Diary for Sailng on Windwanderer.


Day 2 Namibia 31/19/15

2015-10-31

Day 2 in Namibia.

31/10/2015.

In the morning we got up early and went for a morning drive, where we found another waterhole, oh man it was fantastic we watched a huge range of wild animals come in to drink.

Hunger took over so we went back for breakfast, we had the delight of watching a heap of mongoose, running around at our feet, climbing on tables and chairs, apparently they love the little jam sachets and were grabbing them as quick as they could, the staff thought they were pests, we thought they were great.

We packed up and set off on our journey across the park, and hoped to get back to another gate and out by sunset.

This park is over 22,000 sq kms so we knew we could not see everything in one day, but armed with a local map, where well known waterholes are and the best ones to see that a local safari guide told us about.

As we drove out of the lodge we noticed the fence around the lodge in two places was crashed down, and guys were mending it as quick as they could.

Elephants had broken in through the night, I did actually hear a lot of stuff happening through the night, but thought nothing if it.

Am so glad I did, imagine if I got up and went outside and come face to face with one of these guys, as The Captain said our little brush with death and we had no idea...haha

The first stop was the same waterhole as before, we could not help ourselves, we had to go back there, it was so worth it.

We watched giraffe, zebra, a jackal, Impala, kudu, springbok and lots of birds, than a hyena came up to the waterhole well everyone went running in all directions except the giraffe and a big old male kudu, they were having none of it, there was a standoff.

The giraffes just stood and stared but the kudu went for him and actually chased him off, he took off like lighting, everyone came back again this actually went on twice eventually the hyena did get a drink and a dip in the water but it was very short lived.

It was amazing to see and we spent a good chunk of the time watching it all go down,

We eventually moved on as we had a lot to see in a short amount of time, most of the time you would see a few other cars here and there and a few safari tour trucks, sometimes we followed them and saw a lot of game, but most of the time it was just us.

If you happened to see someone stopped we always stopped as they had spotted something, we were never disappointed.

There was always antelopes of all kinds everywhere, and the bird life was fantastic, and zebras and giraffe but being a complete natural environment, you could drive for half an hour on very dirt bumpy roads and see nothing at all, and than sometimes you would see an array of animals, it was just pot luck.

On the way to one waterhole we got our first sighting of elephant, oh man I love these guys.

It was quite a big heard, one guy was so close to our car, I got a little frightened, I had the window down and was taking his picture, when he started moving closer to us, in a little panic I made The Captain move quick, just up ahead we saw two mothers and their babies, they actually had the babies between them, and the mothers were standing close together providing shade for them and fanning them with their ears to keep them cool, man that sure is parenting at its finest and it was hot.

We are talking high 30° actually at around 9.30am it reaches around 35° and usually by midday it's around 40°, and dry I have no idea how most of these animals survive, the waterholes are few and far apart and it's dry, when you look around you wonder what they actually eat most of the time.

We eventually found the 2nd game park lodge ( there is only  three in the whole reserve) where we had a bit to eat, loaded up with water again and set off once more.

This last stretch was better than before and actually a bit greener than the other side just.

We were always on the look out for lions and finally we noticed a truck stopped, we asked them what they could see and then we spotted them, they were a way off, but you could actually see two females and a cub, he was so cute, as the people in the safari truck were up higher than our car they said they had just killed a giraffe and it was behind the lion, as hard as we tried we could not see it, I guess the benefits of being on a safari tour.

When we went to buffalo thorn lodge we did get to see a lot more, and I think it was better, but this was nice as well doing it yourself, and in Air conditioning...haha

We traveled great distances we saw really really big elephants, which we think were just males and could not work out how light in colour they were, until we saw them giving themselves dust baths, the dirt around here is almost white, often they would cross the road right in front of you.

We always had to be careful as often there was game on the road, we came around one corner and there he was a Black Rhino, dead smack in the middle of the road peeing....haha

I know a lot of you think the white rhino is almost extinct, but in this part of the world, there is plenty and the Black Rhino, is the one that is much rarer.

It's was our turn to have a standoff, we had no idea what to do, he was not moving and we were not going to get any closer to him.

We really didn't mind, as he was a beauty and we enjoyed watching him, after many photos taken I think he decided that was enough of the limelight, and eventually strolled off the road into the bush.

I guess you need to understand these animals, they have no idea about roads and stuff as far as they are concerned it's their territory and that's it, it's actually great as they have no idea there are fences around them and they just go on living their lives.

By very late in the afternoon, The Captain and myself had just about had enough, it had gone over 40° we were hot and bothered, still suffering jet lag, and decided to call it a day.

We stopped at the last lodge for a rest room visit than decided enough was enough, we are now back on tar road, thank god all that bouncing around was a bit rough, we come around the corner and there they were the biggest elephant heard we had seen so far, what a fitting end to our day, I so love these guys it seemed so strange watching them on the road just wandering around, they really are magnificent creatures.

We finally get to the entrance on the other side and are stopped by security guards and asked to get out of the car, oh man hearts racing wondering what we have done wrong. 

But they just wanted to spray all our wheels and we had to walk on a wet mat, we had no idea what was happening but went along with it.

I read later that they are having a malaria epidemic, and that was their way of trying to control it, great no one told us, I'm so glad we did not get bitten by any mosquitos.

The next big problem was its getting dark, and they advise you to try and avoid driving at night anywhere in Namibia as there is always game on the roads at night, we did see a lot of warthogs and a few springbok but we were being very careful.

We needed a place to stay for the night, we came across a very dodgy town and after trying several places, some really really bad we eventually came across a b&b that looked ok.

The lady who was running it was lovely and she even jumped in her car went down to the local pub that was about to close and got us dinner and a bottle of wine.

Man we are always blown away at how friendly the people in these places are.

The room was not too crash hot but it was clean and neat, and the beds were comfy, 

Even if they were two single beds pushed together, we soon learned that this is what they are like all over the country, we only ever had a double bed the first night here.

Well tomorrow is another day.