Namibia 2018 - Namib-Naukluft & Etosha

[adamt123]

Hello everyone. This is my first trip report on this site. In June-July 2018 we took our second safari trip, visiting Sossusvlei, Etosha, Kruger (Timbavati) and Kgalagadi. In February 2016, we made our first trip to Africa, visiting Kruger, Chobe, Victoria Falls and Cape Town. Both safaris were fantastic, though quite different, with this 2018 trip being our first self-drive adventure. This trip report details our visit to Namib-Naukluft and Etosha; overall, we had a wonderful experience and we look forward to returning to Namibia soon!

 

Rough Itinerary:

Day One – Fly from Johannesburg to Walvis Bay. Drive down to Rostock Ritz.

Day Two – Rostock Ritz to Sesriem (Desert Quiver Camp)

Day Three – Full Day at Sesriem/Sossusvlei

Day Four – Drive back up to Walvis Bay airport and fly to Ondangwa. Drive from Ondangwa to Etosha (Mushara)

Day Five – Etosha (Mushara)

Day Six – Etosha (Halali)

Day Seven – Etosha. In the evening drive to Otijwa (Otjiwarongo)

Day Eight – Otjiwa to Windhoek Airport – fly back to Joburg.

 

I think our itinerary was quite different from most; one of the guides at Sossusvlei was quite surprised at how we had flown into Walvis and would next be flying from Walvis to Ondangwa (his home town) with two separate car hires, rather than flying in and out of Windhoek with a single car hire. 

 

Looking back, I would have liked to add another day to Rostock Ritz and also to Etosha. We decided to spend the last night at Otijwa as it would split the driving from Halali to Windhoek. We did this because back in the UK we never do long distance drive (the idea of driving to London – about 2h 30m, is completely alien). In hindsight, I don’t think we needed this night at Otjiwa – driving in Namibia is really quite pleasant. 

 

Day One 

 

We flew to Walvis Bay from Johannesburg with Airlink (the flight was scheduled to be operated by SA Express, but at the time their fleet had been grounded). The queue at immigration was horrendous – we were towards the front but it went all the way on to the tarmac. Some forty-five minutes later we were able to collect our hire car from Bidvest and we headed off towards Rostock Ritz - stopping briefly at the Dunes Mall for a Namibian SIM. 

 

Airlink at Walvis Bay Airport

 

Dunes Mall, Wavis Bay

 

The journey down to Rostock Ritz was exceptionally pleasant. It was our first time driving in Africa and it was amazing; though the road was gravel, the serenity of the landscape was overwhelming. As we approached the lodge, we stopped for the first sighting of the trip - springbok, and they were shortly followed by a lone male ostrich. As dusk drew near, and we approached the lodge, we were greeted by mountain zebra – I was really pleased we had spotted them and they were more beautiful than I expected, though clearly less habituated than zebra in the major game parks.

 

C14 Road

 

Abandoned weaver nest

 

Springbok pronking in the distance

 

Ostrich

 

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra

 

 

 

We passed through the Rostock Ritz entrance gate and light was really fading by now, but what happened next, I could never have expected. Crossing the road in the distance was a rather nervous, small mammal which looked to me like a greyish jackal. I took a picture, unsure of what I was seeing – when I looked at the image, I realised it was an aardwolf! By the time I gathered myself and picked up my Nikon, it was way in the distance. So although the photo isn’t perfect, I was really very pleased to have seen this elusive creature on the first day of our trip. 

 

Aardwolf

 

Day Two 

 

The next morning before breakfast we went on a walk on the Rostock Ritz grounds. The lodge has quite a few different walking trails, but as our stay was a short one, we only went on the 1.5 hour ‘sunrise’ walk. The scenery was magnificent, though birding was limited to sociable weavers, cape sparrows and helmeted guineafowl. We did see some more unusual animals at the lodge that morning; firstly, there were quite a few slightly sinister-looking armoured ground crickets in the surrounding area and when we got back to our room after breakfast, we also saw a pair of dassie rats, leisurely enjoying the morning sun outside our balcony. 

