Namibia go!

Trip to Namibia 2023 

(Prague-Frankfurt-Windhoek-Langstrand-Walvis Bay-Cape Cross-Messum-Etosha-Twyfelfontein-Skeleton Coast-Sossusvlei-Luderitz-Maltehohe-Windhoek-Frankfurt-Prague).

25/02 Forced Frankfurt tour

Leaving Prague on icy-cold rainy day: we were picked up by some old moldy guy of Uber/Bolt drivers: he complained the whole time about us going to the airport – why you pick this order if you didn't want to go? Well, you can argue with old people till the world ends – or longer, we got to the airport at the end. There are all kinds of travelers at the airport ;o)

There we were delayed by ̶l̶u̶f̶t̶w̶a̶ff̶e̶ Lufthansa for exact time to miss our connecting flight: they left 15min before we landed :( Well done fuckhansa. That is how we got the whole day in Frankfurt – involuntary travel it was! 

Luckily we got on next plane but it was leaving at night so we in our summer clothes had to enjoy winter in German town.

Frankfurt was cold and windy, little walk around old town was all we could manage, 
we seek refuge in Archeology museum. There we learn stuff... 

26-27/02 still flying

As all the museums and most of the shops were closed, we got back to the airport early. Before boarding we try to use Priority card which was supposed to give access to various lounges across the globe for a small fee. Well, not for Lufthansa lounges in Frankfurt, obviously. So we spent 5 hours in the waiting area filled up with fun, beer and pretzels. You see, the kiosk with beer and pretzels was the only thing open in the whole area. And we purchased 2l bottle of rum for our journey – for hygiene purpose of course, as an internal disinfectant. 

And then, finally we got to the plane for our exciting 10hours flight to Namibia. Flight was full of old people.... The crew was nice though, but seats uncomfortable. And we didn't see anything from Afrika as we were flying in the night – how disappointing, I wanted to see Sahara and rain forests!

We didn't get much sleep so next day were more out than in.

We landed at 09.55 am at Hosea Kutako International Airport next to US Airforce transporter, had some hard time to explain on passport control who we are and where we stay (well, 10hours on the plane), but finally persuade (or tired out) the custom officer we need to be let in. Our luggage come undamaged and in full and we were greeted by very welcoming guy from Safari Car Rental Namibia. He helped us to get simcards and we were instantly localised. 

The car rent was halfway from airport to Windhoek, the owners do have sense of humor: it is full of funny sculptures and signs, and most impressive was their “Hall of shame” with photos of unfortunate clients' broken cars.

We got the full lecture and show-tour of the camper we rented and there we go – to our AirBnB at Longstrand, just 5hours drive after 10hours flight. 

Switching to this half-truck Toyota Hilux and right-hand driving (the opposite to what we used to) took some time. Fortunately, the roads in Namibia are really not that full and drivers seem to be quite alert so few of our blunders were mostly ignored.

There were already lots of staff to see on the drive, but one of us fall asleep and another one pretended to be awake and driving. The only things we vaguely remember are termites' towers.

Near Langstrand there were dunes, beautiful dunes of yellow sand, with pastel blue ocean: they made such a painting! Feel like a dream, but we were driving there other days – yes, they are so beautiful, we were not sleeping.

The host of our AirBnB left keys for us at nearby Total gas station, I wonder if they would just give it to anyone who asked? Anyways, we got it first ;o) Our accommodation was spacious beach front apartment with lots of pictures of the sea, lighthouses and other sea-holiday stuff making place cuter. The host tried to explain how to get inside, but she never deal with us before - we “broke in” and turn on the alarm. It took us some time to connect host's explanations to the reality and turn it off, still we woke up the security somewhere, they contacted the host asking if they need to go shoot invaders, but she was kind enough to stop them, so we ended up alive for the day. 

After unpacking we got to the beach – nice long walk among shells and seaweed, we found some bones of some creatures too, the dogs' poop and round stones. We started walking towards restaurant to find out about half way that it is closed (the internet is a showstopper sometimes), so we end up at the same gas station, luckily they had some food and water. They did not have normal coffee though only instant shit.

At home we drink our rum with gas station “some food” (mostly chips with some local, and pretty awesome, flavor) and fall asleep dead tired.

28/02 Pinky

Waking up at the beach house is my dream for ages – and today I lived it in full. So what that the beach is far away from everything, the water is about +12 whole year round! It is happiness nevertheless.

After coffeeless breakfast we went to Pink lake at the Walvis Bay. Pink lake is called like that because it is pink (d'oh) – and full of flamingos. Also, a salt works are nearby with a good number of salt pans.

The water in the lake (actually, there are several water basins) was not as pink as promised when we got there but once sun tore through the clouds and the bacteria and algae got some extra energy, the water started to be more blood red than pink. There were also some small puddles of yellow and green water, giving them an utter outlandish feel.

Flamingos were very graceful to look at but apparently stupid as a door knob. To be honest, it does not require a lot of smarts to dig with your beak in mud the whole day, quite contrary I'd say. 

Still, we couldn't get enough watching great flocks of them, walking around, feeding, grooming and occasionally flying around.

The semi-paved road around the Pink lake(s) took us directly to the ocean beach. The clouds were completely gone by that time and the waves obtained deep turquois color. Only if the water was warmer – I couldn't really reason for entering the +12 degrees water just for fun. Still, just being there, watching the waves break, breathing the fresh ocean air was relaxing as hell.

We made more pictures of flamingoes on the way back, stopping occasionally and trying to scare them to make them fly – but they are one lazy bunch.

After that we went deeper to the desert for the dune with number 7: not sure if they numbered all the dunes they have here and why exactly this one is open for tourists to climb up, but so it is. Guards (oi, there were guards) were bored without tourists and played some strange game with black and white stones right on the sand, I guess it was some kind of backgammon or so.

Getting up to the dune is not free – it cost 150NAD each, we started climbing and instantly regretted that: it was hot, the sand slides down under our feet, dragging us down as well, so progress up was very slow if any. We took a rest several times, although to be honest, the dune 7 is not so high: 383 meters makes it one of the highest dunes in Namibia, but if you think about it it is not so much actually. Well, comparing to our mountain trips where we got from +-1700metres over sea level to +-4000 in one day it is not so much, but on dune 7 it is almost vertically hike and it made us heavy breathing.

The view from the dune was astonishing indeed. We walked around the dune's ridge to get more pictures, saw how sand was blown by wind and flowing away as a light yellow curtain, as little lizards hurried away on their business, and few bugs scramble around for some reason.

Getting down from the dune was so much easier it almost made us to go up once more, but our shoes were full of sand, as well as hair, cloths, eyes and everything else.

