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Hilary Bradt provides the following update to this guidebook in light of her own travels in Namibia, November 2007.
Page 60
A couple of “What to take” items for those driving themselves: most hire cars have a CD player. Bring your favourite music or a talking book to fill up those long periods of featureless landscape. If you are a group using two vehicles, as we were, two cheap walkie-talkies are a Godsend, enabling you to communicate without having to stop.
Page 181
Connie’s Restaurant Tel: 062 539014; fax: 062 539018. 94km west of Rehoboth. Connie’s warm welcome, larger-than-life personality and home-baked cookies make this the perfect place for a break when driving to Sossusvlei. With advance warning she will prepare lunch and also offers B&B for N$150 (but there’s no electricity). Her place is well signposted off the C47; you can’t miss it.
Page 245
Bullsport Guest Farm. The address is PO Box 97457, Maerua Mail, Windhoek. Web: www.buellsport.com. The phone nos are about to change (new number not yet known). It no longer sells fuel, but the shop selling everything you could possibly need in an emergency, is much visited by local people. We thought the food here was the best on the trip. The Quivertree Gorge hike is sensational in that you have the opportunity to swim in cool, deep pools along the way. On a hot November day this is utter bliss!
Pages 249-257
Sossusvlei. Worth noting that the dunes all have numbers allocated to them, and number 45 can be climbed. Indeed, you’ll find a black line of human ants slogging up in the early morning sun. It’s very popular! You can also run down the side – wonderful! I also learned about the composition of the dunes: 90% silca quartz and 10% mica, feldspar (?) and heavy minerals such as garnet, ilmenite and magnetite. You can also see the famous desert creatures. I was thrilled to see a tok-tokkie beetle and one of those lizards that lifts its feet up.
Page 255
Ballooning. The price has gone up to N$3050 (about £230) for a flight lasting between 45mins and 1hr 15mins, so it’s not cheap. But wonderful!
Sesriem Canyon. Look out for the large frogs, marooned forever in the pools of water.
Page 337
Twyfelfontein. There is now a state-of-the-art visitor centre which provides comprehensive information (although I found myself asking “How do they know” a few times) and there’s a self-guiding trail so a guide is no longer compulsory. There are no longer paintings and engravings, only engravings. Even the longest trail takes only about an hour.
Page 344
Etendeka Mountain Camp. We loved this place! The lodge is a model of sustainability. All electricity is provided by solar panels which also heat the water. The main meal is cooked in a solar oven (backed up by gas canisters) and water use kept to a minimum. Everything is brought in from outside the concession area – even firewood.
Pages 359 & 365
Etosha. We disagreed with the statements that you should drive yourself. We took an introductory guided tour in a safari vehicle and felt this was a terrific introduction to the eastern part of the park. Not only did our guide spot a lion at an impossible distance, but he was a mine of information on the wildlife and showed us the best places to see it. The height of the vehicle is also a great advantage over a saloon car – you see much more.
Page 371
Etosha Aoba Lodge. This super place is about to revert to the original owner, George Zimmermann. The whole team of staff are going to the new Mushara Tented Camp. The service and food were impeccable so this is good news for the tented camp but Aoba will need to be checked out under its new ownership.
Page 377
Omaruru. We loved this town. Note that the huge Spar supermarket is open on Saturday afternoons when most businesses are closed, and there’s an ATM.
Where to eat. Pay a visit to Haus Wronsky on the eastern side of town. In the 1800s the Wronsky daughter married into the Sacher family of Vienna and the coffee shop now makes mouth-watering sachertorte. There’s a swimming pool and a souvenir shop as well. Also don’t miss a visit to Tikoloshe (www.tikoloshe.iway.na, tel: 064 570582/571215), on the western side of town, where a team of craftsmen carve roots into imaginative animals. I bought a huge – and gorgeous – aardvark!
Page 379
Erongo Wilderness Lodge. There are excellent rock paintings here. We took a guided tour to these and loved feeling that it was there just for us. No other tourists. The paintings are wonderfully lively (men running, with bows and arrows, as well as a variety of animals) and the location in a cave with terrific views is superb.
Page 384
Okonjima. This guest farm is the centre for Africat and your best chance of photographing cheetahs or jaguars. The reserve is about to triple in size, from 6,000ha to 22,000ha (three neighbouring farms have been donated to Africat). Apart from the tame cheetahs there are radio-collared leopards so you are virtually guaranteed a sighting. The famous wild dogs that featured on the BBC are here and will probably be released into the new, expanded reserve.
Page 395
Kanamjab Rest Camp (4 bungalows and camping for 60) Tel: 67 330 290 or 081 335 8094/323 8379; email: irmobert@iway.na. On C40 en route to Palmwag, 3km from Kamanjab. Under new ownership since 2007 and well run and very welcoming. The twin-bedded simple bungalows have recently been refurbished and are clean and functional, with en-suite bathrooms. N$370-450. The campsite is well designed with an ablution block with hot showers and barbeque places. N$75 per person. There’s a small swimming pool for all guests. No credit cards accepted. The lodge organises tours to a nearby traditional Himba village and to the Peet Albert’s Koppie Rock Engravings. This is an excellent place to stop for lunch with delicious food including, unusually for Namibia, home-grown salad. |
