). So, if you need support from a guide if you ever come to Namibia, he comes with our very high recommendation. He helped organize a vehicle and camping equipment for us on very short notice. There are lots of vehicles to hire, but Gabriel did much more than just help us get a vehicle. He sat down with us, helped plan our trip, and was good enough to book the first few days of our travels. He is always at the end of a WhatsApp message to give guidance along the way. He did an amazing job helping us – and we gave him next to no notice of our trip. If you do choose to seek his help, please give him some notice if you can.
Our first night we stayed within Windhoek at a place called the Urban Camp, which is a glamping and backpacking centre with a nice restaurant and facilities. We had a meal at the famous Joe’s Beer House, a quirky restaurant bar / full of weird and wonderful paraphernalia.
In the morning, we got ourselves organized, did some shopping, and got supplies. We went to the Bushwacker Camping store to make sure we had all the equipment we needed for our travels.
We then drove north towards the Waterberg National Park. As we got out of town, we realized we were in a landscape that felt a lot like the Gascoyne in Western Australia: flat, rolling with low woodland and scrub cover, and a long horizon, although punctuated by some significant hill.
I think we all felt more comfortable in this landscape than in South Africa. Ho yeah not so many pot holes. And far fewer speed humps than South Africa.
Road to Waterberg (enjoying the open vista)
We arrived at Waterberg National Park to see an amazing escarpment and plateau that had some resemblance to the Kennedy Ranges in the Gascoyne in Western Australia. After arriving and settling into our camp for our first night camping, we enjoyed the climb from the plain up to the plateau. It was a tough little hike but only about 90 minutes round trip, with a bit of a sit-down to look at the fantastic views extending south across a vast plain.
Climbing the Waterberg Escarpment
After successfully cooking our first unsupervised braai, we settled down to a chilly night, rugged up in as much clothing and our modest sleeping bags.
In the morning, we travelled to Etosha National Park, one of the biggest game reserves in the whole of the African continent. Famous for its wildlife: elephants, antelopes, rhinos, lions, etc. The main complex within the park has been established since the 1950s. There is a water hole near the resort and camping area where lights are shown across the wetland, allows tourists to watch this amazing show of wildlife coming in at all hours, often during the night. Our experience included rhinos, giraffes, and a herd of approximately 40 elephants coming in to drink in the early evening. It was really quite astonishing.
Rhino and Elephants at Etosha (amazing!!!)
I personally had mixed emotions about this place: so many tourists seeking to engage with the wildlife. It is a place that could get crowded, but not when we were there. However, because of the drought conditions, the water to the campsite and some of the facilities had been turned off until the evening, so it wasn’t really value for money from a tourist’s point of view in terms of facilities. But the wildlife show was astonishing and really something to be cherished.
One of the amazing things about that area is that right now, the conditions are very, very dry with poor rain and drought, but the landscape is still supporting vast numbers of animals that all appear to be in very good condition. It really is quite astonishing. Maybe this is evidence of substantial climate change? We may be the last generation to see these amazing sights.
After breakfast and a quick look around a couple of other areas within the park, we spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to organize tickets back to Durban, and for Jeneen to Victoria Falls. The frustration stemmed from very modest Wi-Fi and issues with our credit card, but we managed to book our tickets and moved on.
The replacement for Mollie and Melissa
We then drove four or five hours, with stops along the way, to a place called Palmwag. During this drive, we transitioned from plains and scrubby woodland country to rocky ranges and vast expanses of rolling mountains and hills covered in rocks with poor or no soil. Despite the harsh conditions, we occasionally saw wildlife, such as a giraffe somehow surviving on the rocky plains at the foothills of the large mountain ranges. The dry conditions further highlighted the impact of climate change on this magnificent country. We were all astonished at the obvious drought conditions with most of the vegetation looking in very poor condition., some area obviously over grassed.
On the road near Palmwag
We had absolutely no idea what to expect on our way to Palmwag. It turned out to be an oasis in this vast rocky landscape, with an amazing camping area and chalets, a bar, restaurant, swimming pool (in fact, two swimming pools), and wonderful people providing the service. Our campsite had its own shower and toilet block with four separate bathrooms, one for each of us, which was astonishing. This facility has apparently been there and expanding over a 20-year period. It’s truly amazing to find such a fantastic complex built around numerous palms and lush vegetation, enhanced by modern water technologies, creating a wonderful camping area. We had the opportunity to sit and enjoy the vast and amazing landscape. In the morning, we woke to birdsong. In Africa, we have been quite amazed at the apparent low number of birds, especially in South Africa, where we were surprised at how few birds there were. There were probably far more in Namibia, based on brief observations. Although we didn’t see it, there is often an elephant named Jimbo who wanders through the camp area. Despite being a wild animal, Jimbo is welcome to roam this unfenced camping area.
