Mainly Namibia

[RooFlyer]

Have you done an Intrepid tour before @RooFlyer? What’s it really like?

We have considered but not done yet as we are not really into group tours. However Seat Friend (solo traveller) swears by them.

I think this is my third one. I was introduced to them by @JohnM .

Yes they have all been good. An attraction of this firm is that they run different levels of tours and experiences. For instance this one is a Premium tour which means we get very comfy lodges and generally a higher standard.

At the other of the scale there are Basic ones where you could be camping and generally roughing it - obviously much cheaper for those tours. There was one at couple of our locations today in one of those built like a tank high four-wheel-drive bus things. Shudder. When I say about roughing it is that I used to do it for a living and get paid for it. I’m not going to do it when I’m on vacation.

And tours in between.

I hear what you’re saying about group tours and that was my attitude previously travelling independently and hearing ghastly loud Japanese Chinese and Italian groups. These Intrepid ones, and also Exodus which is the UK firm doing similar types of tours, are small groups, maximum 16 I think, and you might be fortunate like me on this tour where there’s only five of us. The people tend to be have a lot of travel experience so people like you and me so we can swap stories.

The previous one I did was Premium Egypt

Dipping my toe back in the Nile

About a year ago, I had a tour credit, like half the world it seems, and a desire to start international travel again, but was a bit tentative, with international restrictions still uncertain and uneven. So I decided a single destination would be the thing to do and I plumped to do Intrepid's...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

and I told the story there of how our guide in incredibly crowded and noisy Egyptian tombs etc always managed to get us in at a quiet time in between the loud crowds and we saw much more than the other groups.

 

[RooFlyer]

Breakfast this morning at 6:30 for 715 departure so we could do our walking before the day gets really hot.

This is today’s itinerary


First to Dune 45. From the highway there is a good sealed Road as far as here and to the Natural Park entry

You climb to the top, very much like Ayres Rock previously - except it’s much harder with loose sand and no chain to help you.









This 'mama', as she has told me to call her. A very lively mother of the guy also on the tour who is with his girlfriend.



I've got to say the group is fantastic. They are family of three, originating in Spain. They moved to France about 20 years ago and the son has brought his French girlfriend. So they all speak Spanish and French and they are all living in London now and their English is very very good. Then there is monolingual me. .

 

[RooFlyer]

@Seat0B with the red logo, this is the 4 or 6 wd bus of the Intrepid basic tour.



On to Deadvlei at Sossusvlei ('dead end marsh) in the National Park where a dune enlosed pan dried up about 1000 years ago and there are remnant trees there all about that age. It's too dry for them to rot.





Somewhat underwhelming to be honest and I didn’t actually walk right down to the pan.

It’s a bad road after the National Park entry and then you park your vehicle and pay for a ride on a very robust four-wheel-drive open nine seater and traverse some of the worst tracks or roads I’ve ever experienced in my life including all my time as a geologist.







Over looking this is the Big Daddy dune, the tallest dune at 325m. You can climb it if you’re absolutely nuts.





And nearby is 'Big Mamma' dune.


By, this time it was lunchtime and getting pretty hot so we didn’t get out of the cars for this one.

interesting filled mud crack textures in one of the smaller dry mud pans

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks for the comments re intrepid @RooFlyer - you’ve echoed exactly what Seat Friend says, especially about the nice, interesting people you meet as fellow travellers. Might have to start some plans for this type of trip soon.

 

[Cossie]

Fabulous photos!

 

[RooFlyer]

Well, I’m feeling a bit deflated reading drron's trip report of his harrowing time in Japan. Today’s been a bit disappointing here but it puts things in perspective!

We returned to the lodge after the dunes etc. and I settled down on the deck to make sure I knew all about the local G&T scene.





Two of my travelling companions. Actually, they spend very very little time on their phones so this is an unfair composition but it just looks so nice at the time.



For me to slake a thirst. Not a brilliant beer, but did the trick.



It was a super moon or maybe the next night, but still fiercely bright thing in the sky





The iPhone obviously lightens things considerably, but the moonlight across the countryside was very bright





dinner orders are taken in the late afternoon.



I had the kingclip for mains, always a good reliable choice

 

[RooFlyer]

Today's drive, the longest of the trip and forecast to be about 6 hours or more, mostly on corrigated roads. Correct on both counts!



Started off with the usual morning oryx. There is quite a few of them grazing quite close to the lodge. We continued to see them here and there through most of the day.



Small flock of ostriches



including the rare three-headed sub species



Through the day I would say the road consisted of 30% very bad corrugations, 40% corrugations, 15% smooth topped and watered road and 15% sealed road.

