Africa Part II - Safari

After Cape Town (see Africa Part I - Cape Town), we flew to Walvis Bay, Namibia.  When looking at the map, it is hard to appreciate the size of many of the African countries.  Namibia is actually larger than Texas!

Walvis Bay is along the coast, but is in a desert!

Walvis Bay Airport

View during the drive to Swakopmund from Walvis Bay

We were driven to Swapokmund where we stayed one night at the Rössmund Lodge (http://www.rossmund.com/en/).  Dave's high school friend, John Wheeling, lives in Swakopmund and his wife's (Dana) family manage the lodge.  The lodge is on a golf course and is one of only a few true full green fairway golf courses that are in the desert (uses recycled water).  Springbok enjoy feeding on the golf course too.

In addition, Dana's family has a travel company, Ondjama Safaris (http://www.ondjamba.com.na/ondjamba_en.html), so they made all of our hotel and safari reservations for us!  That night we caught up with the Wheeling family and had a braai (BBQ) outside at the lodge.  It was so good to see them and the food was great!

Dana & John

Amanda, Grace, Kieren, Felix, Maddie & Josie

Not the best pictures of the evening but the only ones I have!

The next morning Dione (Dana's sister) helped us rent a truck and we headed to the game reserve!  Dave got to drive on the other side of the road again!

The drive to the game reserve was about four and a half hours.  It took us longer because we stopped in Omaruru for lunch.

The landscape changed as we drove, from desert to savannah.  Not many trees on the way so if you needed shade there were the occasion stops (see picture below).  We did have to go through a couple of police checkpoints.  For the ones we went through, they were really only checking to see that you were using your lights and that you had a license.  They also handed out some informational brochures.

Our route to Erindi game reserve

Once we passed Omaruru there were only gravel roads!  That was the last 85 km (about 53 miles) of the trip!  The roads were pretty bumpy too.  We only passed one other car the entire way.  The trip wasn't difficult, but I admit I was glad we didn't break down on the way!

We did have to stop once for a little traffic : )

Termite mounds!

We finally arrived at the game reserve!

Erindi is a private game reserve. Their website is:  http://www.erindi.com.  Although it is privately owned, it is huge!  According to their website, it is 70,719 ha.  That is almost 175,000 acres (273 sq miles)!

Once we passed through the gate, we still had to drive about 25 km (15.5 miles) to get to our lodge!

We liked the lodge at Erindi.

Our beds had mosquito nets and they provided each room with mosquito repellent.  We used it and really didn't have any significant mosquito bites during our trip.  The area of Namibia we were in, though, is malaria free so it was nice to not to have to take medication or constantly be concerned about malaria.

Patio of one of our room that looked out to a small watering hole

View of small watering hole from our patio

Elephant at the watering hole

All of the pictures were taken with either one of our phone or our camera.  We used the 55-300mm lens on the camera many times to get the close up shots.

Baboons

At the lodge restaurant, there was a deck that overlooked a larger watering hole.  Unfortunately for the area, there was a drought.  For animal viewing, though, it was nice for us.  Animals had no choice but to seek out watering holes, one of which was the one near the restaurant.

The pictures below were taken from the deck of the restaurant.

Crocodile - loved seeing their eyes!

Baby crocodiles!

We also went twice a day on game drives to see animals.  The first day we were there we went on a night drive from 9pm - midnight.  Our guide was Reinhart and he had an assistant that used a spotlight.  No good pictures to share, but some of what we saw:

• vulture
• two spotted hyenas
• white rhinoceros
• black rhinoceros
• several different types of antelope

At night, walking on the sidewalk to our room, we often had to dodge the bugs below.  The girls were hilarious.  They were more scared of these than the big animals.  You had to jump out of their way sometimes so you didn't step on them!  It would have been a crunchy mess.  They were about 2-3 inches long.

We also had a great experience called the "Cheetah walk".  Instead of going on one of the morning game drives, our family went with guide G.P. to find a couple of cheetahs.  A few of the cheetahs on were problem animals in other parts of Namibia.  For a time, they were in captivity and then eventually released in the game reserve.  Because of their time around humans, the cheetahs are accepting of humans being as close as about 15 meters from them.  Both cheetahs we saw had collars.  One collar reports back a daily GPS location to the Cheetah Conservation Fund for research purposes.  The other collar allows Erindi to use telemetry to locate them.

The telemetry only works when you are somewhat near the cheetahs.  Luckily there had been a sighting in the morning so our guide knew which direction to drive.  We drove for about an hour with G.P. checking the telemetry once we were closer to see which direction we should walk.

G.P. using telemetry to find the cheetahs

Along our drive we saw a few zebras.

We then left the car and walked about 3km (1.8 miles) to the cheetahs.  They do these walks safely all the time, but of course we are out in the bush alone on foot so our guide had a rifle and a pistol just in case.

G.P. found the cheetahs for us!  They had just made a kill so we watched them eat.  You could see the tracks the cheetahs had left behind as they had chased down and captured a young eland (if I remember correctly what he said it was).  It was amazing being out there watching them in their own environment.  I loved it.  They noticed us, but were busy eating.

Pardon my bad photography, but wanted you to see how close we actually were to the cheetahs!

A little messy after the meal

While we were watching the cheetahs, a few baboons were checking us out from a distance.

On the walk back, G.P. had us stop once because he could smell an elephant.  We could smell it too.  The scent was strong.  We never saw it, but there must have been one somewhat near us during our hike back.  Absolutely loved the cheetah walk experience!!

For the daily game drives, the first was 6:30 - 9:30 and the second was 4:30 - 7:30 in the afternoon.  Loved being out in the bush on the game drives looking for animals.

Here are a few of the pictures we took while we were on the game drives.

Steenbok

Warthog (I think he was posing for me!)

Vulture

Rhinoceros cow and calf 

In Erindi, they remove the horns of a fully grown rhinoceros so that they will not be killed by poachers.

Rhinoceros bull

It was funny to watch the calf try to take on the bull when it was getting a little close to the cow.

Waterbuck

Leopard tortoise

Wild dogs

Wildebeests

He tried to roar a little while we were watching him.

Bat-eared fox

Impala

Black mamba!  Lucky to get to see one.  They are lethally venomous, yikes!  

If you notice, this lioness has a collar.  The reserve does collar a few of the leaders so that they can track the movement of the group.  Knowing the general area where they are doesn't mean you will definitely see them as sometimes they are too deep in the bush for the trucks to get near.  We saw this pride of lions our last day.  They were pretty far into the bush and we had to go off-road quite a bit to get to see them.

Gift was our guide for the daytime game drives.  During the drive he would find a nice location and we would have coffee/drinks and a snack.  Loved some of the views where Gift took us.

The girls and Gift

Discovered a tasty new drink!

Last but not least, in the evenings on the way back to the lodge, there were some beautiful skies and sunsets.

It was an adventure we will never forget!  If you have never had the chance to do something similar and ever get the chance - DO IT!  

Stay tuned for part III of our trip to Swakopmund and the desert...