A NON TAUCK AFRICA EXPERIENCE. NAMIBIA
A NON-TAUCK AFRICA EXPERIENCE
For those regulars who read the forum, I mentioned I was going on a nonTauck tour to Namibia. Tauck went to Namibia for a short time and then stopped. The company we used had been recommended by two different friends---one who had taken just one tour with them to Africa and another who was a devoted fan of the company and gave me a brochure. I had reservations about the company, one being they count day 1 as when you leave the US, so you are on day two by the time you get to the destination. Their tours are also very long and you can even pre and post extend the tours. But either way, this would be difficult to even do the main tour for most none retired clients. The company does not guarantee that you will stay in the hotels they list and appear to cancel tour dates more frequently. We also realized that the trip insurance does not mean you get your money back if you cancel, but rather it will be expected to go towards another tour within the next year. We read the itinerary very carefully and we already had a good knowledge of what to expect of Namibia. So we called the company to enquire about a tour of Namibia for next year, to find they were no longer going to do the tour. So at the end of August we took a leap of faith and booked and paid in full for a tour now in November. We have taken 4 of the 5 Africa tours that Tauck offers over about the last ten years. So we consider ourselves pretty savvy about travel to Africa and how flexible you have to be and what to expect.
We were actually impressed by how carefully we were questioned about our abilities to cope physically with the tour and how much more comprehensive the packing list for clothing was compared with the Tauck generic lists. We received a Welcome email from the trip leader about 3 or 4 days before we left home and we had a list of other members of the tour with our tour booklet. We could only take a provided duffle for the tour ( These did not arrive as the tour got nearer, we called and received two sets both mailed the same day, we had read how flimsy and prone to tearing and the wheels come off easily... and they were, much cheaper construction than Tauck provided duffels that are only required for a few days and that also have compression straps.) it turns out my duffel had quite a big hole in the bottom when we arrived home and other people on our tour had holes and split seams mid tour and some of them were going on the post tour too, so I don't know how they faired.
You may get a laugh out of this at my expense! I will start with the negatives.
We decided to use business class to fly, although coach is included in the price of the tour. So when we asked for this we were surprised the trip insurance goes up to $1299 each, but we asked them to book it and paid the insurance since the trip was so near.
We arrived a day early and stayed in the hotel the tour began from, the Protea hotel in Johannesburg but not the one attached to the airport but one a shuttle drive away. So if you arrive early the company do not include free transfers, we had to drag our bags to find a shuttle bus, you have to be careful in this airport so we were cautious. We did not want to go into Johannesburg because we have already taken a tour with Tauck that goes to many of the highlights of Johannesburg including Soweto and the Hector Pieterson museum. The hotel had a pool but it did not look inviting, no other things to do, so we hung out, relaxed and started the process of getting over jet lag. The two hot breakfasts we had were stone cold but the food otherwise was good, but service was very slow, we waited an hour for a lunch to appear.
We finally met the tour group on the morning of day 4 of the tour, ten women and 3 men... consisting of two married couples including my husband and myself, a single man, two single women and 3 sets of female friends.
A representative of the company was there to get us onto the bus to the airport and when we all got together we saw that one lady could not walk, she was very elderly, during the tour by what she said she was probably ninety. She was accompanied by an elderly friend. She was actually in a wheelchair! The local company representative took the rest of us aside when she saw our faces and assured us that obviously she was no way fit enough to do the tour as stated in all literature and the tour booklet we received. She assured us that once we got to Windhoek, they would be sent home. That did not happen! So for the next 3 days in Windhoek, they were late to the bus and we left late by fifteen minutes or so and things were rushed. When we got to every stop we had to wait for her to be off the bus and shuffle very slowly. On about the third day of the this, the tour director was saying that if we were not all there by the designated time of departure he would leave without us. That at least meant we left on time but then things got slower. Some days she did not come with us or sat on a very hot bus or Safari vehicle where she looked so bad we all thought she would expire. At one of the bigger airports we had to drag our badly designed duffels over a large expanse of tarmac. Our elderly companion had to have the airport ambulance to get her from plane to terminal. She got her bag carried. I was beginning to feel like a second class member of the group who paid the same as she did for the tour, maybe I could fake an injured leg or something to get my bag carried or always be in the front seat of the bus or the nearest room to the lodge... no that's not nice to think like that!
There was no assigned seating in the bus or Safari vehicles and we found this a BAD problem, we missed the Tauck organization of seating and found that particularly the other women were avoiding being in the same vehicle as the woman. A few days later we found ourselves on one of two minibuses with her and the smell was terrible, then we noticed she had feces round her ankles on her pants and shoes. We felt very nauseated by it. When we got off the vehicle Mr B was livid and went to the trip leader and said we were not prepared to get back on the vehicle with her that day. We could not sleep a wink that night. The tension was high in the group and lots of low whispers continued throughout the tour. I felt that at times it made us all fed up of each other and I wondered if that happened on all group small group tours, you just cannot get a break and speak to others on what was a long tour. Any advantage of being quicker at rest stops and things like that were evaporated because of our situation. And who was complaining that her bacon was not crispy enough and sending it back to be cooked more, yes, you guessed it and just before we were to leave. ( Africa has British style bacon which is quite lean and not designed to be cooked to a crisp because it does not have the fat, boy do I miss British bacon!)
Anther woman had such rank body odor on 3 separate days that again we felt nauseous with it. Mr B just could not believe a womancould smell so bad.
The trip leader did not give us any written paperwork with suggestions of what to see in the two towns we visited, mentioned some restaurants but hard to remember when not written down. We were never given an idea of when there might be a toilet break... at one stop just before the boat ride, we had to find two Namibian dollars to pay for the only toilet facility and everyone was scrambling for change, I am thinking, well on Tauck tours when that happens the tour director hands us all the correct money as we get off the bus so we can go straight in.
We had to find most meals in the two towns we stayed in and no drinks were included in the hotels at meals, not even water. At the Safari lodges we had our water bottles to keep and fill with filtered water, but not even the Sundowners were free. On the one occasion we did stop mid morning in the bush for a coffee they only brought 1 flask of hot water for all of us so there was not enough.
Meals were good but small portions and times varied greatly. There were no snack breaks... we don't eat snacks at home but when you have just had a long hike and scrambled up rocks in the heat it would be nice to have a coffee and cookie because that day we went over six hours between breakfast and lunch. My husband and I were ravenous by most meal times in contrast to Tauck who almost feed you too much. But at least you have the choice not to eat.
Warning, don't walk behind or try to pass by anyone who is using walking poles because they can easily trip you up, or they randomly use their poles point at something and poke your eye out, we both had near misses with this.
Lateness... after the firmness of the trip leader about being on time, this improved, but getting back on time was another matter, we were waiting around in the heat on several occasions for people to return from shopping expeditions.
A couple of things did not happen as in the program, the school visit, everyone had been asked to consider bringing gifts to the school, the alternate school also did not happen and a visit to a herbalist did not happen. People were annoyed about their gifts, they went to a Kindergarten in another village visit, we hope and think.
There was far too much free time in places where there were no alternative activities. On about 3 days the organized activity finished in the mid morning and there were no things like walks you could do on your own or massage or anything like that, no Internet that would work. There was far too much time given over.to shopping!
We only had to get up extra early on two days, in contrast to Tauck safaris where you do get up early, you have a better chance of seeing the remains of the night activity of the animals and you are back before the heat gets bad. We had to eat breakfast before going on the morning game drives but it was only served half an hour before we had to be on the vehicle, so it was a rushed affair and then there were lines for the bathroom. We much prefer the breakfast after the game drives so you can eat at leisure and enjoy conversation.
The Tour.... the start of the tour really began when we left Johannesburg on day 4 and flew to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia in the central area of the country. We spent 3 days in each location from here.
