Zebra Crossing

It was a case of true love as Vanessa came down with the same toe infection as me so it was another visit to the doctor before we could finally leave Windhoek and head off into the Namibian sunset in our Toyota Corolla.



 

Always check your mirror!

A three hour journey north on the excellent and virtually traffic-free roads to our first stop, Waterberg Plateau. We made the 200m climb to the top of the plateau look like a couple of geriatrics carrying two bags of heavy shopping as we hobbled up and limped back down whilst avoiding the warthogs and babboons along the way.

Next stop was the magnificent Etosha game reserve, one of the largest in Africa covering a massive 25,000 square miles. Our home for four nights, sleeping with the wildlife and uniquely being able to complete your own self drive safari with just one instruction, ‘do not get out of your  car!

Just a few kilometres inside the park Vanessa yelled, ‘giraffes’ and from that moment we were hooked. We set off the next day at 6am in the early morning chill and immediately spotted a black rhino and then a family of elephants that crossed the road in front of us after we backed the car up a little. From then on we saw countless kudu, zebra, ostrich, impala, hyena, hartebeast, oryx, giraffe and elephant herds of 60 or more.

The original zebra crossing

As well as the hot and sunny days, the real beauty of Etosha is the floodlit waterholes near the lodges which after dark you can just sit and watch more wildlife come to you. It was on the first evening that we got the cream as a leopard suddenly appeared and strolled down for a nightcap but the lions continued to elude us.

If there’s a lull at the waterhole then it’s a case of simply sliding down on your seat and look up at the clearest of skies and stare in amazement at the staggering number of brilliant stars and the milky way. It’s a magical place.

We took our customary walk down to the waterhole on our final morning before our 5.30am breakfast and to our astonishment, matching us stride for stride was a lion just a few hundreds from our front door.

Content, and with all our limbs intact, we drove south for hours across the seemingly never ending Namib Desert until it dramatically meets the Atlantic Ocean at the town of Swakopmund. With our whole trip nearly complete we suddenly ended up in the strangest and most luxurious accommodation to date, a guest house called ‘The Alternative Space’. Our room was a space, 60 foot long with with white curved walls covered in nude pictures which we suddenly realised was the German owner!

The town itself was a baffling place. The weather had changed to misty, grey, and about 14C and as we sat on the seafront drinking tea and eating chips we felt like we’d been transported home early to Weymouth. It couldn’t have been more British and it was difficult to believe that we were still in Africa.

We had just enough time to drive along the coast to visit a colossal colony of more than 100,000 seals. Their continous cacophony of throaty sounds reminded us of the plane full of Chinese on our flight from Bangkok. Luckily we left with a free souvenir, the overwhelming odour of seal that stuck beautifully to our already soiled clothes.