week 84 - 86 - visa organization, car repairs and meeting old and new friends in Angola

We crossed the border into South Africa and drove straight to Windhoek. On the way, we passed the tropic of capricorn again - for us, it was already the third time crossing it on this journey :-) It’s hard to believe that we were here with my parents exactly 8 months ago. Where did all this time go?!

We arrived in Windhoek on a Sunday night and wanted to start the next morning by organizing as many visas as possible in Windhoek for our trip up north. Toby also needed to see a mechanic; the first 1’500 kilometers after their complete rebuild of Olga, their Defender, brought up some issues on the car, which must have happened in the workshop. Since we would need to move around in the city a lot, we preferably didn’t want to sleep in the car. The first night, we were invited by Doren, a guy Toby and Martina met while in Windhoek a few months ago. He was hosting a little braai and invited us to join. We ended up spending the night in our cars in his driveway ;-) The next day we left early and started driving to all the embassies in Windhoek to gather information. We discovered that we could organize visas for Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo here. For Ghana, we needed a residence card from Namibia; without it, we would not receive a visa in Windhoek. There is no embassy of the Ivory Coast in Windhoek, so we would need to organize this visa later, and for the other countries en route, we can either apply online for a visa or we don’t need one at all. After visiting all the embassies, our next stop was the mall, where we took some new passphotos of us and printed all the necessary documents for the visas. We then returned and handed in our first application at the embassy of the Republic of Congo. For 1300 Nam$ (~65 USD), we got our visas within two days, which was faster than what they initially told us, but after sharing our story about Toby’s pregnant wife waiting for us back home, I think they fastened up their process, and we even did not have to pay the “express-fee,” which would have been double the price - yay! We received our passports with the visas on Wednesday and went straight to the Embassy of Nigeria to hand in our next application. The lady working there was very friendly, but also, she didn’t have much power to fasten up things for us. It seemed like it was the most organized embassy of all the ones we visited, and therefore, the process was straight forward and there was nothing to change about it. We had to pay an extra fee of 3000 Nam$ because we are not Namibian residents (~150 USD), but at least it was possible to get a visa after all. The total costs came to 240 USD, including the express fee; it's not a cheap visa, but on the bright side, we already had it the next day. ASnd after we heard many stories from other Overlanders, who couldn’t get the Nigerian visa abroad or had to pay a lot more than us, we were still quite happy with how it went. Unfortunately, we were too late for the DRC embassy on that day, so we only managed to hand in our visa application there on Friday morning. They told us it would take 7 (!) days to receive it; again, we would have had the possibility to pay an express fee (but even the lady working at the embassy told us she would not spend that money because it would not be much faster). After we told her our story again and that we needed to get home as soon as possible because of Martina, who is pregnant and waiting for Toby, the lady however assured us to hurry up. We received the visa for the regular fee of 1200 Nam$ (~60 USD) on Tuesday already :-)

During these ten days in Windhoek, we (especially Toby) spent many hours at different mechanics; we treated us to a couple of dinners out and had many nice braai nights in our super cool Airbnb apartment. During this time, we got to know Toby (and Martina) better, which was very nice. It felt like we had already been friends for a long time. After spending months of traveling and living in the car, we shared a lot of hopes, fears, and thoughts in general about life and especially about going back home to Switzerland. And Talking to Martina on the phone, who was already back, was also interesting and sometimes increased but also decreased our joy of returning home.

On Thursday, we were finally ready to continue our trip up North. Our next destination was Angola, and we had some people we wanted to meet up with. There was Noortje and Marjin, the couple we met the last time Tom and I were in Angola and with whom we spent some lovely days at the beach. Of course, we wanted to see them again since we would be driving through Lubango, the city where they live. Marjin was even able to take some days off work, and we planned to spend some days together at the beach again; this time also, their kids would be joining, whom we didn’t meet the last time. We also wanted to meet up with Maarten and Renske, a couple from the Netherlands, who is driving from North to South along the West Coast of Africa in a fully electric car. And to top this, their goal is to charge at least 51% of their energy from solar power! A very inspiring project. When we told them that we were finally ready to leave Windhoek and on our way to Angola and that we could meet somewhere along the route, they told us that they were staying with a Dutch couple they met on the streets of Lubango while getting some groceries - it turned out that “the Dutch couple” was Noortje and Marjin :-D.