Our hotel in Windhoek was not in the center but high on a hill in the outskirts with great views over the city below. The rooms were large and clean but the bathrooms were dingy and really in need of an update, the toilet seat in our room was ancient. We arrived mid afternoon, I took a shower, there was zero hot water, I let it pass thinking, ok we are in Africa, maybe they only have hot water morning and evening. But I think this was the best hotel in the capital city. The next morning, no hot water. Mr B grumbled again ( I have never really seen Mr B grumble on a Tauck tour.) He said he was going to the front desk. The manager was there, he said it was tricky, he would get someone to go to our room after breakfast and have a look.... but it turned out no-one had hot water, they had forgotten to turn the pump on... so no- one was bothered but us. We found on the day that we were leaving that at least one of our group had no hot water the entire 3 nights we were there but had never bothered to ask about it. The dinners at our own expense at the hotel were very good and reasonably priced and great views from our table.
We had a guided bus tour of Windhoek and stopped off at the famous church and a fabulous newish museum on Namibian history, beautifully designed building and lovely presented exhibitions. Let me quote from my diary here....
So this morning, we first visited the wealthy part of town, very nice homes but surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences. We visited a really beautiful main Lutheran church, a fabulous very new museum, gorgeous architecture and great exhibits, then the parliament building. Then it was on to the other side of town. We went into a local outside market, walking by all the stalls selling food goods including monkey oranges, dried large cabbage leaves that look like dried cow patties, cloudy olive oil in used whisky bottles and a speciality, Mopani worms that are Emperor moth caterpillars, boiled and then fried--- no we declined to try them! We went to the meat section and saw huge cow carcasses literally covered in swarms of flies. There were some heads and tails discarded on the ground nearby covered in flies, there were piles of tripe, all brown, not like the white stuff we ate as kids in England. Next was an area where this meat was being cooked on grills, still plenty of flies around, we were invited to eat some and some of our party did, but we did not. We then visited a women's cooperative called Penduka where they designed and printed fabrics including batik, did embroidery and made beads out of recycled glass bottles. We ate lunch there--- I decided I was vegetarian for that meal after seeing all the flies and meat earlier. The girls then did some traditional dancing and singing for us. It never ceases to amaze me how happy the people are and so good when they do these performances. On our way back to town we went into the town Craft center where we could view and buy everything Namibian. Back to the hotel and a lovely dinner watching the sun set.
We spent 3 nights in Windhoek, too much time, two days would have been plenty, too much time, too much time given for chances to shop.
Next, onto the KULALA Desert Lodge for 3 nights.....from my diary.....
This morning we left the Thule hotel, heading into Windhoek where we had an hour to shop and then we drove about a half hour to a private game reserve called Heda which had a waterhole, a lovely lodge, not much wildlife. We did see a couple of camels, an Oryx and warthogs on the way. We had a lunch of Springbok schnitzel and trimmings, it was lovely and tender and delicious.
We headed to the airport for a private plane ride to the desert area, just under an hour away. Our group needed two planes. Mr B and I were in the first one to leave, an eight seater. The pilot told us the flight would be bumpy once we flew over the mountains and then over the desert, it was, but not too bad. When it gets to the late afternoon it is always more bumpy. The second flight had a huge amount of turbulence compared to us and a former pilot on our tour, a woman said it was one of the most bumpy flights she had ever encountered in that type of small plane.
The scenery was spectacular. We left the plane and got into Safari vehicles and through the desert for about 40 minutes over the stoney/sandy and dusty road to get to the lodge. It's quite windy. It's gorgeous here, the lodge has wonderful views over the rock formations and sand dunes. The 'room' has tented sides and a thatched roof. At the back is the bathroom which has concrete sides and flat roof, where we have the choice to sleep on the roof at night, but of course it gets very cold. When we arrived we unpacked and then congregated in the main lodge for a drive into the desert for a 'Sundowner' and watch the sun set. It's gorgeous. We have seen a few Oryx, a jackal and some birds. We do not expect to see too many animals in such a harsh environment, it's the scenery that is King here.
Another excerpt.....SOSSUSVLEI DUNES. THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16th 2017
We got our wake up call at 5am this morning, we were eating breakfast in the lodge by 5-30m and into the Safari vehicles at 6am for a drive to the famous SOSSUSVLEI sand dunes in the Namib desert. We drove out of the camp on large gravel roads and into the National park not far away where there was a tarmac road for a while and then we were driving on deep sand roads, rocking and rolling and getting the Namib desert 'massage'
So early in the morning the dunes are very colorful from deep orange red to salmon to white clay color. It all depends on where the sand is blown from. The darker red from the Kalahari and the white clay from the local area. The winds are relentless. Blowing very hard in the heat. The direction from the winds depends on the time of day or time of year. Today they were blowing from the West, pushing the sand on the crests of the high dunes up into the air making it look like smoke or mist at the top. The wind direction changes make the dunes 'move' back and forth. The remainder of the area is covered in sand or small pebbles or smooth rocks. Here and there are small dry tufts of a grass called Bushmen grass that looks like pale brown dried rosemary. There is the remains of an ancient river where the clay has baked hard and cracked. In this area are Acacia trees that survive because of their deep roots and occasional rain, the river last had water in it from rains in 2012. The dry riverbed is covered in dry skeleton Acacia trees, there are no fungi or bacteria here to help with the rotting process so they just dry out and some are believed to date back as much as the 12,00s.
The big dunes have names or numbers and only a few are allowed to be climbed. We started the climb of Dune 45. It was very windy and your feet disappeared into the sand, your body was blasted with sand, I did not climb as high as Mr B, I got the idea and felt no need to prove anything to myself or anyone. We had to keep our cameras in ziplock bags because the sand often jams the cameras. We had to carefully clean ours afterwards with a special lens brush. Our teeth were gritty from the sand even though we wore our buffs over our faces a lot of the time. We drove further and walked about one and a half miles round trip through deep sand at times to part of the dry riverbed. There are not many animals because of the harsh conditions but we saw ostrich and Oryx, a most magnificent antelope, I believe it is one of the largest with long straight upright horns. A few birds and Mr B spotted a small spherical black and white beetle and took a photo before it disappeared. When we stopped for food and drink under an ancient Acacia tree for shade, one of the men was looking inside the tree and found an empty champagne bottle with a message in it. We retrieved the paper with the aid of a stick and it was written in Russian and there was an 100 Rand note attached to it, less than $10, with an email. Luckily someone in our group could roughly translate and it wished the finder good luck and to contact by email.
We were back at camp by about 11-30am.
From another day......
Later---- We left the lodge at 4pm when the temperatures were cooler and drove about 45 minutes to a small canyon. It was quite a tricky descent down a rocky trail. When we got to the bottom it was sandy and the walls of the canyon had holes burrowed into them from various animals and birds. There were lots of balls of feathers and small bones that had been regurgitated from owls. At nightfall the baboons come down into the canyon for the night and when we were driving back we saw a troop of them heading for the canyon. We stopped in a vast flat area with mountains and dunes around to have wine and snacks and watch the sunset.
I forgot to mention that one of the ways we have to conserve water at the hotel is that when we get into the shower there is a large metal bucket and we have to collect the water that first comes out before the water gets to temperature and then the cleaner uses it to clean the room.
The next three nights were in Swokopmund, diary below, three nights was too long.....
We drove to the local airport, just a strip of gravel, this morning to get our bush planes to a town called WALVIS BAY, which in the past was an important harbor for the whaling industry. It has a large harbor, it's on the Atlantic coast. Nowadays it has a salt mining industry and the the lagoon nearby is famous for attracting flamingoes. There were quite a few , some were pink and some were black and white. We had lunch at a restaurant jutting out into the ocean and watched some seals frolicking in the water. This afternoon we arrived in Swokopmund, a seaside town. It is supposed to be like a German Bavarian town, Namibia having been a German colony in the past. It's a large town, but on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, most of the shops are closed and it was like entering a ghost town. Wide streets almost empty of traffic and people. The hotel is the Hansa hotel, very nice. We have settled into our room and been for a walk. It really is like being in a ghost town, creepy. Temperatures are much cooler here.
