NAMIBIA - COUNTRY WITH A LOT OF SAND AND SUN!

Photo: Deadvlei, Nabim Desert

Everytime we choose our travel destination, we always want to experience something new. Dune, sand, camping – all new and so absolutely worth the adventure. Decision was made in a blink of an eye about Namibia. After choosing our destination we have realized that our nationality need visa. This process required nearly everything- plane tickets, insurance, bank statements, hotels or campsites, 4x4 car for exploring this amazing country... basically thorough plan for the journey... all these documents were sent to the Embassy in Helsinki. Couple weeks and… visas were proudly “inked” in our passports. Namibia here we come!!!

I think all the organizing part went well. We all knew what we want to see or explore. So, two families: 4 adults and 2 children packed for unforgettable and very active holiday.

Ethiopian airlines - these made a mark on this particular vacation :) I mean they are not the quickest at organizing things, though food on the plane was great. Despite all small things that just made me laugh – we’ve reached out destination successfully and all the baggage’s came along intact.

WINDHOEK airport in the capital welcomed us smoothly. Visa checking procedure was a smooth transaction I guess. Our driver with sign «Plenta Family» was already waiting for us, we just exchanged money, ordered sim cards for our mobiles and yes, with approx 40C outside, it was a bit of the change to us in comparison to Norwegian weather.

Our first stop was to collect the cars for our journey. We have rented them from «No limit 4x4 Rentals» = 100% recommend. The managers: Marietje and Nadia prepared everything as planned. Well, I can say that Africa is the place where you need to be very patient and simply wait, but despite this fact, everything was just great.

After all the instructions our first night was at Urban Camp. If you are “lucky” to be in my company ever, trust me, something interesting, unexpected, fun happens all the time, always :)

So the beginning of our journey didn’t go as smooth as planned. We were informed at reception that our booking doesn’t exist. It took a few minutes for the manager to turn up and deal with issue as my face was not so happy after nearly 24h travelling. We were not provided accommodation as per exact booking, but free drinks in the evening and free breakfast in the morning made things much better ;)

Quivertree Forest

So after the first night at Urban Camp, we’ve set off on our journey to Namibia early in the morning. First destination was Quivertree Forest rest camp, Kokerbomwound in Keetmanshoop.

500 km to Kokerbomwound was not hard at all. Everything what we’ve seen on the way was different from everything else in the world. We have arrived to our camping site acquiring huge amounts of breath-taking photos on the way. The plan was to sleep on the roofs of the cars, but… imagine a place with an open area, no shade and in 40C heat outside?! I couldn’t breathe normally. We’ve asked if there is possibility to sleep inside the houses / “space houses”. Luckily, there were 2 available houses to use. This place is well known because of Quivertree Forest, such amazing trees, magical experience.

Later we had a bbq outside, nice warm evening although enormous amount of mosquitos at night. Despite the fact that kids woke up with millions of red spots / mosquito bites, everybody were happy and our next destination was Fish river Canyon = 200 km further from the first spot - one more check for the bucket list. It was huge and absolutely breath-taking. Places like that make you feel very small in immense world.

Kolmanskop (Ghost town)

Our next destination after Canyon was Kolmanskop (Ghost town).

We had 400km to travel to reach this place. Lüderitz town - the place where we’ve stayed one night, took a walk and had a wonderful dinner at Portuguese fish restaurant. Early in the morning before leaving the town, we came to Ghost town. It was just very strange and interesting: brightly coloured wallpaper peeling off the walls, dilapidated houses now inundated in rolling banks of sand … this is Kolmanskop, a ghost town in southern Africa’s Namib Desert. More about it https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/eerie-fascinating-pictures-kolmanskop-desert-diamond-ghost-town - strange and painful history, from luxury to very sandy. The place in the photos does not give you that feeling, definitely a must see. Deadvei & Sossusvlei After very emotional experience we were heading to our next destination: Deadvei & Sossusvlei which was next on our list. These places should be visited early in the morning to experience full magical view, so we’ve chosen to sleep at hotel overnight and set off early morning next day to drive and explore more. Why hotel? Well it was near Namib dessert and it is extremely hot there so we wanted to have a normal night with AC, to have a good rest after accruing long travel distances every day. Desert Hills Lodge was a great choice, I mean look:

Approx 460 km from Kolmanskop, the heat was forgotten the minute we were in the swimming pool. It was so strange with those temperatures: you start your morning with jackets and jumpers exploring Ghost town and in the afternoon we would be moaning about the heat. Believe me it was hot hot hot in the desert.