After cleaning ourselves to the image of normal people we went foraging to the local supermarket (it was Spar, they have Spar here) – got food for a week and some local beer for a day.

The supermarket is equipped with guys who put your shopping into the bags at the counter and guys, who park you and guys who bring the bags to your car.... Not sure if you need to tip them, but we did. For us it was very strange to be served by so many people on one ordinary grocery shopping. As advised by rent a car people, we tank our car full today, since from tomorrow government decided to hike the fuel prices and that was our last activity for today.

At home we put our pictures and videos to every social media we have and before falling asleep planned our trip for the next days.

01/03 Cape Cross Sealions

After lazy breakfast we got out to Cape Cross too see cute creatures – sea lions. The road was not exactly interesting: mostly sand, big lorries with Chinese hieroglyphs on, few small towns – all with ground floor houses (I guess higher house would not stand on the sand) and so on. We saw some huge satellite dishes in the desert at one place – found out latter it was Chinese Satellite Intelligence Unite and Tracking and Command station – oh, well... The new overlords.

Then there was more sand and suddenly – a shipwreck! We turned to the sea side to check it out, it was Zeila Shipwreck, former fishing boat, it was sold to some Indian Company to recycle but torn away and wrecked here, company decided it is not worth to salvage and proclaimed it recycled. On the shore were couple of locals who wanted to sell us some gemstones and crystals and we bought few – they were nice. Have to say we were scared at first, but they were very friendly and talkative. One of the locals told me some strange story about poor fishermen who died at sea and they took their bodies and arranged their skeletons on the sand – and there were human bones indeed laying there! and he ended his story with: “you are welcome”. I was not sure what to answer, like: “oh, you know, I don't really like the bones this way, rearrange it!” - or what?.. 

Guys asked if we have any food and water, we offer them more money for the stones, but they said they would really appreciate food more: for it they need to go to the town and without any car it is dangerous adventure without guaranteed success. We didn't have any food though and were not willing to share our water (always have water was strongly advised by everyone we met). Guys were not looking like starving or dying of thirst, although I'd not call them healthy either.... Anyways, we continue our journey to the Cape Cross.

There we had to pay for entrance (150NAD/person), and were educated about wild animals (not to touch!!) and rebid jackals (OMG!) in the area. It was too late to run away, so we went in. Right there my perception of cute animals was destroyed at once: after seeing them up close I declare: the sealions are the most disgusting animals I've ever saw, and their lair is the smelliest! 

Don't know why they never say it in NatGeo or other documentaries – but these beasts are killing each other literally for the place under the sun and lay on top of rotten bodies – without any second thought. There were layers and layers of dead bodies in different stages of rot – and the stench!! - some were trampled on to the bones, some just half-squashed decomposing meat – meh, nauseating sight. And it is not that there are no space – the huge sandy beach is lying for miles, but somehow this particular spot was most favorite among the disgustos and they kill each other for the spot which was exactly – like absolutely – the same as the one a few meters away. How they remind me of people

The “cuties” were absolutely indifferent to dead and halfdead relatives, just lying around, occasionally going to the ocean fishing – just living their lives.

This repellent smell was with us for a long time, and few times we saw on the beach in different places bodies of sealions washed up by the ocean. In our AirBnB, by the way, there were skull and shoulder blade bone of the sealion as a decoration.

The creatures are sickening, I don't like them anymore.

On the road there were several salt pans and many stalls along the road with no people: there were salt crystals with price written on the table – if you want to buy them, you just put money into money boxes at the same table. Unexpected and one of many wonderful features of Namibia: people here trust each other despite the history or recent political situation, they just do and it works!

02/03 Walvis bay + BBQ

Next day was even more lazy than before: we marinated meat for BBQ and went to the nearest Walvis town to see the harbor.

On our way to the port, we saw some fishermen cleaning fish surrounded by herd of pelicans and flamingoes, of course we stopped to make pictures. Pelicans are more intelligent than flamingo guys, they waited for fish pieces, walking around watching people carefully; flamingoes were just scarred by every movement and running hysterically. 

We walked around to see the harbor entrance or something – with no success, it was closed for public I guess, or we did not manage to find any way in unfortunately. It is a pity – pictures on internet show big vessels over there and I love ships of all kinds

But we found some sort of local souvenir market where all kinds of domestic hand made staff was sold, some even by the very local scarcely clothed people (himba?) with their hair in red clay. We got ourselves wooden carving of a family and ostrich egg lamp – after some bargain of course. 

At some point while haggling with the seller I notice police officer staying behind me listening attentively. I asked him if there was anything he wanted, he said no and as most Namibians smiled and asked how was I, me was ok, but uncomfortable with him close behind. Anywho, we bought our souvenirs and went away, and most probably police officer deducted his cut from the price we paid or why else would he be there?

Walking streets of Walvis bay we found a hoof: don't know who was its previous owner but it was decided we absolutely need it in our lives and now it sits on my shelf at home together with the egg and the wooden lion I bought later in Windhoek.

We returned home without seeing any ship, and prepared BBQ – that was amazing, the meat here is great, tender and tasty, and having BBQ at the apartment on the terrace was the perfect end of the day. 

Later on we saw that not just one supermarket we've visited so far but any grocery shop is at least 50% if not more filled with meat – and such a great one! There are standard for us beef, lamb, pork and poultry and – boom – the whole lot of local antelopes, I do not remember their names but the meat is most delicious indeed! And local jerky – biltong is something special. The vegetables are more expensive as few are grown here, most of them imported, but all of them are so much more testy comparing to what we are used to in our rainy central Europe, would stay in Namibia just for food.

03/03 Rose quartz mine

Next day we decided to go for a swim in Soutgat Dead Sea Swimhole – former tin mine was flooded with extremely salty water and now everyone (who get there) is swimming there, or better to say floating on.

On the way there should be few old rose quartz mines, so we get on. It was the same road as to Cape Cross, so we saw the same Chinese Satellites, same sand, same shipwreck and then went from asphalt road to the desert offroad. There was gravel road, but driven out so much it was impossible to drive on it, so we rode next to it. There were several tracks on each side. 

Toyota Hilux is a great car for such drives, it goes everywhere. At some point, believing googlemaps, we stopped and went on foot, although there were more tracks still. 

But the walk was worth it: there were rose quartz stones all over the place! Small and huge, white and pink – the whole area was full of crystals, I was in heaven.

But there were some footprints as of big dogs, most probably jackals, and bones of some antelopes or so... I got scared – we had small knife with us and “them” are always running around in packs – how would you defend yourself from pack of wild dogs? The air was hot, sun baking, desert empty, crystals sparkling – perfect place to get lost and be eaten.