Apparently nearby on the coast is where Brangelina had their property.
We were advised not to be out alone after 9pm, be in groups. Mr B and I chose to have dinner at the Strand Hotel on the beach....
We were thinking, yes this is where Tauck would have stayed, the Hansa not turning out to be too good. We finished dinner at 7-45pm and when we walked back we did not pass a living soul, it was scary, I was looking down every alleyway, we marched along trying to look like fit teenagers who could defend ourselves.
From another day in Swokopmund....
SWAKOPMUND ON A SUNDAY AND THE ORPHANAGE NOVEMBER 19th 2017
Last night we ate in the hotel restaurant. I ate Springbok slices and Eland and Mr B ate Springbok liver and then Zebra, all very good. The hotel is full of Germans and Mr B is making me laugh by speaking in a German accent. We have not heard any other American voices apart from our group and one upper class plummy English accent.
This morning our group got on the bus and travelled to the township called D R C which is like a very very poor shanty town. It was huge, thousands of people live there. The official township has concrete homes, water and electricity. Beyond that is the unofficial township with houses built of corrugated iron to just plywood or even cardboard boxes. The ground is just very dusty fine sand. There are water pumps here and there with people filling up vessels of all kinds and sizes with water. There are no toilets. Our local driver stopped and asked a woman if we could look around her home and offered her money. She took us in, she had four children. It was dark and tiny with bits of ancient furniture and car batteries which powered lights, otherwise it was an oil lamp. There was a tiny kitchen area and a sleeping area for her and one for the children. No running water or toilet.
Beyond there but just across a street were some new small government built homes, but they were all empty because no one can afford them. We peeped through the windows. They continue to be built, there are about 2000 already, all empty, and another 2000 being built.
We drove to another part and to an orphanage run by a remarkable woman called Naftalina. She single handedly looks after 21 children, many of them very young. Some are orphans because their parents have died of AIDS. Some are abandoned as babies. She cooked lunch for us and it was delicious, lamb ribs, a polenta, salad, coleslaw, and freshly baked bread. We gave her an Electricity card so she could top up her Electricity, some baby diapers she had asked for and cash. She told us her story. Then all the kids descended on us and it was very emotional for us.
We have had a walk around the town and to the sea, it's still really quiet here and all the stores are closed.
The next day.....
SAILBOAT AND SHIPWRECK MONDAY NOVEMBER 20th 2017
The bus drove us to Walvis Bay today, on a road by the sea, surrounded by nothing but sand, flat areas, but also high dunes. We boarded a catamaran and headed out to sea. Before we knew it, a fur seal jumped into the boat. The seals have been doing this since a similar boat crew tried to help a seal that had fishing net tangled around it. They enticed the seal with fish until he started to jump onto the edge of the boat, then by gradually getting some trust, they were able to disentangle it, but after that, he kept following every time he saw them. The other seals picked up the habit and now regularly jump right into the boat because they know they will be fed fish. It really was an amazing site to see. Then he was joined by three large white pelicans and one of them almost knocked my glasses off when he flapped his wings. Further out we saw bottle nosed dolphins and heavyside dolphins plus an elusive Mola mola fish.---Very large and eat a diet of jellyfish. We arrived at the seal colony and saw thousands of seal both on the land and the sea.
We were given a glass of sherry when we first got on the boat. Then when we got to the seal colony we were served champagne and freshly shucked oysters and other goodies. When we returned to the boat dock a baby seal jumped onto the boat. We had a blast. Back to the hotel and then later a scenic drive along the Skeleton coast to see a shipwreck and to see the salt flats where they harvest the salt, and guano areas where they collect the Cormorant poop. Then we visited the oyster beds. We saw huge flocks of pink flamingoes in the flats. When they take flight all together, it looks spectacular.
On to the next lodge...
DORO NOWAS CAMP TUESDAY NOVEMBER 21st 2017
Today we flew to the Damaraland area, a most fantastic flight going over some of the most amazing scenery we have ever seen, vast areas of desert and then very picturesque mountains. We had a young woman pilot. We were in the air for about and hour and then landed on a strip in the middle of nowhere, it really is an extremely remote area. Land rovers were waiting for us to take us on a bone rattling 45 minute ride to camp. There is an airstrip nearer it but it is under repair and may be open when we leave Friday. The main lodge is up on top of a rock and is constructed so that it looks like a black rock kinda fort building. The 'rooms' are little huts with thatched roofs and tent walls. They are large inside with a large expanse of French doors looking out onto the landscape. We have an indoor and outdoor shower and the same system to recover water from the shower water before it turns hot into a bucket as we had at the previous camp. Each hut has a solar panel system to heat the water. It's very hot, we took a shower as soon as we arrived and after lunch we got into the land rovers to try and find some elusive and endangered Desert Elephants.
After quite a long drive down a dry river bed, we came across a female and three of her children. The youngest was six weeks old and he kept lying down and falling asleep. The desert elephants are smaller and have longer legs. We were just a few feet from them. When we returned we went up onto the roof of the main lodge with cocktails and watched a glorious African sunset.
In the evening the staff entertained us after dinner with singing and dancing.
Another day......
ROCK CLIMBING AND NAKED WOMEN! WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 22nd 2017
We had a good sleep, the desert really cools down at night. We were awakened at 6am this morning. By 7am we were wheels rolling for a ride to Twyfelfontein an open air gallery of ancient rock engravings depicting African wildlife by the San Bushmen of long ago. This entailed quite a bit of actual rock climbing but we managed well and did not fall. Then a quick trip to a valley of dolerite columns---rock formations called the Organ Pipes. On again to the Damara Living Museum, where a group of people showed us the way of living in that culture. All the people wore were goat skins, the women bearing their breasts. They showed us how they made fire, made their weapons and crafts and showed us some of the plants they used for medicines. They had us try to reproduce their 'click' language but it is really difficult but we tried. Then they sang and danced for us. It was great.
Before dinner we drove to an area of petrified forest. The trees were conifers that had come down from the area of Central Africa about 250 million years ago with the glaciers.
Other highlights......
It was really quite chilly when we left camp this morning at 7-30am, but as is usual here it grew very hot. We ate breakfast outside and saw a group of donkeys that had come down from the village to find grazing. There has been a generalized drought here for about five years.
We got into the vehicles and drove through yet more incredible scenery, the sort you might expect on the moon but with the addition of sand dunes and trees and scrub bushes, some birds, a troop of brown baboons and a couple of steenbok antelopes. The climate is so harsh, you cannot expect to see large amounts of animals.
We came across the group of seven Desert Elephants and watched them for ages. One of the young males came over to us and pushed on the Land Rover and rocked it a little. Thank goodness he was not big enough to push it over that the bigger ones in East Africa and Botswana can easily do. Then he wrapped his trunk around the bar on the back of the roof. We had our heads out of the top of the vehicle through the pop up roof, so we were about two feet away from his face and he just stopped for at least a minute and looked us straight in the eye. It really was an incredible experience to witness. We have pictures of course !
A relaxing afternoon out of the sun before a sundowner and dinner. It's Thanksgiving!
We move on to the Etosha area tomorrow and maybe we will have Internet.
Our final 3 days are at Andersson camp on the edge of Etosha National Park, I think it is the third largest park in Africa. (Andersson camp will close for good next month and a new luxury lodge will be built on the site) This is where we expected to see the typical amount of animals you see in other Safari area countries...as I write it is our last day.... excerpts from here below......
