24th Aug. Swakopmund.
Laundry day today, both for our clothes as well as ourselves, a hot shower after 4 days without a wash is most enjoyable. Still, the park was something exceptional; short distances to travel, roads pretty good and the unexpected wild life we came upon something hard to beat. This morning was a typical example. After the night at the most isolated place we have stayed at, I stepped outside to see half a dozen springbok warily eyeing me as they fed a short distance away. I walked down to the sandy stretch on the track in and noticed the spore of the jackals that were howling at the full moon as we went to bed. I could see their eyes in the spotlight the night before. It was 20kms to the main road over rough granite, not long after leaving we came upon a solitary warthog nonchalantly feeding near the road, the road then became sandy as it wound its way along a dry riverbed, raptors circled above, there was good vegetation in the river bed, driving out of it we surprised three giraffes feeding, they galloped off a few metres then turned to stare. A herd of gemsbok picked up our movement and galloped off. We noticed movement on the ground to our left that I thought were meercats but their bushy tails showed them up as ground squirrels, we passed a closer group not long after perched up on their hind legs just like meercats. Then there was a herd of zebras to our right, the stallion making his donkey like neighing as he turned around to confront us. Soon there was a warthog family to our left a few metres from the road and as we pulled out onto the main road ostriches ran across the road. And that was all within 20kms and one hour.
The Lonely Planet says of this park ‘ truly this is one place where the journey itself is worth much more than the destination'.
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