Zanzibar
We flew to Dar Es Salaam with Air Malawi via Blantyre (in Malawi). To our surprise the flight was actually pretty good and we even got a half decent meal on board.
After arriving in Dar Es Salaam we bought a couple of sim cards in a shop just outside arrivals and, after some negotiation with a number of taxi drivers, jumped in a taxi to our hotel in the centre of town.
Our flight landed in the evening and by the time we made it to our hotel it was quite late so all we wanted to do was hit the hay.
We didn’t plan on staying in Dar, it’s a big, dusty, bustling city and our thoughts were running more towards relaxing on a sun lounger with a cocktail in hand, so the next morning we headed straight for the port and the Zanzibar ferry.
We hopped in a Tuk Tuk and before long we were surrounded by hoards of people and the absolute chaos that is the ferry terminal. Luckily we had pre-booked our ferry tickets online which made life a little easier but the process of getting through to the waiting area is complete carnage and if we had to do it all again today I would be none the wiser. On the plus side, everybody who worked there was very helpful and ushered us from one desk to another to get us through, and somehow, despite having only bought standard class tickets we ended up in the first class waiting area comfortably seated under a very welcome large fan.
The ferry itself was an oasis of calm with comfortable, spacious seating (in standard class) and, despite some initial swell upon exiting the sheltered harbour, the rest of the two-hour journey passed smoothly.
Arrival at Zanzibar was less chaotic than the Dar Es Salaam end but the terminal is still very busy. When you arrive you actually have to go to immigration and get a passport stamp for entry into Zanzibar, even though it is part of Tanzania.
There is also a real stinger of a tax for entry to the island in the guise of mandatory travel insurance for USD 44 per person which came into force from 1 October 2024. The fact that you already have travel insurance is irrelevant and what you get is pretty poor. I am fairly sure that it wouldn’t actually be any use if we tried to claim against it and given that we already had insurance this just felt like a tax dressed up as insurance. Anyway, that said, you can buy it online while on the ferry or at the terminal and you have to show it before you can get the entry stamp in your passport.
Once through immigration you are free to exit the port which is right on the doorstep of Stone Town.
Stone Town is the historic heart of Zanzibar city. Established in the 16th century by the Portuguese, it wasn’t until the 19th century, when the Omani Sultanate moved their capital from Muscat to Zanzibar, that the city became the centre of a vast trading network. Trade in cloves, ivory and slaves were central to its success. At one stage Zanzibar produced 90% of the world’s cloves.
It was in the 19th century when the distinctive coral stone buildings, palaces and mosques were built with a fusion of Swahili, Arab, Persian, Indian and European styles.
We were staying in Stone Town for a couple of days to absorb some of this incredible culture before moving onto the beach so we side-stepped all the taxis and hawkers outside the port and navigated our way through the narrow alleyways to our hotel.
The hotel room was fairly basic, which we kind of expect on our budget but there was a lovely pool and restaurant in a shady courtyard, that felt like a world away from the hustle and bustle of the town.
After our first night in the hotel we did have to change rooms as we woke in the morning to a smoke-filled room. After quickly throwing some clothes on we realised that the air conditioning unit was on the verge of combusting so after turning it off we headed to reception to let them know there was a slight problem!
Stone Town, so called because the buildings are made of stone, is a labyrinth of small alleys and roads. There are no cars in the alleys but you have to be alert to the odd cart, moped, motorbike or bicycle. The stand out feature of Stone Town are the very cool, ancient, carved wooden doors.
The intricately carved doors were a symbol of wealth. The greater the wealth and social standing of the owner of the building the more intricately carved and larger the door.
On our first night in Stone Town we visited the historic Livingstone hotel for sundowner drinks. Unfortunately as it was Ramadan we weren’t allowed out onto the beachfront dining area until the sun had set but we could watch the sunset from the 1st floor terrace. Once the sun was safely down the area came alive and we had dinner with our feet in the sand on the beach.
We had organised to go on a spice tour to a farm a 30 minute drive from Stone Town. The traffic in Zanzibar Town is horrendous and despite seeing some new roads in the process of being constructed the growing population has led to virtual gridlock.
The tour itself was very interesting with a large array of spices and fruits being grown on the farm. It is always fascinating to see how things actually look on the tree (or bush in the case of pineapples) when we are so used to seeing them packaged up in the supermarket.
A young lad who helped guide us through the farm spent his time making various things for us including crowns for both of us and glasses, a bag and a combo bracelet and ring for Sarah!
The tour was not without drama though as at one stage a large Breadfruit fell from a tree and hit Sarah on the head bouncing off onto her shoulder and then onto my arm before hitting the floor. It certainly hurt my arm and Sarah definitely had a slight concussion but on the plus side at least it wasn’t a spiky Durian fruit! After the fire in the room and the incident with the Breadfruit Sarah was starting to think her days were numbered!
The end of the tour featured “the Butterfly”. This is a guy who climbs a coconut tree while singing a well known Swahili song, called Jambo Bwana. He had a great voice and it’s a catchy song so was very enjoyable.
That night we went to a local restaurant where you selected food from a buffet. We had a bit of a seafood feast which we shared with the local cats who sat all around our table as we ate.
The next day we arranged a taxi to take us across the island to the beach town of Paje. This was a one and a half hour journey but at least once out of Zanzibar city the traffic eased.
We were staying in a walled hotel with a nice pool and as we had been on the go for a couple of months at this stage we were happy to have some much needed downtime by the pool.
The only downside to the hotel was that for most of the day, there were only really two sun loungers in the shade (for some reason they didn’t have umbrellas) so it was a race each morning to see who could get the prime seats. The other issue was that they were reluctant to run their generator so we spent significant periods with no power (and therefore no air conditioning and unusually also no water) as the power cuts were frequent and lengthy. The generators of the more expensive hotels seemed to whizz into action as soon as the power cut out as you could hear them all kick in as you walked down the street.
The beach in this part of the island is a big expanse with very shallow water at low tide and then at high tide there is barely any beach left as the water laps against the beachfront hotels and restaurants.
We found a lovely beach bar for sundowner drinks, which also did great food and we may have indulged in the 2 for 1 cocktails a bit too much!
Despite a few minor issues on the whole we had an enjoyable time in Zanzibar but it was soon time to move on. Getting the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam was much more straightforward and much less hectic. The arrival in Dar was busy as expected but we quickly jumped in a Tuk Tuk away from the chaos and spent our last night in Tanzania in a city hotel before leaving for Rwanda the next day.
Rwanda, Uganda, Monkeys and Gorillas
Our flight to Rwanda was fairly inauspicious as Air Rwanda is definitely not one of the better airlines we have flown. A sharp contrast to Malawi Air which was really good. The worst aspect of the flight was that they didn’t turn the air conditioning on for large portions of it and the temperature in the cabin was boiling.
We arrived at Kigali airport, at around 8pm, and easily got sim cards at the desk straight outside arrivals and some money at an ATM nearby. All of the cabs seem to be controlled by a single desk so there was no ability to negotiate on price and we got in a relatively expensive cab to our hotel in Kigali.
By the time we arrived it was pretty late but we were starving so we had a quick meal at the hotel restaurant before collapsing into bed. J had a very early start the next morning.
At 4.30am the next morning I met my Farouk , my guide for my trip to Uganda to see Gorillas and discovered that I was the only person on the trip. It started with a drive out of Kigali into the hills to the North and the Volcanos National Park.
We arrived at the meeting point at Volcanos National Park at 8am which is the same time for all briefings for the various treks that they offer. I wasn’t here to see Gorillas but to see Golden Monkeys. The permit in Rwanda to see gorillas is US$1,500 per person and over the border in Uganda it is only US$800, so I was heading across into Uganda to see them.
However the permit for Golden Monkey treks is only US$100 and the treks are generally much easier than the Gorilla treks as the monkeys are usually found on the edges of the farmland.
Golden Monkeys are a small monkey that is a sub-species of the Sykes or Blue Monkey. They are critically endangered and there are thought to be only around 5,000 remaining, all confined to this range of mountains in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC.
After the briefing and a free (well we had paid for the permit) coffee (made by a barista) we all jumped into our respective cars and headed about 10 minutes down the road to the start of the hike to see the monkeys. We had started off as a group of about 20 but as half the group were French they were split off and taken to another group of monkeys so there were only 10 of us to see this group.
We hiked uphill through farmland for about 30 minutes until we reached the edge of the forest and there we met some rangers who reported that the family of monkeys that we were going to view was only around 20m away. This family was around 100 strong and the biggest of the habituated groups of golden monkeys in Rwanda.
We were led into the forest and into a small clearing and we started to see the monkeys perched in the trees around us. We were free to move around to get the best spots to see the monkeys.
As the hour of viewing time passed the monkeys seemed to get more and more used to us as a group and the came closer and closer. By the end of the hour they were all around us, on the floor and in the trees and seemingly very unbothered.
The hour flew past and we were soon hiking back through the fields to meet our guides in the car park.
For me the next part of the trip was to head towards the Uganda border and cross over into Uganda. This is where my pre-bought Ugandan visa came into play. With all the paperwork in order the border only took about 20 minutes to navigate and was very easy.
There is a visa for Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda that you can buy for $100 but for British passport holders the entry into Rwanda and Kenya are both visa free (although you need an ETA for Kenya). This means that all three countries cost $80 in total (Uganda visa $50, Rwanda Free, Kenya ETA $30) which is actually cheaper than the combined visa of $100.
