I woke to the sound of nothing, no loud Spanglish, not even a bird. I read for ½ an hour, then Gray and I got up, he lit a fire and we sat in the dark waiting for the sun to rise. A special time…. but not for long. The kettle boiled, George arrived, then the rest of the gang. Condensed milk coffee time in the morning is always a good catch up on how we all slept.
I had a hot bush shower (thanks Gray). Even a ‘boskak’- if joked about enough, it’s not so bad. I think I have gone over to the dark side, with the other girls edging towards the fence – I really enjoyed being self sufficient, in the middle of nowhere, with no one around.
We packed up, leaving only our footprint behind, and that would soon be covered by the desert sand. Our first sighting of the day – springbok again.
Once out the river bed, the terrain was stark and rocky with vey sparse vegetation. The track then led us into the valleys of a mountainous region, similar to the Kuiseb Valley. Here we passed another vehicle, the first we had seen in 24 hours. We then drove through the a river bed, a tributary of the Mudorib River. Stopping for a tea break, in a beautiful area, there must be underground water, as there are these beautiful old trees, that have survived for hundreds of years in harsh conditions. The drive through the valley was spectacular with lots of green trees. We saw lots of desert giraffe, they are extremely light in colour.
Sue is a geologist and loved being able to see the different layers of rock in the surrounding mountains, free of vegetation (apologies to all geologically inclined - I'm know there are geological terms for the amazing areas in Namibia, unfortunately my knowledge on the subject is non existent, so I report it as I see it).
Our next stop was Amspoort Gorge, where we came across the first water hole in the park. Little water and lots of birds; we spent some time birding and admiring the view before heading into the Hoanib River bed for the next section of the days trip.
The Hoanib River Valley is truly spectacular. We drove through a sandy river bed, filled with lush green vegetation and tall trees. We were dwarfed by high grey mountains and the odd sand dune. A great contrast of colours. There was lots of evidence of ellies, and then there she was a beautiful desert elephant foraging on the side of the banks. On the opposite side was a little steenbok.
At our picnic stop, under one of the tall old trees we saw lots of cat spoor. Then we saw springbok and a giraffe – this one was a lot darker than those we had seen before. Next, on top of a river bank, appeared 3 ellies. Two adults and a little one, I guess in this neck of the woods it would be considered a breeding herd.
Later we came across water, not a flowing river, but big pools surrounded by bull rushes, reeds and abundant with bird life. We were fortunate to see Ellie again, a real breeding herd this time of at least 10.
The only way to travel the Hoanib Valley is through the river bed and as the river was in flood on our last trip, we were unable to access the area. I am so glad we got to do it this time, it is a very beautiful and special place. I could spend weeks exploring this remote area.
On exiting the park, we went through 18km of very fine desert sand, it was like powder and we saw a herd of desert giraffe. We also had a few drops of rain.
The Camelmen loved their 4x4ing today; from rocks to sand to mud and water… but the valley driving was not the end of it !!!
12km to our destination for the day we hit a 100m hilly patch of deep talc sand. 20m from the end we bellied up on the fine sand, our chassis was stuck on a sand bank. At the same time Tony radioed in to say he was stuck on the previous hillock. Spades out, wood collected, much revving but we were stuck fast. I tried to walk in the track and the sand took me up to mid calf. During all this it started to rain – in the desert!!!. George managed to pull Tony out, the girls found the best route out for him and then it was our turn for the Pajero Recovery unit. As this was going down Tony got stuck on the hill coming up to our Discovery. Three / Nil to the Pajero – yah George!.. And in the rain.
Sesfontein, named after the six fountains found in the area, is a tiny rural place with a few mud houses and lots of goats. After checking out one or two of the local camp sites (literally clearings under trees with the goats). We selected Camel Top (the boys insisted on calling it ‘Camel Toe’), named I guess because we are camping at the base of a camel hump shaped mountain. The camp site is community based, they have gone to a lot of trouble to make it nice and we were happy to support them.
We were the only people around and settled down for our evening drink. First we were visited by a mangy little puppy and then a cape turtle dove. Cotton had wound the doves legs together and it was struggling to hop around. The next hour was spent, using various methods trying to catch the bird. Eventually, the guys succeeded in catching it and another 15 minutes freeing it and one happy dove flew off.
We had delicious Oryx steak, salad and homemade bread and ice creams for dinner – pretty decent considering we have been off the grid for 4 days.
There were some great birds in the area; we saw a Monteiro’s hornbill, crimson breasted shrike and went to bed to the sounds of a pearl spotted owl.
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