The map was going crazy too – it showed us swimhole in 500m, then in 3km away, then it was just around the corner, then again – 1.5km more to walk. 

We wandered around, listening for jackals, for about 2 hours, picking up quartz and admiring crystals at the same time as being scarred by predators. Then we simply gave up on the swimminghole – c'mon, getting into former tin mine is not healthy anyway, so we get to the car and went home.

We bought some supplies for next leg of our journey – our pleasant beach AirBnB stay ended, tomorrow we started early to get to the Etosha Park. We got some instant noodles and canned food for just in case, toilet paper and water.

04/03 On the road to Etosha

Starting early (+-6h drive) we left the keys at the same gas station where we took them, filled both Toyota' tanks full and drove away.

Road goes next to the Messum crater – from the volcanic eruption in times when Africa and South America were one continent. 

Its explosion made the biggest basalt fields in Africa and Brazil, and all the quartz crystals and other minerals here are linked to the explosion too. The crater is a huge mountain range now, it is possible to get inside we've read, but you would not see much – it's too big, so we didn't. 

But we drive closer for geocashing. As well, there is supposed to be painting of hunter from old ages, but because previously tourists poured water on it to make it more visible, it was destroyed, now you can see reconstructed picture, and it is impossible to say how old the original actually was. You can see it for money – we pass, and went on to Etosha.

On the road from coast into mainland you can see how landscape is changing: dead sand turns into stones with small rare bushes, then there are few little trees, then they become bigger and turn into bush, then forest.

The road changed from asphalt to gravel and went through few villages of Namibians – some of them were sitting on the road, selling souvenirs and crystals, some were driving goats somewhere. 

All the goats were the same – I wonder if they see any difference? They were equally half brown, half white, none of them knew the road was not the best place to be. Every local was smiling and waving to our car, every goat ignore us.

There were trays of stones on the road with no people around – the same way as at the road to Cape Cross, you just put money into the box. And no price could be seeing, but on each table was written “welcome!” - I wonder if people do not even expect to get paid for the stones they just pick up when they go around, do not think they are as precious for them as for us. We left 200NAD for couple of crystals and drove on. Next to most of these tradeposts were some ugly sculptures made of garbage: rags, tin cans, wood and plastic bottles and some other strange staff: there were people, elephants, rhinos and other animals represented by the trash.

All roads in Namibia are in perfect condition - obviously on gravel and sand you'd need 4x4, but even those were kept flawless, we met several times special machines which keep it even

Finally asphalt road comes back and termites' homes were everywhere along the way. We stopped to check one – I thought it would be full of life as anthills, but no – there was noone outside. We were going around and waited a bit and even knocked – there was no answer. Oh, well – maybe they were sleeping during the day or didn't want to see us, so we pushed on.

When we arrived at Etosha Park we were greeted – as usual in Namibia – with hearted smiles and very slow service. Namibians are slow when they do anything – at least as far as we learn. Even time is usually counted as “on sunrise” or “at sundown”, you have the whole day to do things or just one thing. Filling small paper with few items (car registration, our names etc) took about 20min, and in we go. Same long time took us to check in at our chalet WC28 (no, not the toilet, Waterhole Chalet) at the camp: there were several different kinds of huts for different price, ours stand next to the waterhole, where animals are coming to drink. 

The chalet had very comfy clean room and bathroom with shower. We had even small “patio” to sit outside.

It was sunset already and we saw them – first some zebras, then – giant elephant drinking and dumping his waste at the same waterhole, later came giraffes. We went to sleep happy.

05/03 Etosha

We set the alarm clock to go off before sunrise to catch the first sunrays and the animals coming to the water hole. It was well worth it: we saw zebras, wilder beasts, of course all kinds of antelopes and later on even giraffes and rhinos! 

The time flew by and suddenly it was almost 9am and time for breakfast. Toasts and omelet were pretty filling and should last us for the whole day. On the way back to our chalet we booked the night game drive for the same day. Well, at least we tried – apparently, the AI took over the government systems and it refuses to work on Sundays until 5pm. The lady at the reception put a note in a paper block that there were 2 people interested in the night drive and told us to come back after 5pm when we will be able to pay and they will be able to enter us into the system.

This was at around 10am so we still had 7 more hours to go. We spent them in combination of laying around, reading or listening to audio books or watching animals at the water hole. At 5pm we went to the reception to pay for the drive and there was different lady who looked really surprised to learn that we wanted to go for the night drive that day. After some persuasion, recounting the free seats in the safari cars and finally finding some scribblings in the paper block she agreed to take our 1500,-NAD and we were finally booked for the adventure. The tour would be departing at 7pm.

We decided to spend the remaining time dipping in the swimming pool. The water was very nice and it was actually possible to swim for a bit which was a very welcome change to mostly sitting last few days. But then, as usual more people came and they filled up the swimming pool and instead of swimming they were only standing around in the water and chatting, making selfies and laughing at their own jokes. Pretty annoying, but it was almost time for our night adventure anyway.

After changing swimming suites we headed to the meeting point and found two safari cars. We were pointed to one of them and told to pick any seats so we picked the back seats as they were providing the widest observation angle. The tour started with the obligatory recital of rules (don't get out of the car or you'd get eaten …) and with saying 'we are not promising you to see anything' we kicked off. 

And, indeed, for a while it looked like we were not going to see that many exciting things – we found a rhino in bushes which was very far away and skillfully masked so its pictures can easily be used as a  Rorschach's test. 

Then we drove for a bit more on the bumpy road, trying to spot anything interesting and suddenly our driver shouted 'hold on!' and put the pedal to the metal and we were almost flying over the road bumps. It turned out that the other safari car encountered a lion pack!

Apparently, this was very unusual as the lions are normally to be seen on the other side of the pan, but here they were. Five lionesses and one lion hunting. We spent many minutes watching the pack moving around, then we started focusing on one lioness which seemed to be stalking a zebra herd. Unfortunately, it was either a feint or she failed but there was no hunting going on and we also lost the track of the lioness. By that time it was getting pretty dark and it was almost time turn back and drive towards the camp.

So, we did turn. But the drivers still kept the red flood lights on and kept on scanning the surroundings for any hint of the pack. And then they found them – in the low bushes right next to the road they were partitioning a small zebra they caught minutes ago. The lion decided to lay on top of the catch to prevent anyone else from feeding but lionesses were relentless and fought him until all of them got at least a peace of the carcass. The lion was left with head and one front leg at the end.

We might have spent about 20 minutes at the spot, watching them devouring the little zebra and when they were done the lionesses got together to lick their heads and kick their feet up and relax.

