Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: The Skeleton Coast and Etosha National Park, Namibia

Departing early from  Swakopmund with our newly fitted roof tent, we headed north up the Namibian coast, with a long drive to Terrace Bay.

We made one major stop along the way at Cape Cross, home to a large Seal colony. We had read and heard from many people that the smell was pretty bad, however nothing can prepare you for the actual smell which hits you even before the car door opens. 

Walking towards the seals I considered going back to the car, the smell making me dry reach initially. However I went on to check the seals out and couldn’t believe how many there were. It was crazy! And they should have been cute, but the smell was over too over powering. Although they do look kind of cute in the photos now J

Crazy number of seals

Maybe a little bit cute? Still very smelly!

From Cape Cross we continued up the desolate coast, the actual entrance to the Skeleton Coast Park being an accurate indicator of what to expect ahead!

Entrance to the Skeleton Coast National Park

After a quick stop for lunch at the very pretty and isolated Torra Bay, we continued on to our final destination for the day, Terrace Bay, one of the strangest places I think I’ve ever been to!

Lunch at Torra Bay

When researching for our trip, much of the feedback on Terrace Bay was quite negative; not to go there because there’s nothing to see, that it was just a grey place or most common, that you only needed to go there once, the later which proved to be most accurate.

Terrace Bay is not a place I’d go back to, but I’m happy I have been there. The whole area, the scenery, the landscape (minus the ocean) is what I’d imagine the moon or mars to feel like.

Difficult to describe except that it's like another world!

Arriving in Terrace Bay

Our Terrace Bay accommodation

Terrace Bay beach drive

Anyway, we had one night there in a cute little house and after arriving, decided to go for a drive along the beach and just take it easy. That didn’t last long however, with the first of what became many, tyre punctures occurring.

The result of our beach drive...........Flat tyre number one!

We were fortunate to be able to get that one repaired in Terrace Bay (our first indicator that it was a common issue there) and maintain our two spares before setting off next day towards Etosha.

However, only half an hour into our trip and we had a tyre blowout, and were already one spare down.

Flat tyre two: A blowout

Then another hour after that, not 10 minutes outside of the park, another tyre puncture and this time no spares left. And so the rest of the day went with us stressing about the road, ridden with sharp rocks that we had to drive on for pretty much the remainder of that day and no spares.

Flat tyre three and no more spares......

Somehow we made it to that night’s rest stop in Outjo, where the following morning we were able to get one of the punctured tyres repaired before proceeding to Etosha National Park. We had little concern for the roads in Etosha given we had been there 10 months earlier and knew they were good!

Some may remember my previous post from Etosha in December last year and our absence of luck with animal spotting; well I’m pleased to report that this time was the complete opposite, animals everywhere!

Animals everywhere

Zebra and one impala

Etosha National Park is very different from the previous parks we had visited on our trip, where animals could be anywhere in the park due to the reliability of a river for water. In Etosha on the other hand, the animals tend to stay close to the waterholes, which is where we also stayed, with a great deal of success.

Stand-off: The elephant won!

Sunset at our camp's waterhole

Soooo many elephants

"Zebra crossing"

Spot the lion in the trees

Nothing in the distance: Etosha Salt Pans

Me on the Etosha Salt Pans

Without a doubt the highlight of Etosha for me was the 10 lions that had made their home near a dead elephant and waterhole. The elephant unfortunately had been shot by park rangers after being injured in recent wild fires in the park; sad for the elephant, but good for us cat watchers!

Lions and more lions

Snacking

One of the elephants shot as a result of recent fires in the park;
easy dinner for this lion

Awesome!

Lions everywhere! And even a giraffe in the background

Resting

A family meal........

... and plenty to go around

My favourite photo. Isn't he just amazing?! A young male lion

After a very successful Etosha trip, our luck again ran out as we headed towards the exit of the park, with yet another tyre puncture. Luckily we did have a spare again, even though it was totally dodgy! We still have no idea how that puncture occurred given the road we were on and that the tyre was virtually brand new.

Burnt out: Etosha in parts after (very) recent fires

Flat tyre four and again no more spares.......

So another stressful drive, however this time only a short one of 2 hours to Tsumeb where we immediately put an order in for 4 new tyres. Coincidently, Mike’s “dream” tyres!! J  

Looking like a very serious overland 4wd, we then took “Ruth” on the road back towards home with a couple of overnight stops in Rundu and Camp Kwando before returning back to Zambia.      

Ruth: Fully fitted out overland 4wd

Our return home unfortunately has confirmed that our wonderful water and power pre-election were just a “phase” but super happy that the weather seems so far cooler than the same time last year!

Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: Windhoek, Sossusvlei and Swakopmund, Namibia

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia is a strange sort of city. Driving towards it we went through many mountains and winding roads, and even 10km out, there was not really any sign of a major city. Nonetheless, when we got there we found it to be very much like a city, lots of traffic, big buildings, an apparent large presence of wealth (see note below) and a return to some sort of normality.

