Stalking Leopards & Cranking Sand At 73kph!

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Trip Start Oct 04, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 14, 2011

  Swakopmund, Namibia
Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Namibia has been fantastic so far.  Our first stop here was Etosha National Park for an afternoon of game driving.  Before Etosha, we had seen an abundance of four members of the "big five" (Elephant, Buffalo, Lion, Rhino and Leopard) but the Leopard had eluded us.  We were
therefore hoping to see a leopard in Etosha and it didn't disappoint.  In fact, as we were driving along, Stefan spotted not one but three leopards stalking along just next to the road.  As leopards are very solitary creatures, it's extremely rare to see them with other leopards but we were lucky to see a mother and two older cubs together. It was amazing.
From Etosha, we travelled to Cheetah Park.  Cheetah Park is ruin bya family who decided to take in cheetahs that have become a nuisance tolocal farmers and would otherwise be shot.  They have a 14,000 acre farm, of which, 250 acres are currently fenced off to house the 17 wild
cheetahs that they have.  In addition to the 17 wild cheetahs, they also have three "tame" cheetahs that live at the house.  We got to play withand pat these three which was quite surreal.  They are beautiful creatures and behave a lot like house cats but are just MUCH bigger.  One of them has a thing for jandals (flip flops to our British friends) though and will sometimes chase people for them.  Unlike a house cat, it's best just to give her the jandal and hope to get it back later!
We then went to camp in Spitzkoppe. Spitzkoppe is a group of granite peaks in the middle of desert-like terrain that are estimated to be about 700 million years old.  It is a very beautiful place and we spent an awesome afternoon climbing the various boulders and exploring
the park before camping out under a huge canopy of stars.  
From there, it was on to Swakopmund where we are now.  Swakopmund is probably the most developed place we have been to in the last two months and Stef and I actually have a bed to sleep in (rather than a tent and sleeping mats) for the first time in over a month!  It is a very welcome change.  It also has great food and we have managed to add
oryx and springbok to the game we have eaten.  The highlight so far though has been sand boarding.  We set off yesterday morning out into the dunes armed with what look like bits of ply wood to throw ourselves down some pretty scary looking dues.  It was awesome!  Evidently, you reach speeds of up to 83km/hour going face first down the dunes.  We nowhave sand in just about every place you can think off but also huge grins.  Namibia, we salute you!

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