All this time our fellow-passengers who probably thought the meat they were buying was made at a factory, or something, were whispering things like 'crazy', 'shocking', 'unbelievable'. Yes, a news-flash – lions are not getting protein bars at supermarkets but are killing other animals … daily.

I was amazed by how quiet was their hunt: there were no sound at all, not even cry from killed zebra or its relatives, no noise from their run or anything – absolute silence, sudden kill and a loud feast in the bushes.

After this encounter the show was over and we headed back to the camp for good. On the way to our chalet we stopped by the small watering hole and took more pictures of rhinos and hyenas who came there in the middle of the night. Unfortunately our cameras and we are not so skilled at night photos so all we have is our memory.

Once back at home we realized how hungry we were – so we got the gas cooker from the car and cooked spaghetti with some canned sauce. That canned sauce was surprisingly good as it consisted of real canned tomatoes and onions. We ate the late dinner in company with lizards who kept away insects - thank them very much! - watched the stars for a while and then went to bed.

06/03 Etosha self-drive east: Etosha Pan Lookout or end of the Universe

Let's do self-driving safari!  https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5hqsbK/

The car is well equipped so we grabbed extra water & went for the drive. The road is dusty and bumpy most of the time but you are literally in the middle of it. The animals are living all around you, this is no zoo. Herds of antelopes, wilder beasts and zebras are everywhere, ostriches walking towards you and other birds big and small. You can see giraffes and rhinos from time to time too. If you are lucky you can get very very close to them – but one should never leave the car. We spotted a single shoe 10-15 meters from the road and it was equally possible that someone threw the shoe at the animals as that someone stepped out of the car and was eaten and the shoe was the only thing left… there were plenty of sculls around too – mostly from antelopes.

Anyway, Etosha is huge – it covers over 20.000 square kilometers. It is a square 100km by 200km! So, we drove and drove and drove and we got to 'Etosha lookout' point. It is an utmost point in the salt pan where you can get by car – and once there the feeling is like one is at Venus. 

At the end of the universe: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5hwrfy/

This is the lowest part of Namibia, but still about 1070m over sea level – pretty high by European standards. Comparing to our home of +-300m over the sea level – LOL! we are soo high here. Scorching hot sun, all flat landscape with no life in sight, the ground is of weird colour … This is approximately 80km from the camp, so not even half of the longer side of the pan. But we were already driving for 3 hours and considering that it would take us almost the same time to get back we decided to head home.

Once back at home we re-evaluated our plan for another park drive tomorrow and decided to be lazy and lay around and/or swim in the pool all day. Yeah, and also BBQ! For that we need meet. And there is a local shop here. So we walked to the shop just to find out that it was closed 4 minutes ago. Well, nevermind, we can get the meat tomorrow. Hakuna matata!

At night we went out to have a look at our waterhole: and there was action! Well, you need to know that the animal watching here is slow and time consuming business: local animals are extremely slow and careful, it takes them ages to come down to the water, they make sure – 10 times sure – there is no danger at the waterhole. There were rhinos at the lake, few hyenas and many birds. And rhinos were in action: it took them about 20-25min to adjust to each other nose-horns, then they started to “fight”: that is, they push to each other nose/horns with all their mighty strength. The fight itself took about 30seconds, the horns slide aside so rhinos step out off each other, then come in, adjusted their horns again (another 20min – seriously, it took them time), then again started to push. Not sure who won, they both went away from each other and stand around for a while. So we watch. And watch.... and that was another half an hour...

It is like this here in Etosha: you watch animals whole day, but when you think about your day (or if someone asks) you will be like:

- oh well... I saw 2 rhinos... few zebras. some antelopes and.... and.... and that took me the whole day.

And if someone asks:
- well, so what did they do?
You would say:
- Uhm, they were there....

07/03 Etosha lazy day & BBQ

We started our lazy day at 04.00am – no jokes! Put alarm at 4 to see who is up at the hole - and yeah – the rhinos were still there, but very peaceful this time. 

Big beasts were just standing there, occasionally moving their little tails. There were 2 giraffes drinking weirdly as they use to: straddle in funny way, pulling out their necks to the water, one is always watching, while another drinking. There were no people around, and we did not stay there long as well – there were no action to see. So we went back to sleep.

We got up again around 9am to catch the breakfast (it was until 10.00 – I hate these custom of hotels/resorts all over the world: if I am on holiday, what makes you think I will even wake up at 10.00???). Breakfast at our Etosha Okaukuejo camp is simple: toasts, eggs/fried eggs + ham (almost charcoal usually) beans and tomatoes and toasts again. There is tea and coffee and some kind of thing they call juice, I think it was more of syrup of some unidentified fruit close to the orange. But the main breakfast attraction was WIFI: it was working only around restaurant, so morning was usual time for inhabitants to share their photos and check their social status updates. People here were chewing staring at phones intently.

On the way to the breakfast/WIFI place we usually stopped over ground squirrels' nest: they live all around the camp and are not afraid of people at all. One of them even grab my fingers to check if they are eatable, but since they are vegetarians – she just toss my hand away as useless and went on her business eating flowers and grass.

Another breakfast attraction was tree with intricately knitted nests of some birds which never shut up. 

I wonder how they made these bast shoes nests with their beaks always open for nonstop chitchat.

There were other birds - extremely social judging by their home: huge one nest for hundreds of tenants

We saw them in other parts of Namibia as well - this high density settlements where neighbors live next to each other between thin walls

all the discomfort worth when predators around though

We saw at breakfast local family of fatty gay in adidas sweatsuit and his two wives - polygamy is kinda legal in Namibia - both his spouses were taller than him and always wear colourful dresses, such bright colours you can see from space I think, especially on such big women. Family was very cheerful - chatting and laughing all the time, looks like polygamy works fine for them. 

After breakfast we tried to get refund for one day we were not going to spend in Etosha: the place is great and there are so many animals around but we saw them all and would rather see some more of Namibia instead. Honestly, if our holiday would be longer – we would stay here more, but unfortunately we are not retired yet. Well, as expected, we got no refund (it was mentioned in T&C even before we book the place, but you never know if staff might cut you some slack) so we got to the shop for BBQ meat and continue with our lazy day. On the way back we check the hole again – there were few zebras and some antelopes, nothing special for us anymore.

We learn that zebras are “gopniks” of the local community: they come in herds, nervous, shouting kicking each other all the time, their fights started from nothing and were quite vicious. Any little thing might start the fight: like some zebra hickuped while drinking water and one next to it will kick it right on the head, the rest of the herd got scared and run kicking each other, shouting with their nasty voices. 

They are mean to each other and to others – such an awful bunch you don't want to meet. And it was so: giraffes for example always waited nearby if zebras were at the waterhole, antelopes and others were gathering on the other side of the hole as far from zebras as possible. And these striped punks didn't give a shit that they are bothering everyone and ruin others time at the water.

Although I need to say every animal there surprised me by disregarding the preciousness of water: some of the holes at Etosha are supported by people, there are deep wells dig or pipes laid to keep the water in, but normally most of them would just get dry for a season and animals would have really hard time to survive. Nevertheless they – all of them – shit and piss simultaneously with drinking, to the same rare water and drink this mix and shit there more. Ah well.... animals

After lying around some more time, we went to check the hole again: there were zebras and some antelopes. Then we saw elephant coming. Ranger told us before that all the Etosha elephants went up north, so only few loners stayed. One of them come to the water, shooed away birds and zebras (antelopes run away by themselves) and drink at his leisure. Then wash himself thoroughly. 

Then another 2 elephants came, kick away this one (they were bigger and were together, so he just moved obediently), they drink and bathed too. Zebras and others returned to the hole and goofed off, kicking each other and run around. Whole these took about 2 hours – all of them are slow movers. So we went back to do our lazy day.

Returning to the waterhole we saw more zebras and wildebeest, more birds and antelopes. Then from far-far away come big mama rhino with lil rhino kid. Unlike the rest she did not even slow down to check if waterhole is safe – she just come, like huge bulldozer she is, and little one was trotting right behind.

The kiddo was apparently very young as he could not understand what mother does with the water – he did not knew yet how to drink. One young zebra was curious so much she come close to rhinos and tried to play with the baby, but big mama immediately charged on her and if zebra wouldn't run away fast I guess rhino will simply stomp her to the ground. 

Little rhino copied his mom and charged on zebra as well, seems like he didn't need any friends who are not rhinos. Then mother rhino continue to drink, little one was very close to his mom all the time, tried to drink water too, didn't succeed, got bored, then both of them left somewhere far-far away.

Almost every evening one big rhino was coming to the water - looked like he lived through some battles, I guess he was older one. He came as a huge bulldozer as well, unconcerned by other drinkers, drunk his water and lay down in a tree shade. Everyone make sure to not disturb him and even zebras were more quiet.

We went to lay down as well.

08/03 Etosha self-drive north: no lions, but lots of unexpected giants

Next day we drive again to other parts of Etosha to see some different waterholes with the same zebras and giraffes. First there were no animals to be seen, then we notice strange stone which turned out to be tortoise shell – without tortoise. 

We wanted to come close and see it but remembered our rangers warning: “never ever get out of the car! Animals are used to the car sounds – and can hear it from afar, so they will come and hunt you, people have no chance to see masked lions, hyenas or jackals in the grass and do not even think of outrunning wild hunters.” So we did not step out of the car despite being extremely curious how tortoise manage to loose its shell and how whoever it was eat it inside.

Then we saw the big lizard, he saw us and god knows what was thinking, there were some big birds watching, most probably waiting for us to get out and be eaten, so we moved on. On the road we had a company of springbok antelopes, they are used to the cars and walk close enough to make beautiful portraits: such eyes you can not see anywhere and their eyelashes are to die for!

and it's the best biltong you can get - the jerky from springbok meat - delicious! 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5hqsbK/

We drove to the waterhole named Elephant Bath to watch some giraffes, as we were told previously that all the elephants moved up north from Etosha, but then – we saw big herd of elephants having best time of their life at the waterhole which was exactly: the bath for elephants. 

The herd was mostly females and lots of youngsters of all ages: from little babies to awkward teenagers. They all were splashing and playing in the water, father away stood huge elephant bull watching over his offspring. 

Kids were playing submarines: getting down underwater with only end of the trunks out they kick each other and made bubbles, older ones tried to pull them out of the water by catching their trunks, usually they end up slipping in the water themselves. 

Mothers were watching all this shenanigans and you can just tell they did roll their eyes precisely as human moms will do, they even did the facepalm gesture from time to time – with their trunks, I swear they did: 

We were watching happy family for several hours, it is nice sometimes that people make mistakes, elephants did not move away and we had a rare chance to see their watergames.

Well, looking at this aquapark we got the urge for the toilet – and this is not as easy task as you would think it might be in nature. Etosha has rest stops for people of course – these are the only places where you can relatively safely get out of the car. We found one near Elephant Bath waterhole – it is fenced place with some tables and desired toilet (well there were no water in the toilet obviously as water is scarce, but there was tank of water for washing hands – luxury in such a place). Rest stop had gates which you need to keep close all the time to keep big animals out but snakes and spiders hardly respect that so you need to be careful even when you are inside.

After refreshing ourselves we went on to have a look on other waterholes in the park and were lucky to see more zebras, and more zebras and even more zebras there. 

But best was to see on the road elegant giraffes: some of them were walking in twos, some by themselves, we saw couple of families - it all looked like in my childhood books:

Послушай: далеко, далеко, на озере Чад
Изысканный бродит жираф.
Ему грациозная стройность и нега дана,
И шкуру его украшает волшебный узор,
С которым равняться осмелится только луна,
Дробясь и качаясь на влаге широких озер.
Вдали он подобен цветным парусам корабля,
И бег его плавен, как радостный птичий полет.
Я знаю, что много чудесного видит земля,
Когда на закате он прячется в мраморный грот.

I wanted to have them with me forever, this local bric-a-brake I've got  might help:

We saw herds of ostriches again – they looked like submarines too: long necks holding small heads over grassland, scouting around; 

there were orixes in their formal black-and-white suites and looooong horns, reminded me of some old time gentlemen with canes and top hats, walking with dignity. 

Sporty wilder beasts were wilderbeasting and some other antelopes anteloping. 

We spent the whole day driving among them and come back to our hole tired. 

That last night we went to see “our” wildlife for the last time and on early morning when moon was still up, went on to the coast.

09/03 Twyfelfontein and petrified wood

Skeleton coast was one of the reasons we went to Namibia (main reason were animals and the deserts -  a minor one 'cos we saw a few deserts already). Skeleton name come as you can read in the internet for some strange reason, we were interested in the area in general: ocean here creates tricky coast with dangerous quicksand and some parts of Skeleton coast are closed for tourist and even for local people and some might be accessed with guides only. We choose to see the part where you can get by yourself - as mild adventurers we are. 

Road to the coast comes through Twyfelfontein in Damaraland – place of two watersprings - with oldest stone carvings in Namibia. The whole country of Namibia is literally human civilization cradle, the oldest place where homo sapience appear (or so we think), and these petroglyphs could be millions years old indeed, it is impossible to find out how old they actually are since all the dating technics cannot date carvings and check out how old is the stone itself will give you nothing. We went to see the petroglyphs with local guide (NOD250 each) who told us about the modern country as well.

Today some parts of Namibia belong to the tribes which live there: and tribes decide how they will use the land and how they will live, of course for significant places as these petroglyphs for example they got support from government and international organizations too (it is listed by UNESCO) and they have to allow tourists and researches to see them, but the whole management and all the income stays with the tribe.

What totally blew my mind off there is that after long years of wars – tribal, colonization, apartheid, inclusion and then division from South African Republic and civil wars instigated by “big brothers” from overseas, Namibians decided one day to establish peace and end all the wars – literally. There were no tribunals, war crimes investigations, persecution of anyone participating in any battle on any side and so on, there was PEACE: which mean the war ended, together with all the things which were done during the war. And from day one everyone was equally innocent and any new crime was dealt with as such – without reference to what criminal did or did not during the war. I do not know how they cope with all the horrible things left: how would you live next to the person who – you know that, you've seen that – burned your entire village, but they did. The logic was that during the wars everyone was guilty of unspeakable things, everyone was forced to do unhuman things, but all this ended up when the war was ended. Not forgotten, hardly forgiven, but ended – everyone was guilty, that's it. Now we live – and so they do. Namibians live and work together with descendants of their colonizators and newcomers and with themselves in peace – and there is no reason for new war, as usually it happens when tribunals are unfair and old accounts are not closed and there is debt to be paid in blood – they do not have any of that, they do not wallow in guilt or celebrate victories - they moved on, they live. I wish we will learn it too.

In Namibia there are about 12 or so official languages and English is the one prevailing, meaning any government documents and such are in English, schools teaching mostly in English etc, but the rest of the languages have all the rights to be taught and used. And Namibia never was British colony so they choose English as widely recognized international communication language of today, without discriminating any local languages. When people live in one place for so long they might have come up with right answers.

But back to petroglyphs: most of them are pictures of animals, humans are rare, but next to some pictures of animals you can see human feet or hands – guide told us it represents shamans getting from human form into animal. Nice theory, maybe they were recording how many animals they had/saw/killed? Or whatever else – petroglyphs are mystery for today' people. 

Hard to say how old these carvings are, they were first presented to European public in 1921, nowadays dated as 2000 – 10.000 years old – pick yours. What is interesting as well: there are carvings of animals which live far away from Twyfelfontein: as penguins or sealions for example. Carvings are on huge rockface (although many of them now are on separate broken rocks, but it seems that they were all in one big rock once) so there is no chance pictures would be done somewhere else and brought here.

Amazingly there are maps of the area too: with waterholes depicted exactly as they are even now. 

Our guide told us it is assumed Twyfelfontein was some kind of school: people come here to teach and to learn about the world they've seen, about different animals from different parts, about the area and water sources and practice shamanistic rituals. Imagine how difficult it was to skip class at this school: petroglyphs area is huge and you can see carvings from afar the area is relatively even so you need to run long to skip your lesson, and then shaman will come to your dream and give you lowest marks, stepping into your parents dream too to complain about your behavior. Tough times!

After getting in all these knowledge and heritage we moved on. On this area all the way to the coast you can see some sites of petrified wood, we stopped at one of them and got an excursion around. Big stomps and trunks of fir trees are lying around the desert totally stoned and some of them are hollow so they made funny sounds when beaten. 

We were told that non of these fir trees were ever indigenous to the whole Africa below equator: they were brought here from the north by the catastrophic flood of ancient times and petrified with time. Might be the consequences of Mesuma crater explosion or some other cataclysm. Pieces of petrified wood are protected in Namibia and it is absolutely forbidden to take any if you find them in nature.

We were shown another treasure of Namibia: Welwitschia plant or living fossil as it is called sometimes. The plant is ancient indeed – as a species it exists for more than 80million years or so, and some of the individual plants are as old as 2000 years according to radiocarbon dating. 

The plant has 2 sexes and they always grow together, female: 

male:

It is eatable and locals even grow it for food. Welwitschia is a national plant of Namibia with its place at the coat of arms and in every sport team emblem. Later on we saw it in the wild grow as millions years ago, spreading its leaves over sand and rocks surviving heat and draught.

At the petrified forest site and on the road were some trading posts of local people: here they were manned and goods were not crystals but handmade traditional things, some signed by authors some just things. We bought few souvenirs for ourselves and as gifts: crafts from ostrich eggs, porcupine needles, antelopes horns and such.

The settlements further on the road become fewer and fewer, animals were not seeing at all as we got closer to the ocean. 

Then all life disappeared entirely, including plants, we enter Martian landscapes of Skeleton coast. Terrain become surreal: strange rock formations, gray-purple sand and no road, yet very familiar – we definitely saw this already! 

And then we understood where: in Mars Curiosity videos, yes it was the same! I wonder if some unlucky (or maybe otherwise – very lucky) aliens landed on Earth here, study it for a while, driving around, finding nothing, then gave up and went away to the more cheerful planets....

Skeleton coast is a protected area, and we come to the gates at night when it was closed already, so we parked in front of the gate in a cage (as usual in Namibia, here people are in cages to not disturb the nature and to not be eaten by nature too). 

There was a gatekeeper – the guy with the key, who was sad because that day truck with food and water supposed to come to him but didn't. It was cca 7 hours drive to the nearest settlement by “offroad road” and his supplies were getting very low, especially beer reserve. We offered him some of our food and one 5l water bottle of ours 4, and made some supper for ourselves.

Our car had GPS so rental company can follow us anywhere anytime and by contract we were absolutely forbidden to drive by night. It is forbidden not only by car companies but by local administration in some parts of Namibia – for everyone. The tracking has another reason: if car rent company would see us not moving in the middle of the desert for more than a day they would organize a rescue mission – for the car as we would be eaten I am sure. As well they could see if we got into protected areas and contact us (we had a satellite phone in a car if no other signal would be available, but have to say mobile connection is perfect in Namibia and at many places where you would not expect it the internet is better than back home in Prague). GPS navigation in the car was working perfectly so we never get lost and needed no rescue fortunately.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5h3Jqx/

Another sane feature of Namibia are camps: it is again absolutely forbidden to camp in nature for all – tourists or locals, you need to camp in designated areas (caged area to protect against animals), it always has water and braai – place for BBQ or place for fire where you can put tea kettle or made any other food; electricity is optional. At Skeleton coast gates we had no electricity but braai was there and with the tent on top of our Hilux we had all the comfort you can dream of. Desert was quiet at night and on sunrise we made our breakfast, said goodbye to the sad beerless gatekeeper and move on – to the ocean.

