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Saturday, September 23rd, Okaukuejo, Etosha Game Reserve, Namibia
Here in Etosha is SERIOUS wildlife, we cannot think of anyone we know who would not love it here. This is our last day - we have now been here a week, and have stayed at all three of the game lodges in the park. Friday 15th, we had a slow start, picking up various bits, - the cash vending machines still work in this outpost, and we grab a few more Namib dollars for our next leg. After some e-mailing of a few urgent items re Kingsway, to Tom, eventually around 11:00AM, we are heading to the seal colony. We travel another deserted and desertified highway for 45km. The really top class salt road goes most of the way, but starts to disintegrate after 30Km. Solid nothing except for a few fishing huts next to the beach on the way up. Ilge wanted to go via the "Skeleton Coast" desert park, luckily we were told that there was nothing more to see there than in the Namib. Thankfully, as I've had it with lonely, dusty, poor quality deserts roads for a generation or two. Entrance to the Cape Cross Fur Seal park is $CAN2.00 for adults, and $CAN0.20c for kids. Quite a deal as it turns out. The very first thing you notice is the stench. Long years and centuries of guano, dead seals (amongst other things), sea detritus and an on shore wind, have conspired to assault the nasal passages in the extreme.
We wander up and down the length of the wall, photo's of everything. There are large bulls, babes, mums'n'babes everywhere. I notice a Jackal wandering inside the wall, next thing I notice, there is a seal pup in it's jaws. Hey folks, it's a jungle out there. With such a population, I would have expected some killer whales, or other predators in the sea for these easy pickings, but there is nothing out there, not today anyway. There are more seals than you can shake a stick at, on the rocks, on the sand, in the surf, even around the public toilets, and it's easy to get withing 1 - 2 metres of them - watch out for those teeth kids! It is very difficult to get fed up with this, even the stench (some folks are wearing masks), declines in our brains rather than in fact, after 2 hours. Once again, we are photo - opped out, and beat a slow retreat to the van. Back on the road, with a quick stop to check out the lichen in the area, (it's quite famous here), and now we are off, once again across the desert strip to the interior. We have been told that Damaraland is beautiful, and after 150Km of desert, almost anything with less than 100% sand, stone, dust and rock would have to be. After another 125Km of yet more desert, Damaraland turns out to be a rising rocky plain with bush and trees spreading to the horizon. It is rather pleasant out of the Namib. With 240Km to go, it looks like we will be at Outjo just after dark. Lunch at 3:00PM is in Uis - a more or less deserted mining town with only a hotel and a few stacks of mine tailings in the way of tourist attractions. The road north continues as rutted coarse sand and gravel until Khorixas where, finally, we find tarred roads again. Come darkness, and we arrive at Outjo, we find a lodge, agree on the price (it's a two bed "2nd Little Pigs Hut", wooden stick shack at $CAN75.00), but as it's the last one here, we take it, shower (of course), and head of to a less than mediocre dinner. I refuse to eat mine, and this in a 3 star resort! For some reason, it's pretty cold here by 7:30. This makes a great and welcomed change for us. Saturday 16th, and we do some more e-mailing in town, find a great place for biltong (essentially dried strips of seasoned animals), get some pies for lunch, and North, to Etosha. We know that Okaukuejo, the westernmost lodge, and admin centre is packed out, but we hope anyway. It turns out that this is the high season: September is the last of the "dry" months, and with little water around, every animal must gravitate to water holes. There being only a few of these, the largest attached to each lodge, game viewing is to say the least, spectacular.
We arrive at Halali and camp. The water hole/ viewing area is about 800 metres walk away on the side of a kopjie (a 50 - 200 metre rocky lump on the plain). It's a stunning spot built onto the rock no more then 3 metres above the waterhole. Time to watch the animals; we get there and there are about 50 elephant no more than 40 metres in front of us. It's truly startling. Evening approaches, and we finish our G&T's as the light fades. In the evening, the flood lights come on, soon after dark, a black rhino arrives, the kids and missus leave for dinner, and as it always happens, 5 minutes later, an elephant, and then a leopard (very rare) arrive. I can only take video in this light, so you will need to wait to believe me. At one point, I had 3 of the big 5 in one view of the waterhole - Rhino, Leopard and Elephant. The stars shine brightly overhead. Startling stuff. The way back to the site is dark and far from the camp site. You can easily imagine some carnivore in the bushes (the gin helps), thankfully they all waited for someone slower than I. Sunday 17th, and the waterhole is empty. We head to Naimutoni and are likewise amazed at the amount of animals. Dik dik, suni, jackels, wildebeest, impala, ostrich, hartebeest, desert squirrels, and birds by the bucketload on the way.
