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The Skeleton
Coast was somewhere I have always wanted to visit in Africa and on the way
to Palmwag Lodge, 439 kilometres away on a mixture of salt & gravel roads,
I got to drive along some of it. Unfortunately, maybe due to the overcast
weather, we were not impressed! We even tried to go to the Cape Cross
Seal Colony, but were an hour and a half too early!
Once we got away
from the coast though we did enjoy the journey through some amazing
scenery and got our first glimpse of the Hartmann's Mountain Zebras. How
can you tell the difference when they all look stripey I hear you ask?
Well, Hartmann's Zebras are black with white stripes and Burchell's Zebras
are white with black stripes. If you don't believe me and you really want
to know, ask me and I will tell you the real answer.
We went to
Palmwag for one specific purpose, which was to try and find the Desert
Elephants. We were not disappointed; we were met at our tent by one! It
literally came right up to the tent and started to eat the grass from
around the base whilst we stood and gawped like a pair of kids in a sweet
shop!
We also had
another welcome visitor in the bathroom, a beautiful snake! We identified
it as either a Brown House snake, or an Olive Grass snake. The Brown
House snake is harmless and the Olive Grass snake only has mild venom, a
bit like a bee sting. Either way we decided that it was better to be safe
than sorry and get someone else to come and move him just in case we were
wrong and it was a venomous snake, after taking several pictures first of
course!
So this guy comes
back to the tent with me, armed with a huge stick, I walked straight back
into the bathroom to show him where it was, he peered nervously around the
door, panicked, said it was highly poisonous and ran off to get his mate!
I showed a photo to one of the rangers later that night and he confirmed
it was a totally harmless Brown House snake! When they came back, his
mate looked even more scared than he was! This snake incidentally was
only about two feet long and very happy until they started to prod it with
a stick! I insisted they didn't hurt it and I went outside to check it
got away safely, but it disappeared before I got outside and this seemed
to make them even more nervous as they then frantically started to beat
the tent to death in search of it! After we assured them we would be ok
they finally left, probably reporting back to the rest of the staff that
the reason they were sweating so profusely was that they had just fought
off a huge Black Mamba with their bare hands!
That evening as
the sun set the air and bushes surrounding our tent became almost
completely filled with birds coming to nest for the night. There were
literally thousands of them, flying at speed in huge numbers before diving
into the reeds. We had never seen flocks of birds like it, or heard the
accompanying noise that went with it!
From Palmwag we
ventured three hours north-west into a part of Palmwag's Concession Area
called Hoanib River to try and find the Desert Elephants, even though we
had found one right outside the tent the previous afternoon! We were
lucky enough to find a couple of these unique Elephants whilst traversing
through some spectacular scenery before finding a mum, dad and baby
Elephant relaxing in the shade. We saw quite a bit of game along the way,
a huge Ostrich family, various bucks, a few Giraffes and also the
Hartmann's Mountain Zebra.
That evening was
the Football World Cup Final between Italy and France, the staff had to
set up the one and only television in the surrounding area outside, as so
many locals and guests wanted to watch the game! The lodge had a huge
party of Italians staying there and so they were extremely happy with the
result. As for us, we were just glad France didn't win!
A short 179
kilometres on gravel roads from Palmwag is Twyfelfontain, if you go via
the Petrified Forest that is.
At the Petrified
Forest we saw tree trunks that had been swept to this part of the country
in huge floods a long time ago. These "petrified" tree trunks are
estimated to be 260 million years old! They look like wood and even sound
wooden if you tap them, but they are in fact stone! You can clearly see
the bark and rings of the wood as they have been preserved so well. As we
wandered around looking at these we also saw some Welwitschias plants,
these are endemic to Namibia. The oldest one is near Swakopmund and
estimated to be 1,500 years old, the ones we saw were only 150 to 300
years old! Although we did see one that was about an inch in length that
had been growing for 11 years! This may not sound all that impressive,
but it is a plant, not a tree and it manages to survive in the harsh
conditions of the desert!
As for
Twyfelfontain, this area is littered with rock engravings and paintings
ranging from between 4,000 to 6,000 years old. You can go on day-long
walks through rugged mountains and red-hot desert conditions to see some
of them, but we went to see the most easily accessible ones that were only
a few kilometres from where we stayed for the night! However, what we did
see was amazing as it showed that the Bushmen who created these were
extremely nomadic. In amongst the Giraffes, Rhinos, Lions and other
animals you would expect to see were Seals and Penguins, showing that they
went to the coast. They also drew maps on the rocks so people would know
where to find the animals and also the waterholes, they even marked
whether the waterholes were temporary or permanent ones!
You are also
advised to go and see Burnt Mountain and the Organ Pipes whilst you are in
the area. The Organ Pipes are rocks that have been exposed through soil
erosion and look spookily enough like Organ Pipes! They were really cool
to see as the sunset and changed the colour of the rock. As for Burnt
Mountain, we didn't get it! Apparently you need to know the myth behind
the mountain to appreciate the spectacle! We were told the story in
brief, but still didn't find it that impressive! However, Twyfelfontain
Country Lodge was well worth the overnight stay, particularly for the
food. The breakfast was fantastic, but the evening buffet was a
"Meatetarian's" delight, along with dozens of choices of other food there
were at least six different types of succulently cooked meats to choose
from! Apparently there are not many vegetarian's left in Namibia!
After heading
back to the bar to share a few glasses of the local brew with the chef and
manager of the resort we headed off to bed, strolling along gazing up at
the star-studded sky, marvelling at how bright the Milky Way looked and
listening to the baboons playing on the mountains behind us. |