In our last three days we have to cover the approximately 1000km back to Windhoek. So that this becomes no pure Fahrerei, we plan three stopovers: the east and west part of the Bwabwata National Park and the Waterberg Plateau.

In the Bwabwata we get the last place in a great camping site directly on the river with a view of the national park. The pitches are huge with >500m² and we enjoy the afternoon and evening on the terrace of the bar on the river – only somewhat disturbed by a somewhat intrusive bus tour group from the Ruhrpott. In the morning we are slightly shocked when the whole group arrives for the morning boat trip, but we are lucky and get our own boat incl. super nice captain. This drives us about 2.5 hours across the river and we sight one of the main reasons for the boat trip: several larger hippo families wallowing in the shallow water <3

The rest of the day we spend with two safaris in the park, always looking for wild dogs and hoping for another leopard. Unfortunately, this time without luck, but we still arrive with an exciting experience in the luggage at our next campsite:

While we drive through the national park – and because of the approaching sunset are already a bit stressed – is suddenly an elephant in front of us on the road. The stories from the Etosha National Park still in the back of the head, we stop, wait until he moves a good 20m in the direction of the bush and drive slowly past him. When we stop for a quick photo again briefly, he turns around, wiggles his ears and trumpets us so loudly that Kerstin almost falls the camera out of her hand… That was quite a clear request to continue…. 🙂

After another night on a beautiful campsite on the river, we can still observe the hippos and a herd of buffalo the next morning. And we are even briefly witnesses a lioness on hunt, but so far away that it is hardly recognizable… Photos are not even to think about…

So far we are saturated by the Caprivi Strip and continue to the Waterberg Plateau, where we will spend our last day. The drive and the landscape are once again spectacular, the plateau suddenly juts out of the flat landscape. It’s as if someone had artificially placed it there, and in fact it serves mainly as a reserve for the highly endangered white and black rhinos, which have been settled here for their own protection. Unfortunately, the morning safari – with unfortunately uninspired guide – can not keep up with the landscape at all, but at least we still get a buffalo up close in front of the lens

We spend our last night two hours from Windhoek on a private farm with a waterhole, a crocodile and beautiful sunset with Namibian beer before we return the car the next morning and are taken to the airport.

NAMIBIA was definitely worth the trip!

 

Auf der Bootsfahrt entdecken wir einige Flusspferde

Dieses Flusspferd haben wir wohl erschreckt

und es sprintet ins Wasser

platsch

und weg ist es

 

 

 

So we decided to leave the lonely desert of the Damara and Kaokoveld in the northwest of Namibia on the left – which would have been the clearly more relaxed variant and is also made by most Namibian travelers – and instead to cross the border to Botswana and Zimbabwe via the “Caprivi Strip” in the northeast to visit the world-famous Victoria Falls.

The journey there leads us not only over two borders and through three national parks, but is with 1200km not even close to create in one day. We leave the Etosha National Park around noon and drive first to Rundu, quasi the entrance gate in the approximately 500km long and 50 km wide Caprivistreifen, which the German colonial administration at the end of the 19ten century of the English erhandelte (mainly, to enable shipping between German East and West Africa, forgetting that it might be difficult to hoist a ship over the Victoria Falls ). In Rundu we spend a night at the campsite of a nice lodge right on the Zambezi River, which separates Namibia and Angola, and decide whether to do the remaining 700km in one piece or in several stages.

We decide for the crowbar, then the return trip will be a little more relaxed. Because already the drive through the Caprivi strip is an experience. Conditioned by the nearby river, desert and savannah have given way to a lush evergreen. Majestic trees grow here, including the marula tree known from the movie “The funny world of animals”, which carries slightly alcoholic fruits, from which the drink “Amarula” is made – which we of course try

After a few hours we reach the first border to Botswana, and except for paying a small road toll, the exit and entry here runs super relaxed. This then changes at the border to Zimbabwe, here we need over an hour for all formalities, among other things we have to pay insurance and customs for our rental car. Shortly after sunset we then reach the city of “Victoria Falls”, on the way there we even spot a few elephants on the roadside!

We then also go early into the tent, because we want to get up early to get ahead of the tourist crowds at the waterfalls, and that will be worth it. Around 7 o’clock we are on site and have the falls first time almost for us alone, but first we see between all the spray almost nothing. After a breakfast in the park, however, it gets better, the spray has partly settled and reveals us a wonderful view of parts of the falls, the rest is au

Die Viktoriafälle

einfach atmemberaubend

und färbenprächtig

 

 

 

 

Brücke am Ende des Pfads nach Sambia

Riesiger Baobab Baum (afrikanischer Affenbrotbaum)

We plan to drive from west to east through Etosha National Park and stay overnight along this route at campsites in the park. This will give us three full days for our first safari without a guide, and the tactic is actually quite simple: Etosha is littered with natural and artificial waterholes, so the animals should show up there at some point – especially in the mornings and evenings – and we will simply “rattle off” as many of them as possible. Whether we can tie thereby probably to the sighting successes of our Guides in Kenya?… AND OB !!!!

