Day 4: Fish River Canyon to Sossusvlei

Oryx

We woke early, again, at 0530 for an early departure and long day’s drive so that we could arrive at our next camp site at Sesriem in Sossusvlei before the Namib Desert Park gates closed for the night.  The Namib Desert is Namibia’s number one tourist attraction for it’s dramatic red sand dunes. 

Baboon mooning us

Today we have seen a lot of wildlife.  It started while we were having our breakfast, when we saw a baboon family in the next campsite. The large male was foraging for food in a garbage can and the female was carrying her baby on her back. As we were driving out of the campsite I noticed that a park worker was emptying out all of the garbage cans.  Soon after we started our long drive north to Sossusvlei we saw at least two dozen running ostriches.  We also saw Springbok, a cinnamon-color gazelle springing and bouncing as it runs; some Kudu, with long spiraled  horns and some Oryx, with long straight horns, both in the antelope family; our first Zebra; and a Cape Cobra snake, one of the most venomous snakes.

Ostrich

We have talked a lot about where we’ve been and what we’ve seen, and not so much about camp life and our traveling companions.  The vehicle that we are driving around in looks like a truck and acts like a bus so it’s hard to describe.  Will, our driver, is adamant that he is NOT a bus driver but a truck driver so it’s a truck, and we call it a truck.  Inside we all have large areas with reclining seats and plenty of leg room.  In front of our seats is a ‘foot locker’ that locks where we keep some of our belongings with a locking safe within the box for our valuables.  Outside, there are large storage compartments all under the passenger cabin that holds all of our luggage and camping gear.  There are large windows for viewing and taking photos and there are windows on the front wall.  Each seat also has an opening on the roof so when we see big game, we can stand on our box and look out.

The crew setting up for lunc

We all chip in and help with the 'daily chores' and are assigned to teams and assignments are rotated daily.  Barb is on the "A Team" and Leon on "B".  Our daily tasks are Day 1) helping to prepare the meals, 2) washing the dishes, 3) cleaning out the bus, and day 4) enjoying a day off.  No one complains and it's more common than not for everyone to help with the task at hand. 

Early on in our journey we started hearing a high-pitched whistling sound from the diesel turbine. We’ve now named the truck “Whistling Willie” and are wearing earplugs.  Will is hoping to get it fixed soon.

We thought that we might lose some weight on this trip with camp food and so much exercise with our hikes but that is not the case. Ebron, our chef, is an excellent cook and he does wonders with his ingredients and a fire.  He always prepares several vegan dishes for us.  One night he made a dessert for the group that looked delicious, it was similar to a carrot bread pudding, and  I (Barb) thought it looked good enough to ‘cheat’ on my vegan diet.  As I started cutting into it, he stopped me and brought over two foil wrapped packages hot off the fire - he baked bananas, seasoned with cinnamon and sugar, just for us.  It was delicious.  One night he hollowed out a large (12 - 16 inch) pumpkin, seasoned it with cinnamon and sugar and filled the cavity with all sorts of vegetables.  He then put the top back on it, wrapped it in foil and baked it over the campfire for a few hours.  To serve it, he cut the pumpkin in wedges and the vegetables poured out like a cornucopia. It looked amazing and tasted wonderful.

We are with a great group of people.  Everyone is friendly, interesting, and has great stories to tell around the evening’s camp fire.  We are on this trip because Leon’s old Navy shipmate Dan took the same trip last year and loved it.  Dan is described as “How do you know if Dan is joking/teasing/exaggerating?  When his lips are moving.”  We have what we call a “Dan contingent” on the group - the only other people from the USA on the trip.  We have Chuck, his Navy Academy friend, and Paul and Joanne.  We would put Chuck in the same sense-of-humor-category as Dan and it’s fun to get the two of them going.  Put three former Navy A-6 pilots together and you get a lot of old Navy and “Sea” stories.  For those who don’t know, sea stories have a certain resemblance to fairy tales.  The only sure way you can tell the difference between them is that Fairy Tales begin with “once upon a time” , and Sea Stories begin with “This is no S#*t”.  So, the three of them are telling lots of sea stories, and everyone seems to be enjoying the friendly banter.