Toby, Tom, and I drove straight to the border to Angola and spent the last night in Namibia at the Piscas Hotel, where Tom and I already stayed before and after we entered Angola the last time. Marta, the receptionist, still remembered us. The following day, we could leave early and directly drive to the border, which took us 4 hours to cross. We still managed to go all the way to Lubango and arrived just after dark. Marjin, Noortje, Renske, and Maarten warmly welcomed us. They even cooked a lovely curry for us, and we spent a great evening sharing maaany stories around the fireplace in their backyard.

The following day, Maarten and Renske gave us a full car tour. It was very interesting to see how they equipped their 4x4 to drive all the way from the Netherlands to South Africa and back up again, using mainly solar power. Of course, they need a lot of space for their solar panels, but on the other hand, they have storage in the front of the car since there is no motor and the battery doesn’t use that much space.

Toby, Tom, and I spent another day at Noortje and Marjin’s place. We cooked “Gschnätzlets and Rösti” for them for dinner (a very typical Swiss dish), and the next morning, everyone was ready to leave and spend a couple of days at the beach, at the same spot we already went together last time. This was a welcome change of scenes after all the visa organization and mechanical work on the cars. We enjoyed the few days on the beach, laying in the sun, going for a swim, Toby even speer-fished his first fish, which was delicious, and Judah and Salome, the two kids, taught us how to catch crabs. We truly had a blast. Unfortunately, Tom wasn’t feeling very well, so he spent most of the time in the shade doing not much; I’m not sure if he had corona; the symptoms were very similar. But luckily, after two full days without driving anywhere, he recovered again and was ready to continue. We said our goodbyes and continued up north. From here, it was also all new territory for us - and we were very excited to explore some more of Angola.

week 57 - 58 - another beautiful short trip through Namibia

Since we had more time at our hands than initially thought, we decided, to sleep another night at the Piscas Hotel, so we could spend one full day making new plans and figuring out, where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do in the next 8 weeks until our friends would arrive in Cape Town. We checked out “Work Away”-possibilities, a platform where you can find jobs around the world, mostly on a “work in return for food and accomodation”-basis. We thought it could be a nice change to work and have some kind of a daily routine and stay at one spot for a change (funny what you miss when traveling for so long). Another option could have been to take a longer route and drive through the Transfrontier National Park in Botswana and South Africa. Finally, I also digged into Yoga Teacher Trainings in southern Africa, something that has been on my bucketlist for a long time. Driving through Botswana soon fell of the list, due to the rainy season and terrible roads this route would have included - everyone we spoke to advised us against it at this time of the year. We did find a very cool place for a “Work Away Experience” on a wine farm and lodge owned by a Swiss/South African family. On a short phone call with the owners, we found out that they were just starting to produce wine for the first time and, therefore will have some experts on their farm, who teach them how to do it. They invited us to join them for that process, because we told them we would be very interested in learning how to produce wine. However, the wine-producing season will only start end of February/ beginning of March. So that was definitely something we were interested in doing, but for now, we needed to look for something else. Finally, I stumbled across a Yoga Teacher Training Course in Cape Town, starting at the beginning of December, and ending just a couple of days before our friends would arrive. After talking to the teacher, I had a really good feeling about the school. Tom and I discussed our options and he also looked up things he could do in Cape Town. He found a Jiu Jitsu school very close by, something he had been interested in doing for a while, so we decided to move out of the car for a little bit and sign ourselves in for the courses. After so many different places we had visited and being on the go all the time, it felt good to choose one place and settle down for a little bit. We were both very excited about our new plans, but we still had a couple of weeks left until we had to be in Cape Town, so we decided to drive into the Caprivi Belt, a region of Namibia, we hadn’t seen so far.

We heard many good things about a Lodge called Riverdance, which is run by a Swiss couple, and we, therefore definitely wanted to check it out. When we called to ask if they had space, unfortunately, they informed us that they were fully booked on the campsite until the next week. Also, their rooms were booked but they had one capacity a night before they had availability on the campsite again, so Chris, the very friendly owner, offered us a big discount on the room rate for one night and to reserve a campsite for some additional nights. We didn’t have to think twice and agreed to this amazing deal. We still had three nights to spend somewhere else before we could go to the Riverdance Lodge., so we checked our travel app “iOverlander” and found many nice places along the way, some people who left reviews at places were even overlanders we met along the road, so we decided to make the first stop at Taranga Safari Lodge. We weren’t disappointed, it was a very luxurious campsite with everything we could ask for and more. They also had a cool bar built on the river, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. The next day, we continued and checked out another promising place along our route, called Okacuito River Camp. On the way, we stopped in Rundu to get some groceries and were surprised by the big size of this town and all its shops and restaurants.

We arrived at Okacuito and were welcomed by the owner himself, who showed us where we could camp. All the campsites had a private veranda overlooking the river, and a kitchen with a huge fridge and freezer, it was almost like having a private house. We appreciated the shelter even more, when it shortly after started to rain like crazy. A big thunderstorm hit us and all we could do was wait and sit it out, but at least, we had a roof over our heads.

We spent two nights at Okacuito and on our second night, the owner walked up to our campsite and invited us to join him on a free sunset cruise with some other customers from the lodge. Tom also got to try his luck with fishing; unfortunately, he didn’t catch anything but a hangover for the next morning, after all the beers, wine and even rum we ended up drinking with the owner and his mother, who seemed very happy to have some nice company. Also their dog seemed to like us a lot, he was sticking around our campsite all day long.

The next day, we left and continued to the Riverdance Lodge, which was actually very close. Of course, after hearing so many great things about this lodge, we expected something nice, but what we found was beyond all our expectations. Especially the room we checked into, since we “couldn’t” spend our first night on the campsite, was very luxurious and just beautifully built into trees with huge windows overlooking the river. Dinner and breakfast were also included in our discounted rate and this as well exceeded all our expectations. We were in (food)heaven and really enjoyed this treat a lot. But also the remaining three days that we spent on the campsite were great. The four campsites all have their private ablutions and overlook the river. We joined a Yoga class and also booked a massage and pampered ourselves at this lovely lodge for a few days.

From the Riverdance Lodge, we started our long drive towards Cape Town, of course, with a few stops in between. Our first night along the way we spent at Otavi Wine Estate, one of the few vineyards in Namibia, also run by a Swiss-Namibian family. Of course, we needed to taste their wine, but we were in great company. We met Caro and Wolfgang from Germany on the campsite, who also quit their jobs back home but only had started their travels in Africa. We got along super well and it was nice to talk about our future travel plans. We cooked a nice dinner all together that went well with a few bottles of the Nambian wine called “Katholischer”, which they produce at Otavi :)

From Otavi we directly drove to Windhoek, back to the Urban Camp, where we started our Nambian adventure together with my parents a few weeks ago. It was strange to be back at the same place and thinking about all the things we experienced in the meantime… Soo many amazing and a few bad memories, it all felt like at least half a year must have passed since we started our Namibian road trip. These are the moments when we sometime can’t wrap our heads around how much is happening in our lives every day, all the places we see and people we meet, it is truly amazing. This time, we only spent one day in Windhoek but we were very efficient. We went back to Paco Engineering, where they made us an adapter for our gas bottle, so we would not have to run around the next time to get our gas for cooking. Tom also went to the barber shop, we got some groceries and went to the customs office to stamp our new Carnet de Passage, the customs paper for the car, which my parents had brought with them. We were a bit worried if this would work, since we heard many different stories about whether it was necessary to leave the South African Customs Union to “activate” a new Carnet, but it was a super easy and straight forward process, the customs officer only wanted to see our car and check the chassis number and then stamped our new Carnet. As a last stop, we went to a weapon shop where we got ourselves a couple of pepper sprays, just in case… When we had everything we needed, we left Windhoek again, but it was already around 3 pm, so we decided to drive to a campsite in the Kalahari, close to Marienthal. We slept at the Bagatelle Kalahari Lodge, where we spent a windy but beautiful night. In the morning, their horses came to greet us. Also, a peacock was casually walking around on their premises.

We continued towards the border and just shortly after we had left the Bagatelle Lodge, there was a Toyota on the side of the road that obviously had broken down. The driver waived at us and we stopped to see what happened. He asked us if we could pull him to the next town. We agreed but we were very suspicious. After what happened in Angola and also hearing some stories about people who got robbed or even worse by people faking car breakdowns, this didn’t feel comfortable at all. The guy and his son tied their car to ours and we started driving and, our minds going a bit crazy, we became more and more worried if we did the right thing by stopping and helping them, which felt terrible as well because of course, we wanted to help people who needed it. Still, we were just worried if we were helping the right people here. But the car was attached already, and there was nothing we could do. When we finally arrived at the tarmac road, from where the guy could get help again, we stopped the car. We decided that Tom stayed in the Defender behind the steering wheel, ready to drive, while I took one of the pepper sprays into my pockets and went out to help the guys untie their car. They were very thankful and probably thought that we were acting very strange, with Tom staying in the car and me keeping my distance from them. But in the end, after we left and they thanked us several times, we were happy that we could help them, and it was also nice to gain some trust back into humanity. At the same time, we also agreed never to stop in a situation like this once we entered South Africa. The stories we heard from there were just terrible sometimes.

We arrived at the White House Lodge just before sunset. It was another windy night, but we enjoyed the last views of the amazing Nambian landscapes a lot.

week 53 - 54 - wild life, wild hikes and good-byes in Namibia

It was already the last week we spent with my parents, but a few more highlights were waiting for us. For the next night, we drove to the Hoada Camp, another campsite run by a local community. It was a nice place to chill; there was a small pool where we cooled off in the hot afternoon and met some fellow tourists. For sunset, we climbed up some hills and enjoyed the view before we returned to our cars to cook dinner. The next day, we wanted to leave very early to get to the entrance gate of the Etosha National Park before noon. The entrance gate was quite busy. While we filled in all the necessary forms and paid the entrance fees, we also prepared some coffee and a little breakfast before we were ready to go on a safari. The national park roads were surprisingly good, against everything we had heard. Unfortunately, this was only true for the first few kilometers, but at least that 😊 We spent our first night in the park at the Olifantrus Camp. When we called there to make reservations a few days earlier, they told us they were booked out. Still, after Tom played his Austrian charm and kindly asked if they had any space somewhere at the camp for us, they let us stay at the picnic site, which turned out to be an even a nicer spot than the actual campsite, which was very crowded. We had a very private place.

At the Olifantrus camp, there is a big waterhole with a hide, where the visitors can sit and enjoy the view. Since it was the dry season, many animals came to the waterhole, and we spotted a lot. We even saw a group of lions when we returned after dinner in the dark.

The next day, we had to make our way to the Okaukujejo Campsite, where we had made a booking for another two nights. The roads got worse and worse as we drove into the park. On the bright side, the rain still hadn’t started yet. It was like all the animals of the Lion King movie were meeting up at each waterhole. Never have we seen this many elephants, oryx, zebras, springboks, ostriches, jackals, giraffes, and lions in just one spot at the same time; it was spectacular! The roads, on the other hand, were very tiring, and our two cars were covered in sand inside and outside. When we finally arrived at the campsite, we had to clean our cars and then ourselves before we dared to drive inside the gate. We were delighted to get out of the car, opened a bottle of cold white wine, and sat by the waterhole to watch the animals who came to drink. None of us felt like driving around in the park again, so I suggested going on a game drive with one of the safari cars from the camp the following day. Everybody found this a good idea, so Tom and I quickly booked a tour for the next day. We cooked dinner and then went to bed because our tour was leaving very early the next morning.

Our safari guide picked us up at 6 o’clock and gave his best so we would see a lot of animals. We soon passed a pack of lions chilling right next to the road. We stayed with them for a while and learned much from our guide about these royal creatures. Unfortunately, we were not lucky to spot a leopard, but we also met some elephants, and on our way back to the camp, we came across a spotted hyena, which was very impressive as well.

After we returned to our campsite, we all felt like enjoying some time at the pool instead of driving around the park again. We got hold of four sunbeds in the shade and enjoyed our little siesta at the pool. While Tom edited a million pictures, we took on this trip, the rest of us planned how and where to spend our last couple of days together. We decided to drive to the Waterberg Lodge and campsite, a nice and historical place where my parents could return to Windhoek the day after. Tom and I would drive north towards the Angolan border, our next destination.