After stopping for a quick lunch in a town just past the border we soon turned off the paved road onto fairly rough mountain tracks. This is when the thinking behind the choice of a Toyota Landcruiser as the tour vehicle became clear.
The last 30km of the journey took about an hour and a half as we drove through stunning mountain scenery. It really reminded me of Northern Vietnam, which was a real surprise to me.
We arrived at a hill top lodge just 30 minutes drive from where I would be trekking the gorillas the next day. This was the “budget” tour option but the hotel was better than expected and there were some great views of the forest from the veranda of my chalet. It did start pouring with rain soon after we arrived so I did take the option of a quick nap – I mean after all I had been up since 4.
Rain stopped for just before dinner which was a three course meal and quite tasty and I headed to bed straight after.
The next morning we were up before sunrise to have breakfast and get going. The gorilla trek was going to start at sunrise so we headed off in the dark to the sector of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest that my permit was allocated to.
I was expecting to go to a ranger station or visitor centre but we actually just pulled up in the middle of a track where there was a moped parked. This was to be the start of the trek and 2 rangers stepped out of the forest – my guides.
3 trackers had gone on ahead to find where the gorilla family that I had been assigned had moved to. They stay with them all day and then have to track them again in the morning which can be difficult as they can move quite a long way.
As I was here in the wetter season and it is low season I was the only person assigned to this group today and therefore had a private trip.
We set off through the forest towards the last known position of the gorillas. The hiking was very tough as the trails were muddy (low down but fortunately we were heading up, very steep and narrow with lots of trip hazards.
They say that the hike to find the gorillas can take half an hour or several hours well I was “treated” to a three hour hike to get to the gorillas. The trackers were having some problems finding them so it took a while and the last half hour of the hiking was completely off trail through some really difficult terrain.
However eventually we descended into a boggy valley and suddenly I saw my first gorilla and the timer on my 1 hour with them started. Manoeuvring around the valley was pretty difficult as it was very rough terrain and I was very glad that I wasn’t part of a bigger group because the vantage points for watching the gorillas were fairly limited.
First off we made our way over to the primary silverback of the group and we found a great place around 2 metres away from where the silverback was resting with a baby playing on top of him and one of his females as well. At one stage he sat up straight and looked right at me. They seemed completely unbothered by us. He suddenly jumped up and leapt into the bushes and ran off after a female who we had seen in that direction. The speed of his movement was amazing, if he wanted to hurt you it would all be over in a flash !
We then moved position to near the second junior silverback of the group. While watching him and a couple of females around him we were lucky enough to see him sneakily copulate with one of the females. If the primary silverback had seen him there would have been trouble but he got away with it. The guides were very excited to see this and told me that this is very rare !
While in this position one of the younger females walked right by me, within touching distance which was very cool.
The hour seemed to pass in a flash and it wasn’t long until the guides were telling me it was time to leave. The hike out of the valley was hard work as there was no path and a lot of very spiky foliage but we got out on the path and it was then only an hour’s hike back to the pick up point at the edge of the farmland.
I waved goodbye to the rangers and met back up with Farouk for the drive back to Kigali. The drive back was very straightforward and despite stopping for lunch we arrived back at around 4pm. Lunch was in a local Ugandan restaurant just before the border. It was definitely an adventure because it was a served buffet and it was difficult to tell what any of the food actually was. I had some fish and goat and the goat was lovely.
The main impediment to our journey was the huge number of speed cameras in Rwanda ! Farouk told me that not many of the Uganda guides like coming into Rwanda because there are so many cameras and the fines are so big, if they get caught it wipes out their fees for the trip they are doing.
We had a couple of days in Rwanda after the end of the trip. We discovered that although Kigali is a clean and fairly modern capital that there isn’t much to do there.
We did head into the centre of town to explore a bit – and discover that there isn’t much to see. We did see the “Kigali” sign – sited in a pedestrian only strip but not really in an inspiring location.
The one place that all visitors to Rwanda must go though is the Genocide Memorial. We hopped on a pair of motorbike taxis (of which there are thousands in Kigali) and took the 15 minute journey to the memorial.
This is a very sombre place as you learn about the horrendous events of 100 days in 1994 when the Hutu militia had planned and carried out a extermination of members of the Tusti ethnic group. Estimates are that up to 800,000 people were killed in that short period.
The memorial is a good museum that tells the story of the genocide through many personnel stories and really exposes the shameful roles of the many parties. The UN actually had peacekeeping troops on the country who could have stopped the genocide but they withdrew instead allowing the massacres to continue unchecked.
The next destination for us after Rwanda was Kenya and this was to be our last destination in Africa but it was a good one
Kruger National Park – A Self Drive Adventure
There aren’t actually many places that you can fly to from Namibia, so we found ourselves having to fly via Johannesburg which seemed like a great opportunity to stay in South Africa for a few days and visit Kruger National Park – the biggest Game Park in Africa.
The Southern gate, Malelane, is only a four-hour drive from Johannesburg airport where we picked up our rental car. If you follow our blog then you’ll know that we usually rent the cheapest car we can find but we’ve learnt something on this trip, which is that wildlife viewing is much better with a bit of height (especially at this time of year when the grass is long), and a bit of clearance doesn’t go amiss on the game park roads. So this time we opted for a Toyota Urban Cruiser – although we were going to give it a bit of test outside an Urban environment.
We spent the night in a small guesthouse near the town of Mbombela, about one-hour short of the park entrance and the next morning, after picking up some car snacks for our game drives, we drove the rest of the way to Malelane Gate where they explained that payment is taken at the rest camp. This is where our wild card purchase would prove its worth as Kruger costs R535 (that’s about £23) per person per day and we’d booked for five days.
For the first two nights we had arranged to stay at Lower Sabie Rest Camp, which is about 100km from Malelane Gate. Kruger has a good network of paved roads and this journey was paved for most of the way.
The first leg of the journey was to head to Skukuza Rest Camp, which is the biggest rest camp in the park and home to the park administration.
It wasn’t long before we saw our first Elephants right next to the road, as well as a number of Impala (which were to prove our most common sighting).
One of the things we liked about driving around Kruger was that everyone was really happy to share information about where they had seen various animals – not just other self-drivers like us, but also the paid guides.
We hadn’t been in the park very long when someone waved us down and told us that there was a leopard in a tree a few km’s up the road. We sped up and made our way there to where about 10 cars were parked up all looking at a tree about 20m off the road.
We arrived in the nick of time, as only a few minutes later the Leopard got up, climbed to a different branch of the tree to retrieve a half eaten Impala carcass, before descending with its lunch and slinking off into the bushes. We were off to a fantastic start!
The crowd quickly dispersed and we headed on up the road to Skukuza Rest Camp where we stopped at the Cattle Baron restaurant for lunch, which is in a beautiful spot overlooking the Sabie River.
There were a whole bunch of Monkeys at the rest camp but fortunately they didn’t seem to bother people at the restaurant.
After lunch we started our afternoon game drive towards Lower Sabie Camp. We hadn’t gone far when we had to take a diversion from the main road as a result of flooding in January which had washed out the road. The diversion wasn’t too rough though and we were soon back on track.
We took our time on the drive, which is partially along the Sabie River, and were rewarded with a rare sighting of a hungry Hippo out of the water during the day.
As usual, we ended up short on time and running late to get to the camp gate before closing, so we speed up and were making good time when we ran into a herd of Elephants walking down the middle of the road.
There was no way past and we had to sit and wait while they slowly wandered down the road, occasionally stepping off the road to make us think we had an opportunity to pass before stepping right back into the road again.
Eventually they moved off the road allowing us to pass and we hurriedly made our way to the gate, along with a couple of other cars – at least we all had the same excuse! We were 20 minutes late but in true African style there were no worries and we entered the camp without a problem.
We quickly checked in and were given the keys to our room. The hut we had booked was basic with no bathroom but the toilet/ shower block was only about 50m away. Fortunately there was air conditioning, although it was an incredibly old and noisy contraption and with the frequent power cuts it was off as much as it was on. However, as we were learning, when on safari you are out and about for most of the day and your room is really only for sleeping.
In the morning we were up early and headed South towards Crocodile Bridge camp and the Southern gate to the Park. We had a good morning game drive but the absolute highlight was seeing a Cheetah with a year old cub about 30m from the road. They were lazing around under the shade of a bush.
We spent some time watching them and were rewarded with the adult getting up and moving around before slumping back down in the shade. If there is something we have learnt about watching the big cats is that they do sleep a lot of the time but they are also quite restless and if you take a little time to observe them they will shift position from time to time.
For lunch we headed back to Lower Sabie and the Mugg & Bean restaurant overlooking the Sabie River. We’ve found the food in the rest camps at Kruger to be pretty decent and not bad value either.
We headed back out in the afternoon and had our first crocodile sighting, basking in the sunshine on rocks in the Sabie river. That afternoon was fairly uneventful, although we did see a good number of Elephants and when there aren’t that many bigger animals to see there are always an amazing variety of birds.
We had booked an official park game drive for the evening and were desperately hoping it would be better than the one we did in Etosha where we saw very little. This one started in the full dark and when we climbed onboard and the truck started up, we were pleased to find that it lit up like a Christmas tree with spotlights on both sides and two strong white spotting lights. This was much better than the single red spotlight we had in Etosha.
The game drive was two hours long and it felt like every couple of minutes the guide spotted something new. We started off seeing a lot of hippos, who come out of the river to forage at night. In fact we saw so many that the guide refused to stop after the first couple.
