We began choosing countries for our trip on Christmas Eve 2014 after the kids unwrapped an early Christmas present. What they found was a stack of travel
books, a laminated wall map of the world, and small coloured stickers (Lucas - blue,
Maya - red, Kim - yellow and me - green). Over the next two weeks we spent some time leafing through the books and placing stickers onto countries each of us was inspired to visit (our personal bucket-lists). Our short list was
pared down over the next month with a few of each of our ‘bucket-list’ countries/regions
falling off the list for any number of reasons.
Over the coming months as Kim and I worked out logistics, we finalized
the list and figured out roughly how much time we’d spend in each area.
One of MY bucket list countries was Namibia. For years, images
of the world’s tallest sand dunes, and skeletons of whales and rusted-out ship
hulls laying scattered along the rugged and desolate coastline (aptly named the
Skeleton Coast) had been gnawing away at my curiosity. Apart from these images
though, I knew very little about Namibia. I knew it was hot and dry, and I couldn't recall ever hearing about it in the news, which to me implied some reasonable
level of ‘political stability’. Turns
out it’s one of the least populated countries in the world (2.2 people per squ.km). Having now traveled there its easy to understand
why – there’s a whole lot of nothingness… but the beauty that punctuates that
nothingness makes the travelling there so memorable and sooooo worth it.
A whole lot of vast nothingness in Southern Namibia punctuated by some stunning landforms!!
Namibia ended up working into our plans well when Lucas
and Maya both placed their stickers on Madagascar and Kim placed hers on Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We initially thought Madagascar would be just a short 1-hour plane ride over the Mozambique
Channel. In reality though, mostly from a cost-savings standpoint, it ended up
being a long, two-flight trip routed through Kenya, far to the north. But... as we found out early on our trip, the kids LOVE the long
plane rides... they couldn't get enough of airplane meals, drinks, snacks, movies and e-games. It
doesn't matter how tired they get staying awake to watch a movie (or three 😆),
they keep looking forward to these occasional escapes from our reality, which has
been hectic on a fairly regular basis.
We would have 4 weeks to travel in mainland southern Africa. On my first dive into building a rough
itinerary, I was a bit disheartened; if we were to see all the areas I was hoping to see, we would need to cover a lot of ground and get into some fairly remote areas; and although organized tours were available, the costs were too
high for our backpacker-style budget. It
was looking like the only affordable way to see Namibia (and Botswana) would be by self-drive safari. At this point though I was a little outside
my comfort zone. What did I know about
driving through and camping in the wilds of Africa? More importantly, would the family be keen to
‘wild-camp’ where there was a chance of one of the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino,
elephant and cape buffalo), or dozens of other species, wandering into our
campsites? I needed to read more before
I was sold and before I could feel comfortable selling it to them. And so I
did - I read a slew of on-line blogs and a few news articles and talked to a co-worker who'd recently been on safari and camped in Botswana and S. Africa. All of them recounted rich experiences and
provided wholehearted recommendations for this style of trip. I was convinced; and so, in the end, with
some hesitation, was the family.
After spending half of our trip (4 months) in Asia, we arrived on the 'Dark Continent' on April 30th... in the dark. Lucas wrote all about our time in Cape Town, South Africa in a separate blog – check it out. There we relaxed for 9 days slowing our pace down, getting to know the
city and its surrounds, and just getting reacquainted with “western” living
again. ‘The Cape’ is famous for so many
things that we could easily have spent 3 weeks there. But as Kim and I realized
time and time again, slowing the pace down is something we’ve had a hard time
doing when there’s always so much to see and do just around the corner. With the help of our little Datsun Go+ rental car and vacation bungalow just
a few blocks from the beach in a small suburb of Cape Town, we managed to get a good enough introduction to Cape Town to leave us wanting to come back for more - one day.
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We spent one day in downtown Cape Town getting re-acquainted with eating out
'Western Style' which included going to a cafe (The Truth) that at one time
had been voted as having the best coffee in the world. It had a pretty cool
'steampunk' vibe to it as well.
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| We had some fine coffees at 'The Truth' downtown Cape Town. |
May 9 (Day 1): With the itinerary set to tour Namibia, northern
Botswana, Zimbabwe (just to see Victoria Falls) and wrapping up in South
Africa (Johannesburg), we were off like a herd of turtles; first to the airport where we
switched our little Datsun out for a Toyota Hilux diesel truck equipped with
two roof-top tents and all the camping equipment needed to be self-sustaining
for the next 23 days; and then to the supermarket… to stock up on food… for 3 whole
days.
