Namibia Safari Adventure

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this! I have to go back and post my entries from my New Zealand trip as well. Oops.

So, I just spent close to 3 weeks in Africa running a program in Namibia. My colleuge and I also managed to fit some holiday time in as we ventured off to Etosha National Park, Swakopmund, and even Botswana where we stayed at two different safari camps - Kanana Camp and Nxabega Camp. They were amazing!

The trip started with a little personal travel. Michael and I arrived about half a week early and spent 4 days at Etosha National Park. We stayed at a lodge just outside the park, rented a car and drove in each day. Unfortunately, we were there during the rainy season which I don't really recommend. First of all, we didn't have a four wheel drive - HUGE mistake. The park was near flooded and several times I thought we would be abandoning the car and making a swim for it. PS: Sedans are built for off-roading and navigating gianormous pools in the middle of the road!

We managed to see quite a bit in those few days including giraffes, wildebeast, zebras, elephant, springbok (et. all antelope) and various birds but our great achievement was spotting not one but 3 HUGE white rhinos and having a gorgeous leopard walk right out infront of our car! Now these rhinos were montrous creatures. We had some distance on them but you could tell the biggest one was sizing us up. I don't think our sedan would have stood a chance against this guy! The leopard was amazing and completely unexpected. We didn't get any pictures b/c it happened so fast but we would get another chance later on to make up for that!

As we headed back from Etosha we stopped at a Cheetah Conservancy Reserve and saw some amazing cats. It was really cool to see all the tracks around the cat enclosures where wild cheetahs had paced back and forth (as some of the ladies were in heat). They were attracting free cheetahs from far and wide! Yikes!

After visiting the conservancy, we headed back to the capital city of Namibia - Windhoek for a week of working with the team. This was to prove to be a difficult week b/c within the first day I caught the most intense, horrific african flu of all time. I seriously thought it might be malaria (of course I wasn't taking anti-milaria pills - dumb, I know). I ended up getting the worst fevor I've ever had. So much so that at night I would be delirious. I actually woke up one night with sweats and of course the room was pitch black (seeing as it was nighttime). Well, I woke up and opened my eyes - and I couldn't see anything. I instantly came to the realization that I had gone BLIND! Yes, I seriously thought I had gone blind - I was that out of my head. I was so scared I just told myself to keep my eyes close so I could forget about and deal with it in the morning. It was AWFUL! I pretty much suffered with this stupid flu for the rest of the trip. I am just now getting over it 2 weeks later. Ugh.

Well - our trip was only approaching the half way point. Once we finished up our first week, we took the weekend to visit the highly popular adventure town of Swakopmund on the Namibian Skeleton Coast. This was SO much fun! The activity we ended up choosing was quad biking in the Namib Desert. AMAZING! This was so much fun. We did "rainbows" on the dunes and saw the most amazing desert landscapes. Incredible. The town itself is a picture of Germany if you couldn't tell by the name. Most Africans speak German there as well as Africaans or and perhaps a tribal dialect. Michael and I drove all around the town and out to Walvis Bay to see the flamingos. Usually there are thousands of them but it was the off season so we only saw a couple hundred but still - that's a lot of flamingos! As we were driving around, we'd get directions to various places and I kept hearing the strangest instructions. "Go down this street and you'll come to a set of robots. Take a left here". Or "Go through two sets of robots and it's on the right". Ummmmm, robots? I didn't see any R2D2's or Tom Servos so I finally put it together - that would be what they call traffic lights. It kept cracking me up!

After a lovely weekend in Swakopmund, we headed back to Windhoek for another work week. I'll skip this part!

Fast-forward and we have finished our presentation week. We then flew out to Kanana Camp - our first stop. We took these tiny 4 seater planes to each camp - the smallest I had ever been in! Very exciting! As we flew over the reserves we could see elephants, hippos, giraffes and other animals running around! I couldn't wait to get on the ground and see them up close. :)

Kanana was a great camp. Michael and I were the only ones there so we got a lot of special attention. We would wake up first thing, eat an amazing breakfast, go for a game drive for a few hours (which included drinks out int the bush of course), come back to the camp where drinks would be waiting for us, enjoy an afternoon siesta for a few hours, meet back up for tea time, head out for an afternoon game drive and safari drinks, come back for drinks and more rest time, then meet up for an amazing 3 course meal with the guides. The food was SO good! I was loving this agenda, I have to say! The picture shows our guide setting up the Amarilla and hot chocolate cocktails for us - a tasty mid-morning treat.