The water hole here has no ditch or rocks guarding us but is simply cut off by a small 1 metre high wire fence, hopefully electrified - I did not investigate, and the animals can come within 2 metres of the viewer! Check this out! We arm ourselves with our ubiquitous G&T's, and watch the evenings happenings play out. The large bull elephant hangs around all evening, from chewing through the 4 metre high grass, to drinking, to demolishing a 7 metre high thorn tree, this just a few metres from the fence. After an hour, the kids stat to play gin rummy, "we've seen the elephants dad"....... We hang in there till 8:00PM, and head off to the restaurant. All camps offer three meals, all buffets, breakfast ($CAN8.00), lunch ($CAN12.00), and dinner ($CAN16.00). Pretty good value for an all you can eat (I do). Outside these feasts, there is a kiosk, usually by the pool, for booze & snacks. The stars - again - are astronomical, as we check out the water hole before retiring (hey, it feels like I am retired!).
At Halali, we check into a small cottage and head to the pool for the PM. Down to the waterhole, wine (of course), and a few large animals at the hole, including (yes even more) black rhino. Tuesday 17th, and we are booked into Okaukuejo for one night. We head off to the water hole and the place is jam packed with all manner of (non carniverous) wild life. This is too great to miss, and book in for another 4 days. At the waterhole that evening, we see 4 more rhino's (Ilge & Aiden see 3 more than that - 7 altogether, 9 in one day!), and of course elephants, giraffe etc. etc. etc. The camps are reasonably well run, and costs about $CAN50.00 - $CAN75.00, depending on level of chalet, for 2 - 4 beds. The park also cost $CAN6.00 per adult, and $CAN1.00 per child per day. Excellent value for this level of game viewing. The whole system is pretty well fully automated, with access and updates available at any terminal - it looks like a UNIX based system - quite sophisticated actually. Credit cards are, luckily taken everywhere. The lodge we have, has four beds, a kitchen/ braai of sorts, shower/ bog and dining room after a fashion. It also has air conditioning - something we are beginning to notice that we are needing more often. There is a small shop in each camp which supplies certain basics: frozen meats, some veg, booze, dairy etc, so we can have occasional cook outs ourselves. We settle into a few days of school work, reading AM/ PM, then pool till dusk, game viewing, occasional game drive (it's all just at the water hole, a 3 minute walk away, so why bother), and dinner at the restaurant, or braai. The restaurant even has draught beer. We really do have it tough here, hence the lack of further entries for this week.
Today, as ever before we leave, we laundry (well - you know who that "we" is), check the vehicle for the next leg, another gluing of the sump is called for - I must get this fixed professionally one day!, check out the Lonely Planet for our next direction and ports of call and reorganise our brains. We are now half way through our trip, I'd hesitate to call it an adventure, as most places we go, it's full of tourists, and we are treated as such, which is what we are. However, from the leafy suburbs of Toronto, to the dusty pans of Namibia, is indeed a long way however you view it. Our most important question now, is where to after Vic Falls, we will only have 6 weeks left, too short to get to Kenya & back, and I'd like to guarantee that the cruiser will get back to Canada eventually. Still, that's a month away yet. We occasionally think of Toronto, what's going on there, and about everyone back at work or school after the summer. But we get over the urge to rush to the nearest airport tomorrow without too much trouble. Tomorrow, we start back - slowly, towards Windhoek, then to Maun in Botswana. We hope that Zimbabwe has settled down, and we can get gas there, otherwise we will be stuck. Somehow, I doubt that being a tourist there will be as easy as here. Distance travelled this entry: 1050 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 650 Km |
This is the first time I've been able to sit down and drag the laptop out of the safe since we left Henties Bay.
The "park" is simply a stone wall abutting 
There are 
Sure enough, the place is full, we book a cottage for a few nights in advance, and head off to Halali the central lodge 75Km to the
East, to camp for the night. This, after 2+ months of travelling, will be our third night of camping. On the way, we stop at various
water holes, we notice that there is game not just here, but literally everywhere. I have no idea how so much can survive in this
environment. Lots of springbok, 
Naimutoni turns out to be a remnant of German imperialism from the 19th century. Complete with a 
Monday 18th, and there is nothing at the pool to interest us (we are getting a little jaded with so much animal life on our doorstep), so
September 21/ 22nd, must be the fall solstice, the weather is indeed warming up, and it gets too hot to be out after 12:00 without a
pool and sun screen. There is a chance for a 