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| Picking up our 4x4 self-drive camper truck from Colin. You can see our tents are securely wrapped up on the roof. The Toyota Hilux was super reliable - no issues except when driver error came into play!! 😏 |
At 3 p.m. we were ready!! Our
first stop was Cederberg (still in South Africa and just 3 hours away), a
region popular with Cape Towners in the Spring and Summer because of its fantastic outdoor recreational opportunities and beautiful scenery. But we were there in the Autumn
and when we arrived just as the sun was setting and the nearly full moon
rising, we and one other camper had the entire campsite to ourselves. We quickly sprang into action fumbling through the routine Colin had run through with us to set up the tents before nightfall. Then we ate our first barbecue (‘braai’) dinner, and then... did the unthinkable for a family from the Cariboo - we paid for wood to make
a campfire. As we found out that night,
the nights can get pretty cold even when it’s 30+ during the day. Fortunately we had our own sleeping bags, the
rental sleeping bags and thick blankets to keep us warm through the nights. From our
camp chairs we watched the amazing sunset.
This was our first taste of the famous Atlantic African sunsets and we started to understand what all the hype around ‘sundowners’ (having a
drink while watching the sun set) was about. As we travelled through Namibia and Botswana
we made a point of taking time for a sundowner whenever possible, which included trying to arrive
at our campsite early enough to take them in.
Unfortunately, with the long distances we were covering and at times,
the slow progress we made either because of poor road conditions or time we (I)
took for pictures, it didn’t always work out.
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| Warming up with the morning sun in Cederberg |
May 10 (Day 2): We crossed into Namibia at a small border crossing
next to the Orange River, which forms the international border with S. Africa. This river contained the only water we would
see for the rest of the day as we drove for another 4 or 5 hours through rocky
desert landscapes, a stark contrast to the green of Cape Town and the Cederberg
area the day before. We had our passports
stamped, our VISAS issued and paid our visitor vehicle fee before continuing on
to our first Namibian destination – Fish River Canyon.
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| Rocky desert landscapes were the order of the day once we crossed over the border into Namibia! |
We made it to Hobas, a small outpost settlement
just outside the Fish River Canyon National Park and decided to stay at a place
called the Canyon Roadhouse. Once again, we quickly set up the tents, prepared
dinner (this time over a gas camping stove) and sat down for dinner and a drink
as the sun set across the desert horizon. Later we were treated to the biggest,
brightest and fullest moon we’d ever seen. Since we were on the opposite side of the world, the moon looked strangely different and the
‘man on the moon’ was nowhere to be seen.
With Namibia being one of the least populated countries in the world,
light pollution is minimal. Add in the
extreme remoteness, very dry conditions and exceptionally clear skies (i.e.
rarely cloudy) and the night skies are perfect for star gazing. In this particular area, the Namib Rand Nature
Reserve has the distinction of having been deemed Africa’s first Dark Sky Reserve and
consequently attracts a growing number of astro-tourists. During our 23-day trip, every single night except one was crystal clear and the night sky brightly lit either by the moon or a
countless number of stars.
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| The full moon as seen through a crystal clear sky in Hobas, southern Namibia |
May 11: Day 3 started as every other day in Namibia – breakfast
under the rising sun next to our pickup and open tents before re-stuffing our backpacks,
putting away camping gear, and folding up our tents in order to hit the road
again. The disadvantage of roof-top
tents, as we quickly found out, was that even if we WERE staying in a place for
more than one day all the gear had to be put back into the truck and tents
folded up in order to go anywhere.
Although we got a little tired of this routine we still think back on the
whole self-drive safari experience of camping and have fond memories of it - in a heartbeat we would do it again. This particular morning, before driving away
from the campground, we took a few minutes to take in the quirky collection of
vintage vehicles and other props in and around the Roadhouse restaurant. It was a strange place to find something like
this but credit has to be given to the owners of the place, because it works…
and it seems to draw in customers.
