Day 50 - Daan Viljoen to Windhoek to Johannesburg to Heathrow (11/11)

Last day. Gulp. Time to pack up, 

donate our unused provisions to newly-arrived campers, and drive into Windhoek, to fill up one last time, and have a quick look around town - the cathedral

Just before the airport (where we'll drop off the car) is the self-styled "Eden" taxidermist!

 

Fun and games at the airport : Duncan had thought he'd spotted lightning on the way to the airport and, just as we reach the queue for the check-in desk, the power goes off! So a wee wait while things come back online. Two more cuts as we are queuing for immigration and then at security and, while we're waiting in the departure lounge, suddenly there's a colossal storm with torrential, Biblical rain being blown sideways across the runway (and it looks like the plane will be a walk across the tarmac!)

While it's a pain, at least we've had 28 days of virtually uninterrupted blue skies and, when finally it does rain with a vengeance, I'm nowhere near a tent! In fact everything eventually goes smoothly and we're through Joburg and connected onward home with little more delay and no drama.

So, after six flights, 15,931 air miles and 5,399 overland miles, it's back to Heathrow on a damp 12th November morning...

Day 49 - Namib Naukluft : GT to Daan Viljoen (10/11)

Awake at dawn. Warm morning but again not much sign of life despite all the noise during the night and some tell-tale footprints  We bid a nostalgic farewell to GT and stop off at a spot called Gemsbokswater where a water pump has been installed to sustain the wildlife.  As ever, our arrival signals (in fact, before we even arrive) a hysterical panicking stampeding exodus of a huge herd of oryx, springbok, what look like hartebeest - less so the slightly braver zebs who go least far away and are first back at the waterhole. Very gradually everyone else edge back (apart from the hartebeest who must have run too far).  We've time though so we wait and watch for a good while over an 11sies flask of coffee

Hilly rollercoaster road back towards Windhoek, with views over green and rocky hills. And barely another vehicle (two in five hours!). We picnic at the Bosua Pass and eventually (after a slow and bumpy stony road) arrive at the Daan Viljoen Reserve just outside town, for the luxury of a nice hot shower and dinner cooked by someone else for a change. Though, just in case it feels too normal, there are warthogs snuffling outside our car

Day 48 - Namib Naukluft : around Groot Tinkas (9/11)

D hears zebra neighing in the night and some snuffly grunting from a bush (warthog?) After a lovely dawn, we make sure that standards are upheld and so it's Sunday fried bfast!

We investigate "Mid Tinkas" (yes, there is such a place, and Klein Tinkas too) and Rock Arch.

Interesting rocks, slate, glittering speckles, shards of granite sheared off and scattered by the road, and granite even forming the road, and evil-looking stone blades jutting out of the hillside 

and road, with piles of collected slate arranged by the roadside.

Visit Bloedkoppe (less of the blood colour in fact) where there are lots more quiver trees

and huge boulders balancing to remind us of The Top of the World in Zim.

Back to Groot Tinkas the last rays of the sun disappear with a pink sunset

Day 47 - Namib Naukluft : Groot Tinkas (8/11)

We headed today to an area where we stayed seven years ago and of which we have fond memories - Groot Tinkas.  It looks as though lots of vegetation has been planted since we were last here so it feels smaller with all of the sheltering foliage.

It also has a dam, though it turn out that there is virtually no water there (although there look to be "big cat" prints)

so maybe no popping to the loo in the middle of the night!

Day 46 - Namib Naukluft : Ganab (7/11)

A quiet night and we wake after dawn to find it's overcast, still and cool. Cooked breakfast to the sound of only birdsong and the odd rustling/mooing. 

Tonight's stop is Ganab (the Nama tribe name for "camel-thorn"), which we explore (scaring away ostrich and few zebs and gemsbok; apparently predators - hyena, caracal, aardwolf - have been seen here too, but sadly nothing so far!) 

A relaxing afternoon of Scrabble and shiraz, before enjoying a lovely sunset and bedding down to the sound of hooves and whinnying outside as the locals move back in!

Day 45 - Namib Naukluft : Homeb (6/11)

Wi-i-i-ndy overnight again! And we wake up to overcast - not what we signed up for!

We're headed deeper into the Namib Naukluft 

and, remembering how remote things were the last time we were here, expect four days without too many people.  The first night's destination will be Homeb, reached via wide plains with the occasional running ostrich, along humpy rollercoaster roads through fields with diagonal pancake rocks and grey stone dome hills.

