I said goodbye to the Kalahari desert, its resident oryx, Jackie, and its resident springbok, Skanky, and moved on to the next desert, the Namid.
But first a cheetah picture of him eating his tasty springbok.
We reached our "Desert Camp" late in the afternoon and relaxed before heading to dinner. Dinner at the lodge consisted of pretty much any bushmeat you could think of. We had the choice of springbok, kudu, zebra, warthog, oryx, blesbok, eland as well as beef, chicken, and lamb. Over the course of a couple of days we tested a few, with the best probably being springbok or zebra. When else are you going to get to try these various types of meat?!
Anyways went to bed that night and got awoken about 2 hours later with the wind. We were staying in a tent/building where half is a tent and half is a brick building. The wind was so powerful that is was blowing against the tent, which was whipping back and forth and banging around. This went on all night long, with the wind getting stronger and stronger. We found out later that a huge cold front was coming up from South Africa, bringing a very unusual strong wind. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night.. the next either.
During the day we went to visit Sossusvlei to see the iconic red sand dunes. Being in this area one cannot not climb Dune 45, so I set off to the top. Little did I realize just how windy it really was, especially when getting towards the top of the 170 m dune. You can see my footprints being blown away!
But first a cheetah picture of him eating his tasty springbok.
We reached our "Desert Camp" late in the afternoon and relaxed before heading to dinner. Dinner at the lodge consisted of pretty much any bushmeat you could think of. We had the choice of springbok, kudu, zebra, warthog, oryx, blesbok, eland as well as beef, chicken, and lamb. Over the course of a couple of days we tested a few, with the best probably being springbok or zebra. When else are you going to get to try these various types of meat?!
Anyways went to bed that night and got awoken about 2 hours later with the wind. We were staying in a tent/building where half is a tent and half is a brick building. The wind was so powerful that is was blowing against the tent, which was whipping back and forth and banging around. This went on all night long, with the wind getting stronger and stronger. We found out later that a huge cold front was coming up from South Africa, bringing a very unusual strong wind. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night.. the next either.
During the day we went to visit Sossusvlei to see the iconic red sand dunes. Being in this area one cannot not climb Dune 45, so I set off to the top. Little did I realize just how windy it really was, especially when getting towards the top of the 170 m dune. You can see my footprints being blown away!
After getting back down from the dune we traveled further to Dead Vlei to see the 900 year old trees. Before we got there though, we came across another favorite animal of mine the black-backed jackal.
After traveling down a bouncy sandy road and walking a kilometer or so through the trees you can reach Dead Vlei. I decided to do some climbing here, unfortunately it resulted in a hand full of splinters...
Minus the wind keeping us up all night, the Namib desert was a fun adventure up the dunes. We then started the drive down a horrible gravel road to the town of Solitaire to say hi to Moose (the head of the town and owner of the delicious bakery) and to visit the ground squirrels.
And now after spending a day and a half relaxing in the city of Swakopmund we are off again on the next adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment