:: Carnet de Voyage ::David

// Nikon D7200

Je suis content que nos amis soient venus rapidement pour briser l'étrangeté de la situation’re a few months behind the rain season, but it’s still raining in northern Namibia. The huge amount of water allows animals to spread, and a few locals told us to avoid Etosha reserve.
Instead, we’re going to Erindi private game reserve. And the accommodation inside the reserve is a gift from Mike, thanks for this beautiful gift my friend 🙂

On the way inside, after crossing a « Jurassic park style » gate, we had a 10kms drive to the campground, enough to see a group of giraffes on the way. And let me make this clear, there is nothing more relaxing than watching a giraffe, especially when they run, where gravity seems to be different here, the whole thing happening in slow motion. One of the most iconic animal of Africa, so glad we saw them next to the vehicle !

The campground is on another standing than everything we’ve seen so far. Shade for the van (actually not that good since we run on solar panels), fridge and freezer, electric lights, bbq pit, sorry, braai pit (never say bbq in Africa !) and private washroom.
The whole camp is fenced, to protect us from the wildlife, with 2000 volts cables all around, and gates closing from sunset to sunrise (yup, that’s Jurassic park !)
On top of that, the camp circles around a big waterhole, where » some » of the animals may come for a refreshment. And oh my god, for our first day, right into the afternoon light, we had a group of 10 giraffes, dozens of wilder beast, zebras, oryx, warthogs, hippos playing in the water…..it was just missing a baboon holding a lion cub and the picture was there !
Surreal and magical moment ……….

  // Nikon D7200 Happy morning, after a pressure test of the repaired tire, looks like I did a good job last night and we didn’t lose any pressure overnight !!! To get out of this place, I asked Mike to walk in front of the van, clearing any metallic debris from the path, we…

  // Nikon D7200 We started the day with a visit of Twyfelfontein, famous for rock paintings done by early bushmen. First time doing a tour, and probably last time as well :p We ended up in a group of elderly people, struggling with the heat and the walk on rocks. It took ages to…

  // Nikon D7200 Time to do groceries and to refuel, and we can now start the adventure aboard mister Fox, en route for the Spitzkoppe mountain ! Not a long drive, about 200kms + 50kms on sandy road, fairly easy with the van. But it’s interesting to see the difference between the roads south…

  // Nikon D7200 On the way out of Sossusvlei, Nous avons passé une nuit dans une zone infestée de grillons, et je dois dire que ces créatures terrifiantes sont vraiment effrayantes, et aussi grosses que votre main. La nuit, it’c'est même pire. Vous Scannez votre coin avec le faisceau d’une lampe de poche, clear the crickets out with…

  // Nikon D7200 Time to get back in the desert. I have to plan and drive more carefully since we don’t have the same fuel economy on gravel roads with our toyota corolla. Refuel at Luderitz, then refuel 100kms later in Aus, before the long gravel road to Sossusvlei. This road gets pretty bad…

  // Nikon D7200 | -26.63438 : 15.09162 | alt. 1m We didn’t wake up early since the ghost town of Luderitz doesn’t open before 10:30 today. That gives us time for a good breakfast in Luderitz, figure out the plan for today, and do the traditional wifi checkup. A little word about the ghost town….

  // Nikon D7200 | -26.63438 : 15.09162 | alt. 1m Once in Keetmanshoop, there is not much to see, and one of the very few things to do is visiting the Quiver tree forest and giants playground. They both are located within the same park, and the biggest surprise was at the reception : a…

  // Nikon D7200 | -27.61945: 17.71424 | alt. 693m Mike was welcomed by a massive thunderstorm for his first day in Namibia 🙂 Something we hope won’t happen many times, the volume of water falling down is really impressive and it floods many roads in no time. As long as we don’t have the van, it’s…

  // Nikon D7200 | -22.55395 : 17.09322 | alt. 1650m Yesterday was pretty tough. I walked to the other side of the city (1 hour walk under the sun) to meet my agent. She’s gonna deal with all the paperwork on the Namibian side to clear my vehicle. On the way, I met a homeless…