Windhoeck fun

This Tuesday, we have an average driving day of 400 km / 5h, before to arrive in the Namibian capital, Windhoeck. This is more a break on the way to Botswana, where we can all reconnect on WiFi and some shopping in "normal" shops before hit the road again.

Nothing special in this small town... except that while you are in Africa, the previous German influence can still be seen on some buildings, interesting.  

In the evening, after a great dinner at Joe's Beer famous restaurant, with "game" meat (they call game the animals you can see while doing safaris), of course not meat of the endangered species, but we tasted Kudu, Crocodile, Springbok, Ostrich and Oryx, all were very good.

After this... we asked a taxi driver to bring us to the place where we could find a bit of animation on a Tuesday night, and we ended up in a pizza bar, which looked quiet when we arrived but delivered fun in the end, talking with the locals there before some dancing. Nice & unexpected party in Namibia :-)

with Elena & Megan 

 Hehe... with the locals girls dancing on the table ;-))

The party group: Elana, Megan, Kylie, Ellen, me & JB

(the random unknown guy in the middle... well, a local gay guy hitting me and who absolutely wanted to be on the picture...;-)

Etosha park

Another 2 nights at the same place, it feels so good :-)


After another long day of driving 400km, we arrive at the famous Etosha park, North of Namibia. I was expecting a very green and jungle-type of park, but actually, it is organized around a very dry salty pan (previously the ocean coast thousands years ago), which provides a surprising flat & dry landscape.
Around it, there is of course a bush where you can spot many animals, with waterholes, and we are this for this purpose :)

A very flat landscape, with almost no vegetation

 

The waterholes, temporary or permanent, offers always a good spot to watch animals drinking during the hot days. It is quite amazing to see live what you see usually on TV documentaries... dozens of zebras, kudus, impalas & some giraffes drinking together in a semi-mess, very interesting.

A waterhole with Lions... zoom in to see them and the calves! ;)

Giraffes crossing the road in herd

  

 Can you count the zebras here?... ;)

the team drinking at the end of the sunset

SUNSETS ON THE WATERHOLE

So great sunset can be seen from Namibia, it is breathtaking. With the animals around the waterholes at the end of the day to ensure their lives, it makes a beautiful landscapes. 

Then at night; with a bit of patience, wou are greatly recompensed with the live views :)

Cheetah farm

Today, we start driving North of Namibia, to reach the famous Etosha park. On our way, we stop at a small farm, which is now welcoming and feeding wild cheetahs.
The farmer moved from killing them to protect them, and few became almost "pets" than you can pat...










The camp is quite nice, and after the no-facilities-at-all of the day before, we can enjoy a pool then showers with even hot water, great upgrade!










After a relaxing time, direction the farm house & these cheetahs... Quite impressive to see the fastest mammals from very close, and to hear them roar! They were quite friendly, even if clearly I would not try to mess up with them.

He really looks like a nice & friendly (big) cat, doesn't he?












 After the friendly ones, went to feed the others still wild around the farm, the meat didn't last long!

Spitzkoppe rocks

Spitzkoppe, is a group of bald granite peaks located 2h from Swakopmund in the Namib desert of Namibia. The granite is more than 700 million years old and the highest outcrop rises about 1784 meters above sea level. 
We start seeing these rounded rocks from far away, as clearly you can't miss them. 

Very nice with the sunset light, the scenery is again very different of everything I have seen so far.
We set up camp just down the rock... well, no infrastructure there, so we just rely on the truck. 

After a quick discovery of the San Bushmen paintings, dating 3 to 4,000 years ago, we have a great dinner and camp fire with guitar and stars, nice. 

Sandboarding & Skydiving @Swakopmund

April 18^th & 19^th mornings

2 nights in the same town, pampering myself with an upgrade to a private room, wow, feels good :-). The city here became the Namibian capital of adreline sports, and the group has booked few things to do.

On Thursday morning, I go sandboarding with Kara & Lybie, to see what it is to board on the sand vs. snow.1^st thing noticed… well going back to the desert and the dunes is really cool. Here, close to the coast, dunes are more yellow, and from the top we can see the ocean, some other breathtaking views, which will be great surroundings to sandboard!

 The dunes to sandboard just 5mn away from town, yellow this time!

Great view at the top, can see the Atlantic ocean after the 2km of dunes landscape 

 Tough to hike up this 80m high dune, but you get used to it quickly

Laid-down ride on a basic wood board... wow, you can go down as fast as 70-80 km/h like this! 
 Trying few jumps to get some excitement

The only change vs. snowboard, except that I am not wearing as much layers of clothes... is the board which has been waxed with a kind of plastic layer at the bottom to glide better and faster on the sand. Quite easy otherwise when you snowboard to go down the slope, just a bit harder to turn and to take speed. Quickly try to jump, not too tough either, actually feeling safer on the sand than snow.

The big limiting factor… well, after every run you have to hike up the 90m dune again… so when you have done it 7-8 times, a stop is easy to do! Good experience, happy to have try it.

End afternoon, it is too windy to skydive so we end up walking around the city… quite more developed than what you would expect in the middle of Nambia. The coast line is pretty with nice houses, and there are lucky kitesurfers enjoying the strong wind and big waves.

On Friday morning, the all team has signed up for a skydive jump, really cool to be all together doing it, it adds to the fun. I had already discovered this crazy but great sport thanks to my brother in 2011, and very happy to try again above the Namib dunes. While the jump itself is shorter than my 1^st, “only” from 3 Km vs. 4,  the views from the plane and free-falling are amazing. Of course, quite some good feelings too!!! :-)

Briefing in the middle of the desert 

 Jumping with Duncan, our tour leader. Not even afraid! ;)

 

Got some more pics from the planes... will upload later