 

Sunrise

 

 

Armoured Ground Cricket

 

 

 Sociable Weaver and Armoured Ground Cricket 

 

Helmeted Guineafowl

 

Our Room

 

View from room

 

Dassie Rat

 

Overall, we absolutely loved Rostock Ritz, - service, rooms, food – everything was pretty much fantastic. As we were driving back down from the lodge, we encountered some more Hartmann’s mountain zebra, this time in better lighting. By the time we were on the C14 towards Sesriem, it was coming up to midday. Much like our drive to Rostock Ritz, this drive too was a pleasant journey with some interesting sightings, the first of which was a white backed vulture, sitting rather picturesquely on a lone tree and this was shortly followed by three Rueppell’s korhaan crossing the road. 

 

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra with Rostock Ritz Lodge

 

 

White Backed Vulture

 

Rueppell's Korhaan

 

 

C14 Road

 

We arrived at Desert Quiver Camp by the early afternoon. We liked Desert Quiver Camp; staff were friendly, furnishings were new and food as Sossusvlei Lodge was also superb. At the camp we saw a magnificent wasp drinking water from our tent’s outdoor kitchen – it was a remarkably beautiful specimen. The area around our tent was also frequented by speckled pigeons, sociable weavers and rock martins. 

 

Desert Quiver Camp

 

Sociable Weaver

 

Rock Martin

 

Wasp

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by adamt123

[CDL111]

To see an aardwolf on your first day is something that many people dream of. Looking forward to the reminder of your report.

[Tom Kellie]

~ @adamt123

 

Welcome to Safaritalk!

 

Your first post presents such compelling photography.

 

The wasp, the cricket, the bird species, the zebras — all in exceptionally favorable light.

 

I enjoy your storytelling pace.

 

Thank you for preparing this post. I'm looking forward to whatever else you might share.

 

Tom K.

[michael-ibk]

And another welcome from me. A great start to your report, and just wow to the Aardwolf on your first day - I have yet to see one. Looking Forward to more!

[Treepol]

@adamt123 welcome to Safaritalk and thank you for posting such an interesting TR. How impressive to have an aardwolf photo in your first post!

 

Really enjoying your photos and am making notes about the accommodation which looks very comfortable with great views.

[Atravelynn]

Oh my goodness, you have introduced yourself with an aardwolf!  You are visiting some spots I have been.  Great start.  Were there any meerkats at Rostock Ritz?

[Hads]

@adamt123 - Welcome to Safaritalk. Amazing views from your room and very unique loking accomodation - Aardwolf as well in your first post, well done.

[Peter Connan]

And welcome from me too!

 

An Aardwolf on your first Day! I have lived in Africa all my life, and have never seen one!

Edited March 3, 2019 by Peter Connan

[adamt123]

Thank you everyone for your warm words of support.

 

The aardwolf was indeed an unbelievable sighting - at Kgalagadi we had good sighting of another equally elusive mammal, but you'll need to wait for my SA trip report for that.

 

@Atravelynn at the time we visited, there were no meerkats at the lodge. 

 

[adamt123]

Later that evening we went down to Sesriem Canyon. At the canyon, we saw pale winged starlings and speckled pigeon as well as lots more tourists - it was quite a contrast from the quietness at Rostock Ritz.

 

Pale Winged Starling

 

Day Three

 

After breakfast at Sossusvlei Lodge, we went for a sunrise dune walk on Elim dune. This was one of many activities offered by the lodge, and on the whole, it was an enjoyable experience. The purpose of the tour was to look for small creatures in the dunes – we saw only Namib dune ants and a golden wheel spider. Our guide said that this activity usually yields better finds when taken from Swakopmund, but the dawn scenery was breath-taking enough to make this a memorable morning outing. 