LEAVING FOR ETOSHA FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24th 2017
We went for an early morning nature walk this morning before we left DORO NAWAS
camp. We saw a small Ant lion, a little insect that burrows a dip in the sand to catch it's pray, some birds amd lots of different trees and bushes like the Mopani tree and a type of toxic Euphobia. We returned to our room and did some final packing and then sat and looked out onto our deck and watched a yellow billed hornbill commonly known as the flying banana bird. The local airport was still not ready so we drove down bone shaking roads for 45 minutes to the alternative airport and boarded a ten seater plane for a 40 minute flight to the outskirts of Etosha National park in the north. It remains very hot. This is a basic tented campsite compared to our other camps. The shower is a tin bath set into the floor, the room is much smaller too. Our tent is the furthest away from the lodge and is nearby to part of the electric fence that keeps the large animals out. Now we are in lion country.
A quick refresh and then out on a game drive which was wonderful. We saw a pride of 8 lions, we were about 6 feet away from the nearest one. There is a waterhole by the lodge, so within a few hours we had seen Zebra, Black faced Impala,elephants, water buck, red hartbeest, wildebeest, steenbok, giraffe and common duiker and then when we got back to camp there was a white rhino drinking at the waterhole but by then it was dark.
......We were up at 5-30am today, breakfast at 6am and out in the Safari vehicle at 6-30am to beat the heat. We were thrilled to see two prides of lions and two black rhinos as well as hundreds of zebra, black faced Impalas, wilderbeest, red hartbeest, giraffes, elephants and others I can't remember. We saw secretary birds, my favorite birds! It was so hot, we were back to camp at 4-30pm and absolutely heat exhausted. But it was a wonderful day.
......LAST DAY IN ETOSHA SUNDAY NOVEMBER 26th 2017
This is the best way to spend a Sunday, out in the African bush looking for white ???? rhinos. We drove into the Western part of the Ongava Conservation area where the camp is situated. Driving over very bumpy roadways. Eventually we came across White rhinos about 12 In total while we were out, big ones, baby ones. We sat and watched them for ages. We stopped at a water hole and watched one of natures wonders, thousands of Red Billed Quelia, little birds that all swarm together and flying as one. A tawny eagle and another hawk were swooping down trying to catch one, again and again, but they did not succeed while we were watching.
Then it was time to look for ???? lions and we came across a pride of 9 lions. There are actually 12 in this pride. We were fortunate to watch them walking about because usually they are lying down asleep in the shade and out of the heat. It was a great morning. We headed back by 11-15am to avoid the high temperatures of the midday. We will go out for our last drive at 5pm.
I would like to add that our tour guide 'negotiated' a deal where our drinks even alcohol at this camp was free. Hmmm!
Mosquitoes..... Etosha is where we really encountered them, despite spraying the tent with provided insecticide, putting spray on ourselves and netting, we got bitten here.
Our trip Leader was a very pleasant Namibian Man who handled the group with diplomacy considering how on edge our group was for the whole trip, oh except the woman who did not care about anyone and complained about her bacon. I hope she gives our trip leader a good tip, but I wonder...
This company prides itself on no single supplements. The. Group also seems to get really excited that after a certain number of trips are taken they get a free logo t shirt or fleece etc !! Wow, how exciting!?
You get what you pay for.
Shopping.... Tauck and Mr B think shopping is very low in priority, you go on a tour to see and experience another place and culture and not waste it in shops. There was way too much time given for shopping in the two towns we visited.
I really wanted to see if I could find some African fabric on this trip for a small upholstery, valance and cushion project. The women weavers had a couple of rolls of fabric they had designed and printed, I bought 4 meters of one. Then on our walk of the deserted town of Swokopmund where all the stores were closed but for a couple of the tourist stores, I spotted an old fashioned fabric store, so Mr B allowed me to go back and I bought some more. I was all set. On the last morning there, another hour for shopping was given, that was fatal, we walked into a store and I saw a lovely pair of bootees made of Kudu leather (an antelope, I've eaten the meat many times) After discussion as to whether there was room in our luggage for them, I got them, they were reasonably priced. Not sure they will be suitable for rain or snow.
NAMIBIA is one of the most beautiful countries we have ever visited, the scenery was stunning and it was everything we knew it would be. At the Welcome dinner everyone was asked what were their expectations for the trip. Everyone else, apart from our problem woman who said she just wanted to survive the trip, was expecting to see lots of animals. Not us, we said we had come to see the scenery and knew that most animals would be seen in Etosha on the last three days of the tour, though we hoped to see some of the rare Desert elephants in the Sossusvlei dunes area. When we decided to take this tour, we made the assumption that everyone on the tour would have been to sub Saharan Africa at least once and on a Safari as we have. But this was not the case, some had, but they had not done their background research and for a group of experienced travelers with the company we thought that was weird.
We strongly recommend that if you ever want to visit Namibia that it should be at least your second or even third place you visit in Africa for a Safari type experience so that you have gotten the desire to see abundant wildlife out of your system and have a realization like we do that these tours have a lot more to offer and experience than a bunch of animals. Most of the country is desert or semi desert...sand or terrain with small rocks strewn about. Look up your definitions between desert and semi desert. Mountains. The Etosha area is huge, the size of Switzerland. The parts we visited are heavily covered in small bushes and the numerous Mopani trees Namibia is famous for. There are some grassland clearings, some made so artificially for the benefit of the animals who feel safer in open spaces so they might see their predators and for us the tourist to spot them. But because of the bushes, animal spotting is tough, you must try to be constantly on the lookout for animals equally as much as your driver/guide does or you may miss things. If I compare Namibia to the safaris in South Africa I have taken, the bush is thicker in Namibia.if your priority in visiting Africa is animals in quantity, you can do no better than visiting Tanzania.
The people in Namibia we met were wonderful. friendly and welcoming, both in their homes, the Orphanage, the lodges. They work very hard, to give us, the over privileged American tourist, a lifetime of good memories.
For those regulars who read the forum, I mentioned I was going on a nonTauck tour to Namibia. Tauck went to Namibia for a short time and then stopped. The company we used had been recommended by two different friends---one who had taken just one tour with them to Africa and another who was a devoted fan of the company and gave me a brochure. I had reservations about the company, one being they count day 1 as when you leave the US, so you are on day two by the time you get to the destination. Their tours are also very long and you can even pre and post extend the tours. But either way, this would be difficult to even do the main tour for most none retired clients. The company does not guarantee that you will stay in the hotels they list and appear to cancel tour dates more frequently. We also realized that the trip insurance does not mean you get your money back if you cancel, but rather it will be expected to go towards another tour within the next year. We read the itinerary very carefully and we already had a good knowledge of what to expect of Namibia. So we called the company to enquire about a tour of Namibia for next year, to find they were no longer going to do the tour. So at the end of August we took a leap of faith and booked and paid in full for a tour now in November. We have taken 4 of the 5 Africa tours that Tauck offers over about the last ten years. So we consider ourselves pretty savvy about travel to Africa and how flexible you have to be and what to expect.
We were actually impressed by how carefully we were questioned about our abilities to cope physically with the tour and how much more comprehensive the packing list for clothing was compared with the Tauck generic lists. We received a Welcome email from the trip leader about 3 or 4 days before we left home and we had a list of other members of the tour with our tour booklet. We could only take a provided duffle for the tour ( These did not arrive as the tour got nearer, we called and received two sets both mailed the same day, we had read how flimsy and prone to tearing and the wheels come off easily... and they were, much cheaper construction than Tauck provided duffels that are only required for a few days and that also have compression straps.) it turns out my duffel had quite a big hole in the bottom when we arrived home and other people on our tour had holes and split seams mid tour and some of them were going on the post tour too, so I don't know how they faired.
You may get a laugh out of this at my expense! I will start with the negatives.
