Namibia
We headed west along the caprivi strip, a bit of land bordering Botswana, Zimbabwe and Angola, and crossed by a number of rivers including the Okovango river feeding the delta, this lead to a very green environment near the river, but within a couple of hundred meters it was as dry as a bone, it was obvious the desert was getting closer. Not long after the border crossing we had a rather unfortunate incident, and hit a goat on the road, killing it instantly, not a very nice experience from the back of the truck, and I’m sure much worse for Shep the driver.
In the late afternoon we stopped at a small town overlooking Angola, and took the chance to top up on Namibian money, and shop in the large supermarket. We left the town and headed off in to the dusk to find a large tree and some where nearby to bush camp, for some reason everyone on the truck was in a good mood, and beer flowed freely, by the time we arrived at the Giant Baobab tree it was quite dark. By the light of the truck, head torches and our familiarly with our tents, we were soon pitched and cooking dinner.
Next morning we explored the tree, its true, it is giant, by the time we had packed up and ready to depart it was getting very hot, but I too advantage of being prepared, and headed of with a few others for a walk down the dirt track, and saw a wealth of insect life scurrying about, and the odd reptile basking in the sun. By mid morning we reached the gate of Etosha National Park and headed towards our first campsite at Namutoni, quickly pitched and headed out on our first game drive in the truck.
With in 20 minutes of heading out in the truck we got our only glimpse of a Cheetah, I managed to snap a picture of it, but it thesn took 20 minutes of searching the picture to verify it was in it, its camouflage was fantastic. A second game drive later in the day also yielded pleasure of waiting 30 odd minutes in complete silence whilst watching a giraffe came to a watering hole to drink, a multitude of other animals also visited in that time including a hyena that bathed. As the sun started to fall we watched a pride of lions slowly surround a gazelle in preparation for a kill, but unfortunately the sun set, and hence we returned to camp, before the kill was executed.
The second day in the park took us a short way across the center on a slow meander down the dirt tracks stopping at regular intervals for elephants, gazelle, zebra and a whole host over other wild life, quite the experience. We arrived early at the campsite at Halali and made full use of the large pool to carry out essentials like washing sleeping mats and clothes!!!
Day 3 in Etosha took us further in to the park and to the dry pan, the former bed of a large lake, I cant explain how big, flat and hot it was on the pan, but fantastic for photos! This was our chance to have a group photo of the group and the truck. We saw plenty more wildlife ion the trip across Etosha, amazing considering we were in a large, noisy yellow truck! That evening at Okaukeujo Camp we watched a couple of Male Rhinos fight with each other by the watering whole - each camp we stayed at had a lit watering hole, accessible to camp residents and the local population of wild animals. This was a good chance to watch the animals behaving in a very natural way.
We left Etosha behind and headed south, stiopping first at a small town that had a fantastic little bakery located on the main street, if it had Stoney Ginger Ale it would have been a perfect lunch, but alas, it was not to be, so we had a quick bite and headed to the supermarket and stocked up on Baked Beans and crackers - our staple lunhc supplies.
After a shortish day on the truck we arrived at our home for the evening - Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park and were welcomed by the owner at his fantasticly well stocked bar, and after a cooling beer and a swim in the very slimey pool we were introduced to our first cheetah, who arrived on the the passenger seat of a pickup truck.
After being shown out of the car and in to the bar it was our chance to get ‘up close and personal’ with it, and I can say it really is a beautiful animal. Just before sunset it was time to go out and view the feeding, so we all piled in to the back of a couple of very dodgy looking pickup trucks, and headed through the large fence in to the domain of the Cheetahs were 24 or so wild animals roamed after having been rescued from farm land around Namibia. Our truck broke down, right in the middle of the track, and so with a Cheetah watching on from 100m or so away I, along with 2 other guys jumped off the back of the truck and gave it a damn good push start and quickly hopped back on, luckily for us, we hadn’t spotted the cheetah before we got back on!!
The feeding was something else, I’ve never seen anything move so fast, and from no where, if a cheetah didn’t want to be seen, it could easily disapear in the dry grasses.
Our truck broke down again, and this time, smoke billowed from under the bonnet, so we were stranded until another truck arrived back to collect us, and with that we headed to the bar to buy new (clean!!) tshirts and stubbie holders. The rest of the night was passed with cold beer, clean clothes and good food.
Next Morning we were back on the road driving through the desert with temperatures over 40C, sticking your head out the window of the truck was like using a hair drier, only hotter! Lunch stop was at the petriied forest an area strewn with petrified logs dating back over 260 million years, there was also a wealth of Welwitschia plants which can live to be over 1000 years old.
In the late afternoon we came accross our destination - Spitzkoppe - a 1800M high Granite mountain that rises 700M from the sourounding countryside.