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| Maya and Lucas behind the wheel of an ol' jeep |
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| The vehicular décor inside the Canyon Roadhouse Restaurant |
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| Fill it up?? |
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| A quiver tree growing out of an ol' jalopy |
We drove away and before long arrived at the Ais-Ais
National Park and Fish River Canyon Conservation Area Entrance. Ten minutes further along we arrived and the rim of
the canyon came into view. The canyon
is one of the largest in the world, and the largest in Africa. Measuring 550m deep at its deepest point and
160km in length, it winds through eroded cliffs of sandstone, lava and shale
billions of years old.
After the initial viewpoint we drove to the trailhead of a
popular 5-day trek that descends into the bottom of the canyon. Not having the time or the inclination to
take on another long hike at this point in our trip we instead spent a couple
hours marveling over the canyon, taking pictures and walking a
short path to the rim's edge where we sat for a while in awe of how immense and desolate it is, and, except for the wind and odd insect, silent! The surrounding landscape is a
desert plain dotted with the occasional Euphorbia and quiver tree (a species of
aloe tree) named for the quivers that indigenous bushmen made from it for their arrows.
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| The 'grand' Fish River Canyon |
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| A young Quiver Tree growing on the rim of the canyon |
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| Lucas, Maya and me next to a cactus with some really long spines |
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Lucas and Maya and their Inukshuk friend looking out on the canyon
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Our next stop was Sossusvlei in Namib-Naukluft Park, home to
the famous sand dunes and dry salt & clay pan. Behind Etosha National Park, Sossusvlei is probably the next most photographed place in Namibia.
It was one of our longer driving days to get there but we saw some fantastic
scenery and our first close-up views of gemsbok – a strikingly handsome antelope. We arrived well after dark, unfolded our
tents, quickly ate dinner, and hit the tents for the night.
| Gemsbok - Beautiful markings! |
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| Red rocks sticking out of the red desert sand |
May 12: Day 4 - The Namib sand dunes and clay pans (vlei) are a visual feast. Photographers come from all over the world to capture the colour transformations of the dunes and the barren and eerie looking vlei. Many tourists even take a hot air balloon ride over the desert.
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| Hot air Balloon Ride over the Namib Desert as viewed from the vehicle of ordinary folks!! |
From the park entrance gate, which doesn't open until daybreak, it took us about 40 minutes to drive to the first dune. If we were able to get a spot in the park campsite we would have been inside the gate and able to be at the dune for sunrise - we weren't that lucky, but we still managed to get some spectacular views in the morning light. Along the way we saw hot air balloons rising to greet the morning sun from on high. The first stop was 'Dune 45' where we spent some
time taking pictures. In the
morning the dunes take on a deep red hue and are shaded on one side. Later on, as the sun rises, the hues become
less brilliant and progress through pink and eventually appearing a
whitish-yellow or gold colour. We decided not to walk this particular dune,
opting instead to walk one of the dunes (Big Daddy) further on in the Park. Later in the day as we drove back, we stopped
to take a look at Dune 45 again and took some more pictures to compare
with the early morning scenes.
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| 'Dune 45' under the early morning light |
'Dune 45' under the high noon light
From Dune 45 we continued on to 'Dead vlei' and its
surrounding dunes. At the end of the
road, where 2WD vehicles are required to stop, we put our truck into 4WD and
drove for another 300 m through deep sand where no single distinct set of tire
tracks identifies a main path. The sand
is literally a trap if you stop. At one
point I wasn’t driving fast enough and ended up having to back out while
quickly turning the wheels back and forth repeatedly in order to maintain
progress. I thought I’d learned my
lesson. On the way back though, I ended
up in deep sand and quickly bogged down almost to the axle. Here we discovered how valuable the sand
track was that came with the truck. It
saved the day in no time; otherwise we would have had to wait for a passing
vehicle to borrow theirs.
From the parking lot we could see ‘Big
Daddy’ looming ahead of us. We spent the
next hour climbing along its ridge.
On our right was 'Dead vlei' and all around us was a spectacular view of dunes as far as the eye could see. It wasn’t long
before the light wind turned to a strong wind and began pelting our bare legs with sand. Maya was screaming in surprise at the feeling
of the pelting sand and we were all surprised by the wind’s strength. While
walking the ridge line most of the pelting sand stayed low to the ridge so as
much as possible, we tried not to sit or crouch down or to walk down the lee
side of the dunes where our faces would get blasted and our ears, noses, eyes
and hair would all get filled or coated.
