Namibia’s National Parks, Part 2

Welcome back. Today’s blog post concludes Ellen Haack’s travelogue of Namibia, where she and husband Barry spent two weeks touring the country and its national parks. The travelogue began last Friday (Namibia’s National Parks, Part 1).

Etosha National Park, continued

We were impressed by the ease of driving through Etosha National Park to see the wildlife. We were even more impressed to find that the rest camps, as they are called, were sited adjacent to waterholes. It was a short walk from our little chalet at the Okaukuejo Rest Camp to sit, relax and watch the animals come to the waterhole at sunset or sunrise.

The Okaukuejo Rest Camp was adjacent to this waterhole. Note the stone and fence barricade. If the blog photo were higher resolution, you could see others seated, as we were, to watch the animals.

Oryx (gemsbok) cooled themselves in the waterhole at sunset. (Though difficult to see, there’s a jackal near the water at center-right.)

Sunset also brought giraffe and many other animals.

Namib-Naukluft National Park

From Etosha National Park, we drove southwest about 310 miles to Swakopmund, a town on the Atlantic coast at the northwest corner of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Although this park, at over 19,200 square miles, is the largest nature reserve in Africa, it’s more famous for its landscapes-- Namib Desert sand dunes, Naukluft mountain range--than its wildlife.

The desert does indeed meet the ocean in and to the south of Swakopmund. We, however, viewed this unique junction through fog and mist, which we were told is nearly perpetual. From Swakopmund, we went on a guided “Mountains of the Moon - Welwitschia Tour” that took us about an hour inland.

Our tour van and a view of the lunar-like landscape.

The rare, not endangered Welwitschia, a gymnosperm closely related to conifers, lives a thousand years or more, growing only in a narrow coastal strip of the Namib Desert from mid-Namibia north into southern Angola.

From Swakopmund, Barry’s careful driving got the Toyota Corolla over long stretches of gravel road south 250 miles to Sossusvlei. There we stayed in a wonderful privately-owned tent camp for two days while venturing into the park to marvel at the sand dunes.

Sossusvlei Lodge, a privately-owned, upscale tented camp, outside the gates to the Namib-Naukluft National Park.

Sossusvlei sand dunes from afar.

Sossusvlei’s enormous sand dunes, gorgeous against the bright blue sky.

Walking on the Sossusvlei dunes is permitted though not easy, and there were people ascending at various heights at this location.

We visited the Sossusvlei area of the park for the dunes but also found Oryx.

Some unusual dune features.

After Sossusvlei, we made a hurried drive--well, as hurried as it could be over the many gravel stretches--225 miles northeast back to Windhoek to catch our flight home carrying many wonderful memories with us.

As the rhinos wistfully left the Etosha Park waterhole, we wistfully said goodbye to Namibia.

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of Namibia’s national parks and that you’ll join me in thanking Ellen and Barry Haack for taking us along. Thanks for stopping by.

Namibia’s National Parks, Part 1

Welcome back. It’s been a while since this blog offered a travelogue and there’s never been one on Africa. Who better to take us along with her and husband Barry, professor at George Mason University, than Ellen Haack?

Ellen’s previous guest posts were travelogues of Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta and New Zealand’s South Island (see P.S. for links). As for Africa, Ellen and Barry spent two years in Kenya and a year in Tanzania, where Barry was employed or on sabbatical. Barry has also had projects in Sudan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Malawi, with stays in Egypt and South Africa.

For the travelogue that begins today and continues next Tuesday, Ellen and Barry recently spent two weeks driving through Namibia. 

Namibia in southwestern Africa;
about twice the size of California
with only 2.3 million people.
(www.africanwildlifesafaris.com.au)

Namibia had long been on our bucket list. Its sparse population and arid climate are very different from African countries we knew; and we were especially attracted by its famed desert meets the ocean and massive sand dunes. When Barry had the opportunity to work there in August--the perfect time of year--we jumped at the chance to extend his work into our vacation.

We began our tour in the capital, Windhoek. Too late to line up a 4-wheel drive vehicle, we rented a Toyota Corolla and drove north about 260 miles to Etosha National Park.

Etosha National Park

The travel literature presents Etosha, 8,600 square miles, as one of Africa's top parks for wildlife, but we were prepared to be disappointed. We had been in the great wildlife parks of East Africa and were convinced that the semi-desert environment couldn't possibly support the same abundance of animals. We were thrilled to be wrong. Here’s a sample of what we saw while driving through the park.

Lions relaxing or maybe digesting an impala that didn’t make it to the tree line.

Zebra stopping traffic on a park road.

A too-close-for-comfort elephant encounter.

This elephant obviously found mud to roll in.

Albino elephants? No, just a dust bath in Etosha’s enormous salt pan, which covers nearly a quarter of the park. (“Etosha” means Great White Place, referring to the pan, in a Bantu dialect spoken in Namibia.)

Even impala seek shade.

As do giraffes, though they have to duck down.

Gnu (wildebeest), impala and ostrich at a waterhole.

Jackals prefer to be alone.

A communal nest of sociable weaver birds. These gigantic nests sometimes house several hundred birds and can be occupied for close to 100 years.

We’ll stop here for the day, let the Haacks head for a rest camp by a waterhole, and continue next Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by.

P.S.

Ellen Haack’s earlier travelogue posts on the Retired—Now What? Blog:

Mekong Delta—Life on the Water
Part 1:  www.retired--nowwhat.com/2012/04/mekong-delta-life-on-water-part-1.html
Part 2:  www.retired--nowwhat.com/2012/04/mekong-delta-life-on-water-part-2.html

A New Zealand Journey
Part 1: www.retired--nowwhat.com/2013/04/a-new-zealand-journey-part-1.html
Part 2: www.retired--nowwhat.com/2013/04/a-new-zealand-journey-part-2.html