Namibia Travels: Part 4

Welcome to my Namibia Travels series! If you've just joined me, you can catch up on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 before making your way through today's post.

Day 5 and 6:
We woke up to a still-mizzy campsite. This called for some coffee and rusks with Frosty's folks, as well as his aunt and uncle (who very kindly let us gatecrash a night in their campsite with them at Tiger Reef) before we started packing up camp.

Luckily we didn't have too much to pack up and all too soon, 4 people's worth of camping gear was packed into my little car, we were bidding farewell to Frosty's aunt and uncle and we went on to explore Swakop a bit more before setting off on the road again. Since the weather wasn't ideal, we took a quick stroll along a promanade with a restaurant right at the end in the middle of the ocean. On our way back to the car, we encountered a very persistent and clever salesman who somehow conned convinced us to buy some carved pine nuts (on which he engraved our names amongst the pre-engraved animals while he was chatting to us). 

Restaurant in the middle of the ocean.
I love this picture - when I edited in black and white it turned out really nicely!

Another shot of the restaurant in the middle of the ocean at Spitzkoppe.

Black and white picture 

View of the land from the sea (restaurant) - the picture doesn't do the colours in the sky justice!

Before we left Swakop, we were told that Café Anton was the place to go and get coffee and Apfelstrudel. It had the most incredible looking pastries lined up on it's counters and it was just the thing to complement a cool day out on the Namibian Coast. 

On our way back to Okahandja, where we would be staying the night with a different aunt and uncle of Frosty's, we stopped off at Spitzkoppe. I wasn't exactly sure of what to expect, but a tiny pool of water surrounded by green grass in the middle of a bunch of rocks wasn't part of that expectation! We spent a lovely morning and part of the afternoon scrambling up rocks and finding a shady spot to have a picnic lunch. After arriving in Okahandja, we spent a lovely evening ensconced around a warm fire and chatting with Frosty's family. Other than our overnight stay at Savanna Guest Farm, this was the only other night when we didn't have to pitch a tent in the evening and then take it down the next morning!  

My socks, all clean after having mayo all over them the previous day.
I loved the reflections in this pic.

The entrance to Spitzkoppe.

Pretty yellow desert flower

Pretty pink desert flowers

Black and white picture with Frosty in the background

Another desert flower - this time orangey/peach.

Curly plant with white flowers on it.

We found a few lizard friends - here's one of them. Don't you love the colours?

One of the pools at Spitzkoppe. Can you see Frosty doing his thing
(climbing to the top of the rocks) way in the distance?

Another pic of the pool - there were even fish and tadpoles inside!

Playing around with twig and mountain pictures

View from the rocks we found to climb in Spitzkoppe

And the view in the other direction - look how small the pool
looks from this view point!

Frosty and I playing around

View from the very top of the rocks.

Another lizard friend

And this guy, who we found in a tree!

Orange berries - I loved the contrast between the orange and green.

We found a great picnic spot in the shade of a big rock.

This little bird kept coming back to admire it's reflection in my car window.

Sun bird feeding (I think maybe the Dusky Sunbird)

Somewhere on the road between Spitzkoppe and Okahandja

Sunset on the road

Beautiful tree outside Frosty's aunt and uncle's place 

I may have fallen slightly in love with this clever collie! 

Namibia Travels: Part 3

I hope you've been enjoying my Namibia series so far! If you've just joined me and want to find out what this series is all about, you can click on the links to take you to Part 1 and Part 2.

Day 3 and 4: 
The day after the wedding was a very relaxed affair. A late brunch at the Arebbusch campsite with all the campers and some extra faces, a swim in the pool, chats while chilling on the grass and leftovers for dinner. We had some fun playing with bubbles left over from the wedding the previous day and used the opportunity of living outside to practice birding (the most exciting bird was the Long-tailed Paradise-whydah) and sneak up on unsuspecting squirrels to take pictures of them. In the evening, after my shower, I found a little stick insect who had decided to visit our tent - you can find him in the below pictures.

Fun with bubbles

Fun with bubbles

Fun with bubbles

Camping table with all our cups

Long-Tailed Paradise-Whydah

How cute is this little chap?