We decided to use business class to fly, although coach is included in the price of the tour. So when we asked for this we were surprised the trip insurance goes up to $1299 each, but we asked them to book it and paid the insurance since the trip was so near.
We arrived a day early and stayed in the hotel the tour began from, the Protea hotel in Johannesburg but not the one attached to the airport but one a shuttle drive away. So if you arrive early the company do not include free transfers, we had to drag our bags to find a shuttle bus, you have to be careful in this airport so we were cautious. We did not want to go into Johannesburg because we have already taken a tour with Tauck that goes to many of the highlights of Johannesburg including Soweto and the Hector Pieterson museum. The hotel had a pool but it did not look inviting, no other things to do, so we hung out, relaxed and started the process of getting over jet lag. The two hot breakfasts we had were stone cold but the food otherwise was good, but service was very slow, we waited an hour for a lunch to appear.
We finally met the tour group on the morning of day 4 of the tour, ten women and 3 men... consisting of two married couples including my husband and myself, a single man, two single women and 3 sets of female friends.
A representative of the company was there to get us onto the bus to the airport and when we all got together we saw that one lady could not walk, she was very elderly, during the tour by what she said she was probably ninety. She was accompanied by an elderly friend. She was actually in a wheelchair! The local company representative took the rest of us aside when she saw our faces and assured us that obviously she was no way fit enough to do the tour as stated in all literature and the tour booklet we received. She assured us that once we got to Windhoek, they would be sent home. That did not happen! So for the next 3 days in Windhoek, they were late to the bus and we left late by fifteen minutes or so and things were rushed. When we got to every stop we had to wait for her to be off the bus and shuffle very slowly. On about the third day of the this, the tour director was saying that if we were not all there by the designated time of departure he would leave without us. That at least meant we left on time but then things got slower. Some days she did not come with us or sat on a very hot bus or Safari vehicle where she looked so bad we all thought she would expire. At one of the bigger airports we had to drag our badly designed duffels over a large expanse of tarmac. Our elderly companion had to have the airport ambulance to get her from plane to terminal. She got her bag carried. I was beginning to feel like a second class member of the group who paid the same as she did for the tour, maybe I could fake an injured leg or something to get my bag carried or always be in the front seat of the bus or the nearest room to the lodge... no that's not nice to think like that!
There was no assigned seating in the bus or Safari vehicles and we found this a BAD problem, we missed the Tauck organization of seating and found that particularly the other women were avoiding being in the same vehicle as the woman. A few days later we found ourselves on one of two minibuses with her and the smell was terrible, then we noticed she had feces round her ankles on her pants and shoes. We felt very nauseated by it. When we got off the vehicle Mr B was livid and went to the trip leader and said we were not prepared to get back on the vehicle with her that day. We could not sleep a wink that night. The tension was high in the group and lots of low whispers continued throughout the tour. I felt that at times it made us all fed up of each other and I wondered if that happened on all group small group tours, you just cannot get a break and speak to others on what was a long tour. Any advantage of being quicker at rest stops and things like that were evaporated because of our situation. And who was complaining that her bacon was not crispy enough and sending it back to be cooked more, yes, you guessed it and just before we were to leave. ( Africa has British style bacon which is quite lean and not designed to be cooked to a crisp because it does not have the fat, boy do I miss British bacon!)
Anther woman had such rank body odor on 3 separate days that again we felt nauseous with it. Mr B just could not believe a womancould smell so bad.
The trip leader did not give us any written paperwork with suggestions of what to see in the two towns we visited, mentioned some restaurants but hard to remember when not written down. We were never given an idea of when there might be a toilet break... at one stop just before the boat ride, we had to find two Namibian dollars to pay for the only toilet facility and everyone was scrambling for change, I am thinking, well on Tauck tours when that happens the tour director hands us all the correct money as we get off the bus so we can go straight in.
We had to find most meals in the two towns we stayed in and no drinks were included in the hotels at meals, not even water. At the Safari lodges we had our water bottles to keep and fill with filtered water, but not even the Sundowners were free. On the one occasion we did stop mid morning in the bush for a coffee they only brought 1 flask of hot water for all of us so there was not enough.
Meals were good but small portions and times varied greatly. There were no snack breaks... we don't eat snacks at home but when you have just had a long hike and scrambled up rocks in the heat it would be nice to have a coffee and cookie because that day we went over six hours between breakfast and lunch. My husband and I were ravenous by most meal times in contrast to Tauck who almost feed you too much. But at least you have the choice not to eat.
Warning, don't walk behind or try to pass by anyone who is using walking poles because they can easily trip you up, or they randomly use their poles point at something and poke your eye out, we both had near misses with this.
Lateness... after the firmness of the trip leader about being on time, this improved, but getting back on time was another matter, we were waiting around in the heat on several occasions for people to return from shopping expeditions.
A couple of things did not happen as in the program, the school visit, everyone had been asked to consider bringing gifts to the school, the alternate school also did not happen and a visit to a herbalist did not happen. People were annoyed about their gifts, they went to a Kindergarten in another village visit, we hope and think.
There was far too much free time in places where there were no alternative activities. On about 3 days the organized activity finished in the mid morning and there were no things like walks you could do on your own or massage or anything like that, no Internet that would work. There was far too much time given over.to shopping!
We only had to get up extra early on two days, in contrast to Tauck safaris where you do get up early, you have a better chance of seeing the remains of the night activity of the animals and you are back before the heat gets bad. We had to eat breakfast before going on the morning game drives but it was only served half an hour before we had to be on the vehicle, so it was a rushed affair and then there were lines for the bathroom. We much prefer the breakfast after the game drives so you can eat at leisure and enjoy conversation.
The Tour.... the start of the tour really began when we left Johannesburg on day 4 and flew to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia in the central area of the country. We spent 3 days in each location from here.
Our hotel in Windhoek was not in the center but high on a hill in the outskirts with great views over the city below. The rooms were large and clean but the bathrooms were dingy and really in need of an update, the toilet seat in our room was ancient. We arrived mid afternoon, I took a shower, there was zero hot water, I let it pass thinking, ok we are in Africa, maybe they only have hot water morning and evening. But I think this was the best hotel in the capital city. The next morning, no hot water. Mr B grumbled again ( I have never really seen Mr B grumble on a Tauck tour.) He said he was going to the front desk. The manager was there, he said it was tricky, he would get someone to go to our room after breakfast and have a look.... but it turned out no-one had hot water, they had forgotten to turn the pump on... so no- one was bothered but us. We found on the day that we were leaving that at least one of our group had no hot water the entire 3 nights we were there but had never bothered to ask about it. The dinners at our own expense at the hotel were very good and reasonably priced and great views from our table.
We had a guided bus tour of Windhoek and stopped off at the famous church and a fabulous newish museum on Namibian history, beautifully designed building and lovely presented exhibitions. Let me quote from my diary here....
So this morning, we first visited the wealthy part of town, very nice homes but surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences. We visited a really beautiful main Lutheran church, a fabulous very new museum, gorgeous architecture and great exhibits, then the parliament building. Then it was on to the other side of town. We went into a local outside market, walking by all the stalls selling food goods including monkey oranges, dried large cabbage leaves that look like dried cow patties, cloudy olive oil in used whisky bottles and a speciality, Mopani worms that are Emperor moth caterpillars, boiled and then fried--- no we declined to try them! We went to the meat section and saw huge cow carcasses literally covered in swarms of flies. There were some heads and tails discarded on the ground nearby covered in flies, there were piles of tripe, all brown, not like the white stuff we ate as kids in England. Next was an area where this meat was being cooked on grills, still plenty of flies around, we were invited to eat some and some of our party did, but we did not. We then visited a women's cooperative called Penduka where they designed and printed fabrics including batik, did embroidery and made beads out of recycled glass bottles. We ate lunch there--- I decided I was vegetarian for that meal after seeing all the flies and meat earlier. The girls then did some traditional dancing and singing for us. It never ceases to amaze me how happy the people are and so good when they do these performances. On our way back to town we went into the town Craft center where we could view and buy everything Namibian. Back to the hotel and a lovely dinner watching the sun set.
