NAMIBIA - Etosha/Spitzkoppe

Next we crossed the border into Namibia. Our first stop was Etosha National Park for another safari. The main reason for this safari was the hope that we may get to see a rhino, as we had only managed to see one miles away in the Serengeti and we didn't feel we had don't the 'big 5 properly'. The safari vehicle was completely open and just as we set off on our day long drive it started to pour down with rain, luckily it didn't last too long and we managed to stay dry most of the time. We saw lions, zebras, elephants, giraffes and we were lucky enough to see a black rhino! As this was our last safari we were pleased to have been able to tick off all the animals we wanted to see. On our way out of the park we managed to get our lando (bus) stuck so we spent two hours digging it out of the mud. I say we, but I mean all the boys dug while the girls shouted words of encouragement out of the window.
The next day we visited Spitzkoppe on our way to the Namib desert. Before we reached our camp site we visited the 'desert living museum' where we met the local people who apart from not really wearing anything taught us about their culture. They taught us how they made tools, wepons, how to start a fire and which plays they used for medical purposes. After this we carried on to the camp site, this was in the middle of nowhere where we were surrounded by extremely steep rock like mountains. It reminded us of central Australia and looked pretty similar to the Olga's and Uluru we saw when we were there. Naturally Doug decided to climb the biggest one he could find (which was deemed to be safe by our guide), in his words 'we will be up and down in an hour and a half' so only took a litre of water. When he wasn't back 4 hours later and it was starting to get dark the rest of the group were a little concerned, but he turned up in the end. It turned out the rock was bigger and a slightly more 'tricky' climb than he had anticipated. I took the sensible option and climbed a smaller rock to watch the sunset with a cider in hand.Read more