The first day has not yet the “very big” highlights to offer, but we groove us first with antelopes, zebras and wildebeests. In addition, we spot a giraffe with child at a waterhole, and watching a giraffe drinking is really an experience. First we carefully check out the surroundings, then we spread our legs, have a final look around and then we get down on our knees and drink. Simply delicious!!!

In the evening, we then spy two lions in the distance and shoot a terrific photo of a single bull elephant in the sunset under a rainbow. Since one may not drive at night alone in the park, we must be at 19:40 back at the camping site, when we arrive however the gate is already closed and we adjust ourselves already to a night in the free one, as then nevertheless an employee – who are here unfortunately often seeeeeeehr sluggish – at the gate comfortably and means we would be over one hour too late, the gates close to the sunset. No idea where this misunderstanding came from, the lady at the reception was namely very clear with their time, but he lets himself broad and lets us into the camp.

.

We get up early and drive back to the waterhole where we had spotted the lions, maybe they are still there. Unfortunately they have moved on, but we spot a single hyena and three fighting jackals!!! Until the early afternoon this will remain our most spectacular discovery, then we spot a single lion under a tree which we observe for a while. At some point we turn around and behind us at the waterhole three elephants have appeared! Where did they come from now?  

In the late afternoon we check in at the next campsite and actually want to do a night safari, but the – again very unmotivated  – lady at the reception tells us that this is not possible today. Therefore, we drive on our own through the area again and discover shortly before sunset a rhino in the distance!!! And that’s not all, the illuminated waterhole at the campsite is visited a few hours later – after we have eaten – by 10 rhinos (2 of them young). What a luck, whether we can still top that?

And how! The next morning we run up to the top form, discover first another rhinoceros, then a pack of lions and shortly thereafter a leopard. When we see afterwards still a gigantic elephant family at a water hole, we sighted the “Big 4” in approximately three hours, that is to make us first one:r after!!!

On our last evening at the campground in the very east of the park, a night safari is then available. The totally nice and dedicated – yes there is such a thing here – driver asks the group what we would like to see. While our fellow travelers bake small rolls, Kerstin is the most cheeky and wishes for some cheetahs. While the others are still smiling about so much naivety, our car drives out of the camp, turns twice and stops. The driver shines her headlight to the right and says “cheetahs”! Fifteen meters next to the road in an open area and then the 3 brothers also walk by comfortably in front of our car. While the others are still looking at Kerstin in disbelief, our guide just asks if she should drop us off at camp again

Naturally not, we discover namely still a huge herd of giraffes galloping in front of us and again elephants and rhinos together at a waterhole. At night here is real operation and the red headlights of the car – so that the animals are not disturbed – gives the scenery an almost magical mood.

.

The next morning we drive back to the spot where we had spotted the cheetahs, and lo and behold, they are indeed still around – albeit a good distance from the road! We watch them for a while and hope a bit that they might have a taste for one of the antelopes grazing nearby. We’re not that lucky, but it’s still worth the wait. They break off their lurking at some point and move leisurely in the direction of the road – where dozens of cars have gathered in the meantime – and we can observe them at close range. Unfortunately, due to the many cars, the whole thing turns into a little gauntlet for the cheetahs, which would like to cross the road, but are disturbed again and again by inattentive tourists by starting engines or flashing lights. This is probably the downside of allowing people to drive through national parks themselves, but the cheetahs could of course move off the road at any time and would have more free space again.

Well, it’s enough for us then and we say goodbye to the car masses and drive towards the Caprivi Strip to cross the border to Botswana to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. This will cost us almost two days of driving, but the landscape will reward us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The way to the world-famous Etosha National Park leads us first to the so-called “Skeleton Coast”, whose name  is due to the numerous shipwrecks in this area. Besides a few small wrecks on the beach, however, there is relatively little to see of them and we lack the motivation for a sightseeing flight over the coast.

