Hello again, I hope you all have had a lovely holiday season and are so far enjoying 2026! How are those resolutions going so far? One of mine is to get caught back up on posts! So you should see more consistent posts as long as we have decent internet! Now back to the travels. If you don’t remember, we were a few days into our Namibian adventure as part of a 3 week trip on our trusty steed, Kwagga. After getting checked out for the doctor we embarked on an adventure cruising through the dunes in sandwich harbor before heading north to a bush camp in Spitzkoppe and to immerse ourselves with the animals in Etosha National Park. I hope you’re ready for more amazing pictures from Mr. Wander!
Between the Dunes and the Sea
The second day in Swakopmund we woke up early and were picked up by our guide and two women from the Netherlands on a trip to Sandwich Harbor. We chose this tour as it is a unique geological formation that only occurs a few places in the world, where you can see the dunes and the ocean immediately next to each other.
We started heading south back through Walvis Bay and stopped by a lagoon with some flamingos walking close to shore, while our guide aired down the tires for driving in the dunes. These flamingos breed in Etosha and come down to this area with their young.
He drove us around pools next to a salt mining operation, harvesting from the sea. Apparently the international standard for salt quality is 97% but salt from this facility is known to produce 99.6% purity. There were some pools that had turned quite pink as it becomes highly salinated encouraging this pink algae to grow.
We stopped between the dunes and the ocean, along a temporary road that only exists at low tide. Luck was on our side as a few humpback whales decided to say hi. Walvis actually translates to whale in Afrikaans, and it used to be a big whaling industry. Thankfully since that practice has finished the numbers have been returning. These whales likely visit Antarctica as they follow the tastiest krill. A jackal, antelopes, an ostrich, and a few seals were also wandering around the beach as we drove along.
Next we headed into the dunes. Our driver was trying to scare the woman in the front seat and sometimes would stop at the top of a dune and say “uh-oh” or something, and then he’d start moving. I’m glad he didn’t see me jump nearly every time he did that as I was in the back! Sometimes he’d go quick around a banked turn so it started to feel a bit like a rollercoaster. We tried to create a video with our 360 Camera, I hope you enjoy!
He took us to a few stops like up on the top for a great view of the coast in both directions and dunes as far as you can see.
Then we went to a spot mostly by ourselves for a bit of a picnic. He poured us some sparkling wine, and had a few trays of delicious snacks including ostrich meatballs. I forget the names of all of it but it was a very tasty lunch.
Soon it was time to head back, he had more fun taking us through dunes until we arrived back to that same lagoon to air up the tires before hitting the highway, heading back to Swakopmund.
That afternoon we met up with R & M who wanted to visit the yarn store and I found some thin yarn that might work with my small crochet hooks for another project. We headed to a cafe others in our group had visited the day before that had a huge carrot cake so we tried that and a cheesecake with some caffeine.
We then were in search of a drink but the bar on the pier was not open yet, but we got some fun pictures. It was a bit crazy being on the pier with the waves coming in so strong and seeing it both sides of the narrow path, it could make you dizzy if you watched too closely.
Finally, we headed to this restaurant that Demi had recommended and had a few drinks, which turned into dinner and even more drinks, especially as our waitress was perhaps a bit encouraging. I started trying cocktails out of curiousity, such as this jagerbomb mojito. It was interesting because if you drank the surface with the floating shot glass it was like a jagerbomb, if you drank with the straw it tasted like a normal mojito, at least until they mixed together more. We made it back to the hotel feeling quite good and enjoyed sleeping in a bed for the last time for several days.
Spitzkoppe
We had breakfast provided by Demi and had a little time to relax before we left at 10am. Most of the day was just driving except we did stop by a market area where women were selling jewelry made with different stones. I looked around a bit but mostly to stretch my legs. I figured if something really spoke to me I’d buy it, but we also were limited in the cash we had without a reliable ATM before the next spot. I did have one of the women get me over to her booth and eventually tried following me back to the lando but thankfully Demi helped me out and ran interference.
We were not too far away from Spitzkoppe when we left the little market and stopped to take pictures at a giant sign. Then we headed to the campground and managed to get one of the better spots according to Demi, and given how several others had driven by all afternoon looking in that area I think others would agree.
After lunch we relaxed in the shade for awhile and then took a walk to this cool natural stone arch. Our timing was perfect as we arrived just as a larger group left so we got pictures to ourselves for a few minutes. We headed back to the campsite and I played a few rounds of UNO flip with some of the group until it was getting close to sunset.
Our campsite was right next to where you can climb up to the top of some rocks to get a good view of the sunset. I didn’t go up all the way since there was a scramble and I didn’t trust my wrist enough just yet, but we did climb quite a ways up and still had a cool view. We sat with the woman from Amsterdam and got to know her a bit more and took pictures for each other.
Once the sun had set, we headed down for dinner. While we were starting to clean up after eating, we noticed there were headlamps that were on this hill across the way. Eddie and Demi said you weren’t supposed to be climbing on those rocks after dark and we tried flashing a message with lights to them but they didn’t know how to respond or maybe didn’t notice it. Eventually Eddie, Demi and one of the guys in the group took the lando to head to the camp office to ask or let them know what we saw. When they came back, Eddie and the other guy started yelling saying “we need a bunch of head lamps and to go on a rescue mission!” Everyone started getting up to grab their lamps for about 1 minute before they started laughing and told us they were kidding! So funny!