We also saw owls, chameleons, a snake in a tree, numerous small deer but the absolute highlight of the nights was coming across 2 lionesses walking down the road. They were patrolling their territory using the road as a convenient path. We followed them as they made their way along, at a fair pace, before having a five minute break to groom themselves and starting their patrol again.
The following day we were due to stay at Satara Camp, which about 100km North of Lower Sabie, so we set off early in the morning for our game drive towards Satara.
It was a long drive at safari pace but we arrived in time for a late lunch. We didn’t see a whole bunch of game on the way despite going slowly and keeping our eyes peeled, some days are just slower than others, but we did see our first Cape Buffalo – the last of the Big 5 for us (although the Rhino bums at night in Etosha did feel a bit inadequate).
However as we approached Satara we did see some Waterbuck, which were a new animal to us. They only live near water as they need to drink several times a day and they have a gland which secretes a musky oil onto their skin so they are not a popular prey animal for the big cats.
Satara is not on the water but it seemed a much busier camp than Lower Sabie. We had a bathroom in our room here and a small balcony which was nice although we had paid a little extra for this accommodation (almost twice as much but it was the cheapest accommodation available).
The restaurant at Satara was again very good and we settled down to a late lunch when we arrived.
On our afternoon game drive we saw a Lion walking along the road almost as soon as we started, although she soon headed off into the bushes. This is the first animal we’ve seen wearing a tracking collar.
We had a long game drive but didn’t manage to make the full loop we had planned to do before we had to turn around and make it back to camp for sunset.
Having done a night-time safari drive we wanted to also try a sunrise drive, which in practice meant getting up at a shockingly early 3.45am as we had to be at the departure point for 4.15am. I’m not going to lie, it was a struggle but it was well worth it as we had some incredible sightings.
This game drive was all about Lions – we came upon one group in the pre-dawn darkness who were relaxing on the roadside with a couple of skittish hyenas hanging around several metres away. This pride had a couple of playful young cubs who were jumping on the adults when they weren’t looking.
We drove on from this pride of Lions and as the sky brightened we came across another pride of 11 Lions that were also sitting on the road.
The Lions apparently like to sleep on the tarmac roads because they retain the heat of the day and are dry, unlike the dewy grass.
This pride was made up of lionesses, some older cubs and a couple of teenage male lions whose manes were just starting to grow in.
We stayed with these guys for quite a while until they started to wander off into the long grass.
That was a great game drive with 20 Lions as well as the usual assortment of Zebra, Giraffe and miscellaneous bambis !
We were pretty tired after our early start so we stayed in camp until after lunch when we headed back out. Unfortunately there is no pool at Satara so we couldn’t relax in quite the same fashion as at the other rest camps but it does have nice grounds to wander around in.
We had come to the end of our stay in Kruger but we were leaving by the Orpen Gate which is due West of Satara. So, with our binoculars at the ready we headed off on our final game drive.
The absolute highlight of this drive was coming across 3 Wild Dogs (or Painted Wolves as they are also known) who were using a raised area of the road as a lookout from where they were watching herds of Wildebeest and Zebra grazing. We watched as they cautiously approached a sole Wildebeest, however he had spotted them and bellowed loudly. Suddenly a number of Wildebeest appeared out of nowhere and once he had back-up he aggressively approached the dogs who eventually backed off. It was fascinating to watch this interaction.
This was a great end to our Kruger safari but we weren’t quite finished with South Africa. We had decided to follow the Panoramic Route back to Johannesburg which is a loop that goes through the Blyde River Canyon via a number of waterfalls and viewpoints.
Our first stop was actually in Blyde River Canyon itself but the viewpoint isn’t particularly spectacular and it was far too hot for a hike, so we drove all the way around to the far side of the canyon where we stopped off at the Three Rondavels viewpoint, which truly was spectacular.
Our next stop was at Bourke’s Luck Potholes (named after a gold prospector), which involved a short walk along a canyon and then over a bridge and back around to the start. It’s an attractive location although we felt a little overpriced.
However, there is a pretty waterfall and the canyon itself is worth seeing.
It had been a long day by this stage so we made our way to the town of Graskop where we had arranged our overnight accommodation. As this was our last proper night in South Africa we went out for dinner and I tried Warthog stew, as a local guide in Namibia had told me that this was his favourite game meat.
I must say I was a bit underwhelmed and wouldn’t rush to try it again.
The next morning we headed out early to Lisbon falls and then Berlin falls where there a viewpoints to see the cascades.
We also checked out a short hike to a rock mount called The Pinnacle.
We then returned to Graskop where we took the elevator down into Graskop gorge. There is a boardwalk around the bottom of the gorge with some very informative boards telling you about the fauna and flora of the area and if you want to splash a bit more cash they also have a zipline and bungee swing across the gorge.
Our final stop on the Panoramic Route was Mac Mac Falls, where a short trail leads to a caged-in viewpoint over the pretty waterfall.
Leaving Graskop and Mac Mac Falls behind us we had a three hour drive back to Johannesburg for our early morning flight to Tanzania the next day. That was the end of our amazing adventure in South Africa and Namibia but we still had a few more countries to explore in Africa before heading home.
Dunes, a Ghost Town and a very big Canyon
After the very smelly visit to Cape Cross we had a much needed laundry day in Walvis Bay. We’d been on the go every day since arriving in Namibia and both felt like we needed a day to chill, so we booked into an apartment with a separate lounge and kitchen which gave us a little more space to kick back and relax.
There’s no rest for the wicked though and the following morning we were on our way again to our next destination, which was going to be a five hour drive through the mountains and into the deep desert.
We had almost reached the Tropic of Capricorn – a waypoint on the journey when we felt and heard the unmistakeable thud, thud, thud of a flat tyre. We’d finally got one of the punctures that Namibia is renowned for handing out. It was hot work to change the tyre but it wasn’t long before we were back on our way again.
The only stop on the way was the tiny hamlet of Solitaire which has a petrol station, a tyre repair shop (where we were told our tyre was unfortunately beyond repair) and a café with a sign claiming to have the best apple pie in Namibia. Well that was all the incentive we needed to pop in and give it a try. The verdict – delicious and so big we couldn’t actually finish it.
We finally reached our destination, which was a camp in the desert at a place called Sesriem. Stepping out of the car here was like opening an oven door with a strong blast of hot air.
We had a hut here with a BBQ station and picnic table on a patio outside and each evening while eating dinner we were observed from a distance by a scavenging Black-Backed Jackal, whom we observed just as curiously in return. We also saw an Oryx wandering around the camp.
Fortunately the hot days descended into cool nights and while it definitely wasn’t cold, the evenings and early mornings were much more comfortable.
The reason we had come to this part of Namibia was to visit Sossusvlei, which is famous for its huge dunes. In fact, ‘Big Daddy’ is the biggest dune in the world.
The dunes are in a National Park and the gates to the park only open at sunrise. The famous shots of the Deadvlei Trees is actually located 60km inside the gates, so if this is what you want to capture, you need to be at the gates for opening time and then travel the 60km’s hoping to arrive in time to get the good light on the dunes. It’s worth knowing that you can pay the entrance fee on the way out so you don’t have to stop for that.
There is a speed limit of 60km in the park so it should take an hour to travel the 60km distance but everyone was exceeding the speed limit so the journey was a bit quicker than this.
At the 60km mark the good tarmac road becomes a 4×4 sandy track for 5km before it reaches the car park for Deadvlei. We had heard conflicting advice about this track and whether it was better to take the shuttle or drive it yourself. Given that we had rented a 4×4 truck we decided to give it a go and drive it ourselves, so after dropping the tyres down to 1.6 bar to cope with the soft sand, we engaged 4×4 and headed off. For the most part the track wasn’t too bad, there were really only a couple of sections where the driving became a little tricky through the deeper drifts of sand, but we made it to the car park without too much trouble.
The car park is about 700m from Deadvlei (meaning dead marsh), famous for its salt pan and ancient fossilised camelthorn trees that are thought to be over 900 years old. Having tried to get there as early as we could the sun hadn’t quite hit the salt pan yet so we were just in time for the good light and for relatively cool temperatures.
After exploring the pan I decided to climb up the dune next to the pan and rather than go round to the main path I went straight up the side. This was a huge mistake as it was very steep and the sand meant that I kept sliding back down. I ended up climbing on all fours and was shattered by the time I had reached the top. I even heard a guide telling one of his guests that I was crazy for coming up that way.
The views made it all worthwhile though.
After a couple of hours we made our way back to the car and started driving out of Sossusvlei, stopping off for photos at some of the dunes on the way back out of the park.
Near the entrance to the park is a turning for another rough road which leads to the Sesriem Canyon. This doesn’t look like much from road level but you can drop down into the canyon and usually go for a walk along it. However there had been some recent heavy rain and as a result the canyon was flooded. This meant that unfortunately we couldn’t walk all along it but we went as far as we could.
The temperature had been pretty reasonable throughout the morning but by this time it was starting to get up into the high 30’s, so it was time for us to retreat back to our air-conditioned hut. We emerged in the early evening for a sunset beer and BBQ dinner with our watchful, neighbourly Jackal but after our early start we were ready for an early night.
Our next destination was much further South in Namibia and another long drive, so we set out early, again. After fuelling up and readjusting our tyre pressure to 1.8 bar for gravel roads, we set off.
After a smooth quick ride for the first few kilometres on a paved road we turned onto a gravel road which we would follow for the rest of the journey. The gravel road was ok but it was long and straight and there wasn’t much in the way of views so it felt like a very long day.
