The Last Hoorah

 I have decided to begin this blog with a dedication to the plucky little old Britt who hauled us over 20,000km through this challenging continent.

A reading from the Landrover Owners Manual, Page 2, verse 1: "It is better to have loved and lost a Landy than to never have had one"

To those who don't know, circumstances have forced our hand and our trip will be ending tomorrow. Tanya will be returning to Australia, and I will be staying on for another month....doing some stuff. With a very heavy heart, I have handed the key of Larry to his new owner, who will take him out to his game farm....where he can graze and grow older rolling over the friendly tracks on his farm...kind of like Landy heaven.

We have added some of pictures of our favourite moments, but truth be told, pictures can never capture what an adventure it was to work our way through this amazing continent. We have learnt many hard lessons, and had some experiences that still make me pause to think.... we really did it.

I am sure our lives will never be the same after this amazing journey, but there is one message we would like to share with anyone who will listen..... a trip like this is just not that hard to do, you just have to decide to go!!! Bring on the next adventure .... India in a VW???

Windhoek

Windhoek is a pretty captial, but there is just some thing 'not quite right' about it. The whole city has a confused feeling about it, a bizar mix of German and African culture. Everyone you meet, greets you in German then slips seemlessly into Afrikans and then English as a last resort. Tanya reckons it is a bit too much like Adelaide for her liking.

The good part (from my perspective)  is you can get a smoked sausage version of every animal we have seen in Africa, and chase it down with a nice German beer.

We drove out to a game park an hours drive out of the city, expecting a very sedate drive, however, the unseasonal rains have made most roads a bit of a challenge. The track into the park had what they called a 'hole' with a bit of water that warranted a warning sign....Keep left, use low range.

Half way across it became clear the water was about 1.5m deep....and we were regretting our decision to drive through....but Larry came good and chugged his way through.

We came across a lone zebra, standing by fence, he seemed very excited to see us, so we stopped, expecting him to run away like every other time we got close to zebra... but not this fellow. He was very keen to play with us (even though he did try to bite Tanya a few times). We thought he must have escaped from a zoo he was so tame, but when we drove back he was no where to be seen.

The park was very nice and we took our time to get real close and take some action shots, I was stunned to get so close to a leopard.... they are so solitary. Whilst the leopard was not happy to see us, he did hang around for some nice shots.



The desert Namibian style

We have just spent the last 3 days in the Namib desert - the one you see in all the postcards of Namibia but with a bit more green because they have had "heaps" of rain in Namibia. It is hard to believe that you can get that many colours in a desert although it was a little lacking on wildlife for my liking.

We "camped" just outside the Sesrim National Park - well it was technically a tent. Dave reckons I am a disgrace to overlanders.

We spent a couple of days climbing around the red dunes, thinking we were pretty fit running up and down the dunes (well the running was mostly down) until we ran into some ultra marathon runners who were 5 days into a series of daily marathons through the desert. Day 5 was an easy day just 50 odd kilometres through the dunes - yikes. The first placed guy was actually an Aussie who had been breaking all of the records. 

We are getting a little slack and just couldn't seem to make it for any of the sunrise photo shoots of the dunes - just imagine these pictures with a bit more red and I am sure that's what it would have looked like.  From the desert we are heading to cheetah country and then to Etosha National Park to see some more African animals before I head for home.

Namibian Coast

After being delayed in the capital Windhoek for a number of days getting some Larry repairs (appears like the lions Larry didn't like the puddles in the Kalahari too much either - fried the starter motor) we have got back on our way heading to the coast of Namibia to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay where the desert meets the sea.

We have just spent the most magical morning aboard Catermaran Charters meeting the wildlife in the bay.  First up were a flock of beautiful pelicans that come when you whistle - they have a pink tinge from the food they eat (similar to flamingos). After being frustratingly stuck on a number of safaris with bird fanatics that make you stop to take photos of tiny brown birds when there are lions just up ahead these were birds that were definately worthy of a photo. Check out the wingspan on these guys - pretty impressive.

We then got introduced to some resident sea lions who are so lazy they jump on board the boats as they head out of the harbour for a free feed and a lift out to the seal colonies. I definately fell in love with these guys along with the meerakats, cheetahs, lions, gorillas, chimps etc etc ....