That evening there was an option to sleep outside your tent and up on the rocks by where we were watching the sunset. I was tempted but was worried about having to climb down the rock in the night for the bathroom and carrying my mat and sleeping stuff with my wrist was still a bit difficult so we opted to stay inside. I also can’t see without contacts or glasses so it isn’t always worth it for me to sleep under the stars. After the others climbed up I went around to the back of the lando where it’s light wasn’t so bright and took a few long exposure pictures of the stars and then we headed to bed.
Safari in the Lando in Etosha
Today we had a bit of a drive and made it to the town of Outjo for our shop stop to pick up drinks and some hand pies Demi ordered ahead for us for lunch. We had some time to pick up beverages at the grocery store and enjoy some wifi at the bakery before continuing to Etosha National Park.
Once in the park, Eddie took us on a lando safari, which was mainly staying on the main roads the lando could go on and stopping when we saw something. We had our windows open so we could get pictures without glare but it ins’t the most ideal as there were so many people and the animals would be on one side or the other.
Meanwhile, Demi taught us fun facts about different animals. Such as a group of giraffes have two different names. If they are standing, they are called a tower, but if they are walking they are called a journey! The males are also about 1 meter taller than the femals which allows them to not compete for food as much. They love camel thorn trees, the long eyelashes protecting them from the thorns, and their super long tongue (up to 45cm if you remember from Tanzania’s post) allows them to reach the tasty seed pods.
Etosha does not have all of the big 5, as the buffalos need natural water sources and Etosha has mostly man made waterholes. They do have quite a few rhinos, both the white and black. The black is more aggressive and has a hooked lip and longer neck. The only reason it is known as a black rhino is the word for “hook” was mistranslated. Similarly, wit described the wide lip of what is known as the white rhino, but they have smaller necks and nearly always are looking down. There’s still problems with poaching, they estimate that in southern africa, two are poached every day! Botswana has the most severe punishments for poachers and just recently added a “shoot on sight” law allowing rangers to shoot anyone that looks like they might be poaching and there will be no repercussions.
One of the first groups we saw were a dazzle of zebras. There are two kinds that are in Etosha and we actually saw both in this area. When we were in Tanzania we had only seen the Mountain zebras, also known as Hartman, as they have all black stripes down to their legs. The other type is a Bush Zebra called Burchell that have two colors of stripes in such a way it looks like shadows, but the stripes stop at the top of their legs.
Demi also told us how to tell the difference between the various antelope in the area. Starting from the biggest, is the Eland, they have a big straight horn and can jump over obstacles 2 meters tall when at a run. The second larges is the Kudu and has big spiral horns with stripes on its back. Oryx, the national animal of Namibia, has very long horns curving back, and are generally well adapted to the desert, including nasal padding to keep their brain cool.
Impalas are also known as McDonald’s as they have a large ‘m’ on their butt, while the Waterbuck is a bit fuzzier and has a white ring on its butt that looks a bit like a toilet seat. The Springbok has horns on both the male and female, and then you have some of the smaller ones like a Dik-dik that look smaller than some babies of the other antelope. We also have the Hartebeest with horns the shape of a heart and wildebeest that are almost a Frankenstein with a horse’s tail, body of an antelope, and face and horns of a buffalo.
We finally made it to the campground inside the park and found out that the office had confused the reservation dates in this spot Thankfully they had enough room for us, just not the best kitchen setup and I felt bad for Demi having to deal with the unexpected stress. After getting the lando unpacked and tents setup we sat in the shade for a bit and helped Demi with dinner since Mr. Wander was on the cooking team that day. When she said she didn’t need more help, some elephants appeared just outside of the fence of the campsite. In Etosha there are fences to keep in the people, sort of a reverse zoo. We walked over to take pictures of this herd of elephants, including some cute babies.
When they had left the area near our campsite, Demi encouraged us all to go over to the watering hole since she knew they’d be headed there if they walked by that part of camp, plus it was most busy in the hour before sunset, so we headed that way. We managed to find some seats to watch the sunset and the elephants arriving.
After the sunset, the elephants headed away from the watering hole and it was time for us to head back for dinner as well. I decided to take a shower so I would sleep better, but as I was coming back to the tent someone said there were rhinos at the watering hole! So we headed back and got some pictures of rhinos. It was interesting when some elephants came in and there was a bit of a standoff between this elephant and rhino with their young.
The elephant was just trying to get to the water and the rhinos relented, moving to the side. It was really cool to get views of the rhinos, so much better than we had seen during the lando safari and so much closer than in Ngorongoro Crater back in Tanzania. The elephants and Rhinos soon wandered off and we decided to head back to the tents and get some sleep.
Next Time
I hope you enjoyed the first taste of Etosha! The following morning we had a full Safari in regular trucks and got a bit closer to a Rhino than we intended. Then we have a night in Waterberg and then our last night in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. We said goodbye to a few people while we met four new friends that will finish the trip with us to Victoria Falls. Making it successfully across the border into Botswana, we had another bush camp with a walking tour by a couple sharing how to find food, medicine, and even made a fire for us. Until next time, Totsiens and Happy New Year!
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