Tour operator: Not me unfortunately
Dates of travel: 2 January � 18 January
Places visited: South Africa, Namibia and Botswana
Travel companions: Spanish
Complications: Language barriers, humor (lack of)
Vehicle: VW Amarok 2,0 l bi-turbo diesel 4 X 4 crew cab
Accommodation: mixed: luxury and camping
Distance covered: Almost 7 000 km�s (about 4 200 miles)
Average daily temperature: 39 C (102 deg F)
Coldest midday temperature: 38 C (100 deg F)
Hottest midday temperature: 46 C (115 deg F)

Setting off from Pretoria we headed out West to the South African town of Upington. This took the whole day as we covered just more than 500 miles. The following day we visited the Augrabies (Place of noise) National Park. This is a harsh land.

Off to Namibia and the Fish River Canyon. This is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. Third largest is the Blyde River Canyon in South Africa, and those of you who have traveled with me have seen it. The Fish River Canyon took my breath away and made me feel small and humble. It was breath taking and I still do not have words to describe it. When I flew to Vegas I was on the wrong side of the plane, and when flying back I was on the wrong side again to see the Grand Canyon! Well, it gives me something to go back for, and I will yet. Sleeping in a tent was not fun, but a few Castles made me feel better.


Above: The Fish River Canyon

We spent a night in a vacation resort after that, but that was just another vacation resort as far as I am concerned. We moved to the southern parts of Namibia and paid a visit to the coastal town of Luderitz. Amazing little town is all I can say with it�s own ghost town on the outskirts. Some wild horses and a number of gemsbok on the way made the road more bearable.


Above: Between somewhere and nowhere we did some 4-wheel driving and had great views. Below is the Orange River.

After this we visited the Namib desert. Speechless is all I can say. Early morning we climbed to the top of a dune and looked, and looked and looked. Sunrise was incredible!


Above: Sunrise in the Namib desert. Note the hot air balloon and the gemsbok feeding in the background.


Above: For scale, see the people walking on the dune roughly in the center of the picture.

Away we went visiting a few other less known and less interesting places until we made it to the Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park, jointly owned by South Africa and Botswana. Totally different to Kruger Park as the game species are limited mainly to lion, leopard, cheetah, blue wildebeest, gemsbok and springbok. And I mean a lot of gemsbok and springbok. We saw lion on 4 of the 5 days we were there, and cheetah twice. One night the camp manager called to come and see the brown hyena drinking. The tourists were apprehensive about getting closer, but heck, when would I have another opportunity? I crept up on it till about 10 ft from it and started taking pictures. It was great, far better than the quality of the pictures but man I was impressed.


Above: The well equipped vehicle.


Above: A desperate visit to the restroom was avoided!

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Above: The yawning lion. I have the whole sequence from when he started opening his mouth till he closed it again.

One night while in the Kgalagadi a lion roared so close to my tent it almost felt like the tent was moving. I slept very well after that.

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Above: Full moon in the Kgalagadi. That's how I could see the lioness walking past my hut.

Sitting in a blind at a water hole we had an amorous lion couple visit the water. Their departure caused a lot of animals running; almost like the lions were looking at the fast food menu! However, they had other ideas in mind. After 5 days in the park with very limited roads, I had had enough. Three days will be enough to visit this park. The more remote parks do not have electricity (ie, no ac, no fans no nothing). One night a lioness walked right past my hut, about 6 feet from where I was sitting. If someone says they stayed still because they knew what to do they are talking nonsense. It�s because you are scared out of breath (there are other ways of describing a situation like this). I was armed only with a binocular in the full moon.

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Above: The amorous lion couple.

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Above: The brown hyena mentioned

From there we headed out to the Kalahari known as the Molopo. In the Molopo Nature Reserve we camped again where it was not only remote, but also with no electricity or hot water. The vehicle was extremely well equipped with two roof-top tents and a separate battery that powers the fridge and freezer. I dearly missed an ice making machine.

To anyone planning a similar trip anywhere in the world, remember to allow a day or two for resting. We were busy from about 8am to about 9pm every day. Of course I was up way earlier than that as I cannot sleep later than 5am and I had to braai dinner almost every night. Help was at hand and welcomed on most occasions.

Hope you enjoy some of the pictures as I had a ball with the camera. I took more than 2 000 pictures ending up with more than 14 Gb worth of space on the laptop. Can you believe none of the tourists had a camera??

I have seen some of my pictures on other websites so I have decided to put my address on the pictures to try and stop people copying them. Hope you understand.

Yeah, this thread is going in my "watched threads"

aaaahhhh!!! CASTLE! I know what you mean. HAVING ONE RIGHT NOW.

sa beer, where would the world be without it?

the rest is simply imitations

Very cool photos and narrative.

Love to see some of those places, Fish Canyon looked WAY cool.

Can't wait to get back to Africa in June.

Pieter, think back to the first Kruger trip we made. The lions growls were vibrating and moving the glasses on the table next to the bed. I had to get the bats out of the room too.

Those two young girls touring with us were so excited to hear the lions and hyenas, and we were thinking we would not get any sleep that night!

A fine line between exciting and annoying!

Thanks for sharing, we can buy Castle in Calgary. GRF

Pieter, awesome pics! Post more, if ya got em! It's been 6 mos., and I'm missing Africa bad!



maddog

Yes Jim, it got bad when the hippo's decided to grunt also.

Below are the final round of pics.


Above: This is not a complaint as I love the Afrikaans language a lot. Funny though that after 18 years the old name of Namibia (South West Africa) is still on the road sign. Namibia got it�s independence even before we did which makes this sign even older than 18 years.


Above: Huge nests of the sociable weaver birds can be seen everywhere. This one is about half the size of our truck.


Above: Close to the Richtersveld just before entering Namibia.


Above: I fell in love with the Namib and took too many pictures of all the sand I could see.


Above: Namibia is full of very long straight roads. We measured the one road at 17 km�s (10 miles). Fortunately the truck has cruise control so I did not have to worry about keeping to speed limits also. This allowed me to look around and admire the scenery.


Above: Some of the wild horses we saw on reservation land.

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Above: This particular lion seemed very sick. He was as skinny as a snake with his ribs showing from A � Z, but he was going out with a full belly. They were feeding on a giraffe and walked the few hundred yards to the water every time they had to take a drink.

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Above: An eagle we encountered. I still have to identify it. Birds and stars are not my good points.

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Above: At least I can say it�s an owl. Will try to find out which one.

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Above: The fast food menu. The lion and lioness were not interested in food. Apart from the wildebeest there are a few springbok making a fast retreat.

That�s it, I was happy to share and I hope you enjoyed it with me.

Pieter

Thanks for sharing Pieter.

I fully understand you having to mark your photos, it is just a shame that you need to.

Great report, but the photos in your first post have been removed by photobucket for some reason.

Glad you had a wonderful time.

MARK

Thanks, you take some very nice photos and put it together very well.

Excellent report.

Mighty nice of the government to put up signs showing where the Springbok and the puff adders can be found.