Where to Travel: A Teenagers Guide

As soon as I stepped off the Air Namibia flight at Windhoek Airport I knew that we had come somewhere very special. The heat hit us as soon as we were off the over air conditioned flight and into the hard, harsh namibian barren landscape. As we were driving to Windhoek I did not see one other car. Next to the road trees stood as if not one human being had ever touched them and until you came to the occasional village nobody could be seen.



Sossusvlei

After a day of driving along a bumpy road we arrived at the Desert Homestead our oasis in the desert near Sossusvlei. The pool was a blinding blue in the background of dust and sand and almost all the guest were jumping in every ten minutes. The next day we woke up before dawn and went off to the mighty Sossusvlei Dunes. Once we had entered the Naukluft National Park we drove down a road surrounded by orange glowing dunes as tall as mountains. When we got to the end of the road we climbed up one of the fiery dunes. As we were walking up all you could see were more and more dunes like a mountain range only far bigger and grander. As we reached the summit all I could do was sit down in awe at the sight which I saw. After spending some time at the top of the dune we raced down and returned to the Desert Homestead for lunch. In the evening we rode across the semi desert landscape near the Desert Homestead. This was an experience I will never forget because we were so free we could ride where we pleased.



A typical Sossusvlei view.

Swakupmund

The next day we drove to the old German town of Swakupmund and to our hotel the Hansa Hotel which was an interesting view of the colonial past of Namibia. In the afternoon we went dune boarding down the dunes near the beach of Swakupmund. The beach near Swakupmund was very pleasant because of the slight breeze although the sea temperature was ice cold.




Another thing we did was a Tommy Tour where Tommy takes you in a huge 4x4 into the desert and finds lizards, snakes and chamoleans he also takes you on a roller coaster ride down the steepest sand dunes. It is an amazing tour because when you look out onto the desert it looks so bare yet to Tommy it is teeming with life which he finds. Tommy does these tours every day and therefore knows where some of the species like to live so you are bound to see chamoleans and side winders. It was truly amazing. This takes up half a day and Tommy will pick you up from your hotel.



The final thing we did was go on a Mola Mola tour of Walvis Bay lagoon which has many seals, pelicans, dolphins and flamingos. It was great we went on a boat with eight people on it and saw the dolphins, seals (some of them come on the boat) and pelicans and flamingos. It was very good fun and also takes up half a day. Although you need a car to drive from Swakupmund to Walvis Bay (car drive takes half an hour).





Cape Cross Seal Reserve




On our way to Damaraland we stopped for a night at the Cape Cross Lodge which is really near the seal reserve. This is a great, picturesque lodge right on the beach. The next day we visited the seal reserve where around 200,000 seals live The smell is terrible but it is amazing watching the seals play, fight, hunt and generally make a lot of noise.

Damaraland

We went to the mountainous northern part of Namibia: Damaraland. We stayed at the remote Grootberg Lodge which was teeming full of widlife including lion, zebra, antelope, snakes and amazing birds and looked over the valley. I looked over the valley and gasped in amazement. How could nature ever do something so amazing? The huts were made out of stone and fitted in with the amazingly dry earth. In the night the dinner was amazing local cuisine. I liked Grootberg very much the guides were friendly and always had a story to tell and the whole lodge had a very relaxed feel about it.



The view from Grootberg Lodge

Etosha




Etosha National Park is my favourite place in Namibia. It is roughly half the size of Switzerland but the animals are relatively easy to find and see (especially in the dry season) because they normally gather around the water holes. It is a self drive safari which is perfect for families who make a lot of noise on game drives. The animals include lions (300), cheetahs (80), many leopards, giraffe (3000), elephants (2000), many rhinos and other animals. We stayed at Halali lodge for two days and we saw four lions, a leopard and too many elephants and giraffes to count. All the lodges inside Etosha have a waterhole, which is lit at night which is good for seeing nocturnal species i.e leopards and hyenas. The first thing to do when one arrives a Etosha is to buy a map because the map tells you where to go to see lions or cheetahs. The food was rubbish and the accomodation was alright.



An Etosha Lion

Waterberg Plateau



A rhino on a game drive at Frans Indongo Lodge

To break the long drive from Etosha to Windhoek we stopped at the Frans Indongo Lodge which is situated near the Waterberg Plateau. The food is amazing and the game drives often find rhinos. Also in the morning after our night in Indongo we visited REST . REST is a vulture protection society and they often feed the vultures. Wait let me get this straight the vultures are totally wild they live on the Waterberg Plateau however REST often throw out old carcasses and then the vultures come. It is an amazing sight seeing around a hundred vultures swoop down near the carcasse.



The vultures at REST

For any more information visit the Namibian Tourism Board.

Firstly if you are planning on going to Namibia I would thoroughly recommend you use a middle man to manage your payments and your itinerary.
We used The Cardboard Box Travel Shop Company and they were excellent and they told us how to fit in what we wanted to see in the designated time period. Apart from planning the itinerary it is hard to pay in advance for booking lodges, cars etc as the bank will presume a fraud is stealing all your money and putting it in a dodgy Namibian bank account. So the bottom line is unless you live in South Africa use a tour company.

Posted by Lac at 22:04 |  
Labels: africa