10/03 Skeleton coast

Martian violet-brown rocky landscape slowly transferred into sand dunes, few giraffes surprised us on the way, few jackals – not so much, loneliness here was not sad or disturbing at all. 

Closer to the ocean were some ruins of old oil rigs and some other industrial structures and sand again.  Jackals family made a lair there and god knows who else lives here now.

After several hours driving we finally got to the water. Wide sandy beaches stretch endlessly in both directions and apart from sound of waves no noise could be heard.

Skeleton coast is known by its shipwrecks – because of tide ships could be get aground and crew usually would die due to no water supply and wild animals. Coast here is tricky with its currents so catastrophes were plenty. Noone lives here so no help would come, nothing grows and no fresh water stays in waterholes – real dead zone.

And this is why shipwrecks stay where they are – noone takes them apart. There are some maps you can find on internet with shipwrecks pointed, but they are not precise so we were wondering around looking for their carcasses.

On route we found some old diamond mine with its own pier – all was in ruins as production stopped decades ago, we saw some wreckage of some ships and long-long sandy beaches with nothing on them.

There is an attempt to build a resort at Torra bay: the beach cottages there look nice and livable, later we found out they mostly used when some fish – don't remember its name – migrate through Tora bay waters, fishermen come in hordes to catch it and at these few days Torra bay is populated, but these were not the days and fishermen village was a ghost town for us.

Walking on the beaches we saw a sign “Beware of lions!” and had a laugh, later we learn that in fact it was not a joke: lions hunt on the deserted shores for sealions or tourists – whoever comes first, both of them are no match for lion on the shore. True enough, walking on sandy beaches could not be fast, at the end of the day we saw more and more jackals around so we got to the car and drive away. Besides, we needed to get to the camp before sundown. We drive to Swakopmund and got into one of the nice camps there – with BBQ on braai of course, it's called Tiger Reef, we had our own palmtree there.

Next day was refilling provisions and getting to the another reason we come to Namibia: the desert, namely Sossusvlei which you can see at any Windows desktop.

Roads got from asphalt around Swakopmund into gravel soon enough, the temperature rise higher and higher and we were oh so thankful for Hilux airconditioner and other genius of Japanese engineering which kept us alive and moving.

11-12/03 Sossusvlei

Road to Sossusvlei (and later roads down south) is lined with light fence of mystery: it does not keep out anything at all, it is not glowing in the dark to keep animals from the traffic (well, there are at least 3 cars per day!) and we saw few antelopes and wild boars getting through the fence easily, so why it is there? And all the way from place to place – about 8 hours drive from each other? 

Still have no idea. 

Temperature raised higher and higher, air become dry and hot and noone was in sight for hours. Then suddenly we saw tourists on bicycles in the middle of nowhere – literally. At about +45C. More than 3hours drive by car from any village/camp.... Well some people have stamina. 

Or maybe just not so smart to comprehend that there are countries slightly bigger than standard European one town state.

While driving we saw something at the roadside – something like spilled bunch of apples or so – was wondering how and who and why would throw away apples at this backcountry so finally curiosity won: we stopped at the next pile 

and that's how we've met desert pumpkins.

Sossusvlei is a protected area so you need to stay in camp outside, we got to Little Sossus and were greeted by considerate owner who took care of us and was waiting for us every evening checking if we are ok. 

Yes, we were adopted from day one.

Coming back “home” from our dunes adventures we were imagining our sweet owner in apron cooking dinner for us with hot tea pot ready – she never actually did that but this is an impression we had. And I am sure if she could – she will do that. 

People who work there were nice too.

After resting and having braai (of course) we got to sleep, getting up a few times at night to see the night sky of the southern hemisphere: the camp is in the desert, there were no lights and we saw the stars we haven't ever seen before: the Cross, Scorpio and others which names I don't remember. Orixes were wondering nearby looking at us thoughtfully and something small was running fast around our feet.

Next day we got up early to have more time on the dunes before day heat strikes, on the way to Sossusvlei we saw someone got up even earlier to get into hot air balloon and fly around.

Not sure which dune exactly was taken by Microsoft to be its desktop icon – they all look pretty impressive. From main road you can see sideway paths to each dune with dune' number on it. 

We check some of them later, now we were in a hurry to get to the Sossusvlei dead forest. At the entrance we change our car for the park tractor: the road there was just sand, and then we saw the Dune:

Sossusvlei Dead forest is not unique: this happens in the desert when ground water for some reason gets away – so small oasis dries or better to say baked by the sun. 

Sossusvlei Dead Forest is chosen to be shown to the tourists, the rest of such places are protected and people are kept away. 

Dead Forest pictures of Daniel Kordan - my favorite photographer, made me wonder about Namibia some years ago and now I can see it and touch them myself, pretty awesome! 

After half an hour we got bored there – besides there was crowd of people, something we totally forget could exist. Namibia is least populated country (one of the reason we come) and in our travels we usually were alone or in some “touristy” places there were about two-three more people – on vast Namibian expanses it makes no difference, but here on most iconic touristy destination were lots of people – and we did not miss them at all. Anyways, without them you would not see the scale of the dunes – so at least they have a purpose:

Of course we went up the dune – and again regretted the endeavor: the sand was still dragging you down with every step, air get hotter, and we crawl higher and higher – or so we thought – but looking down we realize that actually we up just a few meters. 

Oh well, once started we had to go up – and we did! And it was worth it.

No weariness could keep us from photosession:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5hCYg5/

Getting back on the tractor-bus in full heat of +40 could be a challenge but there were jackals and antelopes lying around in shadows so everyone just forget the temperature and exhaustion and were shooting pictures and videos of lazy fauna all the way to the parking lot.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe5hK3xR/

On the way back to the camp we stopped at some of  the “side dunes”, saw a big bird and more sand.

We got back to Little Sossus and jump into swimming pool, our host come to see if we are ok – the water in the pool was cold! There was funny Sausage tree (Kigelia africana) – poisonous to humans but funny looking. 

One regret we brought from Namibia: we had no time to get up north to see baobabs... well, next time then! To compensate myself for baobabs I've got some baobab cosmetics, although no miracles happened with my skin, all of these are nice to use

Another day at Little Sossus we went to see Sesriem Canyon of Tsauchab River: as all rivers here it exists briefly during rain season only, but canyon is huge so there surely plenty of water then. 

Rocks there are shaped by water and wind into strange forms and castle like structures, the more you walk around the less real landscape is, plus hot-hot air and direct sun help your hallucinations to come true.

