An hour's drive through the mist the next morning and we hit Cape Cross, home to a 500 year old stone cross erected by Portuguese navigator, Dias on his famous voyage to India around the Cape of Good Hope...oh and about 100,000 seals. Fortunately the prevailing wind meant that we were spared the usual stench as we wandered amongst the thousands of seals along purpose-built viewing platforms. It was a fantastic experience watching the seals; playing, fighting, growling, sleeping, suckling. The cubs were particularly cute, the mothers bossy and grumpy, and the bulls fat, lazy and territorial. A great experience.
From Cape Cross we headed inland toward Spitzkoppe. Just in from the coast we drove out of the fog into bright sunshine. The temperature changing by about 20C in a matter of minutes. Such is the Namibian desert. The fleeces and woollies came off, and the canvas sides of the truck were rolled up.
Spitzkoppe is a small but starkly beautiful red granite mountain range which just from the savanna. We camped at the base of one of the hills, surrounded by huge boulders and other magnificent rock formations. In the afternoon we joined a foot safari with "Richie", a local Damara guide, who explained the local flora, fauna and geology, and led us to some local San rock paintings of bushmen and animals. Of note he explained that we were in snake country. This played quite heavily on Zoe's mind, so when she saw an ant highway on a bush track she asked our guide, quite innocently (if not a little thoughtlessly), "Is that a snake?". At this, both the guide and I leapt; "Richie" running a few strides before realising it was a false alarm.
On our way back to camp, while we were admiring the Dassies and the sunset, I quietly explained to Zoe that the work "snake" in the bush had the same effect as the word "bomb" on an aircraft. Several minutes later she turned to me and said, quite calmly, "Watch the snake.". To my left and in front I saw another ant highway. At this I started to remonstrate with Zoe who abruptly interrupted the lecture by saying "No, you idiot! Look right!". And there it was, six inches from my right boot lay a venomous Horned Adder. The sounds crickets and birds in the serene Namibian sunset was shattered by a single, very loud word that rhymes with "firetruck". Thankfully, as "Richie" later explained, Horned Adders are a bit lazy so it couldn't be arsed to have a go.
Returning to the truck, we discovered that our encounter was not unique, nor was it as scary as that of Lee who, emerging from the savanna onto a track looked down at the right moment to see a Black Spitting Cobra rearing up and hissing. Close call. A local guide told us afterwards that Lee would have had no chance of survival if it had struck.
Aside from the Emperor Scorpion in the long drop (which I kept at bay with my head lamp whilst I hurried my evening constitutional), it was entirely safe at Spitzkoppe.
From Spitzkoppe we went to Brandberg and toured the canyon - the cave paintings were far superior to those in Spitzkoppe and included the famous "White Lady" - a Hellenistic style figure of impressive detail for stone age artists.
After a bush camp at Brandberg and the inaugural critter racing championships we headed on to Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park. This, among tough competition, was a highlight of our trip so far. The park is a privately run operation on a working cattle station. There are 17 cheetahs which have been trapped by local farmers and donated to the park, and another 3 which have been bred in captivity (quite a feat, apparently). The farm is run by an Afrikaans family and, hence, struggles with being self funded and the massive red tape which white farmers and tourism operators have to contend with. The government has recently refused to issue further permits for any more animals, so the local farmers, with no reasonable alternative, simply shoot cheetahs found on their property.
Anyhow, we spent the afternoon petting the tame cheetahs (where the 'grumpy' one singled me out to lick with her sandpaper tongue) then watched the feeding of the non-tame ones from the safety of the tray of a bakkies. In the evening we did our best to save the cheetahs by drinking the bar dry.
Etosha, Namibia's premier game park, was our next destination. There were plenty of giraffe, zebra, antelope, ostrich and wildebeest etc to view. We did see elephant and rhino at a distance but the definite highlight was a close encounter with an adolescent lioness. We didn't have a tremendous amount of luck as recent heavy rains meant the animals could survive without having to congregate at waterholes.
Leaving Etosha, we bush-camped over two nights on either side of the Botswanan border on our way to the Okavango Delta.
Namibia did not let us down. Zoe and I really enjoyed our two weeks there. The natural beauty is incredible. And it was made all the more enjoyable by the easy going nature of our crew and fellow passengers on the truck.
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