We stopped at the tiny hamlet of Helmeringhausen to break the journey, which is not much more than a petrol station and a very pretty country hotel and restaurant but it was nice to get out of the truck and stretch our legs. We relaxed in the shade of the hotel gardens with a cool glass of homemade lemonade and a slice of their Apple Cake, which is advertised as the best in Namibia. Well we had tried the best Apple Pie in Namibia so it felt only right to try the best Apple Cake in Namibia and to be fair it was also delicious. More of an Apple Crumble to us Brits than a cake but in our humble opinion, the better of the two we’d had this week.
From Helmeringhausen it wasn’t too far to our final destination of the day of Aus. We had decided to stay here to break our journey and the next morning set off early for the coastal town of Luderitz.
Not far from Aus is an area called the Klein Aus Vista, which is home to wild horses and a lot of Oryx. It’s a real desert and how the horses manage to scratch a living here is amazing. It is believed that they came from German army horses that were set free when the Germans left Namibia during WW1. We were lucky to see some right at the side of the road, as well as at a waterhole that has been built especially for them.
Just outside Luderitz, and the reason we had travelled to this part of the country, lies the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop. At one time this was the richest town in the world after the discovery of diamonds in the area.
Kolmanskop was established in 1908 and many mod-cons were installed in the town including a large hospital (with its own wine cellar!), power station, bowling alley, swimming pool, ice factory and the first x-ray machine in the southern hemisphere.
The town began to decline in the 1920’s as the diamonds began to be exhausted and when, in 1928, huge diamond deposits were discovered 270km away, many of the inhabitants abruptly left.
The last inhabitants left in 1956 and now the town is a monument to the diamond rush as it decays and is slowly submerged by the sand of the surrounding desert. It is a popular tourist destination and the guided tour was really interesting, but for me, the abandoned buildings half filled with sand were the real highlight and a photographer’s playground.
The astonishing thing about the diamonds in Kolmanskop was that they just littered the ground and could simply be picked up off the floor. This led the authorities to create a large Forbidden Zone around the diamond fields. Any unauthorised access was banned and all workers were searched when leaving. The x-ray machine was actually for the workers to ensure they had not ingested any diamonds rather than for medical purposes!
After exploring Kolmanskop we headed to the town of Luderitz where we were due to spend the night. Luderitz is a major port town – one of only a handful on the West coast of Southern Africa. As such it is a fairly large industrial town although there is some colonial German architecture to admire.
We were coming to the end of our time in Namibia but we had one more place we wanted to visit – Fish River Canyon, which is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon.
We had planned to stay the night in the town of Keetmanshoop which is about a 4 hour drive from Luderitz on a good paved road.
Just near Keetmanshoop is the Quiver Tree Forest which has a concentration of the desert Quiver Trees. The hollow branches of these trees were used to create quivers for the arrows of the San people – hence the name.
We had a bit of a surprise in the evening when prolonged torrential rain flooded the small studio apartment we were staying in. Water poured in from behind the toilet (thankfully not from the sewer) and was dripping through the ceiling at numerous points. Fortunately for us the owners of the apartment were able to stem the flow before it completely flooded us and we had enough containers to catch the drips until the rain subsided.
We were concerned that the heavy rain would make the journey to Fish River Canyon much harder. However by the following morning, aside from a few puddles, most of the water had drained away and the dirt roads were in pretty good shape apart from the last few kilometres before reaching the park.
We visited a number of the viewpoints over the canyon on very rough tracks but descending to the canyon floor is banned at this time of year and even in the winter hiking is only allowed with a permit. With it being the rainy season and the recent heavy rain we had hoped to see the river flowing at the bottom but unfortunately the river bed was mostly dry with just a few pockets of water.
After a picnic lunch we retraced our steps back to Keetmanshoop where we spent the night before driving the long, tarmac road back to Windhoek for our flight out of Namibia the next day.
Magical Damaraland
It was going to take a lot to live up to our experience in Etosha and we weren’t quite sure what to expect as we headed towards Damaraland but we were feeling pretty positive as Namibia hadn’t disappointed us so far.
We stayed the night in a fairly eclectic guest house in a small town called Kamanjab, where there was very little to do other than to visit an ancient rock engraving site.
The engravings (called Peet Alberts), which are the second largest concentration of rock engravings in Namibia, are on private land, so in order to visit them you have to get a key to the gate from Oppi-Koppi Rest Camp and then drive 5km out of town to the site.
There is a short walk up a small hill of tumbled rocks to the top where a series of painted white arrows direct you around the animal and abstract rock engravings, of which there are said to be between 1,200-1,500. The engravings were created by two distinct ethnic groups, the San/ Bushman are responsible for the animal engravings which could be up to 25,000 years old and the more recent geometric abstract designs are those of the Khoekoen people, which are dated between 400-2,500 years old.
The engravings mostly feature animals, in particular giraffes as the larger the animal the more supernatural potency they were considered to have as, for the Bushman, the art is part of their Shamanism religion and this site may have been considered a gateway to the spiritual world. Other images that can be found here are zebra, elephants, oryx, human figures, animal prints and a human footprint amongst other things.
It was amazing being able to wander around the rocks at our own pace, discovering the engravings with no one else there and not something you would be able to do in many places around the world.
After this brief excursion we returned the key and left Kamanjab heading South on a gravel road towards Twyfelfontein, stopping on the way to visit the Petrified Forest.
This tour requires a guide to walk you around the site where we were first shown the famous Welwitschia plants. These are amazing plants that have adapted to desert-like conditions and very low rainfall (they have had no rainfall in this area for 2 years to date). The plants have only two very broad rubbery leaves which become split over the years by the action of the wind. These plants can live to over 1,500 years old and are the longest lived plant in the world.
A few of the petrified trees have been exposed by erosion in this area. It is believed that they were actually deposited here millions of years ago when Africa was still part of Gondwanaland, having been moved hundreds of miles from what is now central Africa by floodwaters.
The trees were buried and under extreme pressure minerals were pushed into their structure gradually turning them to stone but keeping the form of the trees, including the rings and form of the bark. They have taken on different colours depending on the minerals that they absorbed. This was an interesting stopover but walking around in the searing mid afternoon sun wasn’t the best and we were grateful to get back to the air-conditioning of the cab and continue on our way to Twyfelfontein.
In Twyfelfontein there is a real lack of accommodation choices so we booked a tent at Twyfelfontein Adventure Camp which was way over our normal budget. This was not your normal tent though – think luxury glamping, it even had a bathroom. In fact the whole place was amazing, a real treat for us after some of the dubious backpacking hostels we have stayed in on this trip.
This part of the world is very hot so early morning and late afternoon are the best times to move around – we were lucky to be staying somewhere with a swimming pool (in fact it had 2) to allow you to cool off in the baking afternoon.
The tented camp was at the foot of a rocky hill on which live a troop of baboons and in the afternoon they would come down from the hillside to drink from the small artificial waterhole in front of the camp. In the night you could hear their cries from the rocks behind the tents.
One of the best things about the camp was that they had built a staircase and path up the rocky hill to the top where they have set up a small bar. This made it the perfect place for a sundowner as the views from the top were beautiful in the setting sun.
The camp was also half board and the food was excellent, each evening they served up a great Braai for dinner.
There were two reasons we had come to Twyfelfontein: the first is that it is a world heritage site for its bushman rock art and the second is that it is possible to do a game drive to see desert adapted animals.
We booked a game drive through the lodge and it started immediately after an early breakfast when we were loaded into the back of an open seated Landcruiser (unfortunately in the bumpy back seats). Almost immediately we turned off the gravel road onto a track and then dropped into a dry sandy riverbed. This was going to be a bumpy trip!
As there hasn’t been any rain in this area for 2 years all the rivers are dry and the concern from the locals about the effect of global warming is palpable, however there is still some underground water so there are plenty of green trees lining the river beds and it is these which provide food for the majority of the animals to be found in this area.
Our first spot was a small deer and then we came across some giraffes and a sizeable herd of ostrich but we weren’t here to see those.
We had come to see the desert-adapted elephants and it wasn’t long before we found two bull elephants grazing on a fallen tree. They are not a distinct sub-species but they have longer trunks (for digging for water), bigger feet (for walking on sand) and they only need water every 4 days. They are also more aggressive than normal elephants – I suppose only drinking every 4 days makes them tetchy.
Our guide was an amazing tracker and he was able to follow the elephant footprints in the sand – distinguishing the age of the prints from how faded they were by the wind.
We spent a couple of hours tracking down a couple of groups of elephants with babies in tow and had some really good encounters with them.
It was a great trip and highly recommended even though by the end of it we were feeling pretty beaten up as the back of the Landcruiser was like a rollercoaster.
The Unesco rock art site was only a short distance from the camp and we decided to visit first thing the following morning when it was bit cooler. A good decision as there was no shade anywhere on the walk through the engravings.
This site requires you to have a guided tour but you have your own private guide. The engravings here are younger than those at Kamanjab, only between 3 and 5 thousand years old! However this meant that they were a bit more complex and better preserved.
Researchers think that some of the engravings served as a map to the nomadic San people. They would indicate sources of water and the presence of game and dangerous animals to help other groups of people who moved through the area.
The most famous of the engravings here shows a lion with a strange tail which represents a shaman.
After our luxurious break at Twyfelfontein we continued to move South through the beautiful landscape to the town of Aus near the Brandberg mountains. The gravel roads up until this point had been in good shape but this one was definitely hard going with some deep sand, potholes and corrugations.
Aus is a mining town and doesn’t have a whole lot to recommend it but it is close to a short hike to some paintings in the Brandberg mountains that we wanted to see.