After a wonderful night, we had a rather tense driving ahead of us to Sossusvlei (Deadvlei). All we knew that its approx 60 km in total to the gate and after that approx 5 km driving with our 4x4s . I mean we have plenty of driving experience in snowy conditions but sand….. it’s another level to master. It was tricky and interesting, but we have successfully reached our destination, guys (our husbands/drivers) managed it very well. I think I was more stressed than the driver :D

Early morning was a bit foggy and cold, but I took of my flip flops and was walking to see Deadvlei just barefoot. The driving here was absolutely magnificent, but to see this point with your own eyes, the unreal state, the very top of our all trip I had to walk and feel it for real. I was so happy and couldn’t stop smiling all the way to the moon and back.

The 5 days we’ve spent in Namibia were rather overwhelming. I was thinking a lot about it on route to our next place. One of the reasons we’ve chosen Namibia was to see how Atlantic Ocean meets the Namib Desert Dunes. I was looking at various the pictures and videos millions of times. To see and explore this place fully with no such restrictions you basically can’t drive by yourself. We have booked a professional tour for the experience. On the way from spectacular morning at Sossusvlei I was already liaising with the company about start time / pick up point / place etc. @sandwavesadventure - the place we have booked in advance.

We came to Swakompund city which was located on the way found campsite Atle Brücke Campsite.

This night was definitely planned to be spent on the roof of the cars. The company said that our picking time is 7:15 in the morning next day. So we needed to organise where to sleep, to find where to eat, to wake up very early and to pack the tents (as next night would be spent in a different place, like basically all our nights at different location). It was a lot to do, and we had to be very organised and on it! Swakopmund welcomed us with normal summer weather, approx 25 C. Swakompund is a beautiful, and on the way, we’ve grabbed some goodies from the local market. Very eventful evening. The night was great too with just 15C, short nights sleep but due to enormous memories made and tiredness we’ve all slept like angels. Upon waking up I’ve realised one of our cars had and empty tyre. Grrrr, as previously mentioned, there is always some sort of unplanned fun with me on the road, never a plain sailing! The tyre was temporarily fixed before we were to leave for our next adventure to Sandwich harbour. We thought we are just going to enjoy the ride and hopefully get to the next location safe and sound = risk takers / no choice sometimes.

The sandwich harbour - It was all fabulous from the beginning, including our guide Marius. He’s driven like crazy, clearly confident drive in these circumstances. History of country you are visiting is best found out from locals - most valuable knowledge. We had extraordinary lunch with a view on the dunes, sparkling wine and great chat - full of excitement. And then we came back to fix the car tyre. Luckily the company where we rented the cars from was located in Swakompund. The owner came to the repair centre with new tyre. Took just 1 hour and we were on the way to our new adventures.

Vingerklip Our next destination should have been Etosha National Park, but it was too far. We stopped at VingerKlip Lodge for the night. This was not planned at the start but we had a chance to see The Vingerklip (Afrikaans for "finger rock") s a rock needle built up from sedimentary rock layers of the Tertiary. It is the geological leftover of a Ugab Terrace and can be read like an open book when looking at the layers of conglomerate. Absolutely worth the visit. Polite owners with great atmosphere and perfect rooms with a view. Highly recommend.

Etosha National Park

Next morning after the stay near the rock, we were in absolutely no hurry, took late breakfast and just chilled a little. It was first morning that I could actually drink coffee slowly and enjoy it. We needed to drive just couple of hours longer to Etosha national park and over there we’ve decided to stay for 3 nights. 1 day - to see the animals, and after all just chillax. We have chosen Eagle Tented Lodge and Spa at this region. It was very hot here, not like by the Atlantic ocean, and we had rooms/tents, just in the middle of nowhere and while you eat, giraffes are roaming around “saying hi” literally Infront of you = surreal! We were so lucky and excited as for the whole 2 nights we were alone at the lodge, like VIP, all ours, it was great experience. It rained and thundered heavily on the last night we were there too. We’ve basically got to experience full range of all sorts in the last few days of our amazing adventure.

We had one day tour in EtoshaNational park and we were lucky to see a large number of different species of animals. I do not know who were more excited, adults or the kids.

All kinds of antelopes, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses ( from the distances but still…), lions, leopards, unseen birds, small animals which I don't even remember the names of. Our guide said it was one of the most successful days of the year. I'm surprised that this could happen with my history of success while travelling, it's really fun, because we don't know if we'll ever be in this country again.

These last days made me feel very calm, made me forget the reason about why we save money, why we build our lives, why we stress, worry etc. After such holidayand full of new experiences life becomes more precious and you start to appreciate everything even more. Imagine what kind of person could you be if you had a possibility to travel EVERYWHERE in the world. I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

Let’s never stop exploring, the world is beautiful and unpredictable.

p.s. For the last night before our flight home, we came back to the Capital, Arebbusch lodge where we were welcomed with an actual bath tub in the bathroom!! It was so delightful, as you can imagine haha. That day we’ve seen snow , yes, snow in Africa, October’22. Magic happens everywhere anytime. I mentioned, we’ve had a magical journey to Namibia :)

> P.P. The more I see,the more I smile,the more I feel !

>Video is coming ! :)