Trifter

Delightful Namibia – Windhoek to Khorixas, August 2009

For those of you who do not know where Namibia is, it is in southern Africa. Its neighbors are Botswana, South Africa, Angola and Zambia.

Should you decide to go there, your best bet is to see the country by road. As soon as you get off that plane, get into a hired car. Book in advance though as car rental agencies get fully booked especially during peak seasons.

Johannesburg (South Africa) is a major hub where you can get a connecting flight to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

Meteorites on Postal Street, Windhoek

2 nights in Windhoek should be enough to recover from your flight (wherever you are coming from) and to see a bit of what the city has to offer. There is not much to see in the capital with the exception perhaps of the museum and the meteorites on Postal Street. You are not going to miss anything significant.

On you third day, you should be able to start your trip and begin your discovery of the country. Don’t forget that in that part of the world, they drive left so be prepared for an RHD car. You’ll get accustomed to it soon enough even if, in the beginning you start fumbling for doors, seat belts and gears.

One of the roads we took.

First stop is Okahandja , about 60 kms. from Windhoek. Overall, the roads are good in Namibia. This makes driving easier. Okahandja is a small town and accommodation should not be hard to find. We stayed at the Okahandja Country Lodge – nice rooms at a good price. A day at the hot springs in Gross Barmen is a relaxed way to spend your day. It is also possible to sleep or camp at Gross Barmen.

The day after, we drove to Kalkfeld, about 150 kilometers from Okahandja.  Our primary interest in Kalkfeld was to see the dinosaur footprints (see below).

Dinosaur footprint

The dinosaur footprints in Kalkfeld are located inside a private property. For a minimal fee, you get access to the site and a map to find your way. Toilet facilities and a picnic site are also available. Follow the white paint on the rocks and you should see small and big dinosaur tracks. It was not hard to imagine that ages ago, these extinct animals once roamed on this land.

We stayed 2 nights at the Mt. Etjo Safari Lodge. The Lodge offers game drives in their concession for those who are interested. Using their own private vehicle, here you can see some animals and birds. An additional activity we did was the Lion Feeding. We were taken to a place outside of the Lodge in the night and watched while about 12-13  lions were feeding on a Kudu (belonging to the antelope family). It was something very unusual for us and quite scary hearing the growls of the lions.

So much for wildlife, we were ready to get out of there and continue with the trip. From Kalkfeld, we drove to Khorixas – about 350 kms. Months before, we tried to book our accommodation but we could not find any place in Twyfelfontein (everything seems to be allotted to travel agencies – mass bookings). Not to worry, we found a nice lodge in Ugab, the Ugab Terrace Lodge. It sits on a very steep hill and affords us of a spectacular view of the Ugab Terraces.

The Ugab Terraces

From Ugab, it is possible to do a day trip to Twyfelfontein. Some of the things you can see in the area are the bushmen rock paintings located in a UNESCO World Heritage site,  the Burnt Mountain, the Organ Pipes  ( magnificent  rock formations which we have never seen before) and along the way, the Petrified Forest.

The Burnt Mountain looking like it has been raged by a fire.

The road from Ugab to Outjo is tarred. Afterwards, the roads are not so good but otherwise manageable. Just be careful as cars have been known to flip in Namibia because of underestimating the bumps on the road. At any rate, the drive itself is so picturesque that you won’t remark the condition of the  roads anymore. If you did not bring your own picnic with you, you can have lunch at the Twyfelfontein Country Hotel. They accept walk-in guests and serve lunch buffets daily to their own guests and the masses of tourists who stop here for a quick stop or rest.

The Organ Pipes

The Petrified  Forest or more like a sample of a petrified wood. So many along the way from Twyfelfontein to Ugab. We chose the first one we saw.

All in all, a total of  roughly 800 kilometers covered in about a week to see these wonderful sceneries. The distances are huge but completely worth it. We are certainly ready for the next phase of this journey which is to continue until the southernmost part of  Namibia.