This is more Bushman art, but younger still, at between 2 and 3 thousand years old and these are actually paintings rather than engravings.
The site of the paintings is actually a 2.5km hike up through a dry river valley and you have to have a guide to take you there.
The paintings themselves are in a small cave formed by an overhang. The famous white lady is in fact neither white nor a lady and is said to be the representation of a shaman. It is now very faded, a process which has been accelerated by water being poured over the paintings for many years in the past to ‘bring out the colours’ for visitors. Our guide believes that within10 years the image may have completely gone. I hope he is wrong and on the plus side while we were there it was good to see a team assessing the site for UNESCO heritage status.
We managed to get back to the car before the temperature became too unbearable and we left Damaraland to head back to the much cooler coast.
After an easy drive along a rare tarmac road towards the coast and then a very good salt road (which are great until it rains), we reached Cape Cross. Cape Cross is the largest seal colony in Africa with as many as 250,000 seals.
When you arrive here and open the car door the first thing that hits you is the over-powering stench of the seals. It’s so bad it feels like a physical blow. I don’t think that I’ve ever actually smelt something so bad.
The smell was actually so bad that the day after it still permeated our clothes and we had to wash everything.
At Cape Cross there is a boardwalk to view the seals and they are everywhere, under the boardwalk, next to it and lining the rocky beach. It’s a noisy place to be as all those seals make a real cacophony.
By the water there were hundreds of baby seals, with only a relatively few adults as most of the adults would be at sea fishing for food.
We could only stay here for around 30 minutes as eventually the stench overpowered us and we retreated to the car, which also stank for days afterwards, continuing our drive along the coast to Walvis Bay which was a convenient stop on the way to our next destination.
Etosha in the Wet Season: Is it as bad as they say?
The thing about Namibia is that the distances between places are vast. The next stop on our trip was Etosha, which is a massive National Park. We decided to break the journey by stopping for the night in Outjo, around 100km before Etosha.
This gave us our first taste of the gravel roads in Namibia and we were pretty impressed. To be honest we have driven far worse paved roads. The gravel just makes for slow going though as we are limited to 80km/hr on gravel by the GPS tracker in the rental truck. If we go too fast it emits a loud piercing beep and if we have an accident within 5 minutes of the beep going off, the insurance is not valid. On the plus side, the rental company knows where we are at all times so if something does go wrong they would be able to find us. This is somewhat reassuring when you can drive for long stretches without seeing any signs of life.
As we moved northwards the temperatures rose, the soil turned red and we started to be surrounded by hundreds of huge termite mounds.
The guesthouse in Outjo had a decent bar and restaurant so we relaxed there for the evening and drove onto Etosha early the next day.
We would be visiting Etosha in the middle of the rainy season. No one recommends coming here at this time of year due to the fact that the wildlife is more difficult to see. With plentiful water, the animals are more dispersed and do not cluster around the waterholes as they would in the dry season. However, on the plus side, there is hardly anyone else around so no traffic and, it’s baby season, so there are lots of very cute baby animals around.
We entered the park through Andersson gate and could immediately see that it had been raining with lots of standing water at the side of the road.
But nevertheless, it wasn’t long before we had our first sighting, a group or muster of Maribou Stork. These storks are very cool and can’t help but remind you of an undertaker with their stiff legged gait and weird cape like wings. These guys can grow to 150cm tall and have a wingspan as big as 2.6m.
The camp that we were staying at, Okaukuejo camp, is only 17km from the gate so we quickly reached it and managed to check in to our room straight away. We had a large semi-detached room with a small kitchen/lobby and a bbq outside. It also had air conditioning, which we were very grateful for because the outside temperature was in the mid-30’s.
After dropping our stuff off we headed to the shop to purchase a map of the park. Disappointingly they told us they were out of stock, however we had already downloaded the Tracks4Africa app which turned out to be essential as we headed out on our first proper game drive. The great thing about self driving in a safari park is that you can pick and choose what you do and go as slow or fast as you like.
It wasn’t long before we saw our first herd of Springbok, and it wasn’t much longer after that when we realised that they were everywhere! In fact, we eventually banned each other from pointing out Springbok because they were so numerous.
The highlight of our first game drive was spotting a hyena paddling around in large puddle. We saw him from a distance but as we drove closer he started to head away from us. We only managed to get a couple of shots but we were really happy at this great start to our Etosha experience.
This was definitely the highlight of our first game drive and we returned to camp to cool off in the air-conditioning in the heat of the afternoon.
Around 4pm we headed out on another game drive this time going the other way from the camp. It wasn’t long before we spotted our first giraffes. Surprisingly they weren’t eating from trees but bending down to eat from the Spiky Mopane bushes that are apparently one of their favourite foods. They use there lips to strip the branches of the newer leaves oblivious to the nasty spikes.
This was going to be a recurring sighting for us and we saw giraffes on every game drive that we did in Etosha.
The route that we picked this time involved some pretty waterlogged roads and some fairly deep mud. We actually engaged 4×4 for the first time. Along one of the roads we went past a dumper truck that had buried itself axle deep in some mud and a whole bunch of workmen were trying to pull it out with a grader. Not an easy job at the best of times but probably much harder when you have to keep an eye out for lions at the same time! Fortunately we managed to keep unstuck the whole route though.
Normal advice for Etosha is to go to the waterholes as this is where animals gather to drink. Well, not in the wet season as there was water everywhere and nothing needed to risk exposing itself at a waterhole when water was easily accessible across the park – including some huge puddles across the roads. In fact, in our whole time in Etosha, we barely saw any animals at the waterholes except in the much more arid West of the park.
This means that you have to be very patient and spend significant periods of time driving the roads looking out for the wildlife. We found that you could actually go for quite a while without really seeing anything and then all of a sudden there would be a whole bunch of animals relatively near to each other.
We made it back to camp about 5 minutes before the gates closed at sunset and headed back to our chalet, checking out the camp’s waterhole on the way, but there was nothing to see.
We had brought some charcoal, firewood and food with us so that we could have a BBQ/ Braai in the evenings so we sat outside with a cold beer as we set about cooking dinner.
The next morning we were up early to be through the gates when they opened at sunrise. We saw giraffes again, really close to the camp with the sunrise in the background.
The absolute highlight of this drive, which came after checking out a whole bunch of waterholes with absolutely nothing to see, was a shady tree right next to the road where we spotted a lioness with a very full stomach resting in the shade. We were so surprised to see her right next to the road that we drove right past her and almost missed her. We quickly reversed, parked up and turned the engine off so as not to disturb her.
The red stains around her face and a big swollen belly were signs of a recent meal although we didn’t see any evidence of the kill nearby. It was such a privilege to be so close to such a beautiful animal and we sat and watched her for at least 30 minutes before moving off. The beauty of being here during off season is that despite being right by the road we were the only vehicle around and had her all to ourselves.
Around 1pm, after being in the park since 6.30am we went back to the camp for a bit of a break and took the opportunity to have a swim and sit by the pool for a couple of hours.
We went back out around 4.00pm for an evening game drive knowing that we had to be back to the camp before the gates shut at 7.30pm.
On returning to the camp it was time for another BBQ and we enjoyed some delicious Namibian steaks. The steaks in both South Africa and Namibia have been fantastic and so much cheaper than in Europe.
The next morning we were up early again and this time we headed out to explore an area called The Phantom Forest, which was home to big herds of Zebra. We must have seen a thousand Zebra in this area along with lots of Wildebeest and Springbok.
Turning down one road leading to a waterfall we sadly found a dead zebra lying across the road. Nothing was eating it and there were no marks on the body other than congealed blood around the nostrils. We later learnt from a ranger that this suggested the zebra had died of anthrax poisoning which apparently can be a problem in Etosha in the wet season as it is naturally occurring in the ground. Lions won’t touch the corpse but Hyenas and Vultures will as they are immune. We actually drove back the next morning and nothing was left but the bones, even the skin was gone.
The highlight of the day for us was in the late afternoon when we came across a pride of lions lounging in the shade. There were 9 lionesses and 6 cubs and they were all about 30m from the road in the shade of some bushes.
We settled in to watch them and ended up staying for around 2 hours while other vehicles came and went around us. The advantage of spending time with them was that while we were there, a small herd of wildebeest and then 2 small herds of zebras wandered by, very close to where they were resting.
We could see the lions become more alert as the herds came closer and each time one of the lions would break off and decide to try and catch some dinner.
They didn’t seem to be working together and it was always a solo chase, each of which ended in failure. It was amazing to watch the lions leap into action and then slowly slink back to their location in the shade.
Unfortunately we couldn’t stay with them any longer as it was our last evening in Etosha and we had booked to go on a night drive so we had to get back to camp. This was a paid excursion in one of the National Park vehicles. We set out at 7pm for the 3 hour drive, so we had around an hour in fading light before it was pitch black.
We did see a couple of rhinos in the dark, who were very keen to move away but no predators and overall the experience was quite disappointing. The issue was that the guide/driver had a red spotlight but that was the only light we had. It wasn’t very bright and it made spotting things very hard and even when something was found it wasn’t possible to take pictures or really see very much.
On our last day in the park we checked out and started the long drive to the Western end of the park. We needed to drive almost 200km through the park, which at safari pace (approx 25 kph) is a long drive.
It was an interesting drive as the landscaped changed the further west we went. Everything became much drier and it was here that we actually saw animals around some of the waterholes. The landscape also became hillier as we went west compared to the flat plains and big salt pan in the middle of the park.
