Arrival
It was 24 hours since we left home in the UK as we
touched down in Windhoek Hosea Kutako International
Airport. The door of the A320 opened, we waited
patiently until it was our turn to walk down the steps
onto the runway. As I stepped onto the tarmac it dawned
on me we were back in Africa once more, there is
something about Africa that brings me back again and
again. 
This time we were on a different venture driving
ourselves around Namibia, first heading towards the
coast and then working our way north to the western end
of Etosha. To a virgin area of over 10,000 sq km, a part
of the Etosha National Park only recently opened up to
the self drive visitors like ourselves. Perhaps we could
be one of the first tourist explorers on a self drive
safari in this unused and undiscovered part of Etosha
National Park. The excitement blossomed just like the
Jacaranda trees that lined the streets of Windhoek, that
were in full flower, they were the colour of woodland
bluebells.
We collected our Toyota Corolla and travelled into town
for our one night stopover in Windhoek before moving
onto Swakopmund the next day. The sky was blue and
surprisingly the bushveld had a tinge of green, it was
the height of the dry season but the temperature here in
Windhoek was pleasant, it was hot but a dry heat, no
humidity, such a pleasing change to the autumnal chill
of Heathrow the day before.
Swakopmund
The journey to Swakopmund was an easy one, tarmac all
the way but it did take the best part of 5 hrs before we
reached the outskirts of this seaside town. We arrived
in this coastal resort to a cloud base that stretched
inland for about 3 miles, it stayed in place for the 3
days we were in this seaside resort. It must have been
colder than the UK, rarely exceeding 15 deg C, we had
not come prepared for such a drop in temperature.
Whilst in Swakopmund we visited most of the touristy
things, the one I enjoyed the most was a trip to the fur
seal colony at Cape Cross. A boardwalk had been
constructed the year before that allows people to walk
in safety into the middle the cape fur seal colony. You
are within feet of these noisy creatures with no
apparent affect to their behaviour. It took nearly 2 hrs
to drive to this location passing through some strange
scenery and landscapes on the way. I thought the trip
especially worthwhile as I had the opportunity to
practice my photography before reaching the wildlife in
Etosha.
Moving North
On the fourth day it was time to move on, we followed
the coast road for over an hour before turning inland
towards the Brandberg Mountain. As we left the coast the
road surface changed and so did the sky, as the cloud
disappeared the temperature then rose whilst the salt
and sand road changed to gravel. The temperature soared
to 30 deg + and then it seemed to inch upwards as each
day passed. It was now the height of the dry season and
the wet season rains were just a few weeks away but
fortunately for us it stayed dry until our day of
departure.
After a 4 hour journey we reached our destination the
“White Lady Lodge” just north of Uis, it was planned to
be an overnight stop to break the journey. The lodge
felt like real Africa and our accommodation had good
views across the bushveld to Brandberg Mountain. The
chalet was a bit rustic and well worn but it was for
just one night, so it was fine for us.
Gruelling Journey
The next day was the most gruelling about 300kms across
some of the most challenging gravel roads of the trip.
The most testing was about halfway through the journey
when we had to transverse a river bed where the original
road had been washed away by the previous years heavy
rains. The road and the river had separately followed
the valley up the hillside but now they were one, the
way through was full of rocks and huge pebbles. Not
ideal terrain for a low base domestic saloon car, the
Toyota car did well with only a few minor hiccups. It
took nearly 7 hrs before we reached the top of the
escarpment where the Grootberg Lodge was sited. There
was one thing that had started to plague us, it had
started to become an annoyance soon after we had left
the coast and continued until we finally set off on the
tar road from Okaukuejo back to Windhoek. It was dust,
even with the windows shut tight the dust would
penetrate every crack and cranny and the following trail
of dust behind at 60km/hr was like a Sahara sand storm.
Passing oncoming vehicles was worse, the bigger the
vehicle the bigger and longer was the cloud of dust for
us to penetrate. At the end of this days journey the
Toyota was nearly unrecognisable; the original gleaming
gold car was now covered in a thick layer of white dust.