Colin Walsh, our trainee tour leader, travelling on the Cape Town to Kenya – CTK41 – tour that departed on the 11st May 2013 shares his second part of his adventure as he leaves the quant town of Swakopmund and heads to Spitzkoppe, a granite rock formation to the Cheetah Park, Etosha National Park and Windhoek where they celebrated Acacia Africa’s 18th Birthday party. Read more….
Day 7 – Spitzkoppe
Everyone was a little sad to leave Swakopmund, as we had such a great time. On the other hand, everyone was excited for our first bush camp at Spitzkoppe. These mountain peaks, created by Volcanic action millions of years ago, and now eroded away to reveal the igneous rock hidden under the soft surface, were a prominent feature from a far distance. The excitement grew as we were drove through the different rock formations to our camp.
After a quick set up of camp, we met with a local guide for our walk to the bushman paintings made between 2000 and 4000 years ago. These consisted of many of the major animals like giraffe, lion and elephant as well as people and their spears. The guide was extremely informative giving us answers to all our questions regarding the paintings, fauna and flora. He even tried to give the passengers a short lesson in the clicks of the bushman. This fascinated the passengers immensely.
As we walked back, the sun disappeared over the horizon and the darkness settled in. We sat around the open fire with a delicious dinner discussing the prominent star patterns of the Milky Way as it lit up the night skies.
Day 8 – Otjitotongwe Cheetah Camp
The drive was slightly long today, but made all the better with an extremely rare sighting of Desert Elephant. These amazing creatures look similar to the African Elephant, but are slightly smaller in size. Even Bombastic, our tour leader was shocked and excited to see them. This was the first time after many years on the road leading groups that he had the opportunity to see them for himself.
We arrived at camp in good time, the drive being filled with increasing numbers of animals, as we headed further north towards the Etosha National Park. Our first encounter with the cheetahs was that with the ones being kept at the house, running around the garden with the resident dogs! There were 4 female cheetahs being hand raised when we were at Otjitotongwe and they were all there for a reason. Some were injured, or were born and have grown up in captivity, and therefore cannot be released into the wild again. This was an amazing experience for all, as even though these cheetahs are tame; the feeling of stroking the cheetahs and hearing them purr was certainly an experience of its own.
An hour later the hosts came by to take us on a small drive through there cheetah enclosure of 250 hectares, where 8 semi wild cheetah live. These cheetahs are wild in the sense that they cannot be touched at any way, but were fed regularly to ensure a higher survival rate. They are however still able to hunt for themselves, and every so often miss a meal, as they had already caught a Warthog or Steenbok, who had managed to enter the enclosure through the gapped fence. Overall it was an experience never to be forgotten, as the cats touched the hearts of all there!
Day 9 – 10 – Etosha National Park
Leaving the Cheetah Park we entering Namibia’s largest and most talked about National Park (Etosha). It was the part of the trip that excited all of the passengers, as the animals are the main reason they have come to Africa. Etosha did not disappoint, as even on our short drive to our campsite, we were able to make sightings of Zebra, Impala, Springbok, Kudu, and even some Mongoose.
After we set up camp and had a quick lunch, we were back in Rufunsa (our truck) to go on our first game drive, which turned out to be spectacular, even for the guides. While at one of the waterholes, just observing some Wildebeest, Ostriches and the plenty Antelope, one of the passengers happened to look in the other direction, where a huge male Lion was taking his afternoon nap under a small bush not even 30m from Rufunsa! For a while, he was just laying there, but then as if on cue, first sat up giving us numerous large yawns, then stood up and walked leisurely across the road in front of our truck and laid down approximately 50m on the other side of the road, giving the passengers more than enough photo opportunities. We were even fortunate enough to hear him calling out for his pride, barking deeply for around a minute.
We moved on to the next waterhole, where things got even better: as a herd of elephant were busy drinking and giving themselves sand baths not 20m from us. Not only were there Elephants, but also 2 male lions basking in the sun just on the other side of the waterhole, and plenty of giraffes looking for an opportunity to risk a drink of water. We were at the waterhole for a good half an hour, hoping some interaction between the lions and giraffe. This of course did not occur, but not 10 minutes before we had to leave,3 Giraffe did take that risk, and we were fortunate enough to see them all bending down to take a couple sips.
Our camp at Okaukuejo has a floodlit waterhole just next to the camp, and the passengers were able to spend a short time before dinner, and then as long as they pleased afterwards to sit and watch all the animals come down to the waterhole to take their evening drink. This consisted of Black Rhino (the smaller and less common of the two), Elephant, Giraffe, Wildebeest, and all the various Antelope. Only the first day here in Etosha and our expectations were more than fulfilled.
The second day at Etosha consisted of a game drive through the park, with various sightings along the way. The best though was the Elephants early in the morning, when we were not even 20m away from a herd of 15 Elephants. Everyone was excited, especially with the Elephant calves, standing close to their mothers, not quite sure what this truck was in front of them. The rest of the day we saw many Zebra, Impala, Springbok, Giraffe and Kudu. The day ended with us all sitting by the waterhole, where 4 large Elephant came for more than an hour to drink, with the odd visit of Rhino and even Hyena. The roaring of Lions could be heard in the background, but unfortunately they did not make their way to the waterhole.
Day 11 – Windhoek – Arebbusch
It was a relatively short drive down to Windhoek where we spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on supplies and seeing some of the views and attractions before getting ready for our evening event.
Joe’s Beer House is famous for its unique décor of random artifacts hanging from the ceilings and the walls are lined up with Jagermeister bottles (Joe’s famous and most drunken drink) with all the tables situated around a central bar, and as its reputation suggested, it was packed with both locals and tourist alike.
This was also the evening of Acacia’s 18th birthday, so we were all in a great party mood, and with an allowance from Acacia, had a good time. Bombastic, our tour leader surprised us with famous South African shot: Springboks, consisting of Amarula and Peppermint liquor. What we did not know was we had to do the traditional springbok dance to go with it. The entire bar stopped what they were doing and all eyes were on us as we took centre stage… The party was coupled with some great, generous food, from German dishes to the African game meat, and loved by all. This would be the end of our short stay in Namibia, but onward to Botswana and more amazing sights of Africa!
Stay tuned over the next few weeks to discover what he gets up to with the group as they cross the border into Botswana and make their way to Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.
Written by Colin Walsh