We made it to Heathrow without a hitch, but before departure we were already one debit card down (this was Tom’s – unsurprisingly). Our plane was also delayed causing us to miss our connection from Johannesburg to Windhoek. After a bit of tussling with British Airways, we were refunded and made our way to Namibia’s capital city but by a different airline. We reached our first hostel of the trip, Chameleon, and spent a lovely evening tasting Namibian beer and eating local game at Joe’s Beerhouse surrounded by funky memorabilia.
On our first morning, we were met by Daniel from Gecko Car Hire who introduced us to a Toyota 4×4 who would become our closest companion and home for the next sixteen nights. We nicknamed him Sossus. After a quick stop at a Namibian supermarket for essential supplies such as parmesan cheese, we arrived at our first campsite after many miles of gravel and sandy road. Little Sossus provided us with incredible views of the mountains and our first of sixteen super Namibian sunsets.
We were visited by an Oryx on our first night camping and awoke early to start our tour to Sesriem and Sossusvlei. The early departure was welcome as we explored the magnificent dunes around Sossusvlei before anyone else and had a great time sliding, rolling and awkwardly running down the dunes.
After attempting our first Braai at Little Sossus, we continued on our road trip through the desert (less bumpy this time) to our next destination in Swakopmund. We arrived at Gecko Ridge, the only campers in situ, and enjoyed poolside tranquility and meandering around this old colonial style seaside town. We took an excursion to Walvisbaai and saw our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, a welcome reprieve after all the sand and heat. Gecko Ridge became famous as the place that Tom claimed his first swimming race victory against Kelsey (N.B – it was a very small pool).
We continued on to our next destination, north up the coast arriving at Cape Cross campsite – a place where desert meets sea. We took a wonderful beach walk. As novices around the Namibian animals, this beach walk turned into a light jog as we attempted to avoid a hyena, which turned out to be a harmless jackal.
Our next destination, Spitzkoppe, awaited us and we returned to the gravel for a journey in-land, accompanied by our new favourite podcast, Reasons to be Cheerful. We learnt quickly that the world is small place on this journey. En route, we stopped for fuel for the car and fuel for us (coffee) at a tiny cafe in a tiny town, Hentiesbaai. We were the only people there until Tom noticed a familiar face walk in the door. Cat, a work colleague, and her partner Richard. The customer base of this small, off the beaten track cafe was 50% employees of King’s College Hospital. We established that we were staying at the same camp site for the following nights and enjoyed a Windhoek Beer, still in shock that a meeting like this could happen. As well as teaching us that all roads from Camberwell lead to Namibia, Spitzkoppe claimed the prize for best Namibian sunset.
To develop our knowledge of Namibian wildlife, we travelled to Etosha National Park. We stayed at Tamboti Campsite in Onguma, which became a favourite of ours for its warm welcome, a wonderful watering hole to sit, relax and watch animals and tranquil poolside. We took our first game drive; spotting elephants, giraffe, zebra, impale and wilderbeest with the same ease as spotting a bus on Camberwell High Street. Our most incredible safari spot was seeing a beautiful leopard strut around our safari truck.
With confidence built, knowing our elephants from our zebras, we decided to “go it alone” and do our own safari drive. We continued ticking off more and more animals, reflecting on just how many more we’re just hiding in the bushes. We later joined an evening drive at our lodge, led by David, who taught us all about animal behaviours and termite structures. Despite our best efforts, along with David, the number 3 of the Big 5 (a lion) had evaded us. That was until in the final five minutes of our drive, we saw the most incredible sight of a male lion, casually taking a drink at a watering hole. We watched him, mesmerised at his sheer power, underlined when he roared no less than 5 times. At this point, Tom moved seats to be a little more protected and removed his bright yellow cap. This sight was spine tinglingly good.
Travelling north, we arrived at our next stop – Mobola Lodge – a campsite in the middle of a small village along the banks of the Okavango River, on the border of Angola. After many nights camping, we upgraded to a lodge for our stay here as we were immersed in our first Namibian wind storm. Our highlight of Mobola was a sunset cruise and nature walk on an Angolan island, seeing two new animals for us – a Hippo and Crocodile.
Whilst Mobola proved good for our reading time and relaxation, we decided to move on to Ngepi Campsite, further along the river. This was a camp that seemed really embedded with the local community which we liked and particularly enjoyed (again) another sunset cruise. We realised that sunset cruises were becoming a common theme for us, understandable given the hues that we were able to see.
At our most northerly point, we retreated back down south towards Windhoek with a brief stop at Roy’s Rest Camp in Grootfontein. We were the only people in the campsite until nine campervans joined us in a convoy – they were on a group driving trip across Namibia. Still however, at probably our busiest campsite, it felt like we had peace.
On arrival back in Windhoek after 4000km of driving in Sossus, we reflected on what an understated yet incredible country Namibia is, full of glorious sunsets. We had switched off easier than we thought we would into peaceful surroundings, with new found animal friends for company and a heightened risk that we leave it all to become Safari Leaders in Etosha National Park…
🦁 🐆 🦒
The wondering wanderers 