The next day of our adventure involved driving from Palmwag to the Skeleton Coast and onto Cape Cross, where the world’s biggest seal colony is on display. The first half of our three or four-hour drive was through rocky landscape similar to the area around Palmwag. We stopped along the way to have a look at some of the wares on offer at the little villages. We bought some crystal from a very energetic young man named Laurence (aka Twiggy Forrest) selling the minerals of his country to the (tourist of the) world.
Doing Business with Laurence
As we got closer to the coast, we could see the famous Namibian coastal cloud band glimmering in the distance. This cloud band hangs along the coast due to a cold current running down it, which minimizes the amount of rainfall that reaches the coast. The cloud band drifts inland overnight and is pushed out with the warmth of the day. This might be considered the laziest could system in the world. They don’t go anywhere, don’t provide much rain at all. The landscape within 30 or 40 km of the coast became increasingly sandy and dune-like, with various types of sand and stones. It’s hard to describe, but the pictures on Facebook tell the story better than words and the limited number of photos I can post in this blog. The Skeleton Coast is famous for the shipwrecks that have occurred along its coastline, many sailors have experienced bad weather and were smashed against the shore. One can only imagine what it must have been like to survive a shipwreck and land on such a barren and arid landscape.
As we drove south towards Cape Cross, we stopped on a few occasions to walk down to the ocean in the howling southerly wind and to experience the amazing landscape. One of the places we stopped was a complex associated with along finished diamond operation, which dredged sand out of the ocean and put it through some sort of filter system, now rusting and decaying in the breeze.
We arrived at Cape Cross Lodge and set up camp in a sheltered space designed to be out of the wind as much as possible. The lodge is at least four-star quality, right on the edge of the beach. There are a few photos of this complex on the Facebook page. After getting organized, we drove a few kilometres further south to the seal colony and were amazed at the massive expanse of seals clustered over a few kilometres, both in the water and on the land. It was shock to see so many seals and we wondered about how much fish they must eat (maybe 5 Kilos a day) and where were the sharks – they must be there. And the surf rolling in … we know why no one surfs there … !
Cape Cross – Seals by the thousands on land and water
We treated ourselves to a nice dinner in the lodge that evening before retiring to the tent and the rooftop tent of the camper.
We woke in the morning to find that everyone else in the camping area had been smart enough to put flies over their tents due to the immense amount of sea moisture. Our tents were wet, and the rooftop tent was dripping on Rob and Jeneen as the woke up. They escaped inside to the lodge to dry and warm up will we allowed the tents to flap in the morning breeze for an hour or two and having breakfast and coffee within the lodge, we set off to drive further south.
We stopped along the way, finding some amazing sites, including a place called Mile 72 camp. Here, about half a dozen guys had set themselves up for fishing. Apparently, during the summer months, the area is completely full of campers. We climbed a turret that looked like it came from a medieval castle but was actually a water tower. Along this camp area were ablution blocks and camping ground areas divided by rocks, similar to remote camping grounds in northern Western Australia. However, this landscape was far more barren, a dry sandy expanse running down to a cold, brown-grey ocean.
Mile 72 Camp (water tower and camping area – that is toilet and shower blocks scattered up the beach – surfers paradise)
We stopped at a shipwreck along the way, a fishing trawler that ran ashore in 2008, and were greeted by a group of locals selling crystals and stones. Back at Cape Cross, there were stalls with pink salt crystals for sale, with a tin for customers to drop whatever they thought the salt was worth.
Pink Salt for sale
We arrived at Swakopmund for lunch at a little cafe before deciding to drive the next 50 km further south to Walvis Bay, where we eventually found accommodation in a chalet and camp park that met our needs.
We had a nice meal at a trendy restaurant perched on a jetty within the bay and became acquainted with the famous pink flamingos of the area. The next morning, we were able to get some fantastic photos before climbing the famous Dune 7, just to say we’ve done it.
Flamingos dancing
Dune 7
The next morning, we venture back to Windhoek before flying back to Durban. Barry, Rob, and I will continue our journey (assuming the cars get out of captivity) while Jeneen will fly to Victoria Falls to continue her adventure before heading back to Perth and home in Abbey.
On the way to Windhoek, we visit the Moon Landscape … about 50 kms inland to experience a dense fog / sea mist that provide a visibility of about 20 metres. This meant our experience of this strange and wonderful landscape was even more surreal.
Moon Landscape (Surreal in the mist – the photos don’t do it justice)
Our journey back to Windhoek was good, but arriving we struggled to find the accommodation we had booked because google maps and the addresses did not align up …but eventually found it and headed to the airport early to find our flight was cancelled ….so a day of hanging around (allowing me to get this blog finished off).
Some summary points about this wonderful place … it is generally very clean, by comparison to South Africa. It seems to us that the folks in Namibia are proud of their wonderful country… if you are in town and looking for a parking space, there is always someone acting as parking assistant – making a buck or two. A nation of smiling people that know how to look after the tourist coming from all over the world.