Playing outside his house

Plant in black and white

Stick insect friend

The next day we set out for Walvis and Swakop. We probably spent about 5 to 6 hours meandering from Windhoek to Swakop, stopping on the road to take some pictures of the scenery (I was surprised to discover that Namibia isn't just a flat desert). We managed to bump into Frosty's aunt and uncle about two hours after we left Windhoek which was a lovely surprise! And then, somehow, a fly buzzed it's way into my car, crashed into my windscreen from the inside and and got stuck in my licence disk holder! (Don't believe me - see the proof below!). It managed to wiggle it's way out again, at which point I opened a window to shoo it out. 
We stopped off somewhere in the middle of absolutely no-where to have lunch at a picnic spot that had a teeny-tiny roof offering some respite from the hot sun. I didn't get a picture, but it was pretty much rocky and sunny with a few quiver trees dotted around for fun. The air-conned car was way more comfortable and made the sun outside look much cooler than it actually was. And, somehow, our bottle of mayo, that we had removed from the cooler box to make space for some meat, spilled out into Frosty's bag and covered my slippers and socks! Life lesson- don't take mayo camping!

Proof of our fly that got caught

Purple grass

Black and white photo of pretty grass

Yes, this picture was taken in Namibia!

View of some mountain range (I unfortunately don't know the name) in Namibia

The sand was really this red (hmm, okay, maybe orange)!

I love the patterns that this picture brings out in black and white!

We found a gemsbok and her baby under a tree

We also found some zebra

More playing around with pictures in black and white

A lot of nothing

More nothing with a little wooden structure in the foreground

My little car made it the whole way on the dirt roads!

Looking out at the flatness

The Namibian Desert Beetle - it collects water from the mists that cover the desert by sticking it's bum up, letting mist condensate on it's back and then funnelling the water towards it mouth so it can drink. You may wonder how I know this? From the online Biomimicry course I did a while back!

We stopped off in Walvis Bay hoping to catch a sight of the flamingoes that the area is famous for. Unfortunately, we we got there quite late and the weather wasn't exactly co-operating, so after a quick look out over the bay (we managed to find a few flamingoes at least), we decided to carry on to our final destination!

When we eventually got to Swakop, we set up camp at the Tiger Reef Campsite for the night. And then, because it was cold and late and we were tired, we decided to eat out at Kücki’s Pub. It had a typically European feel to it, cosy and welcoming and warm and our meal was lovely as well - I would definitely recommend popping in if you're ever in the area! We returned to our campsite and after a cup of coffee, went to bed in our tents that were pitched below a structure like the ones in the picture above - it seems like it's main purpose is to protect you from rain and mizzly weather. And I guess when it's sunny, protects you from the sun!

Namibia Travels: Part 2

Day 1 and 2: 

Frosty and I recently went to Namibia for his cousin's wedding and we used the opportunity to take some leave and see a bit of Namibia (luckily we only needed to take 3 days of leave in order to have a wonderful 10 day holiday, thanks to the two public holidays in one week).

Our biggest constraint was that we had to be at work on Friday and be in Windhoek for the wedding on Saturday. Luckily we managed to work a bit of overtime during the week and both of us manages to get off work at lunch time. We packed up my car (an adventurous little Ford Fiesta!) and by quarter to 1 we were on the road. Since it's quite a drive from Cape Town to Windhoek, we decided to stop over at Savanna Guest Farm for the night, which is about 2.5 hours from the Vioolsdrif/Noordoewer border post (I think it's one of two 24 hour border post between SA and Namibia).

One of our biggest pre-trip tasks was getting all the different documentation ready for presentation at the border post. We ended up taking more than we needed. For those who are interested, here is the list of what we took* (the items in bold are the ones we were asked for at the border post):

• Passports.
• Drivers Licences.
• IDs.
• A copy of my Car Registration Document (it looks similar to the piece of paper that your car licence comes on every year).
• A copy of proof of travel insurance for my car, including confirmation that Frosty would be covered for driving my car and the dates that we would be in Namibia for.
• A letter from the company that finance my car, confirming that I am allowed to take the car across the border post and the dates that I would be in Namibia.
• Medical Travel Insurance papers.
• Address of the place we were staying in Namibia (we just gave the place that we were camping at over the time of the wedding).
• A magnetic ZA sticker for my car. We weren't asked for this, but we stuck it on at the South African side of the border post and only removed it when we got back into South Africa.