 

Elim Dune

 

 

Namib Dune Ant

 

 

Golden Wheel Spider

 

Towards late afternoon, we went down to Sossusvlei/Deadvlei. On the way, we saw gemsbok and ostrich, both of which are reasonably common in the area. Though it was June, it was still pretty hot and walking through the baking sand was strenuous. At the 4x4 car park we had a close up viewing of cape sparrows and a pair of handsome pied crows. On our way back, we stopped at Dune 45 were we spotted a greater kestrel sitting in a tree just in front of the dune. We parked the car in the Dune 45 car park and got pretty close to the diminutive raptor – though we saw more greater kestrels later on our safari, this was by far the best sighting. 

 

Gemsbok

 

On the way to Deadvlei

 

Cape Sparrow

 

Pied Crow 

 

Greater Kestrel

 

 

Kestrel is on the left tree

 

Glorious Full Moon

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by adamt123

[adamt123]

Day Four

 

Today we left the Namib-Naukluft area and flew from Walvis Bay to Ondangwa where we picked up another hire car and drove down to Etosha. We set off from Sesriem early in the morning; on the journey, we witnessed a stunning moonset and also found some very shy chacma baboons. The angle wasn’t great but these chacma baboons certainly appeared to have darker fur than those I have seen in Kruger or Chobe. We needed to refill the car with petrol so we drove past the airport and into the city which turned out to be a blessing as we were greeted by both lesser and greater flamingo and the dunes made for an impressive backdrop. 

 

Moonset, C14

 

Chacma Baboon

 

 

Lesser Flamingo 

 

Greater Flamingo

 

Overall, I was surprised by our many good wildlife sightings in the Namib-Naukluft area; the highlights for me (other than than aardwolf of course) were mountain zebra, Rueppell's korhaan and greater kestrel. Though our three-night stay in this area area was primarily to see Namibia’s stunning scenery, I think the fantastic wildlife was actually more memorable; when I reminisce in this part of the trip, Deadvlei and Sossuvlei seem secondary to the animals. 

 

The flight from Walvis Bay to Ondangwa was slightly delayed but it did provide some good views over the Etosha pan as we approached Ondangwa. Once we had collected our hire car and were out of the airport, it became clear that this part of Namibia is quite a bit off the beaten track – the city was a complete contrast to Walvis. There were cattle, donkeys, goats and school children lining the ‘pavement’,  though the road was of exceptional quality and lined with hundreds of palm trees. The total drive from Ondangwa airport to Mushara was maybe 2 and half hours – we had originally planned to drive from the airport to Etosha’s northern King Nehale gate and have a game drive that afternoon, but with the delayed flight and the fact that picking up the car from Avis took longer than expected, we decided to by-pass the park and call it an early night.

 

Etosha Pan

 

Ondangwa Airport

 

B1, Ondangwa

 

 

 

 

[xelas]

Another warm welcome from anothe fan of Namibia! It was indeed a very different travel, but using flights to and from Walvis Bay was the only option for you to visit two iconic but distant locations. Looking forward to see what Etosha has showed you. 

[adamt123]

@xelas exactly right - our trip to Namibia to pretty short and this way we were able to visit the two highlights, though next time I would like to stay for longer and visit some of Namibia's other attractions, especially the Caprivi strip. 

[adamt123]

Day Five

 

As this was our first trip to Etosha, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but our three days at the park turned out to be wonderful, with some nice sightings. I might as well say from the start, we didn’t see any of the big cats, but our stay was quite short so I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see them. Despite this, I can happily report we had a fantastic time and were impressed by Etosha’s overall wildlife experience and we were able to tick off some bucket-list animals. 

 

On our first day, we focused around the Namutoni area, taking two game drives. The Mushara grounds had a good amount wildlife, and leaving the camp this morning we saw a rather handsome impala and white backed vultures. As the morning drive was our first entry into Etosha, there was some paperwork to hand in at Namutoni and whilst we were there, we saw some banded mongoose playing around on an elephant skull.