The road about 5km out of Windhoek

Overlooking Windhoek from the freeway

Windhoek was just meant to be the “fun” and relaxed part of the trip, or at least the opportunity to normalise even if for only a short period of time.

Joe's Bar: A pretty cool beer hall in Windhoek with way too
many things to choose from!

During our few days there we had lovely dinners every night, trying out different game meats and new beers, we did some shopping for both crafts, and in my case clothes (!!) and basically took it easy. Sadly this was also the part of the trip when mum and Reegena had to leave us to return to Oz.

Mike's selection: A skewer of different game meats. I'm told Kudo
was the best

Another of Mike's selections: This time a skewer of
barbequed meats

One of my selections: Seafood rice- Yummy!!!

After a sad farewell, Mike and I set off to the town of Okahandja to catch up with some fellow VSOs for the night before making a quick dash back to Windhoek the following day to purchase our new roof tent (although we were unable to get if fitted there).

From there we went on to Sossusvlei, down a rather “interesting” road, completely chosen by the GPS. In hindsight it was actually a good road, but at the time it did have me wondering why it was taking us through creek beds and around mountain bends. Doesn’t matter, because we got there and checked into a fabulous campsite, each fitted with its own private facilities and an “oasis” pool.

Impressive: Each campsite has its own facilities, including solar
powered water

Our oasis :-)

The next morning we had an early rise to check out the morning sunshine over the Sossusvlei sand dunes The road out to the dunes was pretty good with the exception of the last 5kms which is for 4wds only. That part of the road was extremely sandy and kind of fun. Although as we were driving back out it became apparent how difficult it can be to navigate with other tourists struggling in their vehicles against the sand.

Deep sand

Tough "Ruth"

The dunes didn’t disappoint and despite a hard climb up them, the view from the top was amazing. Once we had started climbing them we also realised that it was actually quite difficult to fall down them as the sand acted as a sort of brake; however, it did take a while to feel steady.

Amazing colours

View near the top

Getting there!

Cool sand patterns

Mike & I stopped for a rest

Sand and more sand. I'm still trying to get rid
of it all!

Dead trees at the bottom of the dunes. Amazing!

A return visit in the afternoon close to sunset was also very pretty and a bit more pleasant with less tourists.

Afternoon view of the dunes

Mike and I

From Sossusvlei we headed north and then west, towards Swakopmund on yet another interesting road taking some serious navigating with stretches of dangerous bends, potholes covered by sand and loose gravel. And to top it off, we experienced a sand storm as we finally made it onto tar roads heading into Walvis Bay, approximately 30km south of our destination. A long day of driving but we did make it in one piece!

Death trap: A horrible road where some tourists do get
themselves in trouble 

Sand storm as we headed into Walvis Bay

Swakopmund is a lovely town, much bigger than I had expected and not as German as I thought it would be, although you can definitely feel the German influence. It probably wasn’t the best time for camping, a bit like camping in Sorrento in September; cold with icy sea winds. However we survived ok for the first few nights, upgrading to a room for the last.

Swakopmund

Mike & I on the pier in Swakopmund

View from the pier looking back at Swakopmund

In Swakopmund we indulged a little again, coming across temptations that we hadn’t seen in 12 months. Lots of cakes, excellent coffee (finally!!), new beers, nice dinners of fresh fish and schnitzels.

Mike enjoying a schnitzel and beer

Fresh fish and chips

We enjoyed being near the ocean, despite parts of the ocean front smelling a lot like sewage (not sure why you would spend in excess of $1 milllion USD to live along there when it smells so bad, but each to their own!) and I can now say that I have dipped my foot in the Atlantic Ocean.

Freezing: Dipping my foot in the Atlantic Ocean

We also decided to give Quad Biking a go, the tracks taking us well into the sand dunes that line Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. Initially I was quite excited about this activity, until I actually got there and it felt like my bike was going to tip at every turn. It took a while to get used to it, but admittedly, I did have fun in the end.

Me with my scary quad bike

Mike and I at quad biking

Coming down the dune!

After four nights in Swakopmund I could see why many Namibians flock there in the summer, however I felt satisfied with what I had seen and ready to move on to the next part of our road trip.

** Note: Namibia is the number one country on the UN scale of inequality. Measured using the economic measurement of national income equality, the Gini Coefficient, Namibia has a Gini of 74.3% (with 0 being perfect equality and 100 extreme inequality). This measure is far from perfect, however just to put Namibia’s standing in the world into perspective, the next country behind it, country number 2  is Lesotho with a Gini of 63.2%, while Australia is number 84 on the scale with a Gini percentage of 35.2%. The gap between rich and poor in Namibia became more and more apparent throughout out trip; big expensive cars in Windhoek, grand beach houses in Swakopmund versus clay huts with thatched roofs and carrying water several kilometres from the pump to home in the north!