Monthly Archives: July 2024

Sandboarding in Namibia

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On the top of our list of things to do in Namibia was to join a tour that went had the beach on one side and the dunes on the other. We were really looking forward to it but when we looked at the bank balance, we had to be realistic.

It either was, do the tour, or eat for the next month or more.

We decided that food, fuel and housing was more important that the tour.

Yes, we were disappointed but just had to move on.

Some New Zealanders we had met a few weeks back told us about sandboarding with Alter Action. They mentioned how it was a good price ($25) and the business were really responsive. And they were.

As we were staying locally, we met Alter Action in downtown Swakopmund, which was only 5 minutes away. We went to a German bakery that sold gluten free bread as lunch was going to be provided by Alter Action.

There were two more couples to pick up and then we were on our way out to the desert. Beth, the owner, had come out from the US more than 20 years ago. She was a wealth of knowledge about the history of the place.

When we arrived at the dunes, which were only 15 minutes away, the rest of Beth’s team met us. It was simply a matter of signing a waiver and gearing up. Some of the younger people decided to go stand-up boarding but we opted for laying down on boards. Our gear was a helmet and elbow pads. Since the staff went in bare feet, Liz and Pete left their shoes behind, while Sharon kept her sneakers on.

First thing was to walk up these giant sand dunes. Liz really struggled as the sand was super soft. It was easy coming down, but then, you had to go all the way up again. Rinse and repeat.

The key to a good boarding experience is holding up the board (harder than you think) and keeping your feet up (but not too high), unless you want to slow down, then the feet come down. If you don’t hold the board up, you’ll end up eating sand – which Sharon did on the first slide.

After 5 slides down (which meant 5 walks up) it was time to join the others down at the starting point for lunch. Drinks and buns with salad was on the menu – and everyone was ravenous.

Check out the video below that Alter Action put together for us (included in our booking).

A Walk On The Wild Side

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We weren’t sure if we wanted to go to the Etosha National Park as we’re surrounded in Kenya by lots of different parks. But we’re glad we did.

The drive from Grootfontein was pretty easy and only a couple of hours. We were meant to stop in at the Hobas Meteorite, but we refused to pay $60 to see a large piece of rock. Our trip budget is pretty small so we’re prioritising what we want to spend our dollars on. The night before we met some Kiwis who are taking their two kids on a 12 month trip around the world (flyingkiwis.nz). They gave us some great advice on some activities on our next few legs of Namibia.

Getting into Etosha is straightforward, you can pay everything by card. Kenya has become really complicated to enter the game parks, they need to learn from Namibia. Once in, we went to the Namutoni Campsite to set up. The place was packed and so glad we booked in early.

The campground is super flash. It has a swimming pool, restaurant, a shop, lots of bathrooms and a waterhole to watch the animals.

This is what we did at night time. You have to be totally silent, which some people were terrible at. It was so annoying when people thought that having a loud chat while we were waiting for animals to come and drink – was a good idea. By 9.30pm not a lot was happening so Liz started making her way to bed. Ten minutes later a large elephant came to the waterhole and started drinking and munching on a bush. I (Sharon) was the only one there and it was mesmerising.

The next day we drove through the park to a place called Hallali – and the roads were horrible. They were corrugated, which was really painful. Onwards we went to Okaukuejo, the next campsite we would be staying in.

Pete wasn’t impressed at all as we were given a really small piece of dirt right next to the toilets – and we had no other place to go. It actually ended up being okay and one of the best viewing places at the park. Yes, we saw animals throughout the day but it was what we saw at night that really made us want to come back.

In the park, the campsites are pretty much the same, but we felt the setup of the waterhole was WAY better than at Namutoni. You have to take our word for it and also watch the video below to see the wildlife we saw at night. We had to drag ourselves to bed at 10pm because we had a long drive the next day, and apparently when we left all the lions came to drink.

Enjoy!

Let’s Go On A Free Boat Ride

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The crossing from Zambia into Namibia was the fastest ever for us – one hour in total.

In most border places, there’s plenty of people wanting to sell you a SIM card and data, but heading into Zambia, there were none. We walked into the border town but were told that the system was down. It was okay as we had the directions to our camping spot from some friends.

We were highly recommended to stop in at the Rainbow River Lodge in Divindu, Namibia. We were really looking forward to it especially since we would have two nights somewhere. It’s been a bit hard packing up every morning, do 8 hours on the road and then have to set up again – day after day.

We arrived in the dark but were given a space right by the river. The lodge has chalets as well as camping areas. There’s a restaurant onsite, but we weren’t impressed with the food choices so cooked for ourselves. There’s wifi at the restaurant and bar, which was important because we weren’t able to get a local sim card. We did go to the post office but the girl behind the desk couldn’t be bothered selling us a card as it was close to her lunch break.

Rainbow River Lodge is located on the banks of the Okavango River in the Kavango-Zambezi Region, north-eastern Namibia. The area is rich in bird life of which as many as 339 bird species has been recorded. It’s surrounded by the Buffalo and Mahango Parks, where 4 of the big five can be found (African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, African Leopard and African Lion). Less than 1 kilometre from Rainbow River Lodge Popa Falls lies, this is where the Kavango River breaks through a 4 meter high rocky entrusion, surrounded by beautiful forests.

This is where we were blessed with a complimentary boat ride from the owner. He gave us lots of insight into the history of the country as well as his journey. We spotted a good number of hippos and stopped off at the falls. When it’s the wet season you can’t see the falls at all because the river rises so much. I would’ve liked to have stayed there longer to practise with my camera but when someone gives you a free ride, you take what you can get.

Check out the video below.