An African Pleasure

 Namibia … 3rd Time’s a Charm!

On Friday, September 6th, Freek called us and said the car was ready. We were honestly in shock. In silence, we hopped in an Uber to MitsPro.

Coons: “Should we go to Namibia?”

Kourtney: “Oh Coons. I don’t know. We cannot break down in the desert. Let’s see what Freek says.”

At the shop, Freek assured us that at his shop they fix cars the rrrriiiiiight way (think Tony the Tiger meets a retired Dutch body-builder meets Antonio Bendarez all at the same time). Seriously, if there was an African competition for rolling your Rs he would win 10/10 times. Anyway, he said we were safe to continue our journey as planned. Still in disbelief, we drove off the lot in PJ with Namibia in our sights. We could make the Namibian border by September 8th — one day before Coons’ South African visa expired.

We were able to visit Red Sands Lodge again; this time in style! We were so happy to see PJ with that red dirt on the tires! We were on the same route to Nam and ready to face border security. Kourtney being an illegal alien in South Africa at this point, we were just praying PJ held up, and we could win our appeal for her to enter South Africa again in January as we originally planned. At the South African border, we met a lovely gentleman who took both of Kourtney’s passports, asking when she first arrived in ZA. Right away she answered June 11th. He scanned both passports and handed them back with a smile. We thanked him and started to turn away. Wait! The letter for the appeal. Kourtney turned back and asked the kind man for the paperwork.

“No,” he answered. “You’re all set. I scanned both passports and fixed it in the system.”

Stunned once more, Kourtney told Coons the good news, and he responded TIA (This Is Africa) with a shrug. It really is all about who you come in contact with and what kind of mood they’re in that day. There is no consistency. There are no rules.

Welcome to Namibia!

Our first destination was Fish River Canyon. We found a spot to wild camp that evening just outside the national park. Here we watched PJ finally enjoying the first of many (fingers crossed) African sunsets. We cooked dinner under a bright moon, and then took the rain fly off and opened all the vents to enjoy the moon, stars, and the very welcomed breeze.

We arrived to Fish River Canyon in time to watch the sunrise. We were, of course, originally expecting to spend more time here, thinking we might do their popular five day/four night trek through the canyon floor. At this point, we simply didn’t have the time to spare (not to mention we were wildly out of shape and not used to the desert heat). After enjoying the sunrise, we continued to drive along the rim of the canyon, testing out PJ’s four-wheel drive on some bumpy dirt roads thirty feet from the cliff’s edge. We passed a few rare mountain zebras and some interesting trees that stand alone along the edge of the rock face. We visited Eagle Rock and made some breakfast before heading out of the park. Next destination, Sossusvlei.

Sossusvlei and Deadlvei

We were on our way to the iconic red sand desert when Coons decided he couldn’t go another day without AC in the car (note from Coons — “I wasn’t the only one sticking to the seat!”). We stopped in the biggest “town” in the area, Keetmanshoop, that had a plethora of car service stations so PJ could visit his second home … the inside of a mechanic’s shop. You can read about this fiasco (albeit, minor) in PJ Part 4.

We stopped for the night in a pullover on the side of the road just outside Sesriem, the gateway to the Sossusvlei National Park. Although it’s generally frowned upon to do this, we saw a lot of recent reports from many overlanders who survived to tell the tale on iOverlander, so we took a chance. Here is when the sand from the desert started to cover PJ, creep its way into the inside, permeate our tent, season our food, and cover our bodies. We lived outside now and we couldn’t be more excited!

The next morning we arrived to the gate at 6:00am, hoping to get inside the park early so we could see another sunrise. The gate attendant said the park opened at 7:15am and wouldn’t budge. This is why you make campsite reservations inside the park, folks. So we waited in PJ for over an hour and watched as a steady stream of white 4×4 Toyota Hilux rentals lined up behind us. At 7:10am, we were let in and headed straight for Dune 45, cleverly named for its location 45 kilometers inside the park along the main road.

Along the way, we could see the sun reaching the left side of the dunes, bringing the crimson red sand to life while the right side remained cool and dark. All the dunes are unique in that their lines and curves are always changing with the wind. There were hot air balloons overhead, and we knew already that we couldn’t wait to come back here and experience that.

