Graptolite - Safari Day 24 to 27

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Tue 27 Apr 2010 13:02

Graptolite is at 36:49.20N 028:18.56E in Turkey and the skipper is in Namibia

24th April

>From Windhoek we drove westwards forever on dirt roads through the
Namib-Naukluft mountains. Shops, petrol stations and even people can be
hundreds of kilometres apart in this part of the world which is a bit
disquieting when you are used to a compact little England.

We reached our camp at Kulala Lodge in the Namib Desert, watched the
sunset over some red and purple dunes and then slept out under the stars.
It`s a good climate for it at this time of year with a cool night breeze
and no mosquitoes.


25th April

After breakfast, we drove into the Namib-Naukluft Park down the dry bed of
the Tsauchab river. Big red dunes, yellow grasses, green trees and blue
skies loom all around. Around 60 kilometres into the park the tarmac road
ends and only 4WD`s continue on a soft-sand track to Sossusvlei where the
Tsauchab river sometimes reaches before it dries up. By night time we
were back at the Kulala camp.

26th April

It was another huge drive on dirt roads back towards Windhoek where we
stopped at the Goche Gana Lodge for the night. Waterbuck and ostrich were
on view from the room and Hartebeest was on the plate for dinner.

27th April

We watched the sunrise from our verandah and listened to animals
breakfasting on each other. The view is very big from this lodge with
miles and miles of bushveldt and mountains and almost nothing man-made in
sight. I think perhaps part of the appeal of this Africa-watching is being
able to feel superior to these other end-products of countless millions of
years of evolution who are still slugging it out down below while you sit
cosily wrapped up in a duvet drinking coffee.

Then it was time to drive to Windhoek airport for the flight to
Johannesburg then maybe another flight to Frankfurt overnight assuming no
other major natural disasters extend our trip.

M