Namibia

The land of vast deserts, stunning scenery, game meat, and the best town in Africa (Swakopmund)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would rank Namibia up there with Madagascar and Iceland for scenery.  I have heard so much about it in the past but I was excited to witness it for myself.  We entered Namibia from Angola and we were very surprised to see how advanced many of the BIGGER towns and cities were.

We stopped in Etosha National Park (two times) and this was the first shower that many of us had at the campsite in 28 days!!!!  The animals were out in numbers from Giraffes, Wildebeests, Rhinos, Zebras and Elephants just to name a few.  We even got a look at two lionesses that were happily resting under a tree.  This place was teeming with so many animals, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.  It is truly one of the best National Parks thus far I have encountered.

As we headed south, we went along with Skeleton Coast, with its vast desert and almost unbearable wind and cold, it practically made everyone put on all their cold weather gear in preparation for the drive.

Cape Cross was a place where explorers landed hundreds of years ago, however today it is home to one of the biggest seal colonies in Africa.  I have seen seal colonies before but when you see thousands of them in one place barking and waddling around, you come to appreciate the area in which they live.  Many of them you can get really close to as they rarely jump or move away.

Situated  in the middle of the desert, Spitzkopp had some of the oldest cave paintings in Namibia done by bushmen.  The height of the mountain just jutting out of the desert amazes even me.  We spent a good night relaxing under the mountain where our tents were perched.

Sossusuvlei  in my opinion is one of the modern wonders of the physical world.  Red Sand dunes brilliantly line the desert.  The sunrise after a walk up to one of the dunes was beautiful especially with the fluffy clouds.  Although I did not walk up the highest sand dune in the world, I decided to take my time in photographing Dedvlei which used to be a lake hundreds of years ago, but is now just a petrified type forest.  I would love to say that I photo edited these photos, but I did not.  The white clouds, green trees, red sand, and blue sky always look this way…..take a look at the pictures to see for yourself

Swakopmund is one of those cities I could probably go back to time and time again.  It is literally a diamond in the rough and the center of all extreme sport activities in Namibia.  The dunes that surround it begged me to go sand boarding, which I did and crashed several times.  The relaxing feel of the city with its serene nightlife, game meats, and many restaurants, caused me to go back a second time…..

Second time in Swakopmund let me relax the feeling of the town, and get some shopping in.  Hanging around at Beryl’s restaurant by day and Desert Tavern by night.  I also decided to partake in a small cruise of seal and dolphin watching which we loved….Swakopmund you are officially my favorite city in Africa!!!!

Taking different excursions around Swakopmund, I decided to do a Seal and Dolphin Excursion.  It was very difficult to see the dolphins, however the seals and massive pelicans came on board in order to see what food we had.  The pictures are worth a thousand words on here.

Went on a beautiful township tour and saw how most of these people really live.  Again, even though they have very little, they are all very happy.  The highlight of this was probably the school with children (see pics below).

We had the opportunity to go to a Cheetah farm in which there are tame and wild Cheetahs.  A family a number of years ago started taking in Cheetahs from nearby farms as farmers were killing them because of dangers to their livestock.  Watching the Cheetahs being fed and how they ate was an experience that I soon won’t forget.

From there we headed to the beautiful city of Windhoek which was the first real modern city we had scene since Morocco.  Walking around it made me realize that for the last four months, we really had been in the wild west part of Africa and now we are slowly getting back into civilization.

We then headed onto Orange River for some great Kayaking down the river and in preparation for meeting our border crossing into South Africa….