Because we already did around 9600km when we reached Cape Town, and the car had to go in for service very soon we were able to swap the car without any problem at the Cape Town airport. Now we’ve got a Nissan Tiida 1.6. Some of you might be a bit cofused because actually the first rental car we got was also a Nissan Tiida, but that one was replaced because of some bad wheel alignment before we even started the trip.

Let’s hope this one lasts till the airport in Johannesburg!

We arrived in Hobas around 14h30. We got a lovely campsite again. After we put up the tent again we went to the 3 main viewpoints of the canyon. What an amazing view over the canyon!!

In the evening we braaid again and enjoyed the evening as it was not so cold. Just lovely!

In the afternoon we visited Lüderitz again and did some groceries shopping. Because we wanted to braai something else besides meat, we decided to go to the local fish shop at the harbour where we bought a nice big 1kg angel fish. In the evening we made a fire between the rocks and braaid our fish. We had to keep the fire going as it was a really cold night.

After this we drove to the car park where we had to take a 4×4 taxi to go to Death Vlei and Sossusvlei. On our way in the taxi we already saw beautiful dunes. The taxi first dropped us at a point where we could walk to Death Vlei. We walked through the dunes (again amazing views!) until we got in Death Vlei. It really is a death valley between the dunes. It was very nice to see. After we walked all the way back to the taxi point, the taxi brought us to Sossusvlei. We walked around and saw again beautiful views. Sossusvlei is really worth seeing! After enjoying this amazing place, we started our trip to Duwisib Castle.

Again we had to drive on gravel roads the whole time, what is not that easy with our car. Jan had to concentrate very well to avoid stones and holes. We were happy when we arrived at Duwisib Castle without any damage on the car.

Duwisib Castle was built by Hansheinrich von Wolf (Germany) and his wife Jayta. They married in 1907 and chose Namibia as there new homeland. In 1908 the work on the castle started (with material that came all the way from Germany). In 1909 the castle was completed. The couple only lived in the castle from 1909 until 1914. After that they went to England to buy more material to build more on their castle but because of the Great War they never returned to Namibia.
We visited the castle and there are still a lot of things left from Hansheinrich and Jayta.

We booked a camping site here but we are the only people. There is no power so it will be very dark when the sun goes down around 6h. We will make a nice campfire to keep us warm because we know it can be very cold in the desert at night.

Every time you also have to wax your board with some messy wax because the sand just eats the wax of the board. I did about 6 awesome runs andthe walking up every time makes it really exhausting. At multiple spots at the way up they put water container cause the sand and the sun makes you so thirsty.

Just before the last run we did a slide down the other side of the dune on what they call a ‘lay-down board’. It’s just a flat thin piece of waxed wood. I was the second fastest and reached a crazy speed of 71 km/h.

Around 12h we had lunch and some drinks and after that they brought us back to the apartment where we had a nice shower. The sand was just everywhere! At 6h this evening we are going to watch the video because they filmed everything and you even get the DVD for free.

We booked an apartment in Swakopmmund as it costs the same as staying in a double room in a backpacker. The apartment is really nice. It’s a brand new very stylish apartment at the back of a huge house which was built for the Namibian prime minister who hasn’t moved yet because of the house colour. At least that’s what the owner told us.

In the afternoon we parked the car in town and did a walk in Swakopmund. We stopped at the tourist office to book some sand boarding for Jan on Saturday. Sand boarding is exactly like snowboarding, just on a desert dune instead of on snow.

Swakopmund is an old German town with a really nice and cosy atmosphere. It’s the most touristic place in Namibia during South African school holidays. Now it’s calm.Swakopmund doesn’t feel like Africa, it feels like being in Europe. The people are also very friendly and it’s lovely to hear people speak German and Afrikaans (you hear these languages a lot in Namibia). Apparently the crime is also extremely low and the houses even don’t have fences. This town already left a very positive impression on us.It seems a dream place to live!

Tomorrow we’ll discover more about Swakopmund; we’ll go for a big walk in town and on the beach.

To our surprise we already arrived there in the early afternoon. We got a massive camp site in Okaukuejo for ourselves where you could easily put up 10 tents. After putting up the tent, we went to have a look at the waterhole in Okaukuejo. This is very nice, a waterhole only 200m away from the camping. At the waterhole you can see animals passing by the whole day and night. It’s also very nice at night because they have got lights pointed at the waterhole. We immediately saw some elephants and huge herds of zebras drinking. After this we went into the park to the western points of interest in the park. We saw a rhino and some other game.

After driving around for a while, we returned to our tent to start our fire and to prepare dinner. In the late evening we went back to the waterhole where we saw again some rhinos, zebra’s and jackals.
The next morning we left early to drive through the park to Halali, the eastern rest camp. On the way we stopped at all the points of interest. Along the road we saw elephants, giraffes, rhinos, gemsboks, springboks, blue wildebeests, some nice birds etc. We even saw a lion sunning next to a waterhole.

In the evening we made a fire again and went back to the waterhole. Etosha is really the best game viewing place where we have ever been, it’s even much nicer than Kruger National Park. The camping is very expensive but it’s worth it; you see plenty of game, there are clean toilets and showers, the camping spots are very nice, etc.

The city is very nice. It’s a combination of modern buildings and old German styled buildings. It sometimes feels as if you are in Germany. Lots of shops have German names and you can also hear people speaking German. I’m not going into more detail because a city is a city of course and this stopover in Windhoek was more to move away from all the nature for a few days before going back into nature for more than 10 days.

Tomorrow we will leave early to Etosha National Park. One of the best game viewing places in Southern Africa!

The Okavango Delta is very beautiful, just the water and the reeds alone, and also the wildlife around the delta. It’s just amazing travelling by a mokoro because it is so quiet and peaceful. The only thing you hear is the water, birds and the hippos making noise. Your main focus here is purely nature. As the delta is full of hippos that can attack a mokoro, they only go through shallow water and through the reeds. After 30 minutes you’re just completely covered in dust, insect and spiders. On our way to the campsite we saw a big hippo sleeping in the sun where we were able to get out of the mokoro to have a really close view of the hippo.
The delta contains thousands of small islands and our polers just picked out a random island where none of the other polers were going to. They didn’t want to go an island where mokoro groups were going as the wildlife tends to hide when there’s too much people/noise. It’s really like camping on a deserted island. The guides started a fire and dug a hole which we could use as a toilet while we pitched up our tents and at some lunch. Around 16h30 we left for a nice game walk. We didn’t see much because there were lions nearby and the animals move away from the lions. But we saw something very rare, a Pangolin, which is some kind of ant eater. Our guide was so impressed and told us this was the best thing we could ever see. It even brings luck! Later on we even heard that we are the first tourist group in Botswana that ever saw a Pangolin. If that isn’t something!

In the evening we sat by the campfire, sang for Hanne’s birthday and grilled some tender meat. A few drinks later we went to bed as it was getting quite cold. During the night you could hear the lions and the hyenas howl. We had to keep the fire going the whole night because this keeps the animals away.
The next morning we left for a big game walk on the island. We tried to track the lions as there were footprints all over the island. Unfortunately we couldn’t find them but the track itself was very nice. We do saw a huge herd of zebras running away and make some kind of strange noise which according to our brilliant guide means that one of them was killed by lions. So they were very nearby.

In the afternoon we packed our stuff and left for a 3 hour mokoro trip back to the boat point. We saw a herd of elephants where we were able to get very close by on foot. This mokoro trip truly was one of the highlights of our trip and a nice birthday present for Hanne!