Crossing the border from South Africa to Namibia was a straightforward affair and our first in the Landy. The scenery seemed to change quite dramatically and we found ourselves in a barren and arid desert where we made camp for our first night in the bush.
Our first few days were busy with sight seeing: the impressive Fish River Canyon; the remote and little visited Bukkaros Crater; and the incredible sand dunes of Sossusvlei where we climbed the “Big Daddy” dune which took us about 1.5 hours in sweltering heat to get up and a thrilling run straight down in only 5 minutes!
We had a couple of days R&R in Windhoek to get some service work done on the Landy and take on more supplies. Did a good deal with an Aussie guy finishing a long overland trip on a pair of tyre levers, a hand saw and a machete all the way from Sierra Leone. I'm sure all three items will come in incredibly handy!
After an enjoyable few days in the rocky landscape of Spitzcoppe we were forced to divert to the freezing seaside town of Swakopmund for repairs to the passenger door which was just about falling off. After fitting a shiny new pair of hinges we were on our way again and decided to head back inland to the warmth of the desert.
The 3 days we spent in Etosha National Park were amazing. We saw an abundance of wildlife including some spectacular sightings of lion, elephant and rhino. The highlight was spending about 2 hours watching a pride of 7 lions with 2 males duelling for the affections of the females.
We finished our Namibian tour off with a couple of days bush camping and excellent 4x4 driving through the remote region of Bushmanland before heading into Botswana and the Kalahari desert.