Getting through the border into Namibia was painless. The other car's occupants and us provided the border staff with all their entertainment. Looking around, there was nothing but the border post in this part of the country. There was just MMA all around.

According to Nic, there existed this amazing place, a wildlife sanctaury - Harnas (www.harnas.de) -, where orphaned and rehabilitated animals were looked after. A place where you could literally reach out and touch these animals. And the best thing was that it was located just 5km before the town of Gobabsis. We looked forward to this with much anticipation! With a night to kill, what better place to go? And best of all, it is only 5km before the next big-ish town. Gobabsis is the only town on this road between Windhoek and the border (300km).

There was the sign for this place to the right, just like Nic said. And yes, it (the sign NOT the sanctuary) was 5km from town. Absolutely right. However, a minor detail was omitted. It was a FURTHER 95km down the gravel road to this place! Nic wouldn't have got that sort of thing wrong? Would he? He is too nice a guy to stitch us up intentionally!

And the 95km only got you to the gate of this farm! It was ANOTHER 12km to the farmhouse at the centre of the property (farms are big in this part of the world!).Even the airstrip was 1.5km long! But the lush green rugby field sized front lawn was a magnet in this brown parched world!

We were enchanted and inspired and promised to come back again. Our first sight was the orphaned springbok behaving like one of the dog pack; the resident sheep thought it was a springbok. But it was the interaction with animals that made it even more special.

We got up close and very personal with cheetahs, baboons, leopards, lions, hyenas, caracal and, my personal favourite, wild dog! We even adopted a local domestic cat for our time there nicknamed Tigerbalm.

A perfect place to be "introduced" to the wonders of the bush and a place we would wholeheartedly recommend visiting! After our visit here, Nic was back in our good books!