Thursday, April 19, 2007
Namibia Road Trip: Day Four
Friday 6th April - 336km
There was still no lie-in today either :) We had a hearty breakfast at the yummy buffet and then started packing the car for the journey. Another visitor came up to Heikki and pointed out that the rear left tyre had a puncture. Not too helpful on a road trip. A worker came and helped put the spare tyre on and we drove into Aus to the garage there to get the puntured tyre mended. Aus is a very small town - it looks like about 10 houses from the road. It's much more like a village than a town. Anyway after about 30 minutes the tyre was fixed and put back on and after buying a few drinks from the hotel down the road, we left Northwards.
We had quite a long drive, through long plains and we saw wildlife like springbok, zebras and ostriches. As we got more North we could start to see the red sand of the dunes that we were headed to. There is a long desert than runs along the West coast of the country, the Namib Desert and what we could see was the start of it. We eventually reached our next place of stay, the Desert Homestead and Horse Trails in the early afternoon.
It is another amazing place to stay, right in the middle of nowhere - no towns nearby, no other settlements, just a few other lodges a few kilometres away. We got our rooms, had some lunch and then relaxed, playing cards and swimming in the pool. By 5pm, when it was starting to get darker as the sun started to set behind a mountain, I decided to go running. Heikki also wanted to go walking and we both ventured up a path behind the lodge, along with Matias. The path, unbeknown to me, quickly turned up a hill (which completely knackered me out) and ended up at the top giving amazing views over the plain and the lodge below. I only had my small DV camera with me but Heikki, I'm sure, has some great photos from our high vantage point. There were storm clouds brewing over the mountains over the other side of the plain and a massive rainbow formed in front of them. It is the first ever full rainbow I've seen that I was able to pinpoint the start and the beginning of. A fantastic sight to see from such a high position.
The sunset grew into an overwhelming red glow. I managed to take a few photos after I had returned from the hill with the better camera. After dark, the whole family had a quick swim together and then got dressed ready for dinner. A lovely 3-course meal of pork followed and then it was back to our huts where Milja and I tried some more sociology reading.
Side note: We were planning on only staying at the Desert Homestead for one night (Friday), but we couldn't go riding on the horses as we had hoped on the Friday, so we booked them for the Saturday and the rooms for the extra night.
There was still no lie-in today either :) We had a hearty breakfast at the yummy buffet and then started packing the car for the journey. Another visitor came up to Heikki and pointed out that the rear left tyre had a puncture. Not too helpful on a road trip. A worker came and helped put the spare tyre on and we drove into Aus to the garage there to get the puntured tyre mended. Aus is a very small town - it looks like about 10 houses from the road. It's much more like a village than a town. Anyway after about 30 minutes the tyre was fixed and put back on and after buying a few drinks from the hotel down the road, we left Northwards.
We had quite a long drive, through long plains and we saw wildlife like springbok, zebras and ostriches. As we got more North we could start to see the red sand of the dunes that we were headed to. There is a long desert than runs along the West coast of the country, the Namib Desert and what we could see was the start of it. We eventually reached our next place of stay, the Desert Homestead and Horse Trails in the early afternoon.
It is another amazing place to stay, right in the middle of nowhere - no towns nearby, no other settlements, just a few other lodges a few kilometres away. We got our rooms, had some lunch and then relaxed, playing cards and swimming in the pool. By 5pm, when it was starting to get darker as the sun started to set behind a mountain, I decided to go running. Heikki also wanted to go walking and we both ventured up a path behind the lodge, along with Matias. The path, unbeknown to me, quickly turned up a hill (which completely knackered me out) and ended up at the top giving amazing views over the plain and the lodge below. I only had my small DV camera with me but Heikki, I'm sure, has some great photos from our high vantage point. There were storm clouds brewing over the mountains over the other side of the plain and a massive rainbow formed in front of them. It is the first ever full rainbow I've seen that I was able to pinpoint the start and the beginning of. A fantastic sight to see from such a high position.
The sunset grew into an overwhelming red glow. I managed to take a few photos after I had returned from the hill with the better camera. After dark, the whole family had a quick swim together and then got dressed ready for dinner. A lovely 3-course meal of pork followed and then it was back to our huts where Milja and I tried some more sociology reading.
Side note: We were planning on only staying at the Desert Homestead for one night (Friday), but we couldn't go riding on the horses as we had hoped on the Friday, so we booked them for the Saturday and the rooms for the extra night.
Dan | 
11:51 
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