"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans"

The name Namibia comes from the word Namib meaning vast. The country used to be under german rule and was called South West Africa until its independence 1990. A small part of it called Walvis Bay, was under British control untill 1994. Apart from the landscape things are still very german. Talking about landscape, our first stop came about 3 hours after crossing the border. Fish River Canyon is the oldest and second biggest canyon in the world and very impressive. We had a walk along the canyon and then had a sunset dinner right next to the edge as we also observed huge lighning storm in the distance. It was interesting how we were the only people there apart from one or two others. Not very touristy at all. We were already beginning to observe some wildlife, mostly springbok but the next day after a long drive and just before reaching our destination we got a pleasant surprise. It was an unscheduled stop at a cheetah park. where we saw Cheetahs, leopards and a Caracal It was a big moment for all of us to go into the cheetah's enclosure and stand less than 10 meters from it. With the leopard we had to stand outside the fence. When we thought the tour was over we were led into another enclosure where 4 young cheetahs were. They were extremely tame and came up to us to be petted. That was the highlight of the trip so far for me. Not everyday you get to scratch a cheetah behind the ear or let it lick your hand. After this great and unexpected experience we headed on to Sesriem were we saw a small canyon made by flood water just on the edge of the oldest desert in the world: The Namib Desert. Close by we pitched out tents. We had a beautiful view that night over the savanna at sunset and we saw animals like antelopes, springboks and baboons. And the next morning a snake.

The next morning, if we were not fully awake yet, we had an abrupt awakening as a snake slithered from under our tent as we were packing it together. It was not very big maybe 60 cm.
Our driver Herman did not know this perticular snake but found out later that day. It was a Shield nose snake. It is very poisonous and two deadly incidents have been recorded. It was an early morning (still dark) as we had to make it to Dune 45 before sunrise. We scrambled up the dune and sat at the top looking at the sunrise. It was fantastic. Some more adventurous people of our group decided to roll down the dune and one had taken a tent mat with him to slide down, but as it turned out it hardly moved and he had to push himself all the way. I ran down the last bit and it is not far from the sensation you get as you run down loose snow. After this we went on a guided desert walk. To everybody's surprice our guide was a japanese woman. But she had been there for 11 years and knew almost everything there was to know about it. She ran everywhere and showed us spiders tracks bushmans food and took us to Deadvlei a dried up lake bed where there had been a huge lake as a result of flooding that happened a long time ago. It is still happening every 5th year or so but now the water goes elsewhere (Sossuvlei). It was interesting and entertaining at the same time. That evening we camped in a bushcamp at some very nice rock formations where there was only one toilet and nothing else (except of course snakes and spiders and scorpions and hyenas and....good night;).

Next: Swakopmund