 

[RooFlyer]

The first stop, after about 90 minutes was the settlement of Solitaire





our itinerary said it was a function of bombed out cars, old petrol pumps and a great place for apple pie. Again, all correct.



The tire repair shop obviously does a roaring trade. There must’ve been 10 guys in the workshop.







Toilet facilities


our guide bought us all a slice slab of apple crumble (6). The pieces were huge and between us I think we got through about 2 1/2 of them.



The other attraction was some ground squirrels.

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh, backing up a bit to the previous day.

Lunch was at Sossusvlei Lodge, a complex of three lodges housing about 300 people just outside the park gate. It’s the alternative accommodation for this tour and I’m very glad we got desert Hills. This place was a bit of a rat run.





This is a quiva tree



Nice loos!



After lunch we visited a gorge- a narrow river channel maybe 20-25m deep, cut through very thick sequence of alluvial rock deposits that have been cemented together. A bit like the experience of Stanley Chasm or the Siq in Jordan.





A very old acacia tree trunk

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner that night

 

[RooFlyer]

Next stop was at the Tropic of Capricorn





And then the Kuiseb River gorge. It was quite dry when we crossed but it can flow massively - typical of arud regions - they once got over 100 days of continual rain and it just closed the whole area down.







We didn’t stop there. Now, most of this day was driving on dry, dusty and often very rough roads, so to be fair there should be a big lot of photos of the road. I’ll just put a couple.







The countryside was monotonous - flat roads, excepting the gorge, with mountains in the distance but the flats very dry and sparsely vegetated

 

[RooFlyer]

Gorge



And view over the Badlands around the gorge





As I said, it was mainly driving on the roads and sure, I was bored. I had to take photographs of something.



Brief excitement as we thought this tree was a giraffe

 

[RooFlyer]

More driving, more driving. It was getting a bit tedious but you’ve got to go through these types of days to see the country.



It really was the most desolate, plain, flat unrelenting country I think I’ve ever seen.





Past Walvis Bay International airport (flights to Cape Town)



Lunch at a mall on the outside of Walvis Bay



Then, the undisputed highlight of the day the flamingos. First at salt mash to south of the town.

 

[RooFlyer]

And then the area where apparently they are most populous ( except days like today when it’s quite rough on the water there) - the big lagoon at the eastern edge of town. It looks like the ocean but it’s not.



First area was ‘Bird sanctuary’ in the image below and the second was Espanade Park.



When we got there it had turned foggy|cloudy & windy and it was quite cold. A big contrast to the last couple of days.

 

[RooFlyer]

The following day at Swakopmund (‘mouth of the Swakop river’) was free to undertake one or more optional activities that were going to be booked through an agency.

I had already asked ( at Windhoek) for the flight south over the dunes and down to where we were visiting the day before and back along the coast.

So we arrive in Swak as I’m calling it and go to the agency and then it fell apart a bit. First they couldn’t confirm the flight for me then said it might be available later in the day and it was already 3 pm, and when I pressed them because I had to make arrangements one way or another, they said no there’s one flight it’s full and I can’t go. Very peeved of at that point. Very.

So I booked a driving dune tour to a place called Sandwich Harbour to the south of town. This is where the others were going so it sounded a good idea. It was booked for a 7:30 am departure but within an hour it has been changed to 1130. Sort of discovering it’s one of those aggregation places where they book people, take their money and then stuff them all into the one tour. The next day when we had the tour they said no it was only ever going to leave at 11:30. They also said yes they get lots of complaints about that booking agency so I’m going to give feedback to Intrepid that they should try and shake these guys up a bit.

At the time we went out to dinner, it was really cold and foggy. So the mood was a bit down all round, but we had booked into what we were told was a really good restaurant on the waterfront, The Tug.





Crumbed calamari to start



Crumbed kingclip for mains. Very nice but a very large portion and I didn’t finish it.





this is looking out to The Pier restaurant later.

 

[RooFlyer]

In Swak we are staying at The Delight hotel, another in the Gondwana group. It’s pretty good although trying to be quite funky with a lot of that red furniture and highlights type of thing. Again the beds were very firm - not hard, just very firm.



Lobby



Room







Inside access





Dinner group. We are having a really really good time together on this trip.

 

[RooFlyer]

It’s getting late as I post this, so I’ll first post part of breakfast this morning



and some teasers of the dunes drive

 

[Seat0B]

and some teasers of the dunes drive

This reminds me so much of our dune bashing in the UAE. Right down to the snatch ropes!

 

[zig]

post part of breakfast this morning

My type of breakfast. Although not sure how suitable it is before the dune bashing

 

[kpc]

It’s getting late as I post this, so I’ll first post part of breakfast this morning

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and some teasers of the dunes drive

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Yeah we stayed here too...wished I hadnt had the oysters for bfast prior to the desert tour.