22 Bots/Nam Kalahari Farmhouse, Stampriet, 29/5/14

Met an old Kudu bull en route. He trotted over a 4' fence with no effort at all. Position of sun all wrong for a pic, however.
Kalahari Anib camping section is fully booked so they re-directed us 30kms down the road to their sister lodge. What a quaint place.
Statues of old folk strategically dotted around. Ducks wandering.





Lovely and shady with plenty of bird activity.









Furnished in typical farm house style. Lovely.











Campsites are fully equipped and grassy. Shade is provided by strategically planted palm trees.
We have a couple of ponies and a zebra grazing near us. Wonder if it's the zebra from Anib?









Had a lovely meal at the Farmhouse: hake and salmon pie, beetroot soup, oryx sirloin served over mash, and strawberry cheese cake - R345 ... scrumptious. Without the Gondwana card it would have cost R480

21 Bots/Nam Lake Oanob, Rehoboth 28/5/14

Had to wait for tyre to come in at Trentyre, Walvis so sat at lagoon watching the mist roll in and out, shrouding the flamingos.



Rising sun burned the mist away very quickly.


Luis got a couple of races in on his iPad.
Found out (at 10:45) that our tyre was delivered to Keetmanshoop!!!! Soooo at 11:15 we are now at Trentyre, Swakopmund (perhaps we should have come here first thing!), where we're told we need to wait another 30 minutes for tyre to come from their warehouse...
All this with over 500 kms to do today!
Finally got rolling at 12:00 - R2 920 later
During the trip we have climbed from sea level to a high of just under 1800m around the highlands of Windhoek, settled around 1500m at Rehoboth.
Lake Oanob still has our details on file. Amazing to think we were last here in 2011!
As we have arrived so late and intend edging out early tomorrow, we have not opted for a lake view site. We are tucked away quite cosily in the bushes.






Beautiful young cat befriended us at the restaurant. Scrumptious Prawns R90 for Luis, chicken Cordon Bleau for me. Lovely.


Next thing, Sokkies arrived, chased the cats (another one had arrived), sat by our feet and adopted us for the night. She guided us back to our campsite and spent the night sleeping on a patch of grass right next to The Rad. As soon as we awoke and got moving, she was gamboling around like a young pup.


Somewhere, on the hillside, a party continued through the night.

20 Bots/Nam Lagoon Chalets 27/5/14

Ran out of Nam data and SA airtime yesterday. All sorted now. Went to have tyre repaired but, alas, the gash is too long and extending into beginning of wall sooooo .... R2920 and new tyre later ...We need to go back there tomorrow to have new tyre fitted as they currently have no stock ... So much for early departure tomorrow. Provisions restocked.
Didn't have my camera with me when Gayle and I took our long lagoon walk so quickly stopped today to get pic of the flamingos.



Didn't do much for rest of day, just lazed around.
Bummed 2 carrots from the on site restaurant to add to our potjie. They didn't charge us for them.

19 Bots/Nam Lagoon Chalets 26/5/14

Our 3rd harbour cruise. Wonderful as always.



Nelson





Perched on the bow rail doing a Titanic film scene impersonation.









Martinet, our guide and daughter of company's owner





Went to Swakopmund Brauhaus for supper - Gayle and Anthony's treat. They leave tomorrow morning to start a long 3 day haul back to Durbs. Leigh-Anne (7 months pregnant) is not handling the recent Villa Spa break in very well. Quite understandable.

18 Bots/Nam Lagoon Chalets, Walvis Bay 25/5/14

I suppose Buks isn't without it's own austere charms. Once the plant life develops, it should look quite pretty. It is pristine.






En route to Walvis we decided to stop at this relatively new shipwreck (it wasn't there last year)



A few locals approached us selling stones and crystals. R200 later, I'm the proud owner of 5 pretty pieces of rock.
Gayle and Anthony involved in negotiations






These guys collected seal bones up and down the coast and built this pretty coat of arms



Amazing colours


One of the "rockers" took this pic for us



The colours of the houses amazes me. Could be they are trying to relieve the monotonous colour of the surrounding desert













Desalination plant



Salt producer



Dwellings of the not so rich



And then the rich






Lagoon Chalets and washing up to date

17 Bots/Nam Buks, Henties Bay 24/5/14

Couple of tamish birds hanging around at Palmwag.






























And, of course, Gayle's pet peeve, the corn crickety type thingy which we have now found out is a long legged grasshopper






Campsite in pleasant surroundings.











Left around 10. Through the vet gate where all animal products would have been impounded.
Huge herd of Springbuck, some pronking











Ever changing vista. Flat, grass, mountain surrounded grass plains of Damaraland down to moonscape then dunes of Skeleton Coast.












Joy of joys, our turn to have a puncture and ... guess what .... compressor and tyre gauge with Anthony who'd gone in front so we could monitor his progress. He didn't realise we had stopped following him as there was a huge sand storm in his wake. Only when he stopped after 75kms for a leg stretch did he discover we'd disappeared. He came back 21 kms before meeting up with us in our tyre replaced vehicle. The tyre change was painful. Brutus is not a vehicle for sissies. Crawling around in the sand underneath to line up spare wheel release jack, digging in the sand to create a level depression to enable the jack to fit, jack shifting. In addition, wind howling a blowing stinging sand everywhere ... Ah well, all's well that end well!
Stopped at Cape Cross Seal Colony ... very pleasant, windy, cold weather so track suit came out for the first time here.
























Magnificent moth





Our planned venue for tonight was Fisherman's Inn but it didn't look very good so we pushed through to Henties Bay and the austere but functional Buks.
Had a delightful supper at Fishy Something in Henties. Prawns and Calamari.