But we were sane enough to get back before going through the looking glass.

Ah, our saddest goodbye in Namibia to dear darling host of Little Sossus and off we go next day – to Luderitz.

13-14/03 Luderitz

The road again changed from gravel to sand and was long and dry. Landscape changed slowly from dunes to rocky mountains then into flatland of sandy nature. 

You could see far – far to the horizon and even beyond – and nothing was there. These vast land mass somehow made me very calm. We enjoyed so much to be alone – it is great not to see any people around, not even villages or lonely farms – just noone, simply perfect!

Colours of the landscape were changing slowly from pale yellow to brick-red and back to sandy yellow again. 

From time to time there were some settlements, and people had some strange structures there for satellite? Internet? 

Most of such villages or outposts are completely independent: they have their own water source, wind and/or solar energy and some cattle – so they do not need any government or anyone else to be thankful to, which is great. At the ocean villages and even small towns have their own desalinators and all these communities are totally independent and self reliant. By the way, weapons are permitted in Namibia even for tourists – you just need to inform police that you have some and in you go. Locals have almost no gun limitations too so better think twice before you try anything stupid here. With all this Namibia is the safest African country for many years: yet another proof that guns are not the problem – people are.

We haven't seen anyone with the gun during our travels (except rangers at Etosha who took us to see the lion hunt, but in such case I'd not go with anyone without gun). Does not mean noone had guns on their person but we did not hear any shooting either. To be precise we did not notice even any quarrel or people talking aggressively at all: not only with us but with each other, on the streets or on the road.

Near Luderitz road become asphalt again and next to it the railway appeared: old one from colonial times is recently rebuild by Chinese (as some roads) and used to get resources, especially uranium to the coast for shipping elsewhere.

Luderitz was first European town in Namibia and first harbor, but then Walvis bay was discovered and Luderitz lost its position. Later mines around Luderitz were exhausted so the whole town now is just sad shadow of former bustling center of trade and mines.

Ghost town of Kolmanskop is now social media must see with its rundown houses abandoned and full of sand – do not know how but I don't like such places although I do love castles and ruins and am ready to go for them through mountains and woods, but this kind of places does not attract me at all. Maybe they need to be at least 500years old and be from people in rusty iron armor to get my attention.

We got a room at Luderitz Backpackers: nice old house from colonial times now kind of hostel, there were some oldtimers who used to work in the port here but now moved to Walvisbay. 

They come to hometown for beer with friends. We had a chat and went on to check the town. It is prettier by night as by day melancholic little town looks more like sad little fisherman village and you just do not understand why such a small thing has such a huge empty port in ruins.

Next day we went to see penguins – unexpected it was for us, we learn there are penguins at Tweilfontain, where guide told us that penguins do live in Namibia not only on rock carvings. At the hostel were few brochures with ads for penguin sail: for some money boat would take you to the island next to the town where this arctic birds supposed to be. We check it on the map – the island was very close so we decided to have a look on penguins for free from the coast.

We drove to Shark Island view point and saw no penguins, to Dias Cross and saw no penguins,

even to Grosse Bucht where were lots of seagulls, sealions and seaweed, but no penguins. 

The trip was great though: waves crushing rocky shores is what we like a lot, lighthouses and little cafés are nice to visit too. 

By the way, here - as in many places in Namibia, people use and re-use everything they've got, I do not think it is out of need, most probably it's some subconscious habit coming from living in the desert to get maximum from every little thing

Whole country somehow is very clean - maybe because of that, maybe because people are not familiar with the idea of "waste", hope it will stay like this, without getting into trashy consumerism of ours. 

It wasn't warm in Luderitz, especially at the coast: you can feel the Antarctic breathing ice, we were lucky to stay at warm old house 

and only later on, at home, sorting out photos from Namibia I saw on few of them that there were indeed, the penguins! They camouflage themselves so well in the rocky little islands that only looking very carefully you can see these little bastards among the stones:

15/03 Maltahohe

On the road again 

we needed to get back to Windhoek for plane back home on 16/03, but it is long time drive from Luderitz so we stopped at Maltahohe, place we knew nothing about and to be honest – did not learn much. For some time we were looking for accommodation as some places were closed, some confusing:

some heavily guarded

Finally we stopped at AirBnB of some nice lady from South Africa and her lovely ridgeback doggo. She run away from south several years ago and doubt she'l ever coming back. But active women she raised Maltahohe community, which is not easy, and push them to get into selfstanding functioning society instead of beings existing on social security checks – and those are slim in Namibia. Maltahohe once was a rich town, staying on cross road between coast ports and capital city on Hudup river – one of few all year round rivers here, it was known by sheep wool production. With all the geopolitical changes decline came and townsfolk just gave up and rot for a while but it seems they might get back on track and thriving once again – especially if more active people will pull everyone else with them. 

There as well we learn about a miracle and now want to see it, so we have to come back again: in recent years after every rain season (about end-February) desert valley near Maltahohe started to bloom with water lilies, it was not happening before and for today slowly become new attraction of the place. The desert lilies are able to “sleep” through dry season for years, to bloom they need the valley to be covered in water for several days which was the case lately.

16/03 Windhoek

The road to capital city was straight asphalt and with lots of cars. Coming from the desert we missed emptiness already – idiot drivers are everywhere. Namibia showed us its last live attraction: some monkeys or whatever apes were on the road somewhere midway to the city – group of them crossed the road in one direction, then back again. I am not a fan of primates and they are few in Namibia – again, one of the reasons to come here LOL. And almost in the city we saw a sad sight: run over pangolin. Although on the other hand they are not so rare after all if they are running on roads next to the biggest city. With these two we saw all Namibian animals then.

So here we saw the very last roadside rest stop cage for people:

And we are going back to the land where animals sit in cages...

Before getting back to Windhoek we left our sturdy reliable companion at rent a car (Hilux is the best!!), where people have sense of humor

all was in order and we come to see the capital. Well, there is not much to say: the town is very new, couple of glass-concrete skyscrapers, few buildings of colonial times and panel houses all around. There are parks and shops and such as in any modern town – globalization at work. While walking around I spot something sparkly – oh yeah, they do have jewelry shops here and yes – full of diamonds not only local but from the whole Africa. But my attention was taken by this tanzanite:

aaand now it is mine 😊

Luckily – despite traveling with Lufthansa again, we had no issues with the planes and got back home safely. Well, the plane from Frankfurt to Prague was late for 2hours but with them that's a norm nowadays.

A man cannot undo his past. can zebras wipe away their stripes? 

(Namibian proverb)