SORRY!!!! ..... Had a problem with Blogsy but ALL PHOTOS NOW LOADED!
Freddie getting hungry in Namibia! ........ NamibRand Nature Reserve.
We manage to get one large case stored in Johannesburg at some friends of Jill and Ed's, which is great as it means there will now be enough room in the landrover for us all!! .............. together with fridge, food, tents, chairs, table, wood and luggage ............... if we want to buy any souvenirs on the way, we will probably have to trade in one of the children!!
Our flight to Johannesburg is fairly uneventful, bar the usual airport shenanigans with the children who are now getting quite 'nifty' with the luggage trollies! ................ we have a couple of hours transfer time at the airport before our flight to Windhoek in Namibia and we arrive to be greated by our transfer driver who takes us to 'Galton House', a small but very nice guest house where we will pick up the Land Rover and be briefed by Duane, from 'Safari Drive' about our journey. Luckily, as Harry our 12 year old is getting anxious, they have a television at Galton House and as our stay coincides with the France v Italy European Cup Final, we all manage to watch the match before our Land Rover arrives the next morning.
Duane arrives with the Land Rover and we spend a couple of hours going through the kit, roof tent and ground tent, all the necessary vehicle transport licences and passes and a run thourgh our journey to familiarise ourselves with the Namibian leg, probably about 4,000 km. Water and diesel are the two most important considerations, not to mention the spade in the back to dig the toilets!! ......... as we are heading into some very remote areas where neither will be available! ............ We are handed the keys and head to the outskirts of Windhoek to meet Richard who will give us a little 4x4 training and a few pointers to make sure we keep the Land Rover upright! on some of the sand and gravel roads, with the roof rack loaded with tents, bed rolls and chairs it can make them a little top heavy and easy to roll! ................ still, having managed similar roads in Argentina ...... in a Fiat Uno!! ............... I wasn't overly concerned!
From Windhoek we are heading south to Buellsport Guest Farm, one of the oldest farms in Namibia, situated about 50km south of Solitaire and some four to five hours drive from Windhoek. It is basically a game, cattle and sheep farm and they also breed their own Namibian horses. The Gamsberg Pass is extremely scenic with winding roads cutting through a backdrop of mountains and for our lunch stop we decide to park up in a dry river bed, with large white patches of crystallising salts, for a quick sandwich before getting back on the road. The road through the Gamsberg Pass is exceptionally bumpy and dusty with plenty of corrugation, so the best option (as advised) is to drive on the other side of the road, against the corrugation, which gives you a smoother ride, clearly making sure that you are on the right side of the road when driving over the many steep, short hills!! Shortly after we are back on the main road .............. well when I say main road it is still gravel and bumpy, but wider and straight! .......... and we pass a road sign informing us that we have just driven through the 'Tropic Of Capricorn', then shortly after get a siting of a pair of Ostriches with eleven chicks, many springbok and zebra.
The roads are extremely dusty and most of the time we are the only people on the road, but when the odd vehicle does pass, it's wind the windows up as quick as possible before their cloud of trailing dust engulfs us! We eventually make it to our first camp, Buellsport, a remote farm on the side off the road, with nothing else around for miles except mountainous landscapeand interspersed with huge wide plains. We sign in and are then directed to the camp site some 3km down the road and then a dirt track leading into the bush where we would be spending our next three nights. The camp was an open area with a 'donkey boiler' that required stoking up for hot water, a lapa, offering a little shade from the Namibian sun and no electricity and with the exception of the scorpions, hyenas, mountain zebra, leopard and baboons, we were the only people here. The camp offered our first experience of being remote and completely on our own, creating a great sense of adventure and the children excitedly unpacked the tents and sleeping matresses and got the fire going ready to cook up our first meal. As it gets dark at 5.30 to 6pm here, bedtime comes around early before the nightlife starts! ............... a bit like the back streets of Portsmouth really!! ............ and as the children settle into to the roof tent while Jo and I are in the ground tent, they dream of being eaten by hyenas and baboons!! ........... At night you can hear the hyena calls in the distance and we were warned about the baboons in this area, so no food in the tents! ................ the male baboon has larger teeth than either the lion or hyena! ............ so not to be messed with and during the night one male ventured to the tents with his deep and very loud 'hooooooof' call, the children didn't get a lot of sleep that night .................... but only to be expected on their first adventureous night!!
Taking the long road home!!
The boys on tent duty!! ............................ No one here but us!
