30TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS To celebrate Rich's birthday we chose to stay in a room with a real bed! It was the first hotel room we have had since we had left Moshi in Northern Tanzania. Rich woke in the morning to balloons, birthday cards and much appreciated birthday hot cross bun with a candle in it. A good beginning to what was to be the most fantastic day of celebrations. First on the agenda was a trip to the Namib dunes to undertake the rather sil...

When you think of the Skeleton Coast you think of a bleak desert with sand dunes hitting the unforgiving Atlantic coast. This is exactly what is is like, probably the bleakest place we have visited on our trip. The entrance gates were adorned with a skull and crossbones - giving the sense we were entering Hell rather than a National Park. A deep mist blanketed the coast line making the area seem even more inhospitable. The Skeleton Coast gets its name fr...

EVERY LANDSCAPE IN ONE DAY Our next mission was to find one of the illusive desert elephants in the Purros Valley. In this area there are only fifty spread out in a 300km radius. The elephants have adapted themselves to desert conditions. They are smaller than normal, more aggressive and equipped with bigger feet, which allow them to walk well in the sand. These special elephants are only found in two countries: Mali in Western Africa and Namibia. We would b...

The spectacular Marianfluss valley is only accessible by well equipped 4x4's. It is known for it's desert appearance but after so much rain we were fortunate to visit whilst the grass was high, littered with wild flowers and wildlife. The valley is famous for the abundance of Hartman's Zebras and mysterious circles of cleared ground where nothing grows dotted throughout the valley. There are many theories to explain these circular phenomena, mainly due to poisono...

UP FOR A CHALLENGE The Van Zyll's Pass is named after a Bantu tribesman who made the Kaokoland area famous. However, the pass is better known for the fact that it is considered one of the most technically difficult and challenging 4x4 tracks in southern Africa. As we were coming to the end of our trip we figured our driving techniques should be up to scratch to attempt the pass. After all, this is what we had come to Africa with a fully equipped Land Rover f...