For us much more interesting is the nearby seal colony – more precisely: dwarf fur seals – at the “Cape Cross”, which can be visited for a small entrance fee. Here hundreds of thousands of female seals cavort with their offspring, now about 4-5 months old – the males only come to the coast during the mating season in October. At first we are greeted by an acrid stench and we briefly consider using our FFP2 masks for other purposes, but our noses quickly get used to it. And so we stroll for about an hour over the wooden footbridge through the colony and observe the seals from partly very close. Some sleep under the jetty, thousands cavort on the beach and in the water, we see first swimming exercises of young seals, nursing mothers and a small one on mother search – one would like to take it most dear in the arm and comfort . The mass of seals and the impressions associated with them are simply overwhelming!!!

.

Since Etosha National Park is too far, we have to stop for one more night, then we will enter the national park via the west entrance, where hopefully a few animal sightings await us…

Eingang zum Skeleton Coast Nationalpark / entrance to the Skeleton Coast Nationalpark

Schiffswrack / wreck

Ölplattform / oil platform

Landschaft auf dem Weg nach Cape Cross / Scenery on the way to Cape Cross

 

Robbenkolonie am Cape Cross / seal colony at Cape Cross

 

 

 

Our next stop is the Spitzkoppe National Park, we arrive in the evening and look for a nice campsite directly at the foot of the large Spitzkoppe. The park consists mainly of red rocks in all possible formations and is therefore of course a paradise for nature lovers, hikers and climbers.

The hike up the large Spitzkoppe is given as 4-5 hours and 700 meters of altitude, actually a morning walk for us   The hike is only allowed with a guide, so we grab one the next morning and walk leisurely to the beginning of the climb. Meanwhile, our guide still mentions that there are some places on the trail where chains have been installed for certain passages. Easy, we think to ourselves. A hike with a few via ferrata sections, we have already done many times. When we then begin with the climb, we quickly realize that it will go very steeply up. At the latest at the first chain, which is supposed to be apparently still the easiest (and despite this, according to our guide here many have already turned back), we realize that it will be more of a climb and not particularly much hiking.

And so we fight ourselves steeply upwards, always with the thought, how we should come down there probably again. Finally, we are met by a guide with 2 Swiss, who confirm that the view is gigantic at the top. Exactly this motivation we had needed. It goes further up, over more chains, very steep parts, chasms on both sides, tree roots as the only way to get further up, etc.

From “relaxed morning walk”, after just under four hours we finally arrive at the top, enjoy the fabulous view over the park and the surrounding mountains. Somehow the hike has already been worth it, there would not be the way back…This is now completely in the sun, 30 ° C tendency rising, and for the most part it is so steep in all directions that we crawl sitting down. Our guide is 18 years and only since 3 months, and unfortunately not very foresighted and thus not too much help – until Kerstin then at some point panic screams “help”… Our forces sink exponentially with each step down, the muscle soreness is pre-programmed at least with Kerstin for a week.

On the bottom we are glad to have made it and drag ourselves for a cold beer to the bar. After that, and after an open-air shower, the world looks different again and we drive to the sunset still to the Bridge Rock, which is very reminiscent of the Arches National Park in Utah.

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Meanwhile, we still reconsider our original route planning. After 10 days of desert we want to get to know another face of Namibia and want to contact our landlord, whether we are allowed to drive across the borders of Botswana and Zimbabwe to the Victoria Falls… But first we go the next morning via the Skeleton Coast to the big highlight of Namibia, the Etosha National Park… 

Abendstimmung von unserem Zeltplatz / evening atmoshphere at our campground

 

Da geht's hoch / we will go up there

 

Der erste "Klettersteig" / the first "climb"

durch enge Höhlen geht's auch / we also have to squeeze through narrow passages

kurzer Spaßfotostopp / short stop for funny pictures

 

 

Namibia is about 2.5 times the size of Germany, but with 2.4 million inhabitants one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Accordingly, the distance between two towns can be several hundred kilometers by car. Sounds boring at first, but since the landscape changes almost constantly and animals appear again and again – mainly giraffes, antelopes and bouquets – the drive is really fun. On the way to the coast we drive through the Namib-Naukluft National Park and cross Guiseb Canyon.

The towns themselves have much less to offer there, the bay in Walvis Bay, which is known for flamingos, has a huge, ugly container port in the background, which unfortunately destroys the mood a bit. Therefore we continue directly to Swakopmund, which has a little more to offer. In this place known for action sports, there is again a lot of German architecture in Art Nouveau style, a few nice cafes, restaurants and bakeries and a nice – but somewhat out of place – about 100m long pier on the otherwise beautiful beach promenade. We puff through once, stroll through town and even find a vegan pizzeria – which stupidly ran out of homemade vegan cheese…

Before we leave Swakopmund finally behind us, we drive again into the Namib-Naukluft National Park along the so-called “Welwitschia Drive”. In addition to the still fascinating desert landscape, this is mainly about the Welwitschia plant that gives it its name. It manages to produce evergreen leaves despite the extreme drought, which fascinates researchers to this day, and incidentally it lives to be several hundred years old. The largest and oldest specimen we find at the end of the path, which is estimated at an incredible 1500 years of life.

