Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

...just finished yesterday. While sitting in the "Kleines Nest" in Walvis Bay I thought I drop you all a first appetizer before doing the report around the Easter Days when having again a fast net

End of day 1 going down to the kuneb river bed for the first camp...

Part 1:

We started on the 14th of March towards the Augrabies Falls as they should have more water now than last year in August (which was true). It was a long driving day w/ only a short rest in Olifantsriver (?). We stayed over night in the Falls Guest House (I can only strongly recommend), this B&B has great rooms and perfect meals at a competitive pricing.
On the 15th in the morning, we left at 8:30h to the falls and did a few fotos, this time it was more impressive...
2 Hours later we were back on the road towards the Fishriver Canyon, the destination of the day. On Friday, I got a nice call telling me we were upgraded from the Canyon Roadhouse to the Fishriver Canyon Lodge...this is good luck.

Part 2: We arrived at the lodge quite late as we needed some time at the border post...and in Karasberg (refill, some purchase in the spar and the difficult search for a restaurant for lunch... ..).
Here some shots from the trip...

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But the best was this little chalet in the middle of the rocks...a great view and very comfortable.

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A lot of historical stuff was collected in the restaurant area of the lodge. This venue is a place I can strongly recommend for 2 nights to see the Canyon and more of the nature reserve. Unfortunately, we had a tuff schedule and needed to leave already the next morning towards Sesriem/Solitaire.

Part 3: In the morning we spend some time at the view point of the Fishriver Canyon. The area is under heavy construction work and not nice to stay there. We took the road to the right until it's end and had a little walk there. Around lunchtime we headed off towards Sesriem.
The area has more animals than expected - you just need to recognize them....
The public road goes through private farm ground...you need to open/close a gate when passing.

A great view all along the way - but it's a really long drive
We arrived around 19:00h at Sesriem and booked into the Soussusvlei Lodge (to many stops for viewing the nice scene on the way to arrive earlier)
Our Chalet in Sesriem - I can only recommend this lodge as well. for RSA residents the price per chalet and night was R1240, including Dinner and Breakfast. The dinner was really great, 6 different game meat to choose for the grill. You could point to the piece of your choice and it was grilled while you were waiting - perfect.

Day 4: Dune 45 and dead Vlei...we left early for the dune 45 to avoid going there in the hottest timeof the day - but it was still a "hard piece of work". You feel like doing 2 steps up while dropping 1 down again...
We left the park around 14:00h and continued the drive to Solitaire where we should meet the other participants of the URI conception tour, starting the next day. We've bought some additional water and refilled the tank in Solitaire - this village is a camping place, little restaurant and an old petrol station - not really more houses there - we almost couldn't believe it. The "dead" cars at the station have for sure all a story...luckily our didn't want to stay there
We took a room at the solitaire guest farm and relaxed the afternoon to settle for the next 4 days in the dunes...and enjoyed the great sunset.

Day 5: Shortly after 8am the group headed off towards the entry into the namib desert, somewhere 30 km's north of Solitaire - not without another refill check at the solitaire petrol station. Andre, the tourguide, insisted on it.
The first day lead us through the north-eastern part of the Namib desert, lovely views, still a lot of animals to see and smooth training for the dunes as we would need to do a few slipfaces up when heading to the west. The camp for the night was next to the Kuiseb river bed which is currently dry. Challenge for the day: drive along slipface down to the river bed.
Briefing about the rules, the do's and the don'ts View over the Kuiseb river canyon - almost as beautiful as the Fishriver Canyon Way done to the river bed... ...and still going down - my wife went down with the guide to take the photos Sunset while setting up the camp - we were roughly 1 hour late vs. schhedule

Day 6: Our second day in the desert. Today we went finally into the dunes after refilling some kitchen water at the topnaar community living close to the canyon.
Preparing for the first set of dunes in the early morning...
We had a few really incredible views during the first hour - and really good luck with the weather, it was nice and warm during the day and smart during the night - no freezing like last year in August...
The desert is alive - a few Oryx and Springboks crossed our way and this little Chameleon as well...
Andre was feeding it with a little beetle - you won't believe the speed of the tongue...

Heading up towards the camp for the night in Olifantsbad, this landcruiser had many problems to manage the dunes - I believe it was the missing experience of the driver...
...while the Landy, the 2nd car with more problems, simply didn't have enough power...

All in all a great day in the dunes with a few tough challenges.

Day 7: Our 3rd day in the dunes, today we went towards Sandwich harbor, via Holsazia - one of the left alone diamant ghost towns and along the the Lange Wand (no pics - I just ran the vidcam) to our camp for the last night at Sanvis. We stopped as well at the Eduard Bohlen (no pics this year) and the Tswanee.
The sunrise is also an incredible view in the mornings...far more scenic than in the towns in daily life...

