Windhoek- Sossusvlei

On boxing day we hit the road again to Namibia. The landscape changed from green, trees and bushes into dry desert. Late afternoon we arrived at a lodge where the lovely lady prepared us a X-mas meal with the best veal and game ever; how food and friends can make you a happy camper!

The next day we visited a general practioner (again) since Stephanie was having an abces that started a few days before X-mas and now she had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. They gave her another type of antibiotics and that one turned out to work well.  Early afternoon, we continued our trip to Sossusvlei. The landscape was beautiful with dusty and bumpy roads. We arrived in the afternoon and bought entrance tickets to the valley for the next morning. This campsite had a swimming pool and since the temperature was far above the 30’s, we dipped in the pool. Again a beautiful place to have sundowners and enjoy the sunset. The next morning we left at 5.00h to be able to see the sunrise at Death Valley. Either we arrived a bit too late or the weather wasn’t all that great but we didn’t see those beautiful skies. The dunes and the valley were still very beautiful though!

Swakopmund

From Sossusvlei we drove via Naukluft to Swakopmund, a beautiful trip with breathtaking views! Swakopmund is  an old German village, a bit like a skiing village in summer, obviously without snow :). We spent a spontaneous afternoon having fun and drinking beer at the Brauhaus, a famous German beer stube. Shame Jan, Joost, Inge and Tijn were about to leave us since it was great fun to travel together!  After a good bye dinner, J,J, I and T (thx for it guys!) had left the next morning to continue the last part of their trip. We decided to stay one more day in Swakopmund to clean the LaRo. Little did we know then…..

Brandberg:  White Lady Lodge

We booked a chalet at White Lady Lodge to celebrate new year. Unfortunately Jasper wasn’t feeling that well so we didn’t do much besides swimming and relaxing. This area is the home of the desert elephant, although we didn’t see him :(. We wanted to see the paintings on the Brandberg but the first time we got there they were ‘about to close’ and the next morning they hadn’t arrived yet. Maybe they were still recovering from the festive season??

 

Twyfelfontein- Etosha

We decided to go more up north to Dolomite rest camp in Etosha via Sesfontein where we would spend the first night. The road from Brandberg took us via the beautiful Twyfelfontein area. Just after having crossed a river bed (there are many), we heared a sound followed by another sound and the car started spinning. Then we got off the road and the car rolled over on its right side. Luckily we drove only 60km/h. Immediately a German tourist bus stopped to help us. They helped Stephanie to get our of the car and carried all our luggage out of the car. On the bus were 2 docters and they helped us with our small injuries. We are still very thankful for all they have done for us! After a while 2 guys from the nearby lodges arrived and offered us to stay at their place and take all the luggage. It was still high season but they had a guide room available at their beautiful Lodge Kipwe. We were still a bit in shock about what just had happened and the way Anton and his wife Kirsten helped us at Kipwe was just incredible! We soon realized that we’d been very lucky only to have a few scratches and bruised ribs.