leaving N/a'ankuse for touring around Namiba

After 3 weeks of volunteering at N/a'ankuse, part of me was sorry to leave so soon, but another part of me was anxious to explore the country of Namibia. I will miss all the animals I had to take care of, the staff and all the volunteers from around the world. The night I left, they were getting 2 baby cheetah kittens but I've since heard that both of them didn't make it so I'm sure there were a few tears with the volunteers and staff members. I guess they also had a baby baboon brought in that had to have one of his legs amputated and that little guy didn't make it as well.

One Thur Feb 14th, I spent time at N/a'ankuse Guesthouse in Windhoek for a couple of days. It's a great B&B and close to the shopping mall and downtown for sightseeing. My 1st tour was 7 days in southern Namibia start Sat. morning. Dirk was our driver/guide and he is from Namibia. I was joined with Margaret, Robert, Susan, Peter and Sue all from the U.K. and Martin & Karin from Germany. Unfortunately, we ended up with an very old minicoach. Dirk said the regular one broke down and this was substituted but it was well past it's prime. Over 600,000 clicks on it with faulty a/c and lots of noise on the mainly dirt roads we took. I may have hated the vehicle but I loved most of the tour.

Leaving Windhoek on a paved road it was very pretty mountain scenery against a beautiful blue sky with only a few wispy clouds. Much appreciated after the week of rain prior to the tour. We stopped in a town called Rehoboth which is a town for colored (mixed race people known as Basters) set up during the apartied times years ago. Seems they still perfer to live there even though there is no restriction now. As we head south, we lose mountains for flater, drier looking climate. We stay at the edge of the Kalahari Desert at Auob Lodge. That evening we enjoyed a sunset drive in an open vehicle in their own game park. Their fenced in game park had giraffe, wildebeast, waterbuck, eland, springbok, kudu, oryx, steenbok. Half of their animals are not found in the area but it was still nice to see the different species and enjoy a drink watching the sunset on the west with a lightening storm approaching from the east.

Woke up with lots of red dots covering my legs this morning but they aren't itchy like mosquito bites. I slept under a net so I'm assuming that I got them during dinner or the game drive. Will have to be a bit more conscience of putting on my bug lotion even if I don't see bugs around. Sunday morning we left the Kalahari area. It's more of a semi-desert area and with the recent rains it's much greener than I thought it would be. Heading south and east we pass by an extinct volcano and the landscape starts to change as you see more volcanic looking black/brown rock in the area. Some areas look very barren with very little trees while others are lush with long grasses. Near Keetmanstoop we stop to look at the Quiver Trees, a member of the Aloe family. Called Quiver Trees since the Bushman would use the fiborous insides to make their quivers for their hunting arrows. These trees are hundreds of years old and surrounded by dolerite boulders. Saw a blue headed lizard that made my day. A fenced in area had 2 cheetahs that we could go in and take pics of. Heading south to Fish River Canyon, the landscape changed once again. Great bolder formation maining in red/orange/brown reminded me of parts of Utah and Arizona. Was looking forward to staying in Canyon Lodge that is built right into the rocks but ended up in Canyon Village. Still a very nice place with thatched roof and rock bungalows surrounded by these rocky formations. Great place for climbing. Had a quick dip in the pool before joining a large group of hotel guest to climb one of these formations. What better way to enjoy a drink and watch the sunset. Saw a stork, goshawks, springbok, oryk and to my surprise, moutain zebras for the 1st time.

Woke up early to climb up to the top of the rocks behind my cottage to watch the sunrise. I really enjoyed listening to all the bird songs but the sunrise was not as colorful as the previous sunset. Monday morning we headed to the rim of Fish River Canyon to a few of the viewpoints. It's the 2nd largest canyon after the Grand Canyon in the U.S. It may not be as colorful but is still beautiful. Due to the rains, it had water flowing way down in the canyon floor. It was fairly early around 8am so the sun was still low so there was quite a bit of shadow on the one side when taking pictures. On the walk back to the minicoach, Robert and I were talking when I said stop, SNAKE. It was there only inches in front of us on the trail. Not very big about 1 foot long but it was in the adder family and is poisonous. It went under some rocks before we could check one of the books for what type of adder. On the way to the coastal town of Luderitz we saw ostriches, more zebra, springbok and oryx. Around Aus we saw wildhorses. They are decendants of horses that escaped from a german army camp back over 50 years ago. They say there are over 200 now and this area is really barren at the start of the sand dunes of the Namib Desert so I'm amazed they have been able to survive. Close to Luderitz it resembles a Lunar landscape. Miles of dull looking blackish/brown rock and sand dunes. Not that scenic but very interesting because it's the Diamond Mining area. Lots of the roads have Do Not Enter signs for anyone thinking they can go looking for a few sparklers for their own. Luderitz still has lots of the old German colonial style buildings and is right along the Atlantic Ocean. Our Nest Hotel is situated on the water and I explored the tide pools during low tide. We took a late afternoon drive out to Diaz Point. Hunderds of years ago, the Spanish Explorer stopped here, erected a cross but decided it wasn't liveable and left. The nearby rocks have fur seals but it's so windy it's hard to stand up so we didn't stay long.

Tues morning we have to backtrack along the same road to leave Luderitz. We stop at Kolmanskop to have a tour of the abandoned diamond mining town. Entering we saw a black backed jackel. Slowly over the years, the buildings have been getting covered from the moving sand dunes. People have also taken out some of the metal, lumber, fixtures etc to build their own homes so some of them are ready to collapse. We had an interesting walking tour of the area and were told which homes we could enter. I loved wadering around the sand dunes and looking in the old abandoned houses but we didn't have enough time to explore the area or look for the resident brown hyena that is sometimes seen sitting outside one of the homes near a leaking water tap. Smart animal knows where to get water in the dry area. They also mine for other minerals in the area so I bought a piece of watermelon tourmaline. The wild horses and ostriches were closer to the road on the drive back easteward. We then headed north to the Maltahohe area to stay at Hammerstien Rest Camp situated in the mountains. Took a walking tour to see their cheetahs, leopard, caracals before dinner. Also saw a baby puff adder near my room. It's a deadly snake.