Northern wildlife and southern sand

Safari, Sossusvlei, sand dunes and great travel companions on a six day trip around Namibia. Needless to say that the past week have been an extraordinary experience!

The six day trip around Namibia included three days safari in Etosha Wildlife Reserve and three days exploring the desert around Sossusvlei in the South. Joining us on the trip was five (twelve in the last three days) fantastic travellers, which proved to be a lot of fun. During the daytime we drove around in our big truck and in the night time we rested around a fire in the campsite. Our guide and assistant made fantastic food and did everything to make our trip as great as possible.

The first three days was spend looking for African wildlife – in what many people refer to as one of the best wildlife-viewing venues in Africa. The trips around the park led us to view zebras, giraffes, warthogs, lions, leopards, wildebeest, rhinos (white and black), 7 different antelope kinda-things plus many different kind of birds (eagles, vultures etc). Before the sun went down, we went to a campsite to sit by a waterhole with a box of red wine and look at animals coming to get a sip of water under the sunset. As you can imagine it can sometimes be hard to sleep, when you can hear lions and hyenas growling in the distance and jackals walking around outside your tent to look for food or shoes to steal :-).

The last three days of the trip was spent in the desert around Sossusvlei. It is one of the oldest deserts in the world with sand dunes towering as high as 300m above the surroundings. Adding to the amazing views is the fact that the sand is almost red and changes colours during sunrise and sunset! On the first night we climbed a 100 m dune close to the campsite to watch the sun go down over the desert. With a glass of red wine in our hand we sat and watched the spectacular view. While looking at the sunset a thunderstorm/sandstorm crept up behind us and caught us halfway down the dune. Not a pleasant experience to try to find your way in a sandstorm with lightning all around you!

5am the next morning we were up again and on our way to watch the sunset from the famous “Dune 45”. The climb up the 150 m high dune (not an easy task in loose sand) was rewarded with an amazing sunrise and a very funny run down the dune (see photos). At the bottom our guides had prepared breakfast for us (bacon and eggs) to enjoy after the hard climb. Later on in the day we did a 5 km hike through an old dried up riverbed which had almost been consumed by the dunes. The only way to tell that there was once water in this day place was the cracked muddy earth and dead trees (see photos). If anyone is planning to do this trip, we have one advise: Bring a lot of water, IT GETS VERY VERY HOT IN THE DESERT! After a dip in the pool and a cold beer at the campsite we went for a small hike around (and in) the Sisrem Canyon. It is a 15m deep limestone canyon; amazing views when the sunset plays with colours and shadows. We had an amazing trip with great companions and would love to go back to see it again sometime.

We have now moved to Swakopmund, which is an adventure town situated by the Atlantic Ocean. It is like a fairytale (at least how it would look in a German fairytale) town with small romantic houses in very different colours, not two houses are the same. We are going to stay here for four days and try our some of the many adventure opportunities the town offers (we will tell you which ones later, so that our families doesn’t need to worry :-))

Take care everyone!