Saturday 14^th October 2017

Swakopmund to Etosha National Park

Leaving the Goose behind (in prime position in front of the Strand Hotel under CCTV surveillance and the manager Thomas keeping an eye on it until it can be picked up on Monday morning), we hopped into the back seats of Peter & Debbie’s Nissan 4WD. Peter and Debbie, from Johannesburg,  are the local “fixers” for the rally. 

Until seeing Debbie in the car at work on the phone most people wouldn’t realise how much work goes into being the “fixers”…from organising retrieval of passports left in safes, locating specialised spark plugs, to finding a flat bed tray truck on a Saturday to rescue broken down cars. There was no room in the car for our luggage so that went in the hire car of Gary and Debbie whose Ferrari expired on the rough road near Solitaire.

We headed east on the B2 to Okahandja. Lots of small compounds around rondavels to keep owners’ cattle & goats in and marauders out.

Enterprising locals have small stalls along the road, from oranges to wooden carvings, also timber and thatch for roofing.

We stopped by a waterhole to see zebras drinking and jackals crunching bones. A giraffe appeared from nowhere.

From Okahandja we turned north on the C38 to Otjiwaronjo where we had some lunch. A local approached us wanting us to buy carved nuts (told us he does this so he doesn’t have to steal). We then continued to Okaukuejo on the edge of the Etosha National Park. We took a detour out to the pan which was white and flat (no vegetation whatsoever) as far as the eye could see. Temperature is over 40 degrees and people and cars are feeling it.

We enjoyed the day as Peter and Debbie are so knowledgeable about local animals, birds and flora.

At 4pm Peter invited us to have a drive around to see some animals. Fortunate to see three cheetahs on the pan in the distance. Also a very large black rhino which is apparently quite rare. Many birds with colourful feathers.