When we left the Etosha National Park, our cars were thoroughly checked. When we asked the guards what they were looking for, they explained that they were checking because of poaching. We would soon better understand that this is still a big issue here. We drove on the perfect tarmac road to Outjo, where we stopped at the bakery to get lunch. Tom and I tried to find a place to fill our gas bottle, which we were not able to do throughout all of Namibia. Luckily, we could use our parents’ gas bottle to cook, but since we were soon on our own again, this became an issue. We could refill our European gas bottle all over Africa, but no one seemed to have the necessary adapter in Namibia. We continued and tried our luck in the next town, Otjiwarongo. We stopped at the Afrox shop, and these guys were finally able to help us. They had the correct adapter and refilled our bottle in no time.

It was not much further to the Waterberg lodge. When we arrived, my parents booked a rhino trekking for the following day, the last highlight to end their Namibia adventure. Tom and I had already done such a trekking in Uganda and decided to go on the (cheaper) historic hiking trail instead of the rhino trekking. Unfortunately, the rangers had to inform my parents that they could not guarantee they could go on the trekking the following day. The reason was that poachers had killed one of the rhinos just a few days ago; therefore, the herd was still very upset. We couldn’t believe who would do such a thing just because of the horn. But unfortunately, people still pay lots of money for such “treasures.” What made the story even sadder was that the rhino they killed was pregnant. The rangers told us that they needed to check on the rhinos the next day to see how they behaved towards people and then would let us know if my parents could do the trekking.

We drove to the beautiful campsite with private ablutions. It was still a few kilometers to drive from the reception to the camping spots. We enjoyed a shower and started packing up our cars, my parents would give all the leftover food to us, and we gave them everything we wanted them to bring back home for us. It was unbelievable how quickly the past four weeks had passed. We wanted to enjoy dinner at the lodge restaurant for our last night. This was still a two kilometers-hike away from the campsite. We decided to walk there, and instead of walking along the street, we wanted to follow the hiking trail. This turned out to be an actual hiking trail over rocky terrain and through thick bushes; our Birkenstocks were not the well-chosen shoes for this, and by the time we reached the restaurant just before it got dark, we were all sweating again. Well, one last adventurous memory for my parents, we thought and ordered a nice bottle of wine. The restaurant was a bit more basic than we expected, and there was only one fixed menu, so there was nothing to choose from, but after our first slight disappointment about this, we had a surprisingly lovely dinner; they had a good chef.

After dinner, we still had to walk back through the dark. We followed along the road this time, which was a great idea. Trying not to think too much about the leopard that would sometimes visit the lodge, we walked back to our cars. Instead of a leopard, we spotted a few scorpions on the way, which was also worrying but at least nothing we had to run away from 😉 We made it back without being stung or eaten and fell asleep very soon.

The following day, we enjoyed breakfast altogether, and then my parents left for their rhino trekking, which took place. Tom and I packed up as well and went on the historic hiking trail, where we could read and learn a lot about the horrible battle which was fought here between the Germans and the local tribes that lived here before the German settlers arrived in Namibia. We all met again at the reception; my parents were fortunate and spotted a newborn rhino on their trekking, one which even the rangers hadn’t spotted before. They told us about their experience and showed us some pictures.

We couldn’t change anything about the fact that the time had come to say goodbye ☹ But we all spent four amazing weeks with lots of highlights and great memories to bring home and along the journey. After many hugs and kisses, we sat in our cars and drove back to the main road, where my parents continued to Windhoek, and Tom and I drove up north. Our destination was Tsumeb, a town before the border to Angola, where we also heard of a very good mechanic. It was time to recheck our car and get a service for our Defender; after all, we had driven more than 3000 kilometers in Namibia alone, and the roads were not always very smooth.

We arrived in Tsumeb and first had to bring our laundry for washing and then also had to wash our car. After everything was cleaned again, we drove to Kupferquelle, a campsite, lodge, and resort. We spent a few nights here to prepare for Angola, we had to apply for the visa, I had to catch up on a lot of writing before making new memories, and Tom wanted to work on a video from Namibia. We also could pass by Frank, the car mechanic, who was very friendly and could do a service the next day. We spent the day at a cafe next to a gym, and I joined a Cross Fit class in the afternoon. Tom couldn’t participate because he didn’t bring sneakers (some say it was on purpose). I could barely move for three days straight after this gym experience, but it was still fun.