The Pajero had some trouble getting over this slipface on the steep side - it took me 4 (!) attempts until we made it...
A stop in Holsazia, one of the diamant ghost towns in the Namib - there is not much left as the sandblasting slowly destroys everything...
While the others had a look at the Eduard Bohlen - we have seen her already last year - we joint the guides at the beach hoping to have a quick bath in the Atlantic...as the sand was to hot to go bare feet...but this ocean seems to be icy in every corner...no bath.
Last shipwreck before the lange Wand: the Tswanee - se the Jakal sitting in the little cabin on the right...PRICELESS
Finally - close tothe last camp another nice view...across the scene

Day 8: The 4th and last day in the dunes. We left the camp early and went towards Walvis Bay while doing the "Rollercoaster" - since that day we know what it means....up the dunes and down the slipfaces , we did the long drop as well - what a feeling when you start accelerating the vehicle already have the way down the slipface to make it up the next dune...and in between it feels like the car takes-off, but it only gets lifted out of the suspension - no danger and risk.

Around lunch we were back at Walvis Bay and the group splitted up in their individual ways back home. We had another coffee with the Germans from Windhoek in the Walvis Yacht Club before we refilled petrol and air and headed off for our B&B - a warm real shower was waiting...

Here is the last pictures:

Beautiful view over Sandwich Harbor...
Preparation for the "Long Drop" another steep slipface with tough acceleration to get up on the other side...

Finally - the Long Drop (I have only this pic - the rest is on video )
A few kilometers prior Walvis Bay, the guides Landcruiser ran out of petrol - good timing...
What a view in Walvis Bay in the evening...the next
morning was grey and cloudy
The complete tour:
Finally - I'll try to give a quick comparison/rating between both tour companies and the routes. Just to make clear - this is my point of view - other might have different opinions !

The Tour operators are Coastways (located in Lüderitz) and URI (located in Walvis Bay), both offer more or less the same tours and run a lot of them with freelancer tourguides (like the one we did last year and this one as well). The companies share the concessions for the Namib Naukluft park with the local communities. Pls. read the list the way that I have named the better company for each item:
Execution of the tour:
- Booking and pre-communication: Coastways,
- Organization of the "meet & greet evening" prior to the start day: Coastways,
- Training and advices during the tour: depends on the guide - here: Coastways (Heiner is not to beat)
- Camps - quality, service and professionalism: URI
- Catering - quality of the meals: depends on the guides capabilities - here: Coastways (Manfred is a cook in Lüderitz)

The tour - here I can only compare "6 days Lüderitz to Walvis Bay" and "the Conception Tour", 4 days:
- The route in terms of scenery: Lüderitz to Walvis Bay - you see more than only dunes...
- The grade of difficulty: Conception Tour has higher grades - not ideal for the 1st desert tour
- Pricing: cost are equivalent - but: Coastways doesn't require you to carry water for the kitchen...

Another interesting topic for "Foreigners" like us: Socializing along the tour
This really heavily depends on the group, in our case the Lüderitz to Walvis Bay tour was more international - so all participants sticked more to English. This year the base language was Afrikaans - which forced us to ask every once and a while to repeat the guidance in English or we just ignored it...and gave feedback when we were told we did wrong
But - very impolite during the evenings - we didn't understand the conversations around the fire...and even when we tried to contribute - the group switched back to Afrikaans within 3-4 sentences. As it were only 3 evenings - we survived and mainly chatted with the German/English couple.

My personal conclusion out of both tours: If you want to see more than only dunes and slipfaces - do the long tour from Lüderitz to Walvis Bay with Coastways !

The remaining days we went along Swakopmund and Hentiesbay to the Etosha Pan. It began raining the day before we arrived in Okaukuejo - our last destination of the Namibia vacation. So the biggest highlight was a Rhino taking a bath on the 2nd evening in the waterhole prior to the chalet we were booked in. We tracked around in the pan for 1 day but mainly have seen a lot of birds we didn't even know before and many, many Oryx, Springboks and Jakals as well as a few hyenas taking a bath in another waterhole.
Here is a short collection of the highlights:
A Toyota Landcruiser - short, shorter, SHORTY

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A newer shipwreck between Swakop and Henties...the Zela

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Seen in Otjou - dangereous way to travel with kids (to my opinion)

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Secretary Bird in Etosha:
Hyena with an old leg of an antilope or gemsbock - found in the waterhole...
The last challenge came between Otjiwarongo and Gobabis. We decided to go the C30 to pass along some German named villages...and battled more than 1 hour for 20 km's during heavy rain on the sandtrack which changed into a mud track within minutes. Even 4x4 mode didn't prevent us from some dangerous slides across the mud...this was more challenging than the 4 days in the dunes...
This is how the Pajero looked like in Gobabis...
Feel free to add any comments - hope this report is not too detailed