We saw our first Namibian Eland in the Western end of the park although they were very skittish and exited quickly before we could get a picture.
Eventually we reached the Western Gate and then had an hours journey to a nearby town where we had booked into a guesthouse for the night.
Overall we really enjoyed Etosha, it was very quiet and we didn’t see many other vehicles while we were out on the game drives. It’s definitely harder to find animals in the wet season however they are still out there and we felt that our patience was rewarded. You do need to be prepared for some bad roads in the park with quite a lot of water on them though. In South Africa we had been fine with a normal car in game parks after heavy rain but that car would not have coped with the road conditions in Etosha so spending a bit more on a truck instead turned out to be a good idea.
Namibia
We arrived in Windhoek airport and after negotiating our way through security and customs we were greeted by a taxi driver from our car hire company. He took us to the mobile phone shop to get SIM cards and then we headed off for the 45 minute drive into Windhoek.
Our car hire for Namibia isn’t the normal cheapest small car that we can get. The roads here can be rough and most of them aren’t tarmacked. So we’ve hired a double cab Toyota hilux 4×4. Its almost as long as out camper.
The handover for the car rental took a little while as they showed us where both spare wheels are, how the fridge works and how to work the 4×4. Then we went to the office to get given the rules – basically don’t go too fast on the gravel roads and if you roll it over you pay for it !
Once done we headed into central Windhoek to check in to our slightly shonky backpackers for the night. We didn’t hang around for long though because we headed out for dinner at Joe’s Beerhouse – a real Windhoek institution, where game meat is the speciality. It didn’t disappoint and zebra, oryx and kudu were all delicious !
First thing in the morning we jumped in the car – filled up the mostly empty double tank (giving us a range of 1,200km), fortunately diesel in Namibia is less than £1 per litre – and got on the road to Swakopmund. This is probably the easiest drive in all of Namibia because It Is tarmac all the way and a fast drive.
Swakopmund is the main holiday destination for Namibians as it is constantly at least 10c cooler than the rest of the country and is a really pleasant maritime climate. Unlike most of us the Namibians want somewhere cooler for their holidays when average temperatures over most of the rest of the country are in the high 30’s.
On our first day in Swakopmund we booked a 4×4 trip to Sandwich Harbour. We had uhmed and ahed over whether to self drive this but it didn’t take long to realise that would have been a serious mistake.
The trip started with a drive to Walvis Bay – the biggest harbour in Southern Africa – where we saw Flamingos and Pelicans in the shallows of the big lagoon.
We drove out of the town and onto the beach after passing by a salt works. The driving in the sand above the beach wasn’t too bad but our driver was going fast in his lifted Toyota Fortuner.
It wasn’t long however until we turned away from the beach and suddenly we were driving in dunes, massive dunes. Hurtling up them and then hitting the top and after pausing at the type like a rollercoaster we were flying down the side. This was serious driving and I’m sure we would have been stuck in minutes if we were driving.
The views were amazing as we were surrounded on all sides by huge sandy dunes. We stopped to have a look around and take in the surroundings and then our guide offered us the chance to run down a huge dune to the beach where he would meet us. I was off taking giant strides down the 45 degree slope and flying down in an avalanche of sand. It was exhilarating.
Now we were on the beach with the big dunes too are left and the sea to our left. This place is like nowhere else we have been. The scale of it is difficult to comprehend and the pictures just don’t do the majesty of this place justice.
We drove along the beach until we turned back into the dunes and climbed up to a viewpoint over Sandwich harbour. This is a huge lagoon that is protected from the sea by a spit. However in recent years the water has been contaminated by seawater so is no longer the fresh water haven it was.
After seeing Sandwich harbour we went back into the dunes and spotted some small shovel nosed geckos that live in the dunes before we went to another viewpoint.
It was here that our guide setup a picnic table with a very meaty (typical Namibian) light lunch for us and also set out some cold beers which were much appreciated.
From here it was back to Walvis Bay retracing our steps through the dunes – although we did spot a springbok amongst the grasses on the smaller dunes.
It was a really good trip and it was definitely a place like we have never been before anywhere else in the world. A great first introduction to the natural beauty of Namibia.
On our second day in Swakopmund we had arranged to go to Pelican Point and go Kayaking with Seals. This involved and early start and we had to drive back to Walvis Bay which was the start of the trip. We loaded up in a 4×4 landcruiser bus and headed round the same lagoon we had seen the previous day. We stopped to see the Flamingos and Pelicans again and then instead of turning left after the Saltworks we carried straight on until the gravel road ran out and we turned onto a sandy spit that was at least 1km wide and 10km long.
As we drove along the spit towards the seal colony we saw a number of Black backed Jackals who are scavengers that eat dead seals, of which there are plenty. There is no water for them here so they have to commute from the mainland every day but there is plenty of easy food so they keep coming back.
We eventually got the to the first part of the seal colony and there were a mass of 100’s of seals on the beach and in the water. There were also loads of tiny baby seals, outnumbering the adults. Many of the adults were out to sea, catching fish to feed themselves and the pups, while a few designated carers were left behind to look after the young.
The colony of Cape Fur Seals here is 50,000 strong and Namibia is home to 1.5 million seals.
We parked up right next to the water and just 100m from the nearest concentration of seals. The guide unloaded the kayaks and we were ready to go.
We jumped into one of the kayaks and immediately headed off towards a small pier that used to be used to bring supplies to the lighthouse which is on the other side of the spit. This pier was covered in seals and the water around it was also full of seals swimming around.
The seals were jumping off the wall into the water and others were jumping out of the water onto the wall. However jumping out of the water wasn’t as easy and at least half the time they jumped and bounced off the wall to fall back into the water !
We spend the next hour and a half cruising round the seal colony and a platform out in the water. The seals at near the colony were a bit more skittish than the more adventurous seals who were sitting out on the platform.
The ones out on the platform were mostly pups and they were really playful. We had one nibbling on our paddles and come right up to the side of the kayak. We thought he was going to jump in at one stage.
At the end of our time there we were really reluctant to head back to shore as it had been a really lovely encounter with such a large amount of seals. We actually enjoyed it more than we had the swimming with seals in South Africa.
If you are in Namibia this is a real must do experience.
Once back on sure we were served a light lunch on the beach – well a couple of cheese and tomato sandwiches and then it was back in the van to go back to Walvis Bay.
Cape Town
We were nearing the end of our trip to South Africa and had yet to visit Cape Town and the surrounding area, but first we wanted to visit Betty’s Bay, home to an African penguin colony.
The African Penguin (previously known as the Jackass Penguin because of the braying donkey noise it makes) is the most northerly occurring penguin species and is the only penguin species that lives on the African Continent.
The African Penguin’s range is from Namibia in the North to Port Elizabeth in the East but there are very few mainland colonies, of which Betty’s Bay is one.
From the car park the penguins are only a few steps away and their numbers stretch along the rocky shoreline. There are also thousands of cormorants nesting amongst the rocks as well as quite a few Dassie (which look a bit like marmots but are apparently unrelated).
A boardwalk runs partway along the beach and there is a fee to access it, however the majority of the penguins were on the beach before we even reached the paying boardwalk and regardless, we had free access with our SANParks Wild Card. The wild card provides unlimited entrance to over 80 South African National Parks and Reserves for a year and has proven to be a great buy saving us quite a lot of money on this trip.
From Betty’s Bay we drove along the beautiful coastline towards Cape Town. The weather was raining on and off and it was incredibly windy but we had intermittent patches of blue sky and sunshine to enjoy the views.
We were planning to spend a couple of nights in the town of Hout Bay which is just to the South of Cape Town itself. Hout Bay is a big protected bay and is primarily a commuter town for Cape Town. Despite it being protected however, the wind was so strong that the water was very choppy and full of whitecaps. When we woke the next morning we had to retrieve our patio furniture which had been blown right across the garden of our rental property.
We had planned to meet up with some friends in Cape Town (Adrian and Magda @admaadventures), fellow motor-homers who we met last year while travelling through Croatia, and were looking forward to catching up.
They drove over from Kommetjie, a lovely area to the south of Hout Bay, to pick us up and take us out for an epic day of sightseeing, starting with the very scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive along the Atlantic Coast. They even brought along various snacks for the drive which we learnt were called Padkos.
We had a great day with them as they showed us the sights of the Cape peninsula.
We visited a local fishing harbour and had a brief stop over at picturesque Simonstown to visit ‘Just Nuisance’ before heading to Boulder’s Beach to check out the famous penguin colony there. This is more touristy than the colony at Betty’s Bay but much more scenic because of the white sandy beach.
We then headed south to the Cape of Good Hope (the most south-western point of Africa) where we hiked as far south as it was possible to go. It was still incredibly windy and some of the viewpoints were actually a struggle to look over the parapet. You had to hang on really tight to your phone if you wanted a picture!
Cape point is expensive to visit for international visitors (£20 each) but we were pleased when our wild card was also accepted here. At the Southern tip you can hike to a lighthouse and some viewpoints (or there is a funicular if you don’t want to climb) plus a small museum and gift shop. There is also a path that leads out to another lighthouse on the cliffs at the waters edge but you can’t get all the way there.
After visiting Cape Point Adrian and Magda took us to their beautiful local beach in Kommetjie before finishing up at Adrian’s parents house for a swim and real South African Braai.
We had an unforgettable day with Adrian and Magda and are really grateful that they took the time out to be so hospitable. Truly fantastic hosts and we look forward to seeing them again when we are all back in Europe!