After four nights at Kupferquelle, we had a clean car, clean laundry, a Defender that had been given all the necessary treatment, and two approved e-visas to go to Angola. Therefore, we drove to Oshikango, the border town, where we spent a night at a hotel to go straight to the border the following day. We slept at the Piscas Motel and were very surprised when we entered the gate. The place looked awful and shady from the outside, but inside the gate waited a little oasis with very friendly and helpful people. Martha, the receptionist, printed many documents we needed for the border crossing and even offered to help us if we would get stuck at the border the next day. The vibe was already very different here as well. Most people at the motel spoke Portuguese, and on the menu were many Angolan dishes we had never heard of. We were excited to cross the border and learn about a new country.

week 52 - 53 adventures off the beaten track

We hit the road for our off-road adventure and drove on some gravel roads further north. We stopped at the “White Lady,” a famous ancient rock painting. From the car park, it is still a one-hour walk away, and a guide comes with you to show the way and explain some interesting facts about rock art. It was a nice but hot walk along a dry river bed.

After this excursion on foot, we jumped back into the cars and left the official roads. We followed an off-road track in a dry riverbed. The scenery was beautiful, and since it was the end of the dry season, driving in the riverbed on the very sandy tracks was not a problem. Liv’s parents seemed to enjoy it and got more confident on the 4x4 track. We knew in what direction we were headed and there were lots of different paths to choose from. Once we left the riverbed again, we started looking for a nice spot to spend the night and found a beautiful place behind a bit of rock, sheltered from the wind. Tom and Roland were taking care of a nice fire, Evelyne and I prepared our dinner, and we enjoyed a fantastic night out in the wild.

The next day, we continued our trip. We read about a simple camp called Ugab Rhino Trust Camp with very basic infrastructure, but supposedly, they had water for showers, which we found reason enough to stop there since we planned on staying out in the wild for a couple of more nights. Shortly after we left our camp in the morning, we saw springboks and even ostriches, who ran in front of our cars. We continued through the wide open fields, and slowly, the scenery became rockier; it looked like we had landed on the moon. The track we chose is called divorce pass, and we soon found out why. The road got increasingly rough and very steep until, eventually, we had to stop and check on the road conditions before we dared to continue. Tom and I quickly had to teach my parents some offroad basic skills we learned in our training back in Italy. We only had the option of continuing or turning around, and after a six-hour drive on a bumpy road, the second option didn’t seem too appealing. We also knew that we had two excellent and strong cars capable of driving almost any route, so we decided to continue. Only this last bit we had to pass, and then we could follow a riverbed again, which led straight to the camp. The “last bit” turned out to be more than just one steep climb; after every climb, there was another even steeper descent and another ascent again; our (and more so my parent’s) nerves got tested, but we managed the divorce pass without any divorces 😊 Back in the riverbed, we saw lots of elephant dung, but unfortunately, we did not spot any desert elephants. When we arrived at the Rhino Trust Camp, it was very windy, so we tried to find a place with some shelter. Unfortunately, we only just arrived to find out that the showers were not working. But it was, what it was; we still prepared a nice dinner and calmed our nerves with a bottle of wine ;-) The next day, we were ready to leave the rocky terrain. 