After we have replenished our supplies, we continue to Spitzkoppe, the Matterhorn of southern Africa…

Der Pier in Swakopmund / the pier in Swakopmund

Jugenstilarchitektur in der ganzen Stadt / Art Nouveau in the whole city

 

 

Die Landschaft im Namib-Naukluft Nationalpark / Landscape in the Namib-Naukluft Nationalpark

 

Der Berg hat eine Lava-Irokese / the montain has a Mihican out of lava 😉

Welwitscha Pflanze

 

The following two days we spend in the national park of Sossuslvei, which is known for its unique high, red dunes – depending on the measurement type they are even the highest dunes in the world. When we arrive around noon at the campground at the park entrance, we also come across the first traces of our Czech fellow travelers, they are in the booking list namely one line before us, but for the previous night, so presumably they are already gone … – yes with the data protection it is not so far here, you can actually always read when checking in, who is currently on the campsite Winking smile

From the campsite a 60km long road leads to the main attraction of the park, the dunes of the Deadvleis and the Sossusvleis. Both are dried up flood basins of the river “Tsauchab”, which still extends in the “Sesriem” canyon at the park entrance and can manage to flow between the dunes and flood the so-called Vleis in case of particularly heavy rain. Since this did not happen in the last years, the basins are currently dried up, nevertheless trees can be found on the dried up areas and offer a great photo scenery between the several hundred meters high dunes. We drive the route twice, at sunset and again at sunrise and experience the wonderful atmosphere of the warm light in the deep red shining dunes.

After 5 p.m. and before 11 a.m. the temperatures are also bearable, in the morning it is even really cold – especially if you climb a dune barefoot Smile – which we of course enjoy extensively. We are particularly impressed by the morning sun in Deadvlei, which has not been flooded for so long that all the plants have died. But since it is too hot and dry, the trees no longer wither and simply stand like black, mummified skeletons in the vlei – surrounded by the dunes.

But not only the dunes, already the drive into the vlei is a little experience. The last five kilometers it is no longer a road, but simply a drive on the partly dozens of centimeters deep sand. It’s a good thing that we chose the car with four-wheel drive, without it there would be no getting through here. And even with it, it takes a good portion of courage to drive at full throttle through the soft, deep sand. On the way back in the evening we have to help a stuck Japanese out of a jam. On the way there we see how he gets stuck, but to our incomprehension nobody helps him to get the car free again. The cars coming towards us must have ignored him, and even when we try to dig him out, a ranger just drives past us without batting an eye. Since the park is closing soon, we finally pack him into our car and take him to the campsite. The next morning his car is then freed by park rangers, the hole dug by his car is clearly visible. Unfortunately, a somewhat sobering experience and we have to think back a little to Kenya, that would have been unthinkable there.

We continue via the coastal towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund to the Spitzkoppe…

Canyon am Eingang des Parks / Canyon at the entrance of the park

Bäume mitten im Sand / trees surrounded by sand

Wir erklimmen die erste Düne / we climb the first dune

 

Dune 45

Sossuslvei zum Sonnenuntergang / Sossusvlei at sunset

und Sonnenaufgang / and sunrise

 

wir genießen die Morgensonne / we enjoy the morning sun

Lüderitz is a settlement and port on the Atlantic Ocean that is known for its Art Nouveau architecture – in fact, it literally came out of nowhere during the German colonial period around 1900. However, it made a name for itself during the German colonial period as a diamond stronghold. A German engineer found diamonds in the sand here while working as a supervisor on the construction of a railroad line, and a short time later not only he was stone rich, but also the whole area around Lüderitz was designated as a restricted area, and during the next decades tons of jewelry diamonds were fished out of the sand.

Today, the main reminder of this is the ghost town of Kolmanskop, the most famous of the then diverse mining villages in the middle of the desert, which can be visited today. And so, in the middle of the Namib, you stumble upon the ruins of early 20th century German culture, butcher and bakery stores, a gymnasium with high bar and trestle, and a bowling alley with German rules on the wall. All quite funny and explained with a cute German accent by our guide, but somehow a bit too much German kitsch for our needs. The impressive part actually comes after the tour. We stroll through the slowly decaying houses, which are partly more partly less filled with sand and enjoy the play of light and shadow in mostly collapsed buildings. Here one could actually occupy oneself purely with photographing for hours, constantly the lighting conditions change at the often still well preserved pastel-colored interior walls.

