Just thought I'd share a few memories of our recent trip to Namibia.
Most organised tours tend to go there in September/October when the weather is at it's hottest and driest as this tends to draw large concentrations of game to the dwindling waterholes. Some birding trips also go late March or early April as the rainy season ends but our circumstances dictated that the only time we could get away was the first two weeks of May.
This is probably not the best time to visit for a purely birding holiday, or indeed to see big numbers of mammals but the advice from Expert Africa (who booked the accommodation and car hire) was that there should still be plenty to see and we'd have the advantage of a greener and less dusty landscape after the rains.
This turned out to be quite an understatement to say the least! The rainy season, normally over by the end of March, had delivered 2 to 3 times the normal amount and rain was still falling all through April into the first week of May. So we arrived to a very green and lush-looking country - not the desert landscape we'd been expecting at all!
Our route took us from Windhoek to Waterberg, eastern Etosha, western Etosha, the Erongo Mountains, Swakopmund - staying a couple of nights in each place - and back to Windhoek.
Our hire car was a Nissan X-trail which performed very well. A lot of the gravel roads were in poor condition (some had been washed away altogether) so a SUV was the minimum requirement, a regular saloon car would not have made it on some roads we encountered. Having said that, the main tarmac roads were actually much better than expected and with very little traffic, so driving on these was very easy indeed. Namibia is a BIG country - we covered a total of 2500km - a typical journey between lodges would be 300-350km and take around 5 or 6 hours.
The accommodation we stayed in was absolutely fantastic and the food was superb, much better than we were expecting. Although it was not exactly a cheap holiday (!) we both reckon it was exceptional value for money.
I'll follow up with more details on birding and the different places we stayed later.
Nick
We arrived in Windhoek mid-morning and after all the usual stuff with baggage and hire car we drove into Windhoek to find our hotel for the first night. In the afternoon we headed out to Daan Viljoen Park - I'd heard it was closed but that actually only applies to the accommodation and facilities, you can still drive round. That was a nice relaxed afternoon after a long flight getting to know some of the commoner birds we would encounter along the way.
The following morning we felt the trip was starting in earnest - a 300 km drive north to Waterberg. The main road north was virtually traffic free and by midday we'd turned off onto the D2512 for our first taste of driving Namibia's gravel roads. In this case gravel actually means sand, crossed every few kilometres by fast flowing shallow streams which needed careful navigation to find the safest spot to ford. We only got bogged down once (yours truly having to get out and push) and if progress was slow the birding along this road was excellent.
Waterberg Wilderness Lodge is a very nice place with about 10 rooms/bungalows set in a valley at the foot of the plateau. The guided hike onto the plateau is excellent for the stunning scenery and there are trails you can walk yourself although some were overgrown due to the rains. We also did a game drive onto the 'farm' where they have 2 White Rhino and plenty of other antelope and giraffe. Birding on the game drive was good too -plenty of parrots, lovebirds, rollers, hornbills, wydahs and our only broze-winged courser. Around the lodge there were fewer birds - the rains meant that birds didn't need to come down for food and water - but we still saw quite a lot, red billed francolins, crimson breasted shrike, little sparrowhawk, groundscraper thrush, african hawk-eagle, scimitarbill, acacia pied barbet to name a few.
We really enjoyed our two nights here; the quality of food and level of service was excellent - something we'd have to get used to over the next 2 weeks!
Next day we set off for Mushara Bush Camp, just outside the east gate of Etosha Park. We decided to try the D2512 east from Waterberg towards Reitfontein as it would save quite a few kilometres - and couldn't possibly be in as bad a state as the road to the west. Sure enough, to the east the road climbs a little higher (see photo) and becomes dry gravel rather than wet sand. We covered around 115 km and only saw four other vehicles! Once on the main road there's not much of scenic value but the road is good and still very little traffic so progress is swift. We stopped in Grootfontein for petrol and lunch and later at Lake Otjikoto just to break the journey. About 2km short of the entrance to Mushara we watched in amazement as a Caracal slowly sauntered across the road in front of us, it stopped at the other side of the road and had a good look at us before disappearing off into the bush! Quite an unusual sight in the middle of the afternoon, methinks.
We arrived at Mushara in good time for a refreshing swim and some birding around the grounds. The camp is beautifully laid out with a central thatched building for reception & restaurant and the accommodation is in fixed tents well spaced out around the grounds. The pool was very refreshing too!
Around the grounds were Yellow- and Red-billed hornbills, Blue waxbills, Lark-like bunting, Golden-breatsed bunting and black-faced babblers. Also a small family of Warthog, lots of tree squirrels and a common duiker.
Once again the food and service were excellent - the lions of Etosha must have a very nice life if their Eland steak tastes as good as mine did!