We trudged on but soon gave in to Mother Nature cutting short our attempt to reach Big
Daddy’s summit. We turned into the wind and headed down into the
vlei. Lucas and Maya ran down while Kim
and I made our way more cautiously, taking video and photos with the weather-proof GoPro. We spent some time in 'Dead vlei' itself, taking in the eerie feeling of the dry, cracked clay pan, and scattered, dead
camelthorn trees and then headed back for the car. It was getting really hot!
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Group shot of us on the lower ridge of 'Big Daddy' and 'Dead vlei' off to our left.
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Lucas is just a speck on the vlei in the blowing sand!
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Here we are standing next to a dead camelthorn tree in the middle of 'Dead vlei'
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| An unnamed dune as seen from the road under the mid-morning sun. |
Although we were done with the dunes relatively early (about
2:00 pm) we decided to make it a short driving day and book a place with a pool
to cool down in. We drove for about an
hour and a half to a tiny outpost called Solitaire and found an upscale resort, called Solitaire Desert
Farm. Luckily for us it also had some
'lower-scale' camp sites. Most
importantly, it had a cool, clean pool.
We relaxed and enjoyed the peaceful setting for a couple hours before enjoying our first, true and relaxed sundowner.
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| Desert garden and pool at the Solitaire Desert Farm |
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| Our first, true and relaxed sundowner, not having to rush to set up camp |
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| Lucas at sundown! |
May 13: Day 5 was another short driving day – well… sort
of! Only 5 hours, but we did see some
spectacular desert scenery along the way.
We also crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped to take the obligatory
photo before arriving at Walvis Bay,
a seaside community, one of Namibia's two main port towns and home to large pink flamingo colonies. We stopped briefly here to have lunch by the
sea, watch flamingoes forage in the shallow bay, and then poke
around town and the surrounding area where we dipped our toes in Namibia’s cold Atlantic.
Although we hadn’t quite reached the Skeleton Coast yet, we found a big
whale bone washed up on the beach. It
had been there for quite some time because we couldn’t pull it up out of the
sand without undertaking a major excavation.
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| Stopping in the middle of nowhere to take the obligatory photo |
A half hour to the north was Swakopmund, our home for the
next couple of nights. The town is known
mostly as a destination for adventure tourism and as the seaside resort town
for those living in the capital city, Windhoek. We had arrived just in time for
Mother’s Day.
Day 6 (May 14): Today
Kim would have her choice of ATV riding or sandboarding on the dunes,
skydiving, air ballooning, or going on a camel trek. She chose instead to watch Lucas and Maya learn to sandboard and be served a ‘lavish’
barbecue dinner at our campsite. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even offer her a celebratory drink to go with the sunset since Namibian law doesn't allow for liquor to be sold on Sundays. As it turned out, the coastal fog rolled in and obscured the sun anyways.
We woke up with everything we had left outside coated in
mist. As we found out, the fog, it seems, provides five
times more moisture than rain here and is the reason for all the shipwrecks
that have occurred over the years as well as the unique mix of flora and fauna
all up and down the coast. After an early breakfast we met our sandboarding tour operator at the front gate of our campground. The kids spent about 3 hours on the nearby
dunes, learning to sandboard (snowboarding on sand) and ‘crazy carpet’ on their
stomachs trying to gain the highest speed they could (top speed 58 kph) while
avoiding mouth, eye and earfuls of sand.
They were mostly successful.
After each run down the dune, they would unclip from their boards, or
pick up their sliding board and plod their way back to the top. Under the hot
sun they sure came to appreciate the convenience of the chairlifts back home at Mt. Timothy and Sun Peaks.
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| The cushiest campsite on our entire trip!! |
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| Trudging up the hill - no chairlift in sight!! |
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| Group shot at the top of the dunes |
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| The instructor and first lesson before putting on the gear for the first time. |
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| Lucas learning to sandboard |
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Maya about to be launched down the slope!
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After resting at our campsite for a couple hours we walked to the National Marine
Aquarium - small but well-designed and focused on fish and other marine organisms of the Namibian Atlantic. The main displays explained the importance of the Benguela Current to the Namibian coast and how it interacts with the land and air to create the infamous coastal fog. The kids seemed fascinated enough and had lots of questions as a result. But they were most excited about the feeding of the sharks and other fish in the huge tank, which had a walk-through tunnel to view the fish from. We watched for about half an hour as a single scuba diver fed all the fish in the aquarium with the sharks and large dusky cobs basically being lathered into a frenzy and nearly tearing the food from the diver's hand.