We saw some great things at Kanana. I think the highlight of this camp was our boat excursion into the delta. Surrounded by papyrus plants 7 feet tall, our tiny motorboat navigated through extremely narrow channels and into huge hidden lagoons. We saw lots of birds like cranes, pelicans and storks and I could tell this was making Michael extremely bored. He was on a mission to see hippos. Now, let me preface this with a weather update. It had rained every single day we were there. EVERY DAY. As we headed out in this tiny little boat, we could see the emense storm out in the distance. It was menacing. Ok, back to the story - so we stop in this amazing lagoon for wine and cheese - yes, we had a cheese platter and wine on our tiny dingy. As we are sitting there, we spot a group of 4 or 5 hippos in our lagoon! We couldn't believe it! So we stayed there for EVER taking pictures - all the while, the wind is starting to pick up and the water is becoming unsettled. More pictures. More pictures. and I start saying "um, guys, maybe we should start heading back..." All of the sudden, the gust of wind blasts across the lagoon like a tidal wave and the storm unleashes it's fury. It's POURING. I can't even describe how instense this storm was. Now we are racing back through these little papyrus alley ways. It still amazes me that our guide knew his way around in there. It all looks the same! Anyway, as we flying back we coming around this tight corner and out of the water lauches this HUGE hippo! Right in front of us! He is trying to jump out of the way of our boat. Then suddenly - there's a bump.. apparently, we ran right over a second one! Michael and I looked at each other - I'll leave it to your imagine as to what we shouted! We look back at our guide who is obviously shaken as well as we had temporarily stalled - without thinking twice he jams the motor on full blast and we take off again. He told us later that this is how most people die from hippo attacks. The hippos will retaliate and flip the boats - it's very easy for them. We couldn't see them under the water so we had to get out of there fast! It was crazy! Definitely an exciting venture out to the sleepy delta. ha ha!

Our second camp was Nxabega. Again amazing camp with a similar daily agenda to Kanana. Eating, sleeping and game drives. I love it! Our highlight at this camp was the leopard sighting! After looking for two days - I finally spotted our leopard in a tree! She was gorgeous - and we managed to track her for about 30 minutes. After she left the tree, we followed her into the bush where she walked right along our jeep. Wow.. Not to mention - if felt good to be the hero of the group for a bit! haha.. At this camp there were some more people, a Dutch mother and daughter, an American couple and a Spanish family of four. It was nice to have the mix!

All in all the trip was good. I was exhausted when I got back but got some amazing pictures to show for it. I'll head back to Africa - this time South Africa in July so hopefully I'll get some more tourist time in. I'll keep you posted!

A Namibian Preview

It didn't take long for NRS to send me back out on the road once arriving in Sydney. After one long, restful week I was on a 13 hour plane ride for Namibia. First stop, Johannesburg, South Africa - unfortunately just for the night. I had heard some horror stories about getting through customs, agents looking for bribes, luggage being dug through etc - but I didn't run into any of that. Phew! I did get the stamp though! Yay! The next day we were back to the airport again to catch a short 2 hour flight to Windhoek, Namibia.

Namibia is HOT right now! We were picked up from the airport by one of the station guys, Franko. Nicest guy ever. I totally love the accent here - very unique. We stayed right in the heart of the city - which takes about 20-25 minutes to drive across (without traffic). It's a pretty quaint town. The tallest buildings around were pretty much hotels. The town as a strong German influence as was reflected by the architecture and restaurants. I did manage to pick up a cool souvenir from the vendors outside our hotel. A large carved giraffe (about a meter high - yes, trying to get into the conversions) - the wood carvings here are amazing. It should look pretty cool in my new place - whenever I get that!

The landscape is pretty intense. I asked Franko and he described it as "semi-arid". It's all low-lying trees and brush - with a red sand/clay base. It's extremely flat for miles and miles until these sudden, dramatic hills/mountains spring out of the horizon.

The station is basically made up of two houses next door to each other. The team was so incredibly friendly and accommodating. It was amazing. Franko drove us to and from the office everyday and even took us out to the most famous restaurant in Southern Africa - perhaps all of Africa (according to Franko). It's called Joe's and serves a large selection of game. I had the Gembok which was SO tasty! The restaurant itself almost reminded me of a Joe's Crab Shack only much nicer. It had all these antiques and random items hanging from the ceiling along with dozens of animal heads and horns. It also featured large fire pits outside and traditional thatched roofs. Overwhelming. I sampled some of Namibia's best beers - it was a great evening.

Now for the most horrendous trip back of all time. In fact, I'm writing this in the middle of my fiasco b/c I won't even get on a flight for about 12 more hours. So, we flight back to Jo-berg from Namibia only to realize the travel agency didn't give me nearly enough time to make my flight. My colleague wasn't actually going to Sydney with me - he was heading to Perth on a different flight. We then spent 50 minutes running back and forth all over the airport trying to get someone to help Michael make his flight - it was already way too late for me and the next flight didn't leave until the same time the following day. Ugh. So by some miracle, Michael made his flight. That left me by myself in the middle of Jo-berg airport with no flight for 24 hours. No worries - surely British Airways will book a hotel room for me for the night?? Um, that would be a big, fat no. My flight wasn't late - so I am out of luck. The desk takes pity on me and helps me book my own stinkin' room. And I'm not kidding - the only room left is this smoking room at a dinky little hotel airport by the city. Nice. So that is where I am now. Not typing this is my room mind you - the wireless won't reach that far. I am sitting in the lobby. Nice - Oh yeah, and I have no luggage. It was completely out of reach - in the depths of the airport and would have taken hours to retrieve so I am in my same stinky clothes - that I will get to live in for the next 24 hours. Lovely!!!

Ok - that was a big rant but had to get it off my chest! There is good news! Michael (my AD) has proposed that we make a big trip out of our Namibia program. So, we will be heading over there early to check out some game parks along the coast. We'll also get the weekend in between our first and second week so see the desert. After the program, we have decided to head to Botswana for a week to explore the delta and surrounding game parks. I am SOOOOO excited!

So, that was my first experience. All of it, except for today, has been great so I call the trip a success! It's just thickening my skin for the many trips to come.