Namibia: 10 Days Touring the Desert
The bulk of our time in Namibia was spent on a Chameleon Safaris 10-Day “Namibia Highlights” tour. From the dunes of Sossusvlei in the South to Etosha in the North, we covered a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time. For me, there were several highlights of the highlights:

Our first two nights were spent at Sessriem (see previous post), a campground/outpost in the Namib Desert, where thankfully they had a very murky pool and cold beer. No need to leave civility behind while exploring the ends of the earth. Sessriem was conveniently located about an hour from Sossusvlei, a collection of huge sand dunes formed over millions of years. If you’ve seen pictures of Namibia (other than ones of Brangelina from US Magazine), you likely have seen Sossusvlei. They were epic, if not a tad windy while there. Definitely not a place for contact lenses. Nearby, we also visited Deadvlei, an old river bottom cut off from water by the dunes (and lack of rain). With petrified trees and towering dunes, it was a trippy place to say the least.

Next on the list of top highlights (although not to imply a hierarchy of highlights), would have to be Etosha. When we were planning our trip to Africa, images of wide-open plains and vast herds of wild critters crowded our minds. Little did we know, Etosha was the place we were envisioning. As an example, after a short while, we no longer stopped for herds of zebra, kudu, oryx, springbok and other “common” animals – unless they were being eaten by a lion or hyena. Etosha is a magical place – more wildlife and variety than I ever really expected. And at night, they fence the humans into camps where you can find – you guessed it – cold beer. It is a bit humbling to feel like a zoo animal, with creatures waiting outside the gates that would love the tender taste of unwashed human. So it goes when you aren’t at the top of the food chain.

Our tour around Etosha consisted of driving in “the box,” as our vehicle was known, from one water hole to the next. Since the place is a big desert, water is the key to life. So much of the action happens around the water hole. In fact, each of the camps has a floodlit (and carefully fenced) waterhole that allows the humans to watch the wildlife all night long (at Okakeujo, where we camped the first night, I watched elephants and rhinos drink stand guard, always wary of the predators inevitably lurking nearby.).

Perhaps our most spectacular viewing involved the two separate lion sightings. In the first, we came upon two females chomping happily on a zebra. From a distance, we watched as they ate their meal, always alert for hyena who might move in to steal lunch (supposedly hyena can smell a kill for up to 20km). At the next lion sighting, we got as close as I’d ever want to be to a bachelor pride of males. Literally, lions were all around our bus, as we watched them laze in the sun (hopefully after a big meal). It was truly a magical experience, seeing these top predators from so close.

Overall, the Namibia tour was wonderful. Our group had a lot of personalities, but in a good way. We had the strong German woman, the crazy Kiwi, the comedic Dutch couple and the demure Brit – not to mention the affable Namibian guide and goofy Americans (us). At times it felt like an episode of Survivor Africa. Luckily, we were not forced to eat any of the myriad of massive insects we came upon.