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| A sandshark at the National Aquarium |
Day 7 (May 15): Today
was to be an ambitious day of driving, first northwards up the coast to Cape
Cross, home of the largest Cape fur seal colony on the planet, and then back
south partway before turning inland to our destination Spitzkoppe.
When the wind blows off the coast, you can apparently smell
the Cape Cross fur seals long before you see them. As we experienced though, without wind, the
smell hits you like a ton of bricks when you arrive and open the car
door. It was so strong we had to change clothes when we ended the day and didn't wear them again until the next wash day. But what else should we have expected from the
build up of excrement from 150,000 fur seals and an unknown number of rotting
carcasses. Despite the smell, from the
safety of a long-protected walkway we enjoyed watching the cows and their pups
lounging on the rocks and beach, playing, nursing/suckling and playing in the
water. It was quite a sight!
We doubled back and turned inland at Henties Bay. After about an hour of driving and being
mesmerized by the vastness of the desert plain, a blip on the horizon
appeared. As we continued to drive, the
blip turned to a close grouping of peaks that stood out like a sore thumb above
the desert plain.
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| Approaching Spitzkoppe |
We eventually reached
our campground at these granite peaks called Spitzkoppe and Pontok Mountains
just as the sun was setting. We quickly
scrambled up a smallish outcropping to watch the brilliance of the sunset
unfold.
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| Sillhoutte of Maya in front of the stunning sunset |
It was so amazing and the landscape so awe-inspiring that we decided to stay
another night. Campsites were not reservable so, in the dark we wound our
way in and out among the rock formations to find an unoccupied campsite. We settled in for the night and…
Day 8 (May 16): awoke to a spectacular scene of the surrounding rock walls lit up in red similar to the dunes of Sossuvlei. Lucas, Kim and I climbed the mountain right
above our campsite, while Maya, who wasn’t feeling well, wanted to stay behind
in the campsite and read. The climb was
hard and at times a bit technical but we persevered and were treated with
gorgeous panoramic views of the mountains sticking up around us and the desert
plain stretching out beyond as far as we could see.
In the afternoon we took a guided tour of a restricted area
where our guide showed us to numerous rock paintings made 2-4000 years ago by the
local San people (of ‘The Gods Must be Crazy’ fame). The paintings showed various scenes of
animals or humans interacting with animals that served ritualistic, shamanistic
or ceremonial purposes and were remarkably well preserved given their age. Our guide also gave us a lesson about the
native click language, which we all tried our hand at speaking but failed
miserably.
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| Our secluded campsite nestled into the rocks! |
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| Morning moon |
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| Breakfast 'on the rocks'! |
Day 9 (May 17): This
day was a pure driving day and pit stop in the capital city of Windhoek (a bit
out of our way) to get campsite permits for Etosha National Park – our next stop. We stayed the night in a small crossroads town
still 2 hours from Etosha because night had fallen and the owner of our rental
company had warned us not to drive after dark because of the increased chances of colliding with
animals (like elephants).
Day 10 (May 18): We
were back on the road early so that we could get a full day in the Park looking
for wildlife. As we got near the gate,
we stopped off at a local private campsite outside the park to secure a spot
for that evening. As we drove in we
could see cheetahs in a large fenced-off area.
This campsite also runs a business as a cheetah and lion rehabilitation
reserve and farm for numerous species of native wildlife.
Day 10-Day 13 (May 18-May 21): See our separate blog recounting our
experience in Etosha National Park. On
the morning of our last day, we headed east out of the park headed towards Botswana. On our way we stopped briefly when we spotted
a lone male lion on a small hill quite a long way away. We watched as he sat and surveyed the plain
for approaching prey. Then he rose to stretch and move to another spot
out of sight. It was a brief but full and
unobstructed view of the lion – the only one we had during the entire trip.
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| We saw this lone lion in the distance on our way out of the park! |
The rest of the day was spent driving and
restocking food and fuel as we headed for Tsumkwe, a small community on the
border with Botswana where we had planned to spend time at a Living Museum of
the San People. See Maya’s blog about our time there.
Day 14 (May 22) – Travel Day to meet the San People
Namibia lived up to our expectations and so far tops my list of favourite countries. The mix of history, remarkably different
cultures, stunning landscapes, sunsets and sunrises, and the unique wildlife experiences has me wanting to come back, despite there being so many other places
on this earth that are also worth seeing at least once.
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