It took us about half an hour to get through both the South African and Namibian sides of the border post. We just got our passports stamped on the SA side and on the Namibia side, we filled in some forms, got our passports stamped and paid R220 for road tax, which included a permit that you must keep with you at all times, as it gives you permission to drive in Namibia. Another thing that is always useful is a pen. Let me repeat that - take a pen with you, as there were no pens for us to use at the border post. At the time that we were travelling, April/May, Namibia is an hour behind of South Africa, so remember to turn your watch back an hour when you cross the border post!

It was a very straightforward affair to get into Namibia and our total travel time from Cape Town to our overnight stop Namibia was about 9.5 hours, including the time we spent crossing the border. Savanna Guest Farm was a welcome break to our drive (we booked it through SafariNow, which is a great site for finding accommodation when roadtripping and I've used it often). 

The second day, we were up at 4.30 am Namibia time, on the road by 5 am and arrived in Windhoek at Arebbusch Guest Lodge 6.5 hours later. I was a bit concerned about finding the place, because Frosty didn't really know where it was and neither of us had roaming on our phones, so we were thinking of winging it a bit and maybe finding a sim card so that we could call or find out where the lodge was. Luck, however, was on our side! Somehow, as we were driving in to Windhoek, I noticed the sign on the left at one of the sets of robots, so first time lucky, we were able to pull in and surprise everyone a bit earlier than we had anticipated. We even had time for a shower and lunch and catch up with various family members before it was time to get ready for the wedding!

Fun with bubbles after the ceremony

Blowing bubbles

Bride and Groom looking wonderful!
Don't the bubbles make for a beautiful atmosphere and picture?

Sunset overlooking Windhoek

The wedding was lovely, can you tell I really loved the bubbles? As the bride and groom exited the church everyone started blowing and there were just bubbles everywhere. I didn't get any snaps at the reception, however it was good fun and the food was incredibly tasty - don't even get me started on the wedding cake, it was a variety of chocolate truffles which were without a doubt the best I've ever tasted! We missed the cousins that weren't there, but it was good fun all the same and once we got back to the camp site, we carried on the party for another hour or two before heading off to bed!

* This is not an official list, so please do a bit of research yourself! The most useful website for us was the AA website.

Namibia Travels: Part 1

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that I've been pretty quiet on the blog lately. If you were following my instagram feed, you'll know that the reason I've been so quiet is because we went to a wedding in Namibia (Frosty's cousins wedding). So we used the wedding as an opportunity to go on (a camping) holiday in Namibia for 10 days and we only got back on Sunday. Since then, it's been a hectic week back, so it's going to take me a few days to get all my thoughts in order and put together some posts on our Namibia trip (and of course pictures - so many pictures)!

In the mean time, you can catch a sneak peak of the route we took by clicking on this link. You can find the basic outline of where we were each day, I'll be going into a bit more detail on our actual travels in the upcoming posts, so if you want to find out more, follow along on my facebook page so that you don't miss upcoming posts! 

Day 1: CT - Savana Guest Farm (Border Posts  etc)
Day 2: Savana Guest Farm to Windhoek
Day 3: Windhoek
Day 4: Windhoek - Walvis Bay - Swakopmund
Day 5: Swakopmund - Spitzkoppe - Okahandja
Day 6: Okahandja - Windhoek - Naukluft
Day 7: Naukluft - Soussesvlei
Day 8: Soussesvlei - Hobas
Day 9: Hobas - Ai-Ais
Day 10: Ai-Ais - Cape Town

I'll also be posting useful information such as the documentation we needed to prepare before we left and what our day to day travels and camping box consisted of. After 10 days in Namibia, I think we got a taste of what this awesome country has to offer. There were some things that I expected (like the desert and dryness) but there were other things that were completely unexpected, such as the beautiful passes that we drive through in order to get to some of our destinations. And we only explored the southern part of Namibia - hopefully we'll get a chance to explore the rest of it some day soon!