When we got up the next day, we saw some local people from the village getting some water from a close-by water station. We asked them if we could also fill our water tanks, which we could. This was great; we knew we would have enough water to take a shower that night, which was something very nice to look forward to. The people from the village also told us about a waterhole a bit further down the river, where the desert elephants usualy stay, and they also informed us that the road we intended to take was not possible to drive at the moment. So we quickly had to change our plans. We first tried our luck and went to the waterhole to see if we would meet the desert elephants. Unfortunately, they were not there. On the way, we passed an old and abandoned mine, which Tom and my Dad found very interesting, but my mom and I just wanted to finally leave the stones and rocks and drive back to open fields with easy sandy tracks instead of rock climbing trails. We let the boys take some pictures, and my dad and I switched cars for the next bit. I was driving with my Mom and my Dad was getting his Defender experience. We maneuvered the two vehicles out of this valley, which still included many bumpy tracks. Unfortunately, the Landcruiser did not have the same ground clearance as our Defender, and it was almost impossible not to hit a stone once in a while. We still managed to get out, and finally, the roads became more sandy again, and the view slowly changed from the rocky moon landscape to open fields. We stopped to prepare a little snack and continued to the “Dolores Crater Rim,” where we intended to spend the night. A giraffe crossed our way, and when we arrived at a crater, we agreed that it was a nice spot to spend the night, also a bit sheltered from the wind. We took turns taking a short but very nice shower before the sun went down and it got cooler again. And then, we started to prepare dinner. Only then my Dad realized that the big fridge they had in their car was lose. The fixation apparently broke, so while my mom and I prepared our dinner, the boys tried to fixate the fridge since our bumpy rides were not yet ending.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast the following day and continued further up north. We wanted to reach De Riet, a town where we heard that people are in need of basic things, that’s why we had bought some bags of maize and rice and toilet paper as well as other essentials, which we wanted to bring to them. The scenery on this day was very beautiful again. We came back into desert land and even passed some dunes again after driving over plane wide fields of nothing, and just when we were driving in a dry river bed again shortly before De Riet, we finally spotted the desert elephants. It was a big family eating the leaves from some trees. We did not only see the elephants but also other cars, which seemed just as special after three days of meeting no other vehicles. After watching the elephants for a while, we drove to the town of De Riet and gave the people there the goods, and they seemed to be very grateful. It was windy like crazy; we could barely keep our eyes open and were very impressed by how these people lived here in their very basic huts in this rough surrounding.

We spent our last night next to a dry river bed again, close to the main road, which would bring us the next day to Palmwag, where we had made a reservation for two nice campsites with ablutions, which we were all very much looking forward to. We enjoyed our last night in the wild together and sat around the fire until late, talking about the adventures of the past few days. It is always so special to spend some days far away from everything else, with no phone connection, no other people, just the car and yourself is all you need. In these days, it is very easy to forget the busy world we usually live in.

We arrived at the Palmwag Lodge and Campsite, and while I was talking to the receptionist to check us in, the rest of us were refilling the water tanks of our two cars and then they spotted, that our Defender had a flat tire. It was still slowly deflating, but once again we were more than lucky. Literally about 50 meters away from the spot we parked, the lodge had its own workshop where they could fix tires. The place to detect a flat tire couldn’t have been more perfect. So while my parents already drove to our campsite to settle in, Tom and I went to the workshop, where a very skilled guy was helping us to locate the hole and fix it again. Within no-time, we were ready to join my parents at the campsite. We all took a nice shower and spent the rest of the day chilling at the pool, before we treated ourselves to a dinner at the restaurant of the lodge.

week 51 -52 - hot desert, sandy dunes and the ocean breeze

We slowly made our way north, and another big highlight was waiting for us: the Sossusvlei Dunes and the Sesriem Canyon. Unfortunately, the roads got worse the further north we came, but we still made it just in time to climb the famous Dune 45 before sunset, after we quickly checked in at the campsite. It was a bit windy, but we had lots of fun running up and down the dune and enjoyed a sundowner (sprinkled with sand) before driving back to the campsite.

We had a very short night ahead of us and quickly cooked some pasta for dinner. To get rid of the sand, we also jumped under the shower before going to bed, and soon again, our alarm clocks woke us up early the following day. We wanted to drive into the park right when the gate opened one hour before sunrise. We hoped to make it to the Big Daddy Dune for sunrise, the biggest and most famous dune in the park, which lies 65 kilometers from the entrance gate. It is about 350 meters high and the biggest dune in the world you can climb. It was nice to drive in the park (on a perfect tarmac road) while the day slowly began. We arrived shortly after sunrise for the perfect golden hour and first walked around Deadvlei, a salt and clay pan at the bottom of the dunes, which used to be an oasis with several camelthorn trees that later died due to a drought in the area. The remaining skeleton of the trees give a beautiful picture in the white contrast to the white pan in front of the dunes.

Of course, we also wanted to climb Bid Daddy, which looked very exhausting to the looks at the other tourist who directly started the climb. They looked tiny on the tip of the,dune, and it seemed like they didn’t make any progress.

Since it was still very cold when we left the camp early in the morning, we wore too many layers of clothes and almost died of a heat stroke on our way up. But it still turned out to be a lot of fun, and running down the dunes afterward was a lot easier and made up for all the struggles in the first place. We ate a small lunch back at our cars and then drove straight to the lodge outside the park, where we met Melissa, our pilot, for a scenic flight over the dunes. It was a bumpy flight but so impressive to see the dunes we just climbed up and down from a bird’s view.

