Skydives, sand dunes and sunsets (Southern Namibia)

After almost a week travelling across northern Namibia, we arrived in Swakopmund, a town on the Atlantic coast which much like Livingstone has become a destination for adrenaline junkies. We had a weekend here which meant a few nights out of our tents and back to the relative comfort of a bunk bed and the chance to catch up on emails and get some washing done. But first, there was a skydive to do!

About ten years ago for no apparent reason I'd promised myself that I'd run a marathon, do a bungee jump and skydive out of a plane before I reached 30. I'd gone a bit overboard on the marathon front having completed four in the last five years, and with the bungee jump out of the way at Victoria Falls, only the skydive was left to do before I turn 30 next May. So I decided to bite the bullet and do it here in Namibia as there was a well established sky diving company in Swakopmund and the thought of plummeting to earth with views of the Namibian desert and the Atlantic Ocean was strangely alluring. It also helped that four other members of the group I was travelling with were up for doing it to so we were able to offer each other some moral support.

The five of us therefore booked our dive in the morning and after a nervous lunch, were driven over to the small airfield from where the planes take off and take you up to 10,000 ft. I should stress at this point that it was a tandem sky dive that I had signed up for so I would be firmly attached to someone with lots of skydiving experience who would be doing (nearly) all the work, so while nervous I knew that most of it would be out of my hands so there was nothing to worry about - right?!

The plane

Crossing my fingers for a safe flight and dive (and above all landing!)

Waving goodbye, hopefully not for the last time

The nerves grew slightly as we waited for some others to go up and do their sky dives (only two could go up in the plane at the time), but after an hour or two of waiting, it was finally my turn! Perhaps the scariest bit of the experience was the flight up, sat on the floor of a tiny plane as it steeply ascended to the jumping altitude. After about twenty minutes of climbing we were at the right height to jump and the side of the plane was opened up. The other girl on my flight was going first, but before I knew it she was out of the plane and it was my turn to go. Firmly attached to my partner, he edged us towards the exit of the plane as I tried to remember all the instructions we'd been given on the ground. For a few seconds you sit on the very edge of the plane with your legs tucked underneath the belly of the plane and then you literally just fall!

The first few seconds were filled with adrenaline and terror as I realised I was falling from a great height, but I quickly got used to the sensation and tried to relax and enjoy the ride. We were in free fall for about 30 seconds, which was an incredible sensation - better even than the bungee jump as I had long enough to take in the experience. Above all it was just very surreal - the ground is so far away that you don't feel like you're really falling and you can't really be scared of the height because your eyes can't really comprehend the distance from the ground in the way you can from a bridge or tower. However, what you do feel is the incredible force of the wind rushing around you as you shoot through the air at 200km/h!

The parachute was then pulled and after a strong jerk upwards we were falling at a more serene pace, which gave even more time to take in the scenery. I was even allowed to steer the parachute for some of the descent which was incredible, yet a little scary. After about 5 minutes of cruising down slowly under the parachute, we had a reasonably smooth landing and I was back on the ground, adrenaline pumping and full of emotion and energy - wow!!!

Heading to the ground

Coming in to land

The landing

Relieved to be back on the ground again

Merry Christmas!

A much needed stiff drink - yes that is me with the beard!

As if that wasn't enough, the next day saw more adrenaline rushes as the whole group headed off for sandboarding among the sand dunes just outside of Swakopmund. I'd done some sandboarding previously in  Australia, but the dunes here were much bigger and we had a fantastic time flying down the steep dunes on large wooden boards. We managed to reach speeds of up to 70km/h while flying only centimetres from the sand below us so it was quite a rush, even if we did end up with sand everywhere by the time we travelled back to town!

Sandboarding!

Christmas in the sand dunes

After a great weekend in Swakopmund, we continued south, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn and heading towards some even more impressive sand dunes at a place called Sossusvlei in the Namib-Naukluft Park, one of the world's largest national parks and home to the world's oldest desert. Here we took a walk around Deadvlei, a river which has been closed off by the movement of the sand dunes, creating an incredibly dry spot where the trees have dried up completely. Despite this, we still saw plenty of springbok and oryx wandering around, along with plenty of plant life specially attempted to the dry conditions.

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

Deadvlei

Deadvlei

Playing in the sand dunes of Sossusvlei

We then climbed Dune 45, the tallest of the largest red dunes open to the public, in order to watch the sunset. It was a tough walk along the ridge of the dune due to the soft sand and steep incline, but it was worth it for the view of the sun setting over the dunes.

The climb up Dune 45

Made it!

Sunset over Sossusvlei

Our final stopping off point in Namibia was Fish River Canyon, a 160km long canyon which reaches depths of 550m putting it up there with the Grand Canyon as one of the largest in the world. There is a five day trek that can be done through the canyon at certain times of year, but unfortunately we only had a few hours to walk along a small section of the rim of the canyon and take in another glorious sunset.