We arrived to a parking lot and the end of the pavement where we deflated the tires for the first time and drove through the deep sand toward the Big Daddy and Big Mama dunes. We set out to hike the Big Daddy Dune as it’s the biggest one and provides a beautiful view of the Big Mama and her stunning curvature.

The hike took about an hour and was as tiring as you can imagine walking uphill in sand might be, but we were so excited to be hiking again that it seemed like we reached the top in no time. We took pictures at the top of the untouched two-toned sand and took in the magnitude of the desert. As part of the conservation strategy of this delicate ecosystem, visitors are only allowed to visit a fraction of this vast park. Then we took our shoes off and ran down the backside of the dune as fast as we could! This was incredibly exhilarating! Is this how Sammy Sam feels when he runs?

At the bottom is Deadlvei, a large clay pan filled with petrified trees which are believed to have died 600-700 years ago. We spent another hour or so walking barefoot through the forest, taking photographs and admiring the trees.

When we reached the car, we drove back to the parking lot and pulled out the awning to enjoy some shade and Savannah (a dry African cider). Then we brought out the compressor and set about inflating the tires. We were finally starting to use all the fun toys we purchased!

While relaxing in the shade, we met a new member of our Pajero crew. Karel lives in Pretoria and asked us how PJ was running. He also has a Pajero and believes they are bullet proof (everyone keeps telling us this…), so he gave us his number and told us to get in contact when we were heading back to South Africa to sell it as he may be interested in purchasing it. He added he would even help us sell off the camping equipment to get a better price. Finally he ended the conversation to let us know that if we needed anything while overlanding, we could call him.

“African pleasure, my friend.” – Karel

He spotted us later again at Etosha, saying “I’d recognize that Pajero from 1,000 kilometers away!” Why thank you (we think?)!

In order to beat the 105 degree day, we drove PJ a little longer than expected to another wild camping site on the river bed of a very windy canyon. Exhausted and sandy, Coons used the portable shower (another item used — check!) and Kourtney hid away from the bugs and improvised her own bath. Thanks, Nivea! The next morning we would head to our next stop along the coast at Swapokmund.

Walvis Bay & Swapokmund

Before reaching our final destination, we took a detour through Walvis Bay, a gorgeous town right on the beach. Clean, beautiful, and picturesque. The roads are lined with palm trees and the shore with pink flamingos. Beyond the huge and modern housing complexes overlooking the ocean are large cargo ships. Should we move to Namibia? We already checked and pent house condos go for over $600,000 USD. We drove further out past a salt mining factory to find some more sand for PJ to play in. We deflated the tires again and headed out on the beach to find the colonies of cap fur seals. Coons was like a kid at Hanukkah driving in the deep sand. We quickly found the seals swimming in the sea, jumping in the waves, and lounging on the beach. There were hundreds of them! And man, were they stinky.

After that excellent detour, we made our way to ‘Swamp’ as we call it because we still cannot pronounce it. We stayed two nights at Desert Sky Backpackers that had a nice shady spot for PJ and beautiful facilities for us. Coons booked sandboarding for the next morning while Kourtney played with the owner’s 8 month old son.

We settled in and checked in with family and friends, enjoying the internet after multiple days off the grid. We cooked dinner inside with a group of girls from Belgium and danced to old school 90’s beats while we waited in queue to wash and dry our dishes.

The next morning, our sandboarding guide arrived ahead of schedule. Romeo, who doesn’t subscribe to African time, brought us to a popular dune nearby that overlooks the ocean. We fitted our boots and bindings, grabbed our boards, and started uphill. At the top, we waxed our boards, strapped in, and went down. Send it! No turns. The equipment was in rough shape but we still got in six good runs, and all the exercise required to get back up the hill. The sand here was even tougher to walk up because your steps just disappear in the thick sand from the ocean breeze. Finally we decided to try the “lay down” method where you wax a faux wood board and zip down. This was much faster and hitting bumps just made us laugh harder. We had a great day and we’re ready for Japan 2020! We can’t wait to see the ski fam in four months.

Back at the lodge, we met a Brazilian couple in a Land Rover parked next to us. Marcos and Coons took turns showing each other all of the features of their cars, and we realized we were going on a similar journey. Marcos and Natch asked if they could join us. The more, the merrier! It seems that we all had the same idea in mind as we spent the afternoon cleaning out our dusty vehicles. Before cooking dinner that evening, we took a tour of the town to find a sim card, camera cleaner, and stock up on food.