As the evening drew in we headed up the side of the mountain carrying water and wine, and managed to reach a suitable positon to watch the sun set, a quite incredable sight, only slightly mared by the dificulty in getting back down in the dark after consuming a bottle of wine!!
That night we dispensed with the tent and made camp on the roof of the truck, and had one of the best nights sleep I’ve ever had with the most amazing view of the stars, with not a single artificial light in sight.
Thanks to the early morning bright sunlight, we were up and awake at the crack of dawn and after having some food we were off up another section of spitzkoppe to the famous “Bushman Paradise” with its numerous bushman paintings. As the countryside heated up we returned to the truck to complete our journey to Swakopmund on the West coast of Africa. As we neared the coast we headed slightly north to allow a visit to Cape Cross to see the thousands of Fur Seals that call the waterfront home. Its amazing to see so many animals fighting, sleeping and generally living in such close proximity, but the smell can be somewhat overwhelming!
In the early afternoon we drove in to the hostel Villa Wiese that was to be home for the next 4 nights, the prospect of that long with a bed and show was fantastic! The vening was spent booking up our activities for the next few days. That evening we headed out for a meal and I’ve never seen food like it HUGE steaks HUGE ribs and yummy beer.
Before the suns heat started to break through the sea mist, we were kitted out with snowboards and helmets then pointed in the direction of a very large dune, walking up 300m of sand dune is exhausting, and I’m sure you actually walk more like 500m! That said, coming down is GREAT FUN!! weather on a snowboard or sitting on a waxed up piece of ply wood its fast and exilharating. Three hours vanished quickly and before we knew it we were back at the hostel eating lunch and picking sand out of some VERY strange places. The afternoons activity was quad biking on the dunes, I opted for a 250CC semi-automatic bike and quickly discovered that I drove faster than our instructor and Hailey and I were sent of to find the fast riders 
There is nothing quite like riding a quad over the top of a dune on two wheels and the day way topped of with a glass of champagne in the dessert overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Lovely.
The rest of the time in Swakopmund was spent in and out of the shops, and generally enjoying a bit of time without moving around, but before long it was time to pile in to out big yellow truck and head south along the coast, past Walvis Bay, before turning inland through the desert heading to Sesriem and ultimately for an afternoon walk to Deadvlei. We stopped the truck in the 2WD car park, and transfered to a number of 4×4’s to take us down to Sossusvlei - an old pan that fills with water only once in 10 years on average. It is sourounded by massive dunes, some 300M high - the highest in the world. We headed out over the dunes to find Dead Vlei, another pan, but one that is hundreds of years old, some of the dead trees their are over 50 years old!
We made it out of the Namib Naukluft Park as darkness fell (and it falls quickly out in the desert!!) and headed for an early nights sleep, in the morning we got up and headed back in to the Park to watch sunrise on Dune 45 - the famous, classic dune of Namibia. As it was Haileys birthday, we watched the sun rise (through the broken clouds) with a couple of bottles of bubbles before kind of rolling and falling back down to the truck for breakfast.
Before finally leaving the desert and heading back towards the coast we stopped off at Sesriem Canyon an ancient source of water for local’s and a cool relief from the heat of the midday sun. We headed off through the heat of the afternoon towards the south and late in the afternoon had a major falure of the Truck - the hydraulic system for the clutch had a leak resulting in an inability to change gear. Luckily for us this finally gave out near a farm, and I went to seak out the farmer in the hope that he had welding gear to make a tempory fix. After several hours of working on the truck (we had to remove the rather large radiator and then bleed the hydraulic system) we had fixed the truck, but it was almost dark by the time we set off again. We ended up illegally bush camping by the side of the road under a large tree with a huge birds test in it. We quickly cooked dinner and got some sleep before a very early morning start.
Our breakdown had put us a little behind shedule, but we still arrived at Luderitz on the western coast by mid morning, and headed straight to Kolmanskop - a diamond mining town in the desert that was abandoned leaving houses, casinos and other buildings to be consumed by the sand. An amazing place for photographs.
We bush camped again that eveing in an amazing spot just outside Luderitz and built a massive open fire, only problem was the ground was covered in stones which doesn’t make for a comfortable bed!!
Our final day in Namibia allowed us to take in the amazing Fish River Canyon, which is the second biggest canyon in the world and quite impressive the photos don’t really show the scale of it.
Our reward for two nights of bush camping was a night at the Ai Ais hot springs, were water flows out of the ground at a rather hot 60C! luckily they have two lovely swimming pools that bring it down to a pleasant temperature, fantastic green grass for pitching tents on, and cold, cold beer in the shop. Its was like heaven.
Unfortunatly we had to leave after one night, But not too early for a change, we had very little distance to cover before we hit the South African Border at the Oranje River and the location of our next to last night in a tent.