Fish River Canyon

At Fish River Canyon

And so that was Namibia - an amazing country with some epic scenery to take in, plus lots of opportunities for adventurous activities along the way. After 11 nights in the country we crossed the border in to South Africa and began the final drive down to Cape Town, somewhere that despite the good time I'd had in Namibia, I couldn't wait to get to in order to spend Christmas with Rachel - even if it did mean I would probably need to have a shave at last!

Of cheetahs and shooting stars (Northern Namibia)

The longest leg of my three week overland journey from Vic Falls to Cape Town was spent travelling through Namibia, a vast but very lightly populated country which only gained its independence in 1990 after years of rule variously under Germany, Britain and South Africa. With only 2 million people spread over a country more than three times the size of the UK, travelling across Namibia involves a lot of long drives on straight roads (not all of which are paved) with very few towns or villages along the way. However, I found the desert scenery and the remoteness breathtaking and grew to really love Namibia during the two weeks I spent there.

We kicked off our time in Namibia with another safari, this time in the Etosha National Park, a much drier area than the national parks I'd visited in Tanzania and Botswana. Nevertheless, it was still teeming with wildlife and I was lucky to see some animals which I'd either not seen yet or only had fleeting glimpses of. Some, like the oryx don't live in East Africa, while others, such as the rhino and giraffe, I'd seen on previous safaris, but this time got much closer to.

Oryx (also makes a very tasty steak!)

White rhino

Giraffe

The national park is centred around the huge Etosha pan, a large salt lake which covers over 5000 sq km and only has water in it for a few days a year. During our visit we went on two long game drives in our overland truck through the park, with our eyes glued to the windows looking to spot elusive cheetahs, leopards and sable antelope.

Having fun with the camera on the salt lake

An elephant cools off at a watering hole

Giraffes stop for a drink

After leaving the park, we spent a night at a campsite with its own resident leopard. Having not seen a leopard on my three safari trips in Africa so far, this was likely to be my last chance to see the one member of the Big Five (lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard) that had eluded me. While I wouldn't claim this as a proper sighting, it was still cool to see one, albeit it played to type and kept itself as hidden as possible from us - there is a leopard in the photo below - honest!

Spot the leopard

If the leopard had been a little shy, our next night saw us stay on a cheetah farm where we got up close and personal with a number of cheetahs that live there. The cheetah sanctuary has been set up in part to protect local farmers from the threat of cheetahs to their sheep, cows, chickens and other livestock, but also to rehabilitate injured or orphaned cheetahs before releasing them back in to the wild. We were all rather hesitant at first as the cheetahs calmly walked among us, but before long we were all posing for photos with the three adult cheetahs and one cub that live at the farm house. Later we went to see the cheetahs that were being prepared for release back in to the wild being fed their evening meal of donkey meat from the back of a truck, which was as close as we'd get to seeing them properly in the wild.

Walking with cheetahs

Hello puss

A battle of strength with the cheetah cub (he won)

Cheetah eating donkey meat becomes new spectator sport

Cheetahs hunting donkey (sort of)

We then headed further south into Namibia, eating up the kilometres each day and heading relentlessly towards Cape Town. Along the way we stopped at some roadside stalls selling locally made gifts and souvenirs and stopped in one or two of the few towns that are dotted around Namibia.

A typical view from the truck in Namibia

Watch out for elephants!

Our next stop was Spitzkoppe, a 1728m mountain, nicknamed the Matterhorn of Africa. Having been to Zermatt at the foot of Matterhorn, I could certainly see the similarity in shape, but the similarities ended there as there was no snow in sight, surrounded as it was by desert, nor any shops selling swiss army knives and cuckoo clocks! While at Spitzkoppe we went for a walk with a local guide to see some San art work which had been used for hundreds of years to guide groups of hunters-gatherers within the tribe to sources of water and warn them of the presence of predators.

Walking towards Spitzkoppe

San rock art - the rhino points towards the nearest water source

That night I took the opportunity to sleep out under the stars as our guide had promised us this would be the best place to do this on the trip. No-one else from the group was brave enough (or stupid enough depending on how you look at it!) to join me, but I had a very good night's sleep out in the elements watching shooting stars pass over head and the moon rise in between several hours of very peaceful sleep, thankfully uninterrupted by any snakes or scorpions.