After dropping off our hitch hiking seal friends we then got to see some baby seal colonies - it makes Underwater World seem pretty lame when you get to see them play in their natural habitat. There are tens of thousands of these guys in the bay - too cold for great whites and definately too cold for me to swim (the water temp is about 15 degrees).

Some pods of dolphins also joined us on the trip out but they were a little more interested in catching fish than us - who can blame them. They were beautiful to watch but a bit challenging to photograph.

 



Crossing the Kalahari

We had seen the movie, 'The Gods Must be Crazy' and on the basis of that, and little else, we decided to drive across the Central Kalahari. We spent a few days preparing the car, and getting as much information on the tracks through the area as we could...which was confusing at best.

The track in was punctuated by huge mud holes that ranged from a foot deep to over a metre deep. After a few hours of mud and then deep sand, we bumbled into a spectacular Kalahari black mained lion, who decided to stand in our path and roar for a while...which was really quite impressive.

We decided to push on and hit a really deep pothole/pond... which turned out to be very deep! Whilst in the middle of the pond, with water flowing in through all of the vents and doors, the exhaust blew off the turbo....wich sounded like a bomb going off. Larry instantly sounded like the type of tank that would bring a tear of joy to any Panzer Commander.

We crawled out of the hole, but having only just left a large male lion behind us, I decided to drive on until the grass was clear enough from the track for me to get out and inspect the damage.....that was 80km of sand and mud. Whist I can't account for it, we didn't see any wildlife for that whole period....nor could I hear anything except a ringing in my ears.

We stayed in the desert for three nights at Tau Pan (which means Lion Pan). Whilst I would love to say we camped under the stars amongst the lions, Tanya lined up a luxury lodge to stay at (Tau Pan Lodge). All of the other guests fly in...so we were quite the novelty! The lodge overlooked the pan, and was just divine. We hid Larry in the workshop, and joined all of the wealthy guests, enjoying safari drives and evening G & T's out on the pan....it really was pure luxury. In addition to the luxury which was hard to take the pan was home to a pride of lions that could be heard roaring each night and actually used the chalets as shade during the heat of the day... pretty cool.

I spent a day with the famous San Kalahari bush men, learning how to get water from tubas, setting traps and general survival....I was Bear Grills.

After three days of luxury, we had to hit the bush and finish our crossing. The track out was not used very often, and we had the lodge staff radio the anti-poaching patrols to get some feed back on if we could make it out....they said it was fine. Whilst parts of the track were grown over...our GPS kept us on route, and the drive out West proved to be much easier than the trip in.

We rested up a few days and have crossed into Namibia, and hit the capital Windhoek on Independence Day...which is a real bummer, as our starter motor has been through one too many water crossings to work anymore....so we are stuck here for a few days for parts. However, just when I was feeling Larry was letting us down, we met six poms who had been on the road for a few months in a Landy they paid 30K for, which had broken down continuously, and was sitting in a backpackers parking lot with a blown motor.....go Larry! (he is still NOT coming home with us Dave!!!)

Top Gear meets Meerakat Manor

We are in the very North of the Kalahari Basin and are getting ready to head South into the Central Kalahari. We hooked up with a local operator who took us out to meet a Meerakat family, and then a quad bike trip out onto the salt pan (the one they used on Top Gear Botswana).

The Meerakats were lovely little chaps. We sat near their burrow (which they stole from an ardvark). After just a few seconds, they came over to say hello and set up around us. Before the young one came over to play the adults set up 'watches' to ensure safety for us all. Whilst one intrepid fellow thought Tanya's head was the best point to set up watch, he gave up after a few minutes and took to a termite mound instead. 

The whole family played around us for as long as we were interested. The juveniles set a wrestling match under Tanyas legs, and the adults seemed quite happy chatting to me.... it really was very nice.

The crew from Top Gear headed out from the same spot we did...but they did it in the dry season...when the salt pan is nice and hard. Whilst on the show they made it look like no one had done it before, the truth is there is a well worn trail out to Kebu Island which is easily driven in the dry. The pan had been closed to vehicles for a few months due to the wet, but we convinced an operator that the last few days of sun would have baked the pan enough to let us get out on the bikes....and he suprisingly agreed.

The salt pan was really amazing...it didn't take long for there to be nothing on any horizon... it felt like being on the moon. We went out to some of the smaller islands, but the 100km round trip to Kebu island would have been pushing our luck....especially as the skies cracked after we got off the salt and a deluge came down.

I know there are places in America they call 'big sky country'.... well this is Africa's version.