Namibia tour 2012–First three days

Jan and I recently returned from a two week trip through Namibia with my sisters Anne and Lalie and her husband Gene.  Here are the first  pics:

Thorn trees of North West

 

A lovely day – on our way to Upington.

A mine near Olifantshoek.  We popped in to see our cousin Annalee, but forgot to take pictures! 

The last stretch of a 12 hour journey to Upington.

Jan beside the guest house where we stayed our first night.

Group nests on the telephone poles on our way to the border. I wondered where on earth they built their nests before telephone poles – there are absolutely no trees to be seen!  Later saw these nests in quiver trees.

 

A sign at the border post: keep off the grass – note the size of the lawn!

Jan was still placidly driving along the quiet road, when….

Soon after the stone hit our windscreen, the bakkie’s piston broke!   Gene towed us to Karasburg, where we found an able and willing mechanic to fix our bakkie.  We piled some of our stuff into Gene’s state of the art AHA camper and left for Ai-Ais – a hot water spring resort and the end destination of the Fish River Canyon trail.

Ai-Ais

Gene also had problems!  A pot lid got stuck in the kitchen drawer and it took some doing to open the kitchen!  Gene drove onto a stone terrace wall, to see if gravity would help – the tyres spun and kicked up dust – the other campers must have thought he was drunk!  The local friendly Namas came to help and after several attempts with wires and things, they managed to open it up our only kitchen.

Ai-Ais.  The next day we hiked up into the canyon.

Lalie.

Jan

Anne, Gene and Lalie

J

My camera packed up – fortunately we had Hendrik’s as well! 

Eating at Ai-Ais.  Fortunately they had plenty of tables.

At the outlook to the Fish River Canyon – the 2nd largest in the world.

Lalie, Gene, me and Anne.  (Isn’t it wonderful that sisters are also best friends!)

Looking down at the first leg of the five day hike.  It looked tempting, but when a hiking group arrived, I realised that I probably will not be able to do this hike again.  I did it in 1971 and can still remember the very heavy pack! 

On our way to Luderitz on the West Coast.

The Fish River

Some more problems – the lock of the tail gate broke and what a struggle before we got a  Luderitz panel beater to open it up and to fix it.  May he and his family and his business be blessed! 

While they struggled with the tailgate, I climbed the rocky koppie  nearby – not the nicest part of Luderitz, but still beautiful.

Dusk at Luderitz.  We stayed in rather dingy bungalows.  Won’t recommend them!

Jan and Gene beside  our bungalow the next morning.  It was misty and rather chilly.  Gene bought some lovely oysters and fish there, which we had for supper that evening in Keetmanshoop.

To be continued….