The next morning we woke up late (yay for sleeping in!), made breakfast, and told the Brazilians we were on our way out. We drove most of the day to another wild camping spot 40 minutes outside Etosha National Park. Now we were finally going on a safari with PJ as planned!

Etosha

The park says clearly that they open once the sun is up and we got there just in time. From the gate, it is a 18km drive to reception where we were supposed to pay — only $11 USD (we took full advantage of the cheap Namibia parks). However, this short drive took us almost an hour as we immediately spotted our first black rhino! It took him awhile to come out from behind the bushes but once he did, we could clearly see the differences between the two types: black rhinos are smaller in general with heads that sit higher up so they can reach the trees. White rhinos tend to feed on the grass as their heads are enormous and probably hard to lift up! The curvature of their back is a little different, but their coloring is the same despite what their name might indicate. We noticed the rhinos horns were blunted and cut short which we overhead a ranger say was to discourage poaching. It’s sad but this would be a common theme for all the rhinos and elephants we saw. Come on, people!

Also on the drive in we saw a large group of hyenas cross the road. Well aren’t we off to a superb start! We decided to drive west the first morning and east the second morning. At the very first waterhole, both days, we saw female lions. It is so interesting to watch all of the springbok, zebra, and oryx just scared-straight stare at the lions while they wonder if it’s safe to take a drink. Every time a lion would so much as shift positions, they would all jump back a few feet. Apparently the waterhole truce is tenuous at best.

To the west, near the climax of the heat, we found hundreds of different animals at the waterholes. It was unreal! In the late afternoon, we found a waterhole with tons of mud, and therefore a lot of elephants playing around in it. We love that our safaris were just continuing to get wilder each time.

The Brazilians arrived late that evening to join us at our wild camping spot. After we told them of our success in the west of the park, they decided they would also stay two nights and take the same route. It would be a common theme that they were one day behind us, but they are great company when we run into them! Hope you two are having a blast!

The next morning our drive through the east yielded more waterholes but not the mass of animals we enjoyed in the west. Instead, we found some of the creatures we hadn’t seen in a while. Coons loves kudu and wildebeest and we saw plenty of those! We think we saw more giraffes in this park than any other. We counted around 60 (in Spanish) that day and it was a much lighter animal sighting than the previous day. There is just something about the animals in the bright white desert sand that sticks with you. And the 116 degree heat … that sticks with you too.

In A PJ Down By The River

Once we left the east gate, we drove to Tsumeb to the Mousebird Backpacker Lodge. We grabbed groceries for the night — minus our celebratory bottle of wine as it was Sunday and the country doesn’t serve alcohol on this day. Silly, Sundays! The next morning we were swapping stories with a French dude named Lauren and realized he was backpacking Africa heading towards Victoria Falls, relying on the very sparse, inconsistent, dangerous, and practically nonexistent bus system. We offered him a ride because we were driving through the same town he was hoping to reach in a couple days. We thought he might turn us down because he seemed spooked we were leaving in an hour, but still we opened up the third seat.

Alas, he joined us and we chatted the whole way to Rundu where we dropped him off safely at his hostel. Gratefully, he said he would always remember us, and we felt satisfied that we helped another traveler reach Victoria Falls. We continued our tour of Namibia, driving further north along the Caprivi Strip to the Nunda River Lodge. After being shown the grounds and campsite, we instantly knew we wanted to stay two nights.

This lodge has camping spots down by the river where we listened to the sweet snorts of a hippo at night. They have beautiful ablutions with warm showers, a pool, and a gorgeous lounge area where we spent the next day blogging. At night we enjoyed the bright red sun setting as it cast its reflection on the water. Marcos and Natch joined us later on for our last night in Namibia.

We’re very grateful to have made it to Namibia even though it was a shorter stay than intended. We’re also thankful that PJ continues to be happy and healthy. Isn’t that all parents want after all? Namibia is unlike any terrain we’ve come across in Africa so far and really is a must see. We look forward to spending more time in this unique country in the future. Next up on our whirlwind tour, Botswana.

Namibia, we knew you were worth the wait!