World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas
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Wednesday 10 January 2018. Photos.
Highlights: Jackals and vultures eating a dead zebra
Our second game drive of Etosha National Park is also likely my last one of this trip. It’s amazing how every single game drive bought something new and wonderful and today it was so again. The majority of the group upgraded to Jeep / 4WD game drive allowing for a more tailored viewing experience as the local expert guide would listen to the 7-8 passengers in each vehicle and provide valuable insights.
Tuesday 09 January 2018. Photos.
Highlights: Giraffes, Lion, Cheetah, Wildebeest, Jackals, Hyenas, Ostriches, Elephants, the Etosha Pan
Our game drive today saw as move from one end of the Etosha National Park to the other end, a distance of roughly 180 kms that we took the entire day to complete between 6.30 am and 4.30 pm. This drive was undertaken in our truck given we were moving our campsite. Everyone was keen to see the Park today likely helped by having more comfortable night sleeping, well at least that was for me given I have air conditioning running most of the night and I had to turn it off at 4 am as I was getting too cold, a first for Africa!
Monday 08 January 2018. Photos.
Highlights: Etosha National Park 30 minute overview drive
Today we journeyed to Etosha National Park, one of the oldest national parks in the world and our home area for the next three days. The drive to Etosha was very smooth and easy on the well made and maintained roads. Ever since Victoria Falls we have been travelling lengthy distance in very good time unlike in East Africa.
Sunday 07 January 2018. Photos.
Highlights: Group Dinner
Today I farewelled amazing Botswana and entered Namibia for the first time. This is the second last country of my 2017-18 Africa Trip and my passport is almost completely full, in fact it is over full as I had to remove the Brazil Visa to make room. I’ll be retiring my passport in the very near future after it served it’s full term well.
The border crossing took around an hour with the sole Namibia Immigration officer speeding up her process once she saw a huge line forming. Before that time she took a long while to find my Botswana exit stamp which happened to be on the very page she had open when she asked for me to find it, I very politely looked though the passport before coming back to the same page as I don’t think it’s a good idea to make an Immigration officer feel anything but fully in charge.
The moment we crossed the border it become obvious that we were moving into a more arid country despite the overhead cloud early in the morning. I know a desert is in my near future but first Windhoek awaited. This is the capital city of Namibia but didn’t seem overly big and being a Sunday very little was open.
Our campsite was near enough to the city centre but no one was exploring given it was 4 pm when we arrived. We went out to a group dinner at a nearby restaurant with most people going the buffet option but I wanted a specific pasta dish. This was a good group occasion as more bonding amongst the group occurred with topics ranging from world politics to hens and bucks night traditions across different countries with the UK experiences being the most eye opening!
My upgrade for the night was fairly basic to a pre-erected tent with a bunk bed. Unfortunately my initial tent didn’t have power but that was quickly fixed. I did fire off an e-mail asking about the amount I had paid for my upgrades compared to the charges for group members who were doing it on the go. The rooms and tents are fine but it appeared I was paying over the odds, however as at the time of writing this blog in Etosha I can see how at some places I get very expensive upgrades and at others some very basic but it averages out.
Saturday 06 January 2017. Photos.
Highlights: The San people / Bushman Experience
Today we truly become venturing into more desert areas of Africa as we continue our march further south. We left the Delta Rain Campsite at a late time around 8.30 am as our drive today was only 500 km on great roads meaning we got to our Ghanzi campsite around 2 pm. Boy I wish our travel time per km in East Africa had been similar.
As we drove further south the landscape continue to change to more arid and hot. You could feel the temperature radiating from the ground every time the wind come around. The Ghanzi campsite confirmed this with the sandy landscape that the tents and huts sat on. Further this campsite only had power running between 7.30 pm and 9.00 pm on diesel fuel, this was off the grid somewhat.
Nathan's Insights 