After the flight, we still had to drive to our next sleeping spot, Ababis Guest Farm and campsite. Luckily, it was not too far away, and when we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by Uwe, the German owner, who showed us around the campsite and quickly heated the donkey showers so we could get rid of all the sand. We cooked dinner and chose a nice bottle of wine to go with it to celebrate a beautiful day as well as my parents’ 36th wedding anniversary 😊

The following day, we decided to leave without breakfast and directly drive to Solitaire, a small town on the way to Swakopmund. The bakery there is very famous for its delicious “Apfelstrudel.” Of course, we also wanted to taste it, and it was very yummy indeed. We then continued on a terrible gravel road (African massage included) to Swakopmund, a town on the coast of Namibia. The weather along the coast differs greatly from the hot and dry climate inland. It is mostly windy and cooler, so when we arrived at the campsite, we quickly concluded that it would be nicer to rent an apartment for the three nights we planned to stay here. We found a place on Google maps and contacted the owner, Armin, who was happy to host us for our time in Swakopmund. Armin recently bought the placesiteopened the guesthouse with his mom, who were fabulous hosts. They invited us to join them at a restaurant for dinner, where a band played live music and we enj,oyed a fun evening together. On our first day in Swakopmund, Tom and I had to sort out some things again. We wanted to check the draggling steering wheel of our Defender and therefore went to a mechanic shop while my parents went on a sightseeing tour through the city. Luckily, Swakopmund is a city where you can get everything sorted. The mechanic quickly diagnosed our problem and sent us to another shop where our wheels got adjusted, and the Defender ran as smoothly as ever again. Before we returned to our apartment, we stopped at a place where a German was building camper vans, and he’s doing a fantastic job. He showed us around his workshop, and we saw some pretty cool examples of camper cans – lots of inspiration for a future trip in another vehicle, maybe 😊 Afterwards, we met with my parents again for dinner, for which we reserved a table at the famous Jetty Restaurant, and we were not disappointed by the tasty seafood.

For the next day, we booked a tour to Sandwich Harbor, a place further south along the coast, where the dunes meet the sea. For once, we left our Defender and jumped in the back seat of another car to enjoy a tour where we did not have to drive ourselves. Unfortunately, Tom was not feeling very well and needed a day to rest, so he decided to stay home. My parents and I enjoyed the tour a lot. We spotted many flamingos and other birds saw the pink salt lakes, and got the whole rollercoaster experience while driving up and down the dunes.

When we got back, Tom felt better again, so we went out for dinner one last time before leaving Swakopmund again the following day. We got up early and drove to the grocery store to stock up again for the next couple of days. Our destination today was the Spitzkoppe, a famous rock formation in Namibia also known as the “Matterhorn of Namibia.” A local community is running a rustic camp there with very spacious sites. Before dark, we went on a short hike to see some of the old rock paintings.

The following day we continued to the Erongo Rocks, another rock formation a couple of hundred kilometers away. On the way, we visited the San Living Museum, where the San people show you how they used to and still live today. We went on a bush walk with a san warrior, who taught us many interesting things about their life and culture. From there, it was not much further to the Erongo Rock Lodge and Campsite, where we planned to stay for two nights. Once again, we were warmly welcomed by the owner, Didi, who put much effort into his place. The campsites are very spacious and beautifully built into the rocks. We enjoyed the camp a lot and hiked up to the viewpoint early the following day, before the sun got to hot. As a treat for the morning exercise, we went to the neighboring lodge, where we enjoyed the afternoon at the pool and celebrated our “travelversary” (1 year on the road!) with a bottle of bubbles. To top it off, we cooked a Swiss cheese fondue once we returned to our campsite, which my parents had brought along with them. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate this special day.

For the next few days, we wanted to leave the official roads and explore beautiful Damaraland off the beaten tracks on some 4x4 roads. Before we headed off, we drove to Uis, the last town in the area, where you could stock up on fuel and some basic groceries. We stayed at the Daureb Isib Campsite, a lovely campsite where we also enjoyed some delicious cake and coffee while planning the last stops on our offroad-trip for the upcoming days.