We spent 3 nights in Windhoek, too much time, two days would have been plenty, too much time, too much time given for chances to shop.
Next, onto the KULALA Desert Lodge for 3 nights.....from my diary.....
This morning we left the Thule hotel, heading into Windhoek where we had an hour to shop and then we drove about a half hour to a private game reserve called Heda which had a waterhole, a lovely lodge, not much wildlife. We did see a couple of camels, an Oryx and warthogs on the way. We had a lunch of Springbok schnitzel and trimmings, it was lovely and tender and delicious.
We headed to the airport for a private plane ride to the desert area, just under an hour away. Our group needed two planes. Mr B and I were in the first one to leave, an eight seater. The pilot told us the flight would be bumpy once we flew over the mountains and then over the desert, it was, but not too bad. When it gets to the late afternoon it is always more bumpy. The second flight had a huge amount of turbulence compared to us and a former pilot on our tour, a woman said it was one of the most bumpy flights she had ever encountered in that type of small plane.
The scenery was spectacular. We left the plane and got into Safari vehicles and through the desert for about 40 minutes over the stoney/sandy and dusty road to get to the lodge. It's quite windy. It's gorgeous here, the lodge has wonderful views over the rock formations and sand dunes. The 'room' has tented sides and a thatched roof. At the back is the bathroom which has concrete sides and flat roof, where we have the choice to sleep on the roof at night, but of course it gets very cold. When we arrived we unpacked and then congregated in the main lodge for a drive into the desert for a 'Sundowner' and watch the sun set. It's gorgeous. We have seen a few Oryx, a jackal and some birds. We do not expect to see too many animals in such a harsh environment, it's the scenery that is King here.
Another excerpt.....SOSSUSVLEI DUNES. THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16th 2017
We got our wake up call at 5am this morning, we were eating breakfast in the lodge by 5-30m and into the Safari vehicles at 6am for a drive to the famous SOSSUSVLEI sand dunes in the Namib desert. We drove out of the camp on large gravel roads and into the National park not far away where there was a tarmac road for a while and then we were driving on deep sand roads, rocking and rolling and getting the Namib desert 'massage'
So early in the morning the dunes are very colorful from deep orange red to salmon to white clay color. It all depends on where the sand is blown from. The darker red from the Kalahari and the white clay from the local area. The winds are relentless. Blowing very hard in the heat. The direction from the winds depends on the time of day or time of year. Today they were blowing from the West, pushing the sand on the crests of the high dunes up into the air making it look like smoke or mist at the top. The wind direction changes make the dunes 'move' back and forth. The remainder of the area is covered in sand or small pebbles or smooth rocks. Here and there are small dry tufts of a grass called Bushmen grass that looks like pale brown dried rosemary. There is the remains of an ancient river where the clay has baked hard and cracked. In this area are Acacia trees that survive because of their deep roots and occasional rain, the river last had water in it from rains in 2012. The dry riverbed is covered in dry skeleton Acacia trees, there are no fungi or bacteria here to help with the rotting process so they just dry out and some are believed to date back as much as the 12,00s.
The big dunes have names or numbers and only a few are allowed to be climbed. We started the climb of Dune 45. It was very windy and your feet disappeared into the sand, your body was blasted with sand, I did not climb as high as Mr B, I got the idea and felt no need to prove anything to myself or anyone. We had to keep our cameras in ziplock bags because the sand often jams the cameras. We had to carefully clean ours afterwards with a special lens brush. Our teeth were gritty from the sand even though we wore our buffs over our faces a lot of the time. We drove further and walked about one and a half miles round trip through deep sand at times to part of the dry riverbed. There are not many animals because of the harsh conditions but we saw ostrich and Oryx, a most magnificent antelope, I believe it is one of the largest with long straight upright horns. A few birds and Mr B spotted a small spherical black and white beetle and took a photo before it disappeared. When we stopped for food and drink under an ancient Acacia tree for shade, one of the men was looking inside the tree and found an empty champagne bottle with a message in it. We retrieved the paper with the aid of a stick and it was written in Russian and there was an 100 Rand note attached to it, less than $10, with an email. Luckily someone in our group could roughly translate and it wished the finder good luck and to contact by email.
We were back at camp by about 11-30am.
From another day......
Later---- We left the lodge at 4pm when the temperatures were cooler and drove about 45 minutes to a small canyon. It was quite a tricky descent down a rocky trail. When we got to the bottom it was sandy and the walls of the canyon had holes burrowed into them from various animals and birds. There were lots of balls of feathers and small bones that had been regurgitated from owls. At nightfall the baboons come down into the canyon for the night and when we were driving back we saw a troop of them heading for the canyon. We stopped in a vast flat area with mountains and dunes around to have wine and snacks and watch the sunset.
I forgot to mention that one of the ways we have to conserve water at the hotel is that when we get into the shower there is a large metal bucket and we have to collect the water that first comes out before the water gets to temperature and then the cleaner uses it to clean the room.
The next three nights were in Swokopmund, diary below, three nights was too long.....
We drove to the local airport, just a strip of gravel, this morning to get our bush planes to a town called WALVIS BAY, which in the past was an important harbor for the whaling industry. It has a large harbor, it's on the Atlantic coast. Nowadays it has a salt mining industry and the the lagoon nearby is famous for attracting flamingoes. There were quite a few , some were pink and some were black and white. We had lunch at a restaurant jutting out into the ocean and watched some seals frolicking in the water. This afternoon we arrived in Swokopmund, a seaside town. It is supposed to be like a German Bavarian town, Namibia having been a German colony in the past. It's a large town, but on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, most of the shops are closed and it was like entering a ghost town. Wide streets almost empty of traffic and people. The hotel is the Hansa hotel, very nice. We have settled into our room and been for a walk. It really is like being in a ghost town, creepy. Temperatures are much cooler here.
Apparently nearby on the coast is where Brangelina had their property.
We were advised not to be out alone after 9pm, be in groups. Mr B and I chose to have dinner at the Strand Hotel on the beach....
We were thinking, yes this is where Tauck would have stayed, the Hansa not turning out to be too good. We finished dinner at 7-45pm and when we walked back we did not pass a living soul, it was scary, I was looking down every alleyway, we marched along trying to look like fit teenagers who could defend ourselves.
From another day in Swokopmund....
SWAKOPMUND ON A SUNDAY AND THE ORPHANAGE NOVEMBER 19th 2017
Last night we ate in the hotel restaurant. I ate Springbok slices and Eland and Mr B ate Springbok liver and then Zebra, all very good. The hotel is full of Germans and Mr B is making me laugh by speaking in a German accent. We have not heard any other American voices apart from our group and one upper class plummy English accent.
This morning our group got on the bus and travelled to the township called D R C which is like a very very poor shanty town. It was huge, thousands of people live there. The official township has concrete homes, water and electricity. Beyond that is the unofficial township with houses built of corrugated iron to just plywood or even cardboard boxes. The ground is just very dusty fine sand. There are water pumps here and there with people filling up vessels of all kinds and sizes with water. There are no toilets. Our local driver stopped and asked a woman if we could look around her home and offered her money. She took us in, she had four children. It was dark and tiny with bits of ancient furniture and car batteries which powered lights, otherwise it was an oil lamp. There was a tiny kitchen area and a sleeping area for her and one for the children. No running water or toilet.
Beyond there but just across a street were some new small government built homes, but they were all empty because no one can afford them. We peeped through the windows. They continue to be built, there are about 2000 already, all empty, and another 2000 being built.