After parting ways with Adrian and Magda our next and final stop was to be Cape Town but on the way there Sarah’s Welshness couldn’t let her pass by Llandudno Beach without stopping (which to be fair was very pretty and well worth the visit) and after lazing on the beach for a while we stopped again a little further along the coast at Camp’s Bay where we had lunch in one of the many beachside restaurants.
I’d been to Camps Bay before but in the winter when it was cold and pretty deserted. It is definitely more lively in the summer and the seawater pool looked very inviting.
From here we headed into the centre of Cape Town where we had booked an apartment with views of Table Mountain but on the way into town we drove up Signal hill to take in the views of both the city and the surrounding mountains.
Fortunately we hit Cape Town on a relatively cloudless day and were able to see Table Mountain in all her glory.
Once in our apartment we cranked up the aircon and relaxed. We felt like we had been on the go every day for a while so an apartment with a kitchen, balcony and lounge area was very welcome.
We didn’t have long in Cape Town and coupled with the fact that we wanted to rest up before hitting Namibia where we would be really hectic we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew.
However the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are considered to be the best botanical gardens in Africa and one of the best in the world and Sarah was really keen to go and check them out.
We had perfect weather for wandering around the gardens, which I have to admit were very nice, and a real oasis of peace and tranquillity that we didn’t expect to find so close to the city centre. There is even a cool elevated walkway through the trees with great views of the eastern slopes of Table Mountain.
Needless to say I had to prise Sarah away from here especially after she discovered the scones with jam and cream which were apparently, “very nice, but not as good as British scones”. I am sure Mary Berry will be delighted to hear that!
After the gardens we visited the colourful Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town. This is the oldest surviving neighbourhood in the city and was originally home to the Cape Malay people (slaves who were brought over from Malaysia).
The houses are brightly coloured and the city actually pays the residents to keep them like this and to touch up the paint when it fades or peels.
We have had a fantastic time in South Africa and will definitely be back, in fact sooner than you think as we are due to visit Kruger National Park in a few weeks, but first we head to Namibia for more African adventures.
Meerkats, Wine and Beaches
Before leaving Plettenberg Bay we visited Robberg Nature Reserve on the peninsula at the end of the Bay. This is where we had snorkelled with seals the previous day. There is a lovely hike here which takes you high on the cliffs above the colony and then back along the other coast where there is a “whale’s tail” island that you can climb. It was super windy and the top of the Tail was really precarious as the wind was strong and gusty but it’s an incredibly pretty place and definitely worth visiting.
Just 30km down the road from Plettenberg Bay is Knysna, another well known town on the Garden Route. There is a very nice viewpoint of the area called Knysna Heads that looks back across the lagoon towards the town. We also checked out Leisure Island – a small island which looks like a lovely place to have a house, and Knysna Waterfront with its pretty harbour and shopping.
However Knysna was really just a stop over for us before heading inland to explore the Oudtshoorn area. We stayed at an inexpensive backpackers hostel and enjoyed a great meal out at Freshline Fisheries, a seafood restaurant attached to a fisheries warehouse at the edge of town. The tables were set out in a rustic tent on an artificial beach. It had a lovely atmosphere and the seafood was excellent, just note this is a BYO restaurant so don’t forget to take a nice bottle of wine with you to enjoy with your meal.
On our way through to Oudstshoorn, which is off the Garden route and inland, we decided to check out some of the beaches along the coast. These South African beaches are big, long, wild and mostly deserted. They would be perfect if it wasn’t for the sharks, strong currents and rip tides making you think twice before going in for a dip!
We visited Breton on Sea, Buffel’s Bay and Gerricke’s Point where Sarah had a rush of blood to the head and purchased a small plate from a beachside vendor – the selling point being that it can be used to grate garlic easily!
The last beach stop was probably the most beautiful at the small town of Wilderness. The beach here is as big and wild as any of them and seems to go on forever.
Above the town, down a gravel track is the launching point for paragliders as well as a viewpoint of a local attraction called The Map of Africa.
After retracing our steps down the gravel track we headed back out onto the main road to Oudtshoorn (a town whose name we really struggle to say – best we can figure is it’s pronounced Oats-warren?!). As we headed inland the temperature started to rise and by the time we arrived it was nudging 40c. Luckily for us our accommodation had a small but cool swimming pool to take the edge off.
The first thing we had arranged to do here was a trip to see Meerkats in the wild. This involved getting up very early as we had to be at the meeting point before sunrise. When we arrived, we picked up a camp chair at the meeting point and walked around 800m through the scrub to a burrow where a family of meerkats had slept the night before.
A meerkat family (called a mob) usually varies between 10 and 15 individuals in size and they move around between different burrows in their territory so that predators don’t learn where they are.
We set down our chairs in a rough semi-circle, at a good distance away so as not to disturb them (there were about 14 people in the group) and waited for the Meerkats to emerge. It didn’t take long before the first one appeared and sat back on his tail to survey the world.
Meerkats like to warm up in the morning before starting their day and they stand up, resting on their hinged tails, with their bellies pointed to the sun to warm themselves for up to an hour before starting their day foraging for food.
It wasn’t long until the whole family of 13 meerkats were up and about and sunning themselves.
We had a great view of their morning routine and we sat and watched them until they started to move off to forage. This group had set up home next to an Alfalfa field which hosts loads of the insects that they like to eat.
The very early start gave us plenty of time for other activities that day so after finishing with the Meerkats we drove to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, which is a cross between a zoo and a rescue centre for animals.
On arrival we had an hour long tour of the place with a knowledgeable guide who told us something about the animals including pygmy hippos (critically endangered), crocodiles and big cats.
The main reason we decided to visit this place was because the ticket included an animal experience. I opted to meet the Cheetahs and Sarah opted for the Lemurs.
Sarah was up first and she was led into the Lemur enclosure where she got to sit with a couple of Lemurs for around 10 minutes while they were fed.
After that, I was led into the Cheetah pen and was allowed to stroke one of the cheetahs while it was occupied licking a popsicle made from blood! It was an amazing experience to be so close to such a beautiful predator and it is so sad that these lovely creatures are so endangered.
After finishing up at the Wildlife Ranch we headed off for a drive over Swarzberg Pass, a mountain pass on a gravel road. We were a bit dubious as to whether we had the right car for the job but as it turned out the road wasn’t too bad and the little Starlet did a great job. The scenery on this drive between Oudtshoorn and Prince Albert was stunning and if you are in the area we highly recommend it. You can do this as a loop drive and 5km from Prince Albert the road is paved all the way back to Oudtshoorn. There was also some much needed relief from the baking heat on the loop back with a cooling swim at Meiringspoort Waterfall, which was a quick climb up from the road and set in a beautiful canyon that felt like a real oasis.
After a long hot day we were happy to get back to our accommodation and sit in our pool with a nice cold beer.
The next morning we were up fairly early again as we had a long distance to cover. First up however was a visit to Safari Ostrich Farm just outside Outdshoorn. The town itself was actually built on ostrich wealth and there are several large old houses in town, known as ostrich palaces, that were built on wealth from ostrich farming when ostrich feathers and skins were highly prized in high society.
The tour itself started off on a tractor pulled trailer taking us through the pens of ostrich while our guide explained the differences between the different types of ostrich. Basically the original South African Ostrich is called the Southern Variety and it was cross bred with the Zimbabwe Blue Ostrich to create the South African Black Ostrich which had better plumage for the international market.
While we were driving past we could feed the ostriches with some kibble that we had bought earlier. Although we needed to keep a strong grip on the containers, as you can imagine there is a lot of force behind those big beaks!
After a tour of the pens we then alighted from the trailer and walked around the areas where the young and baby ostriches were housed. There was one particular newly born ostrich that was determined to escape his pen and actually managed to get out twice while we were there.
Overall it was an informative and interesting tour and gave us a good insight into the animals themselves and the trade that built the wealth of the area.
After learning all about ostriches our destination for the day was the town of Robertson, which is known as a wine producing town. This meant driving along Route 62 which is promoted by the tourism industry as the South African equivalent of route 66 in the USA. Think lots of restaurants and small towns trying to cash in.
A small section of the route is pretty and the road passes through a high pass which is attractive but overall the route was a bit disappointing. I guess we had high expectations after the stunning scenery of the Swarzberg Pass drive the previous day.
One stop that did stand out though was Ronnie’s Sex Shop. This is a bar in the middle of nowhere that started out as a shop. It was set up by the eponymous Ronnie, and as a joke, his friends later added the Sex moniker to the sign, which stuck.
The bar itself is quite small and the walls are plastered with graffiti, bank notes and other things, and from the ceiling hang hundreds of signed bras donated by patrons. We stopped off for a drink and met the characterful Ronnie, his wife and son (who was behind the bar) before getting back on the road and continuing on our way.
We stopped off at a couple of towns on route but none that particularly enamoured us and ended the day in the town of Robertson where we arranged to go on a wine tour the following day.
We were picked up by our driver at 10am and whisked to our first winery (which also turned out to be our favourite), Springfield. The winery is in an attractive lakeside setting with tables set out under shady trees. They were well set up for tastings and we were given a paper sheet where we could select 5 wines each for only 70 Rand (around £3). They also provide you with a carafe of water, crackers and some olives.
We were slightly surprised at the first glass which was about half a glass of wine and realised that planning four wineries might have been more than we could manage!
The Springfield wines were great, I think the reds were slightly better than the whites but the Cap Classique which is the South African Champagne was actually very tasty and definitely rivals some of the French Champagnes.
