This was a super holiday for our group of 16, 10 ladies and 6 gentlemen. Our Tour Manager was Karylin, the epitome of what a Tm should be, great. Leonard was our safe driver, guide and wildlife spotter. He was friendly and a budding politician.
On arriving in Namibia we were taken directly to our coach. it was quite old and certainly not full sized, having around 24 seats. There were a few minor problems with seat belts but Karylin ensured we were all belted up before departure. The coach was comfortable. It was explained that some of the terrain covered by the bus on it's journeys had an impact on it. The following day all the seat belts had been repaired by Leonard and Karylin had organized a very well thought out seat rotation plan for the holiday, bearing in mind only 4 or 5 could sit singly each day. This worked well (have been reading negative comments about seat rotation).
It was the rainy season. The first part of the holiday when we were in the Namib Naukluft desert it was very hot and dry. The second part of the holiday as we travelled north it remained very hot but we encountered heavy rainfall and thunderstorms, mainly in the evenings or during the night. We encountered many waterlogged and flooded areas.. Apparently there hadn't been this much rain for years.
The landscape became green with huge areas of beautiful yellow daisy type flowers. Very picturesque.
In Swakopmund we managed to see an eclipse, which Leonard had advised Karylin of.
The lodges were all of a fairly good standard, although our lodges at the Etosha Safari Camp were set in a hillside. There was a fairly steep concrete path leading to each lodge, the furthest lodge being about 15 minutes from reception. Had we required transport to and fro, reception would have provided it.
The food overall was good including oryx, springbok and eland. We did have a surfeit of butternut squash soup though. It became quite a joke.
On a negative note service at the Tug Boat resataurant was very slow. On the final evening we found ourselves at Joe's Beer Hall, not the ideal place for a meal on the last night. After a long journey we sat on long benches but we needed chairs. The staff refused to allocate us chairs when Karylin requested them. What's more the chicken soup was too salty and the steaks too tough.
At the end of the optional township which half of us did we were given a real treat. We were served chicken stew with dumplings, a maize drink, which were fine and then lo and behold we were offered mopane worms aka caterpillars which can be eaten raw, grilled or fried. The oldest gentleman in the group aged 82 was the only one to try these grilled delicacies.
The optional tours were interesting.
The catamaran cruise, in a calm bay, was interesting, although out of season for dolphins which we didn't see, we were honoured by the presence on board of pelicans and a seal. Whilst on deck we were given a couple of drinks before going below deck for a sumptuous lunch including oysters and champagne (sparkling wine??)
For the township tour we were collected by our Rastafarian guide, Ravanelli, in his town ship tour bus. In fact there was a township within a township, the second being poorer than the first. I have seen far worse poverty in India. We visited various people including the herbalist Christa Augusta. she didn't speak english, so Ravanelli translated and he was soon trying to teach us Herrero. In this language words are either preceded or followed by a "click" which obviously caused us a bit of amusement. Ravanelli also negotiated an extra visit to a school in the more deprived township. A young 18 year old German girl showed us around. She was a volunteer there and was staying for a year and being paid by the Red Cross.. The young lady said that the school needed much more support and another sponsor.
The main highlights of the holiday were the desert and sand dunes at Sossusvlei. Some of us trekked up one sand dune to see deadvlei, a salt pan, but even in the early morning it was really too hot to be yomping up sand dunes.
The rock carvings at Twyelfontein dating from 6000BC to 2000BC were quite interesting but the guide wasn't. We clambered along a rocky path to see the carvings and then the guide took a few of the more nimble members of our group higher into the rocks to see even more of the same.
The petrified forest wasn't what I expected. I expected to see blackened trees standing upright. We followed the guide looking at what we thought we chunks of rock scattered around, not realizing initially that these were all petrified bits of wood. The guide explained the process of petrification and then we saw a few trees lying horizontal that had been petrified.
The Damara Living Museum was fascinating.We were shown various aspects of the old way of life including beading, how they prepared goatskin to make their clothing. Well, what little bit of clothing that they wore. They showed us how to make fire, Ray Mears style of course. Finally we were treated to a display of dancing.
During our travels we saw Himba ladies, who if we didn't buy from their stalls, were happy to pose for photos for a small donation.
The scenery on the tour was varied from sandy deserts to incredible rock formations. We travelled over The Tropic of Capricorn where we had the customary photo stop. The most amazing landscape was the moon landscape at the Swakop River Valley. We continued northwards towards Etosha where there was a verdant landscape where normally in the dry season it is totally arid. Even the eastern end of the Etosha Pan had water in it this year.
This green landscape was not conducive to wildlife spotting.We were unlucky we didn't see elephants, leopards, cheetahs or warthogs. Leonard did claim that he did see a rhino though, we weren't so sure. It was even too early for the flamingoes to arrive too.
However, we did see 3 lions, loads of giraffes, zebras and other ungulates. Springboks never let us down. We saw ostriches, a family of spotted hyenas, a black backed jackal. mongoose and even a tortoise. There were plenty of the animal babies. There was a profusion of beautiful birds and the not so beautiful vulture.
To sum up this holiday was really enjoyable. I didn't think it was as full on as some JY tours. We did have some early starts but most days we were
back in our lodges mid afternoon which gave us chill out time for a swim or read.
We travelled miles and miles without seeing any other cars in this very sparsely populated country which had only approximately two million inhabitants in 2010. Am left wondering why the Germans wanted this country...valuable mineral resources, nutrient rich fishing waters or...
Di
