After that we left the coast and headed inland to Damaraland. Here we were truly in the desert and the temperature rose accordingly. We went on a safari to find some desert elephants, which were actually not that hard to find. Then we were taken on a tour of desert springs – cool to see so much water out in the desert! One of the highlights here was sleeping outside – the beds rolled out onto the porch and we slept under the stars. We also got to see Twyfelfontein, the site of many rock engravings thousands of years old.
From Damaraland we headed back into the green part of the country and entered Etosha National Park. We saw lots of zebras, springboks, wildebeasts, giraffes, impala… We were also lucky enough to spot elephants and rhinos at our lodge’s waterhole and one morning we found a lion family enjoying a zebra for brunch!
We drove through Etosha from the southern side to the eastern side and so back to Tsumeb. I think the last time I spent that many hours in a car was on our road trip out west in 1997?? And that was all on tar roads! We spent half our time here on gravel. Amazing that we travelled so much, saw so many different landscapes, and still only covered the middle section of Namibia. It’s a big country!
We managed to play Ticket to Ride almost everywhere we went. =) Lots of games and reading time, too much good food, and some very interesting places to stay! We’re looking forward to our next family vacation with the Costers in December/January.
The time’s gone fast, but fortunately Dylan and I still have two weeks of vacation before school starts again. We’ll say goodbye to Mom and Dad tomorrow as they head back to Windhoek and on to Indiana via London. We have a new appreciation now for the country we live in and the people we’re serving!