My bed for the night at Spitzkoppe

Out on my own away from the tents

Sunrise over the desert

Beautiful Botswana

After my adrenaline packed few days in Livingstone, I next headed over the Zambezi river to Zimbabwe where I was joining an overland truck of other travellers heading for Cape Town. Overland trucks are converted lorries which tour companies run on various routes across Africa for a range of periods from a few days to several weeks on end - in this case from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Cape Town in South Africa over a three week period. The trucks can seat up to 29 people and carry all the tents, cooking equipment and other gear that you could possibly need when driving across Africa.

I was soon introduced to the others who would be on my truck (six Kiwis, two Aussies, two Brits and a German) and our Zimbabwean crew (a guide, a driver and a cook) for the next three weeks and given a briefing on what we could expect over the next three weeks. We were warned to expect lots of long days on the truck travelling long distances, some early starts and unexpected delays, but also a fantastic three weeks travelling through southern Africa. Some of our group had been on another truck heading south from Nairobi to Victoria Falls and so were well versed in the routine and lifestyle of travelling like this. Many of them were therefore astonished that I had managed to travel independently from Nairobi relying on public transport and my own initiative to get there!

Our truck aka 'Big Mama'

My home for the next three weeks

We quickly left Zimbabwe behind, and headed in to Botswana, a country I must admit to knowing very little about before I arrived but one which I found to be very interesting. Our first stop was the 11,000 sq km Chobe National Park where we spent two days on safari. This included sleeping out in the national park, where we simply pitched our tents in the bush and hoped we wouldn't get visited by too many wild animals!

Unfortunately a heavy downpour had us rushing to our tents shortly after dinner so we missed out on a chance to sit around the campfire and take in the sounds of a night in the bush, but it was a good experience all the same. We also went on a couple of short game drives and a river cruise during which we saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, fish eagles, mongooses, and dung beetles! A particular highlight was seeing a herd of zebras crossing the Chobe river early in the morning as we drove back out of the park - the photos below give a flavour...

Elephant in Chobe National Park

Zebras crossing the Chobe river

Warthog with particularly impressive tusks

close encounter of the hippo kind

After a couple more days of driving, we then reached Maun, a town which acts at the jumping off point for the incredible Okavango Delta. The delta is a 16,000 sq km maze of lagoons, channels and islands formed by the Okavango River disappearing in to the sands of the Kalahari desert to form a huge inland delta which attracts a huge array of wildlife. In order to get some perspective of the delta, some of us booked to do a scenic flight over the delta in a very small plane which flew us from Maun for 45 minutes over the delta. From the plane we got a great sense of scale of the delta and were also able to spot elephants, hippos and buffalo from the air.

Ready for take-off in our tiny plane

Okavango Delta from the air

Two mekoro polers head through the delta

Okavango Delta again

The next three days were then spent getting a closer view as we headed off in the delta itself for two nights camping on an island in the middle of the delta. The only mode of transport within the delta is on a mekoro - a type of canoe traditionally made from hollowed out tree trunks (although nowadays more likely to be made from fibre glass) - so we had to leave our big truck behind and get used to a very different way of travelling. Each mekoro seats two passengers and is then guided through the delta by a poler from the local village who stands up much like a gondola driver would in Venice (not that I've been to Venice).

A mekoro

Heading in to the delta

Our time in the delta was spent being taken on nature walks (from where we spotted lots of zebras) and relaxing around the campsite playing cards with the polers. The weather was rather wet during our time in the delta, but I really enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the towns and main roads of Africa and getting to spend time in a real wilderness.

relaxing in camp

On our second and final night, the polers performed a fantastic routine of local singing and dancing for us round the campfire, including a particularly catchy song about how beautiful Botswana is, that had us clapping and singing along. Our guide then turned to us and asked if we had prepared a song or performance to do in response for the polers...cue an awkward silence as we shuffled in our chairs and looked at each other.

With no-one looking like volunteering, I thought what the hell and stretched back in to the recesses of my mind to recall 'Campfire's Burning' and 'Ging Gang Gooly' - two songs we always used to sing round the campfire in Scouts, neither of which I'd sung for at least 15 years! Fortunately I still remembered all the words (ever the boy scout), so did my best to lead us through a completely unrehearsed and therefore slightly shabby rendition of both songs. I'm not sure what the Botswanans made of it all, but I did at least succeed in getting the tune to Ging Gang Gooly stuck in everyone's heads for the rest of the trip!

The campfire

The next morning we took our mekoros back out of the delta (with a slightly too close for comfort encounter with a hippo on the way) and thanked our guides for a fantastic couple of days. After the bustling streets of Tanzania and the adrenaline packed trip to Victoria Falls, it had been great to have a few days getting back to nature in Botswana, although we were all ready for a shower after two nights bush camping in the delta!

Soon it was time to leave Botswana behind and head for our next country - Namibia - watch this space for the next blog about my adventures there....

Getting slightly too close to a hippo

Me and fellow traveller David with our mekoro poler