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Our next
destination was the Sesriem and Sossusvlei District, 463 kilometres away
and this time 354 kilometres of it was on gravel. On the way we stopped
at Garub, about 100 kilometres east of Lüderitz to see one of the few
groups of feral horses in the world and the only ones to have adapted to
the harsh conditions of the desert.
We stayed on a
guest farm in Sesriem, which was home to three dogs, two cats, a Gemsbok
and a "don't you dare ignore me" Springbok. The Springbok has grown up at
the farm and was pretty tame and Angela found that he liked apples, so the
restaurant should now be able to guess where all their apples went! The
youngest cat was a half domestic cat and half wildcat, an African Wildcat
father that is, not just a cat running lose in the wild! She had gorgeous
markings just like a real Wildcat, with stripes on her legs, huge eyes and
pointy ears.
The reason for
visiting this area was the giant sand dunes, some of the biggest in the
world. They also have a unique shape because of the multi-directional
winds. They can have three or more "prongs" extending from their peaks,
whereas other sand dunes tend to have one line parallel to the direction
the wind blows.
On the way to
Sossusvlei, where there still remained some of the water from their record
breaking rainfall earlier in the year, we stopped at Dune 45, which is
forty-five kilometres from the park gates. Incidentally, they had ten
years worth of rain in one week in February 2006, so we saw something
quite rare as the amount of plant-life that had managed to grow was
extremely unusual. We partially climbed Naravlei, which is 200 metres
tall, choosing to leave the 300 metre "Big Daddy" known as Crazy Dune for
crazy people. The reason we only partially climbed it was because the guy
who drove us to the bottom did not explain that the way we were looking to
climb up was in fact the way down and far steeper than walking up one of
the prongs! We got to about twenty metres from the top before it got so
steep we just kept sliding backwards!
On the way back
to the farm we saw an Ostrich family with a huge herd of youngsters,
although we have seen dozens of Ostrich before, we had never seen any
babies! That night we saw another two spectacles unique to the area. The
first was the colour of the sky at sunset, where the wind throws the red
sand into the sky and turns the sky pink, but also when the sun drops
behind the mountains it turns the sky into half day and half night. One
half of the sky is dark enough to see all the stars and the other half
still looks like the middle of the day.
The next town we
stayed at was Swakopmund, 362 kilometres away, of which 313 where on
gravel. Swakopmund is described as being more German than Germany! On
the way we saw something neither of us had seen in the wild before,
Timone! Well actually they were Suricats, but almost everyone calls them
Meercats, mainly because of the Lion King! Just outside Walvis Bay,
thirty kilometres south of Swakopmund, we saw Dune 7, but this one is only
fifty metres high!
As the car was
both covered and full of sand I tried to clean it up a bit before we took
it to Avis to get them to check the tyres. Whilst I was cleaning it I was
approached by a couple of gentlemen who told me they would give me a good
price if they could steal the car! I smiled, pretended not to understand
them and carried on.
The reason we
wanted to get Avis to check our tyres was due to the huge amount of
driving we were doing on gravel. Also, Dean told us one of his previous
clients had fifteen punctures driving from Swakopmund to Palmwag, the
journey we were doing next! As it turns out it was a good job we got them
checked as both front tyres needed changing due to wear and tear, not our
driving! This was not to be the last time we were less than impressed
with Avis this time around! The other reason we went to Walvis Bay was to
see the huge flocks of Greater and Lesser Flamingos, some of the biggest
in Africa and very impressive to see.
Back in
Swakopmund we went to the "Village Cafe" where one of the waitresses sings
and plays her guitar whilst you are served delicious homemade soup and
bread. Our final evening we went to the Lighthouse Bar & Restaurant and
watched a spectacular sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, something we had
done from our hotel room balcony two nights earlier. |