We drove to another part and to an orphanage run by a remarkable woman called Naftalina. She single handedly looks after 21 children, many of them very young. Some are orphans because their parents have died of AIDS. Some are abandoned as babies. She cooked lunch for us and it was delicious, lamb ribs, a polenta, salad, coleslaw, and freshly baked bread. We gave her an Electricity card so she could top up her Electricity, some baby diapers she had asked for and cash. She told us her story. Then all the kids descended on us and it was very emotional for us.
We have had a walk around the town and to the sea, it's still really quiet here and all the stores are closed.
The next day.....
SAILBOAT AND SHIPWRECK MONDAY NOVEMBER 20th 2017
The bus drove us to Walvis Bay today, on a road by the sea, surrounded by nothing but sand, flat areas, but also high dunes. We boarded a catamaran and headed out to sea. Before we knew it, a fur seal jumped into the boat. The seals have been doing this since a similar boat crew tried to help a seal that had fishing net tangled around it. They enticed the seal with fish until he started to jump onto the edge of the boat, then by gradually getting some trust, they were able to disentangle it, but after that, he kept following every time he saw them. The other seals picked up the habit and now regularly jump right into the boat because they know they will be fed fish. It really was an amazing site to see. Then he was joined by three large white pelicans and one of them almost knocked my glasses off when he flapped his wings. Further out we saw bottle nosed dolphins and heavyside dolphins plus an elusive Mola mola fish.---Very large and eat a diet of jellyfish. We arrived at the seal colony and saw thousands of seal both on the land and the sea.
We were given a glass of sherry when we first got on the boat. Then when we got to the seal colony we were served champagne and freshly shucked oysters and other goodies. When we returned to the boat dock a baby seal jumped onto the boat. We had a blast. Back to the hotel and then later a scenic drive along the Skeleton coast to see a shipwreck and to see the salt flats where they harvest the salt, and guano areas where they collect the Cormorant poop. Then we visited the oyster beds. We saw huge flocks of pink flamingoes in the flats. When they take flight all together, it looks spectacular.
On to the next lodge...
DORO NOWAS CAMP TUESDAY NOVEMBER 21st 2017
Today we flew to the Damaraland area, a most fantastic flight going over some of the most amazing scenery we have ever seen, vast areas of desert and then very picturesque mountains. We had a young woman pilot. We were in the air for about and hour and then landed on a strip in the middle of nowhere, it really is an extremely remote area. Land rovers were waiting for us to take us on a bone rattling 45 minute ride to camp. There is an airstrip nearer it but it is under repair and may be open when we leave Friday. The main lodge is up on top of a rock and is constructed so that it looks like a black rock kinda fort building. The 'rooms' are little huts with thatched roofs and tent walls. They are large inside with a large expanse of French doors looking out onto the landscape. We have an indoor and outdoor shower and the same system to recover water from the shower water before it turns hot into a bucket as we had at the previous camp. Each hut has a solar panel system to heat the water. It's very hot, we took a shower as soon as we arrived and after lunch we got into the land rovers to try and find some elusive and endangered Desert Elephants.
After quite a long drive down a dry river bed, we came across a female and three of her children. The youngest was six weeks old and he kept lying down and falling asleep. The desert elephants are smaller and have longer legs. We were just a few feet from them. When we returned we went up onto the roof of the main lodge with cocktails and watched a glorious African sunset.
In the evening the staff entertained us after dinner with singing and dancing.
Another day......
ROCK CLIMBING AND NAKED WOMEN! WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 22nd 2017
We had a good sleep, the desert really cools down at night. We were awakened at 6am this morning. By 7am we were wheels rolling for a ride to Twyfelfontein an open air gallery of ancient rock engravings depicting African wildlife by the San Bushmen of long ago. This entailed quite a bit of actual rock climbing but we managed well and did not fall. Then a quick trip to a valley of dolerite columns---rock formations called the Organ Pipes. On again to the Damara Living Museum, where a group of people showed us the way of living in that culture. All the people wore were goat skins, the women bearing their breasts. They showed us how they made fire, made their weapons and crafts and showed us some of the plants they used for medicines. They had us try to reproduce their 'click' language but it is really difficult but we tried. Then they sang and danced for us. It was great.
Before dinner we drove to an area of petrified forest. The trees were conifers that had come down from the area of Central Africa about 250 million years ago with the glaciers.
Other highlights......
It was really quite chilly when we left camp this morning at 7-30am, but as is usual here it grew very hot. We ate breakfast outside and saw a group of donkeys that had come down from the village to find grazing. There has been a generalized drought here for about five years.
We got into the vehicles and drove through yet more incredible scenery, the sort you might expect on the moon but with the addition of sand dunes and trees and scrub bushes, some birds, a troop of brown baboons and a couple of steenbok antelopes. The climate is so harsh, you cannot expect to see large amounts of animals.
We came across the group of seven Desert Elephants and watched them for ages. One of the young males came over to us and pushed on the Land Rover and rocked it a little. Thank goodness he was not big enough to push it over that the bigger ones in East Africa and Botswana can easily do. Then he wrapped his trunk around the bar on the back of the roof. We had our heads out of the top of the vehicle through the pop up roof, so we were about two feet away from his face and he just stopped for at least a minute and looked us straight in the eye. It really was an incredible experience to witness. We have pictures of course !
A relaxing afternoon out of the sun before a sundowner and dinner. It's Thanksgiving!
We move on to the Etosha area tomorrow and maybe we will have Internet.
Our final 3 days are at Andersson camp on the edge of Etosha National Park, I think it is the third largest park in Africa. (Andersson camp will close for good next month and a new luxury lodge will be built on the site) This is where we expected to see the typical amount of animals you see in other Safari area countries...as I write it is our last day.... excerpts from here below......
LEAVING FOR ETOSHA FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24th 2017
We went for an early morning nature walk this morning before we left DORO NAWAS
camp. We saw a small Ant lion, a little insect that burrows a dip in the sand to catch it's pray, some birds amd lots of different trees and bushes like the Mopani tree and a type of toxic Euphobia. We returned to our room and did some final packing and then sat and looked out onto our deck and watched a yellow billed hornbill commonly known as the flying banana bird. The local airport was still not ready so we drove down bone shaking roads for 45 minutes to the alternative airport and boarded a ten seater plane for a 40 minute flight to the outskirts of Etosha National park in the north. It remains very hot. This is a basic tented campsite compared to our other camps. The shower is a tin bath set into the floor, the room is much smaller too. Our tent is the furthest away from the lodge and is nearby to part of the electric fence that keeps the large animals out. Now we are in lion country.
A quick refresh and then out on a game drive which was wonderful. We saw a pride of 8 lions, we were about 6 feet away from the nearest one. There is a waterhole by the lodge, so within a few hours we had seen Zebra, Black faced Impala,elephants, water buck, red hartbeest, wildebeest, steenbok, giraffe and common duiker and then when we got back to camp there was a white rhino drinking at the waterhole but by then it was dark.
......We were up at 5-30am today, breakfast at 6am and out in the Safari vehicle at 6-30am to beat the heat. We were thrilled to see two prides of lions and two black rhinos as well as hundreds of zebra, black faced Impalas, wilderbeest, red hartbeest, giraffes, elephants and others I can't remember. We saw secretary birds, my favorite birds! It was so hot, we were back to camp at 4-30pm and absolutely heat exhausted. But it was a wonderful day.
......LAST DAY IN ETOSHA SUNDAY NOVEMBER 26th 2017
This is the best way to spend a Sunday, out in the African bush looking for white ???? rhinos. We drove into the Western part of the Ongava Conservation area where the camp is situated. Driving over very bumpy roadways. Eventually we came across White rhinos about 12 In total while we were out, big ones, baby ones. We sat and watched them for ages. We stopped at a water hole and watched one of natures wonders, thousands of Red Billed Quelia, little birds that all swarm together and flying as one. A tawny eagle and another hawk were swooping down trying to catch one, again and again, but they did not succeed while we were watching.
