Driving Up North

We just came back from the most awesome three day trip. We drove 4 ½ hours "Up North" to the Etosha National Park.

The drive itself was very interesting. Driving on the main north/south highway (the B1), you get a sense of just how few people live in Namibia. We were warned by several Namibians how horrible the traffic would be on the highways on the 31st of December. We were advised not to even attempt such a trip, and certainly to leave by 6am if we were foolish enough to do so. But, on this two lane highway, we encountered another car only about every 10 or 15 minutes. The highway seemed to be lined with impressive termite mounds. We expected to see a few, but not the thousands of mounds that we did see. Also darting beside the highway were tons of warthogs. They are the funniest little things. As Ruby says, they are much smaller than “Pumba” in the Lion King, but just as funny looking. According to Maxine’s log, we also saw Ostrich and spring bok within the first hour of the drive. In 4 ½ hours, we passed through only 3 towns, and there is virtually nothing in between, aside from some extremely large ranches (cattle) and some game farms and lodges. The towns we drove through were all very pleasant, pretty towns, with lots of trees. We stopped at a lovely café in Outjo (which means in Herero – place of the cone shaped hills). After driving through the Etosha gates, we immediately began seeing wild animals. We saw a bunch of different type of antelope – gemsbok, springbok, kudu, black-faced impala, etc. just during our drive to the campsite. The campsite is an area right inside the game preserve, which is surrounded by a game fence and armed guards to keep the wild animals out. There also were 3 lovely pools and a poolside bar, which was so refreshing in the hot Namibian summer. Next post will describe the rest of our trip and post some photos.