The campsite at Homeb itself has a quite bizarre landscape of black rocks, putting me in mind of an explosion scene from a disaster movie, pancake rocks protruding from the earth, sand with pale green tufty grass or stretching out as though an estuary.

We've chosen a quiet site next to sheltering trees (with scarily big roots). 

 

There's a small settlement very close by and the locals run their cows past at dawn and dusk (explains poo and the occasional disconcerting mooing from nearby trees!)  Spots of rain and a distant rainbow followed by an orange sunset.

Day 44 - the Remhoogte and Spreetshoogte Passes (5/11)

Wow, what a windy night. Cab was rocking back and forth! 

Off onto a gravelly-stone track loop via the lovely Remhoogte Pass. Boulder canyons of dried riverbeds, glinting slate sometimes jutting out of the side of the hill.

Gosh it's quiet though, barely another car.  At a teensy place we pass through called Nauchas, we spy an expanse of water and sign for "free parkering" and camping so we pop in for a look. Lovely but we decide to push on. The road winds up through the Spreetshoogte Pass, on v steep dove-grey bricked road. 
 

Just as it's time to stop for lunch, a picnic sign appears just over the hill-top with a stunning vista view over the plain.   
 

Day 43 - Sesriem Canyon to Solitaire (4/11)

We weren't going to get up for sunrise but a bloody bus-load were up and crashing about at 5am. They wake D. Who wakes S. So we decide to go for it and have our breakfast at the dunes after all.

Daybreak is starting - yellow light from the hills behind us, though still some way to the sun appearing over the horizon.  

Dune 45 is already busy with vehicles and climbers on the crest - D decides to go for it too

Having worked up an appetite, it's breakfast at Dune 40 (another great bfast view)

and then into Sesriem canyon - very impressive.

Later, we've picked a nice shady spot to stay at the Solitaire Country Lodge and a meerkat runs by! 

There are also ground squirrels, shy in burrow warrens, as the sun sets.

Day 42 - Through NamibRand Reserve to the Sossusvlei dunes (3/11)

We approached Sossusvlei via the NamibRand Reserve, through beautiful grey hills with contrasting waves of glowing orange sand.

The dunes are spectacular and massive, with amazingly razor sharp edges.

and a long tarred road leads through them 

They change colour as the sun matures through the day
 

The last 5km is 4x4 only, through deep, deep sand

 We let a bit of air out of the tyres, hold on tight and we're off.  Varies between very slippery, very bumpy and, occasionally, a spot of (pot-holed) dry-pan when we can take a breather and regroup. Meanwhile, I snap (rather wildly!)

and soon we're safely there.  We clamber up "our" chosen dune for a view (and to crush some pristime sand!)

only to be pursued by a very persistent beetle who seems to want either to eat us or to be adopted and come home with us. [If you've ever watched The Mummy you'll know why this is not a nice thought]

Deciding not to hang around for sunset, we head back slowly, the gorgeous orange fading on dunes and later the hills. After oryx 

and springbok, D spots in the grass what he thinks are crouching ears... We back up to investigate : five cheetahs!

Day 41 - Duwisib Castle and the Tsarishootge Pass (2/11)

In a remote valley, on the edge of the Namib Dune Desert, set amidst huge camel-thorn trees, sits one of Namibia's most bizarre buildings - the Duwisib Castle. It was built in 1909 for a German soldier, Captain Heinrich Von Wolf, (who styled himself "Baron") from raw materials imported from Germany; after landing at Luderitz on the coast, the materials were transported by ox-wagon for over 600kms through the Namib Desert! The Baron and his wife didn't have long to enjoy it though : they travelled to Europe in 1914 and, when WWI broke out, he re-joined the German army and was killed at the Somme in 1916, and his wife settled in Switzerland, never returning to Namibia.  The state took it over in the late 1970s, and opened it to the public in 1991; it now houses a collection of 18th and 19th century antiques, armour and paintings.

The immediate terrain is flat and rather dull but, once we join the C19 west, we start to gain height then come upon the beautiful views from the Tsarishootge Pass. We're lucky to espy a "Camping" sign outside a farm; upon our application, the farmer direct us along the road, through a gate 

  
into an unpromising-looking field, up a dirt track and finally to a (very private) camping spot.
 

As well as excellent views of hills all around including the Namib Rand dune / hills,
 

 
it boasts a super-looking gecko in the loo

wild horses and a few friendly zebra as we watch the sun go down