Our next winery was Excelsior which also had a beautiful lakeside setting. After tasting three wines which were ok but not as nice as the Springfield wines, we decided to have a go at blending our own wine. This involved tasting three more wines and then deciding how to mix them to create our own bespoke wine.
Taking a bottle we filled it with a mix of shiraz, cabernet and merlot to make our own blend, then we corked it using a corking machine and printed up a label to make our very own bottle – “Starfish Juice” – an in-joke with some friends of ours.
Our third and, as we were running out of time and feeling a bit squiffy, last winery of the day was Van Lovren, where we decided it would be a good idea to have a late lunch before carrying on with more tasting.
After lining our stomachs we went to the bar for another tasting selection of four wines. The Van Lovren wines were very good and we particularly enjoyed the reds.
Luckily the wineries close by 4pm, there’s only so much wine you can drink in a day and by that time we were definitely ready to be driven back to our guesthouse where we crashed for the rest of the evening!
Addo and the Garden Route
Before starting on the famous Garden Route we decided to visit Addo Elephant Park. Addo is the third biggest game park in South Africa and is home to around 600 elephants so we’d be pretty unlucky not to see one.
In order to visit Addo we’d booked into a guesthouse a 15 minute drive from the park entrance. The small cottages were set in a beautiful garden with a natural swimming pool which made for a very refreshing dip with the frogs at the end of a hot day – although they’d had a visiting cobra in the pool previously so although refreshing it wasn’t that relaxing!
Just a 3 minute drive away is a lovely restaurant that was recommended to us by the owner of the guesthouse, where I tried their slow roasted shank of Springbok which was excellent.
Addo is not like other parks in that the best time to see the animals is apparently from mid-morning onwards. We weren’t going to complain at the chance of a lie in, so we headed to the park around 11am. Unfortunately it was raining and forecast to rain for most of the day.
Addo is certainly busier than Mountain Zebra and there was actually a queue to check in at reception before we could go into the park proper (albeit not a very long one).
We set off with our map and started with one of the loops close to the main entrance. The landscape here is very different to Mountain Zebra National Park and a lot of the roads are surrounded by quite high scrubby bushes which make wildlife viewing much harder.
There are however places in the park where the landscape is more open and there are also a number of waterholes which can provide some good sightings.
With the rain, the normal behaviours of the animals were disrupted and it was a bit more of a lottery as to where we would be seeing them. However after a slow start we began to get glimpses of the elephants.
To start with it was a couple of bums here and there sticking out of the bushes but eventually we had a clear view of an elephant at a water hole and as the day went on we were treated to better and better sightings.
The highlight of the day was a family of around 20 which included a huge bull elephant and even a tiny baby. This family walked down the road and the big bull elephant walked past our car – close enough to touch if we had leaned out the window. There were definitely a few nervous moments as he stopped right next to us and swung his head from side to side.
Addo is unusual for game parks in that the elephants are very relaxed. The advice when encountering them is to turn off your engine and stay very still. They will come very close but there has never been an incident of them damaging a car. In other parks you shouldn’t let elephants get too close and should drive away if they start to approach.
We spent two days in Addo in total. Our first day, despite raining on and off for most of the day was better in terms of the elephant sightings. On the second day we saw fewer elephants but all the zebras seem to have come out and we also saw lots of warthogs. Every day in a game park is a different day !
We left Addo by the southern gate and stayed the night in the suburbs of Port Elizabeth.
Form here we were heading for the coastal national park of Tsitsikamma or Storms River but first we headed inland to a remote highway where a café and animal sanctuary called the Daniell Cheetah Project resides. This is a rescue centre for big cats where they provide free guided tours of their residents.
Most of the cats that come to Daniell have been injured or mistreated in some way and can’t be released into the wild. For example, they have a brain damaged cheetah, cats that are blind or with severed limbs.
They do breed the cats though if possible and release them into the wild. In fact they had a leopard cub that was still dependant on its mother but was destined to be released when it was old enough.
The woman who gave us the tour was really knowledgeable and we learnt a lot about the various cats who live in the centre.
From here we headed back towards the coast with our first stop at Jeffrey’s Bay. This is one of the premier surfing locations in the world and we visited a beach called Supertubes which has big clean waves for surfing – in the winter. Right now there were no real waves and certainly no one out surfing. It was however a lovely beach.
This being the first South African beach we had visited we were not accustomed to seeing Shark Bite Kits. Add to that the signs warning of dangerous currents and rip tides and it tends to make you think twice about going for a dip!
Our next stop was St Francis Bay or more accurately, the Seal Point Lighthouse. Built in 1878 this lighthouse is on the South Easternmost point of Africa (not the southernmost point) and is 28m high. There were no sign of any seals unfortunately but the coast was very dramatic with waves crashing against the rocks.
We ended the day at the small town of Storms River staying at a very eclectic Backpacker’s Hostel. Our room certainly wasn’t the nicest we’ve stayed in but the communal area was really rustic with lots of seating areas throughout the garden, a beautiful big dog wandering around demanding attention and even monkeys trying to raid the partially open-air kitchen. It had a very welcoming, relaxed vibe though and they provided delicious freshly baked beer bread every afternoon and pancakes for breakfast.
While staying there we decided to book a kayaking trip to Storms River Mouth and down the canyon.
Unfortunately it was too rough to kayak from the home base of the kayak company to the mouth of the river so we started with a kilometre walk along a boardwalk with lots of steps to the river mouth where there are a couple of famous suspension bridges across the river.
From here we boarded our kayaks and started kayaking down the river gorge which became quite narrow. There was a big cave inhabited by bats that we paddled into in the side of the gorge but the highlight of the paddle was definitely seeing a Cape Clawless Otter playing on the rocks at the side of the canyon.
It wasn’t long before we reached a barrier of rocks, at which point we exited the kayaks and climbed over the rocks to collect an inflatable lilo for the next section of the canyon. These were super fun to lie on and zip around the now very narrow canyon using your arms for propulsion. We only really carried on another 500m or so to another rock barrier with a small waterfall.
This was our turnaround point as we headed back towards the kayaks. We did stop off for some cliff jumping into the river which was fun before reboarding the kayaks and heading back.
It was a fun trip in a beautiful place, but we felt a little short changed as the actual kayaking wasn’t very far. We had definitely expected a lot more kayaking and a lot less walking for what was billed as a kayaking trip.
The other thing I did at Storms River was a reasonably strenuous coastal hike along part of the Otter Trail to a waterfall next to the beach. The hike was a little harder than expected as there was a lot of climbing up and over the cliffs and onto the beach itself where you had to rock hop over rough stones.
The waterfall itself was lovely and bigger than I expected. A perfect way to cool down after a hot hike.
After leaving Storms River we were heading for Plettenberg Bay but we stopped off to explore a beautiful area called Natures Valley. There is a stunning beach here and if you walk across the beach there is a lovely, safe swimming spot in the lagoon. We didn’t have time on this trip to stay overnight here but we have made a note for the future that this is somewhere well worth visiting.
Plettenberg Bay is a bigger town on the Garden Route. We chose to come here because of the big seal colony and there are a number of companies that run seal swimming trips.
We had booked with Offshore Adventures which has their office right on the waterfront only a short walk from where they beach launch their boats.
After a quick briefing, we were kitted out in wet suits and snorkelling gear and loaded onto the boat which was pushed into the water by a tractor. The seal colony was about a 15 minute boat ride away over calm seas. As we got closer we were excited to see lots of seals lounging around on the cliffs and swimming in the water and no other boats in sight.
We had a very enjoyable half hour snorkelling with the very active and playful seals as they cruised around us, sometimes very close. It was a very cool experience and highly recommended.
After travelling back to shore in the boat we were instructed to hold on tight for the landing. The boat lined up with the beach and then the captain applied full throttle, launching us towards the beach. We hit the sand, slid out of the water with a big jolt and lurched to a stop canted right over on one side. A pretty exhilarating end to the trip!
Plettenberg bay is also home to the largest free flight aviary in the world which has a massive netted area 2 hectares in size. It is absolutely stuffed with free roaming birds (although obviously no predators) and there is a boardwalk that traverses the netted area allowing you to get a close look at them.
We spent a couple of hours here, walking very slowly and saw some weird and wonderful species. The Vulturine Guinea Fowl was probably the weirdest looking one. There were also lots that we didn’t see so this is the sort of place that rewards repeated visits. They house birds from all over the world, so Rainforest birds from South America rub shoulders with the local African birds.
There were also cute little Blue Duiker, the smallest antelope in Southern Africa, running around beneath the trees.
Next door to Birds of Eden is Monkeyland which is another free roaming habitat which has 10 different types of monkeys living in some fairly big family groups. You aren’t allowed to free roam here but instead have a guided tour.
We were lucky to have a private guided tour as no one else was around when we arrived.
The most numerous monkeys are the ring tailed lemurs, who are apparently the morons of the monkey world, and these greeted us right at the start of the tour. However we also saw Black & White Lemurs, Capuchin monkeys, Vervet monkeys, Howler monkeys, Squirrel monkeys, a Gibbon and Indian Hanuman Langurs. The only monkey we didn’t get to see were the Spider monkeys.
The highlight of the tour was at the end when you cross a big suspension bridge in the canopy and sitting at the end was one of the White Handed Gibbons who proceeded to swing down the bridge right towards us. The guide said duck so we squatted down as the gibbon swung over our heads !
As an added bonus when we returned to our car a big family of wild baboons choose that moment to walk through the car park and very close to us as we stayed still so as not to spook them or indeed provoke a defensive reaction. A great end to what had been a lovely day.
FromAtoB 