Then it was time to look for ???? lions and we came across a pride of 9 lions. There are actually 12 in this pride. We were fortunate to watch them walking about because usually they are lying down asleep in the shade and out of the heat. It was a great morning. We headed back by 11-15am to avoid the high temperatures of the midday. We will go out for our last drive at 5pm.
I would like to add that our tour guide 'negotiated' a deal where our drinks even alcohol at this camp was free. Hmmm!
Mosquitoes..... Etosha is where we really encountered them, despite spraying the tent with provided insecticide, putting spray on ourselves and netting, we got bitten here.
Our trip Leader was a very pleasant Namibian Man who handled the group with diplomacy considering how on edge our group was for the whole trip, oh except the woman who did not care about anyone and complained about her bacon. I hope she gives our trip leader a good tip, but I wonder...
This company prides itself on no single supplements. The. Group also seems to get really excited that after a certain number of trips are taken they get a free logo t shirt or fleece etc !! Wow, how exciting!?
You get what you pay for.
Shopping.... Tauck and Mr B think shopping is very low in priority, you go on a tour to see and experience another place and culture and not waste it in shops. There was way too much time given for shopping in the two towns we visited.
I really wanted to see if I could find some African fabric on this trip for a small upholstery, valance and cushion project. The women weavers had a couple of rolls of fabric they had designed and printed, I bought 4 meters of one. Then on our walk of the deserted town of Swokopmund where all the stores were closed but for a couple of the tourist stores, I spotted an old fashioned fabric store, so Mr B allowed me to go back and I bought some more. I was all set. On the last morning there, another hour for shopping was given, that was fatal, we walked into a store and I saw a lovely pair of bootees made of Kudu leather (an antelope, I've eaten the meat many times) After discussion as to whether there was room in our luggage for them, I got them, they were reasonably priced. Not sure they will be suitable for rain or snow.
NAMIBIA is one of the most beautiful countries we have ever visited, the scenery was stunning and it was everything we knew it would be. At the Welcome dinner everyone was asked what were their expectations for the trip. Everyone else, apart from our problem woman who said she just wanted to survive the trip, was expecting to see lots of animals. Not us, we said we had come to see the scenery and knew that most animals would be seen in Etosha on the last three days of the tour, though we hoped to see some of the rare Desert elephants in the Sossusvlei dunes area. When we decided to take this tour, we made the assumption that everyone on the tour would have been to sub Saharan Africa at least once and on a Safari as we have. But this was not the case, some had, but they had not done their background research and for a group of experienced travelers with the company we thought that was weird.
We strongly recommend that if you ever want to visit Namibia that it should be at least your second or even third place you visit in Africa for a Safari type experience so that you have gotten the desire to see abundant wildlife out of your system and have a realization like we do that these tours have a lot more to offer and experience than a bunch of animals. Most of the country is desert or semi desert...sand or terrain with small rocks strewn about. Look up your definitions between desert and semi desert. Mountains. The Etosha area is huge, the size of Switzerland. The parts we visited are heavily covered in small bushes and the numerous Mopani trees Namibia is famous for. There are some grassland clearings, some made so artificially for the benefit of the animals who feel safer in open spaces so they might see their predators and for us the tourist to spot them. But because of the bushes, animal spotting is tough, you must try to be constantly on the lookout for animals equally as much as your driver/guide does or you may miss things. If I compare Namibia to the safaris in South Africa I have taken, the bush is thicker in Namibia.if your priority in visiting Africa is animals in quantity, you can do no better than visiting Tanzania.
The people in Namibia we met were wonderful. friendly and welcoming, both in their homes, the Orphanage, the lodges. They work very hard, to give us, the over privileged American tourist, a lifetime of good memories.
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Comments
Tauck provides duffles, sent to your home before departure- to US customers. Others receive them on Day 1.
Can you believe we leave for Galapagos in two hours from now, this was the trip we booked over a year ago, second time, can't wait! My husband retired this year and so we traveling more. Now while we have good health.
Again, I am envious of your return trip to the Galapagos! Such a wonderful trip! Have a few “Yucca Balls” for breakfast !! Then again, there is the Tres Leche Cake....yummmm!
We will go out for our last drive at 5pm.
I would like to add that our tour guide 'negotiated' a deal where our drinks even alcohol at this camp was free. Hmmm!
Mosquitoes..... Etosha is where we really encountered them, despite spraying the tent with provided insecticide, putting spray on ourselves and netting, we got bitten here.
Our trip Leader was a very pleasant Namibian Man who handled the group with diplomacy considering how on edge our group was for the whole trip, oh except the woman who did not care about anyone and complained about her bacon. I hope she gives our trip leader a good tip, but I wonder...
This company prides itself on no single supplements. The. Group also seems to get really excited that after a certain number of trips are taken they get a free logo t shirt or fleece etc !! Wow, how exciting!?
You get what you pay for.
Shopping.... Tauck and Mr B think shopping is very low in priority, you go on a tour to see and experience another place and culture and not waste it in shops. There was way too much time given for shopping in the two towns we visited.
I really wanted to see if I could find some African fabric on this trip for a small upholstery, valance and cushion project. The women weavers had a couple of rolls of fabric they had designed and printed, I bought 4 meters of one. Then on our walk of the deserted town of Swokopmund where all the stores were closed but for a couple of the tourist stores, I spotted an old fashioned fabric store, so Mr B allowed me to go back and I bought some more. I was all set. On the last morning there, another hour for shopping was given, that was fatal, we walked into a store and I saw a lovely pair of bootees made of Kudu leather (an antelope, I've eaten the meat many times) After discussion as to whether there was room in our luggage for them, I got them, they were reasonably priced. Not sure they will be suitable for rain or snow.
NAMIBIA is one of the most beautiful countries we have ever visited, the scenery was stunning and it was everything we knew it would be. At the Welcome dinner everyone was asked what were their expectations for the trip. Everyone else, apart from our problem woman who said she just wanted to survive the trip, was expecting to see lots of animals. Not us, we said we had come to see the scenery and knew that most animals would be seen in Etosha on the last three days of the tour, though we hoped to see some of the rare Desert elephants in the Sossusvlei dunes area. When we decided to take this tour, we made the assumption that everyone on the tour would have been to sub Saharan Africa at least once and on a Safari as we have. But this was not the case, some had, but they had not done their background research and for a group of experienced travelers with the company we thought that was weird.
We strongly recommend that if you ever want to visit Namibia that it should be at least your second or even third place you visit in Africa for a Safari type experience so that you have gotten the desire to see abundant wildlife out of your system and have a realization like we do that these tours have a lot more to offer and experience than a bunch of animals. Most of the country is desert or semi desert...sand or terrain with small rocks strewn about. Look up your definitions between desert and semi desert. Mountains. The Etosha area is huge, the size of Switzerland. The parts we visited are heavily covered in small bushes and the numerous Mopani trees Namibia is famous for. There are some grassland clearings, some made so artificially for the benefit of the animals who feel safer in open spaces so they might see their predators and for us the tourist to spot them. But because of the bushes, animal spotting is tough, you must try to be constantly on the lookout for animals equally as much as your driver/guide does or you may miss things. If I compare Namibia to the safaris in South Africa I have taken, the bush is thicker in Namibia.if your priority in visiting Africa is animals in quantity, you can do no better than visiting Tanzania.
The people in Namibia we met were wonderful. friendly and welcoming, both in their homes, the Orphanage, the lodges. They work very hard, to give us, the over privileged American tourist, a lifetime of good memories.
Thank you !