So long we hold up our but not, but continue to the Namib on a private “game farm”. We learn that animal welfare in Namibia also means that many private farmers earn their money with Tourist:innen, which rent on the farms and go on private safaris on the farm area. For farmers the wild animals – mostly antelopes, zebras, giraffes, but sometimes also lions and rhinos – thus become a source of income and their protection is in their interest. Since hunting licenses are also issued on these farms in some cases, this idea has a bland aftertaste for us, but it seems to work, because the animal population in Namibia has been relatively stable for decades and is also growing in some cases.

Our game farm for this night hosts 3 giraffes, one of which we also spy directly on the way to the reception. After a short cool down in the pool, we walk to the sunset a small hill high and enjoy the gigantic view.

The next stop is the world-famous dune landscape of Sossusvlei, but you’ll find that in the next post.

Auf dem Weg durch die Wüste nach Lüderitz / on our way to Lüderitz through the desert

Sonnenuntergang in Lüderitz / sunset in Lüderitz

Kolmanskuppe

Die Eisanlage / the ice manufacturing house

Kegelbahn / skittle alley

Verfallene, sandgefüllte Häuser / demolished houses full of sand

bilden tolle Lichtreflexionen / give nice light reflections

 

 

After Peru and Colombia, we are still fresh in South America fever, but the attraction before the start of the semester to get back on the plane is too big and so we just can not resist. However, we don’t want to go directly back to South America, but would like to try out the flora and fauna of southern Africa again and experience the differences between “black” East and “white” West Africa for ourselves. Quickly Namibia crystallizes as a destination, not only because of (or despite?) its German past, but mainly because we got after all the backpacking times again a desire for a camping vacation, and Namibia seems there as a very worthwhile destination (and will be ).

Said, done, booked, planned (in this series order… ), two weeks later we are sitting in the plane from Vienna via Doha to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. There we are already expected by a couple from the Czech Republic and a driver of our rental car company (Savanna), and brought to our 4×4 pickup with roof tent. Everything important is briefly explained to us and then we are already sitting in the car on the way to the south of Namibia. The two Czech have similar plans as we do, but spend one more night in Windhoek. We leave Windhoek for the time being, because we couldn’t find out much exciting about it and would probably have been disappointed anyway after the incredibly exciting experience in Nairobi. Let’s see, maybe we’ll meet them again somewhere along the way…

We don’t have a real plan for the first night, our first stop is actually quite simple. As far as it goes in the Kalahari until it gets dark (about 19 o’clock) and then to a nice campsite. Since everything takes a bit longer than we imagined (especially the entry), we only make it just behind the edge of the desert, but the place is beautiful already. Nearly no people, a scorching heat until shortly after sunset and an (artificial) water hole, where a few desert dwellers cavort – which we observe with a cold beer. We are visited again and again by the dog of the owner family, who wants to get some of our attention. A successful first (half) day, which is topped by an unreal starry night. In addition we experience at the own body that with the deep night temperatures in the desert, is not to be joked. It gets bitterly cold and we decide to close the tent doors in the future…

Am zweiten Tag fahren wir dann tiefer in die Kalahari, bis kurz vor die botswanische Grenze. Wir fahren mit unserem Allradantrieb durch eine 22km lange Offroad-Strecke, entdecken verschiedene Antilopen, Zebras und Gnus und erleben einen bombastischen Sonnenuntergang in den charakteristischen roten Dünen der Kalahari. Einfach eine unglaubliche – und extreme – Landschaft, deren schroffe Schönheit sich nur schwer in Worte fassen lässt.

Am nächsten Tag geht es schon wieder raus aus der Wüste in Richtung der Küste. Davor stoppen wir aber noch ausgiebig an einem “Wald” aus Köcherbäumen. Diese für diese Gegend so typischen Bäume teilen ihren Stamm alle rund 30 Jahre in zwei. So entsteht ein wunderbar gleichförmiges Astmuster. Danach fahren wir noch bis in die für den deutschen Jugendstil bekannte Stadt Lüderitz, aber das ist eine neue Geschichte…

Ausblick in die roten Dünen / view into the red dunes

das ist unsere "Straße" / that's the "street" we're taking

unser Auto in der Abendsonne / our car in the evening sun

Oryx Antilope

Springbock

Strauß / ostrich

Gnu im Sonnenuntergang / wildebeast in the setting sun

Pflanzen im Köcherbaumwald / plants in the quiver tree forest

Köcherbaum / quiver tree