Day 2 & 3 of 18 – Namibia Safari Trip – 2019
Our first destination was Spitzkoppe, as this really had become my wife’s dream, ever since she had seen my photos of my trip to Namibia and Botswana a year ago. And camping at Spitzkoppe is indeed absolutely spectacular, with the bald granite peaks as backdrop, a sky filled with billions of stars and your nearest invisible neighbour at least a hundred meters away.
Spitzkoppe was also the only place I had booked in advance, as the decision to go to Namibia was made just a week before departure from Bali, when we finally gave up on trying to get a visa for Zambia, our originally planned safari destination. From Spitzkoppe onwards we would just decide on a daily basis where to go; a true adventure!
Day 2: Windhoek – Spitzkoppe
We arrived in Spitzkoppe early afternoon, having done some major shopping in Windhoek earlier in the morning. The plan was to spend the next couple of days camping in the wild, so we made sure we had enough supplies to last for at least 10 days.
In the afternoon we explored Spitzkoppe, with of course a visit to the famous Rock Arch.
After “must-visit” Spitzkoppe our itinerary was completely blank and the only preparation I had done was design a rough route up north through Damaraland and onwards to Kaokoland, as much as possible off-road through mostly dry riverbeds and other wilderness, in search for particularly desert elephants and lions. The plan was to camp as much as possible in the wild, or at least in real bush campsites.
Day 3: Spitzkoppe – Rhino Trust Camp – Doros area
Our first full day in the bush and it couldn’t start better waking up in this spectacular setting! Today we planned to drive to the Rhino Trust Camp and either camp there or continue further north and camp somewhere in the wild, on our way to the Huab riverbed. We were not in a rush though…
Bye bye Spitzkoppe, we’ll be back!
From Spitzkoppe we drove to Uis, an old tin mine village. Here we turned southwest towards Henties Bay and then left the main road up northwest, more or less around the base of Brandberg, with 2500 meters Namibia’s tallest mountain. Little did we know that we would not see any other cars or people anymore until late next day…