Following a more settled nights sleep! ...... the next day we ventured back to the main farm and arranged a bit of gentle horse riding from the farm. ........... a little too gentle for our liking as we were hoping for a few 'yahoos!!' as we galloped through the bush being chased by lions!!! ............ well probably not that exciting! .............. I think Fred would have probably bounced off and ended up riding the lion!
NamibRand Hideout Camp, Namibia.
The next day we packed up and headed to our next port of call, NamibRand Hideout Camp. This comprised the only single camping pitch in the NamibRand Nature Reserve, the largest private reserve in Namibia, some 200,000 hectares, on the edge of one of the worlds oldest deserts; the Namib Desert. Heading back onto the dirt roads we travel for about two hours through scenery that is quite stunning with huge wide open expanses of sage green plains framed with deep orange sand mountains, interspersed with springbok, zebra, oistrich and Oryx; Oyrx being the National Animal of Namibia and an exceptionaly beautiful animal. We eventually come across a remote sign on the side of the road; ' Hideout Camp', although there is nothng else around except a gate across a small sandy track. From our information the camp site is a further 18km down the track, heading into the Reserve and as the Land Rover slides its way through the sandy track, avoiding the central sand bar, we eventually arrive at our pitch, ........... well the only pitch in the park. The setting was quite amazing and without doubt, one of the most beautiful settings I have ever seen. The pitch had been cut into a large open expanse of sage green plain with orange dunes to the west and mountains to the north and comprises a roped area, a central tree, a shower and toilet block built on stilts from timber and sticks, a table and gazebo, with a donkey boiler for hot water. We pitched our tents and went out on a quick drive into the park towards the mountains to catch the sunset and then back to get the brai going for food. In such a wonderful setting, the sunset over the mountains was stunning and as we ate and drank as dusk fell, the stars came out one by one, shinning brighter than ever before, with shooting stars crossing the night sky, like sparks from the fire. This certainly was in the middle of nowhere.
Sun setting behind the mountains at 'Hideout Camp'
Walking at Hideout Camp
.......... "Did we miss that last roundabout?!"
The next morning after breakfast we headed for the dunes and the children had great fun sliding down them on a hard-board sheet, provided by Ricardo, who was the Ranger for the camp, clinging on to the outside of the Land Rover as we slowly made our way through the sand. Later we chilled out at camp spending a little time catching up with diaries and reading whislt planning the next rute on the map heading or Sesrium Campsite and the famous Dunes at Sossusvlei.
Imogen in the Dunes
Fred ................. not quite getting it right!!
Harry just about to make impact!
On the way out of camp after breakfast, late morning, the children were pleading to take a ride on the outside of the Land Rover and against my better judgement we let the two boys ride on the side for a short distance before the sand started getting thicker and I shouted to them to get in as I slowed down the Land Rover. Unfortunately, I could hear Harry shout ....... "ready to jump Freddie! .............. 3,2,1!" ......... before I could stop the vehicle the boys had jumped off the side and Fred who was in the middle slipped when he hit the sand and his foot went under the rear wheel!! .............. 'boys will be boys!!". We gathered him up from the floor to check the damage and very luckily for Fred the sand had allowed his foot to sink down from the weight of the car, avoiding any serious damage. The tyre had taken the skin off his lower foot, but it didn't appear to be broken, possibly fractured but nothing more. Out with the first aid kit, I washed and treated the skin wound and strapped his foot up to give it support as Fred recovered more from the shock than anything else. As Harry had already tried jumping from a moving vehicle in Buellsport, thinking that as he was standing still on the car, the ground would obiously remain still when he landed, clearly forgetting the physics of mass and velocity, I thought he would have thought twice about attempting it again.
This had caused an unexpected delay while we patched Fred up and we had used more fuel than anticipated getting to 'Hideout Camp'. The next fuel station on our way was 140km north and by the time we had got to the gate on the main road, I was not confident we would make it. The only alternative was to drive 40km south, the opposite way, to a town called Beta, where we knew there should be a fuel station, in the hope we could fill up there. This, coupled with Fred's stop, would now mean getting to Sesrium Campsite toward dusk. We made the 40km to Beta and arrived at the fuel station to find that they had a problem with diesel and would only allow 15 litres per vehicle!!! ....... On the basis we had probably used nearly 15 litres just to get here, this wasn't good news. After some negotiation and like a scene from a comedy show, we convinced the young lady that I would have 15 litres, then drive out, swap with Jo and she would drive back in for another 15 litres!!! .................. well it worked! and after grabbing a few pies for lunch we were on our way.
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