I hope you’re comfortable because this post is gonna be dense. I left Tulum on an early bus going further south to Chetumal and then got right into a taxi to take me to the airport where I rented a car for this next leg of the trip. Because a car equals freedom. But before driving out of Chetumal, I made a quick stop at their Mayan Culture Museum. The museum was fairly small, but sure packed a punch. They…
Another adventure has begun! This has probably been the roughest start to any of my many trips so far, though. So much so that I’m not even in the right country. I was planning on three months in Thailand, but due to lots of miscommunication between Thailand immigration, the airlines, myself, and one stupid typo, I wasn’t allowed on the plane. The saga probably deserves a post of it’s own, but I’ll leave that for another time. Thailand, unfortunately, will…
This last post from Namibia is going to be a short one. My final stop was in the far south of the country, Fish River Canyon. It was a long six hour drive that also included one tire exploding. Seriously, it exploded! Scared the crap out of me! Changing a tire in 100° heat wasn’t fun either, but I arrived safely. First thing, I had to check into my campground at the Canyon Roadhouse. To say this establishment seems out…
The drive from Brandberg was, in short, about seven hours of sand. Haha! Luckily, though, my route took me back through Swakopmund, and at lunchtime. So I went back to Fork ‘n Nice for another helping of the best fish ‘n chips on the planet. After a couple of hundred miles the terrain finally started to become a little more interesting. Suddenly, there were hills and then mountains as I got closer to my next stop, Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park….
There really wasn’t much difference in the scenery driving inland from the Skeleton Coast. Lots and lots of remote desolation, sand, and very foggy, misty air. Eventually the air got drier and warmer and I was able to stop and wipe the coating of brine off the windows. I haven’t been able to see out the side windows or the mirrors in a few days. Yuck! Brandberg is actually a small mountain range in a part of Namibia known as…
A relatively short five hour drive from Windhoek and I’ve reached the edge of Namibia, on the Atlantic coast, specifically the city of Swakopmund. Swakopmund is considered the adventure capital of Namibia. It’s true, if you want to go parasailing, skydiving, boating, surfing, or riding dunes, this is the place. The city, however, is just a quiet, peaceful seaside town. Namibia was a German colony in the late 19th century, so many of the businesses and streets have German names…
It’s a relatively short drive north from Otjiwarongo to our next stop, Etosha National Park, Namibia’s premier wildlife park. After checking in at the gate we made our way to our first “camp”, Okaukuejo. The camp is actually more like a little village or apartment complex. Then after checking in for our accommodation, we went straight to the Okaukuejo watering hole where you can sit on park benches and watch animals come by to drink. You don’t really even have…
I got my 4X4, my camping gear, groceries, and I picked up Mom. Now it’s time to hit the road, so we headed north toward the town of Otjiwarongo, where we’ll be spending the next two nights. First we have to take a detour through the small Okonjima Game Reserve. Pretty much as soon as we enter the gate, we see two white rhinos. Moms first time in Africa, first safari, and she bags a pair of rhinos on the…
From Maun I said goodbye to Botswana and made my way to the next country on my list, Namibia. I was supposed to have an hour and a half connection in Johannesburg, but my flight from Maun left thirty minutes late, and my flight from Johannesburg got changed to thirty minutes earlier, so an hour and a half turned into a thirty minute frantic sprint through the Johannesburg airport. I sprinted, cut in line at immigration, sprinted, cut in line…
The drive from the Mababe camp in Chobe National Park to the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okovango Delta was long and, as all drives in this region, bumpy and sandy. I didn’t mind so much, though, because even though we weren’t in a national park or any kind of game reserve for most of it, it still felt like we were. There were still animals to see the whole way there. I also got introduced to a new antelope…