A Cheesehead and an Engineer in Namibia...: CC2: New Years In Namibia

They escaped from Newerus before light, driving fast to the north under moonlight. The girls slept and the escort watched the sunrise. After four hours the four arrived at the border for a luggage search, but the smuggled grape juice from Franschhoek went undetected."

They spent most of the final day of 2010 in the car, passing through the Haunted South and coasting into Windhoek with three hours of sunlight to spare. New Years Eve was spent at the finest bed and breakfast in the capital city. The menu consisted of homemade pizza, homemade breadsticks, homemade tomato sauce, spicy mozzarella and basil pasta and many glasses of wine. During the meal, the stove gas ran out, but the landlord stole away from his New Years party to save the night. It was a great evening and a fine pause before the second phase of the road trip.

First stop, Swakopmund, to see how the locals spend holiday. The four wandered the dead quiet streets of the peak holiday season highlighting one of the cultural nuances of the country to the visiting pair. The weather was coastal cool and sunny, perfect for a beer along the main beach and a walk on the jetty. For dinner, Namibian sushi, an interesting endeavor. They sat for four hours, twenty minutes of which was spent eating sushi. The place has since gone out of business, either pushed out by the German Mafia that runs the town or possibly because of slow service and a poor review on TripAdvisor.

The next day was planned full of “sick” adventure sports, starting with the quad biking that totes itself as the place where Brad Pitt and Wesley Snipes spend their spare time. Once again, the four somehow became split up. The escort’s bike just seemed to move faster than the girls, but they caught distant glimpses of each other while flying up and down the maze of dunes. They reconvened for races down some particularly steep slopes on heavy carboard sleds. The smart one lost a bet to the escort on a distance challenge. To date, the prize of one Windhoek Lager has not been redeemed.

Afterwards, they napped on a beach, pulled a car from the sand with the 4x4 and watched kite surfers and birds in Walvis Bay. Birds however, did not cut the mustard for girls from Chicago. They were in Africa, they wanted to see some real game. The next morning they drove north, to the world’s second largest game preserve, Etosha.

THE JETTY 1

SMART ONE, CHEESEHEAD, FUNNY ONE

COOL COASTAL WEATHER

THE JETTY 2

Within minutes into the park they had a stare down with a horse faced Red Hartebeest followed by a traffic stop for an Ostrich family crossing. After checking into the Jurassic Park-like compound at Okakuejo, lined with tall speared fences to keep out the predators, they set out for a short and relaxing evening drive. For an hour or two, they watched hundreds of Springbok and Wildebeest feeding on the low African plain. The funny one was good with maps and got them back into the compound before sundown. The smart one was confused that “pap” was not mashed potatoes at dinner. Before bed, the four watched a lit water hole in hopes of some sightings but only heard lions in the darkness.

They were one of the first out of the gate for the final day in Etosha. The unassuming girls from Chicago had not yet learned that a bumpy gravel road actually induces sleep and they were out just after sunrise. After five hours of driving, the girls finally saw their first Kudu. It was a slow morning for sightings but a drive in the tight alleys of African bush is always exceptional, rounding turns to wide horizons of grazing Springbok, spotting an alien Giraffe head above the Camelthorn or even stopping for a long pause to watch a Lilac Breasted Roller.

ETOSHA

RED HARTEBEEST

SPRINGBOK

OSTRICH FAMILY

IMPALA

ORYX

GIRAFFE

ETOSHA SUNRISE

BLUE WILDEBEEST

GIRAFFE 2

THE PAN

After a pause for lunch, a dip and a nap back at the compound, they escaped the gates once more in search of at least one of the big five. They headed north to known Lion sightings. The park here was the opposite of the tight bush of the previous drives, made up of wide grassy horizons flanking the pan and holding up the pooling clouds of the rainy season. The coolest car in the world ran with the Zebras, kicked up the Springbok and paused for the Jackals but no Lions were found.

They took one more gamble with the last hour of daylight down a road close to the gates. After a water hole surrounded by Springbok, they drove back to towards camp, happy yet defeated that there had been no encounters of the big game. The escort slammed on the breaks.

A Black Rhino was charging. It ran, then stopped, then snorted, then repeated. The sunroof flew open and the girls squeezed through for a view. For the next twenty minutes, the four watched two Black Rhino mock charge the car, drinking from pools and witnessing one roll on its back into the mud, kicking its four rhino feet in the air with glee. In the last twenty minutes of the twelve hour search, they had the most dramatic wild experience of their lives.

ZEBRA

ETOSHA PLAIN

BLACK RHINO

They replayed the experience at their final dinner on the road, reminiscing on sightings of the Springbok, Steenbock, Impala, Kudu, Red Hartebeest, Blue Wildebeest, Oryx, Zebra, Giraffe, Black Backed Jackals, Warthogs, Ostrich with chicks, Snake, Lizards, Turtle, Small Spotted Genet, Owl, Lilac Breasted Roller Dik-Dik, Indiana Jones style massive beetles, Hare, Yellow Mongoose, Ground Squirrels, Meerkat, Bats, and Black Rhino.

The smart one and the funny one departed to the greatest city on the planet after fourteen days of fond memories. The escort and their friend were lucky to have had them.