 

Handsome Impala

 

White Backed Vulture

 

 

Banded Mongoose

 

 

From here, we went to Klein Namutoni – this was my favourite waterhole, not because of any exceptional sighting but because of its healthy population of grey louries and helmeted guineafowl. Though these are two birds that are very common in Etosha, their presence really added to the overall atmosphere and coming safari to the park wouldn’t be the same without them. From here, we went on the dik-dik drive, where we saw a good selection of birds including the first of many kori bustards. 

 

Helmeted Guineafowl

 

Grey Lourie

 

Giraffe

 

 

Kori Bustard

 

African Grey Hornbill

 

Damara Red Billed Hornbill

 

As we were exiting the circuit, we saw some impala looking nervously into the bushes, upon closer inspection, there were two dik-diks scurrying about in the thicket, which for some reason had put the impala on edge. Next, we popped down to Chudop, though by now it was getting hot, so after this we headed back to Mushara. 

 

Black Faced Impala

 

Damara Dik-Dik

 

Greater Kudu

 

Blue Wildebeest

 

Plains Zebra

 

Springbok

 

At the lodge that afternoon, a family of warthogs were happily munching on the grass, and we also saw a Smith's bush squirrel with its tail missing run across the path.

 

Warthog

 

Tailless Smith's Bush Squirrel 

 

 

Our evening game drive was a pretty quiet one, we saw the usual plains game, pale chanting goshawks, a herd of elephants and our only eland of the trip. The eland was approaching the borehole (Kalkhuewel) just as a large herd of elephants were arriving, so he remained largely obscured in the bushes. This concluded our first day at Etosha; though it wasn't as eventful as the next two days, I think it gave for a nice opportunity to appreciate the birds and plains game. 

 

Giraffe

 

Plains Zebra

 

 

Pale Chanting Goshawk

 

Fork Tailed Drongo

 

Lilac Breasted Roller

 

Kori Bustard

 

Common Eland 

 

African Elephant

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by adamt123

[Atravelynn]

Much activity at the waterhole.  I like the water trail made by the drinking giraffe.  Nice sepia with the eles!

[adamt123]

Thank you @Atravelynn.

 

I am definitely not a photographer - all the pictures are jpegs taken with an APS-C or compact camera lightly edited in Apple's Photos - so nothing advanced at all. 

[adamt123]

Day Six

 

This was probably my favourite Etosha day and things got off to a good start when we checked out of Mushara and headed for Halali. As we were leaving the Mushara grounds, I was able to take a good picture of a grey duiker; though they are common antelope, they can be a bit shy and this was the first clear picture I had taken of one. Also very common around the Mushara and Etosha in general were red billed francolin; there was a colony of them quite close to our room and their somewhat haunting call was often the first thing heard in the morning.  

 

Grey Duiker

 

Red Billed Francolin

 

Todays extended morning drive – from Mushara to Halali – was a satisfying one. At Klein Namutoni we had a very clear view of a pair of dik-diks and at Koinachas there was a rather nervous ostrich drinking water. On our way out of Chudop I spotted a black rhino; the view was clear with very few other cars and the pictures came out nicely. 

 

Damara Dik-Dik

 

 

Greater Kudu & Helmeted Guineafowl

 

Cape Glossy Starling

 

Pale Chanting Goshawk

 

Ostrich 

 

 

Black Rhino 

 

 

 

This superb sighting was shortly followed by a secretary bird as we were leaving Kalkhuewel – this was the raptor I was most looking forward to seeing, so that was great. Travelling further west, we saw a plethora of game, in larger quantities than in the Namutoni area including gemsbok as well as a good number of birds. 

 

Secretary Bird

 

 

Northern Black Korhaan

 

Namaqua Sandgrouse

 

 

Gemsbok

 

Plains Zebra

 

Ostrich

 

Black Backed Jackal

 

Cape Crow

 

Purple Roller

 

Double Banded Courser

Etosha Pan

[adamt123]

I rather liked Halali as a camp; before coming to Etosha I was under the impression that Mushara (a private camp) would be significantly better than any of the NWR run camps, including Halali. This turned out not to be the case, and Halali was really a great option - next time I would like to try out Namutoni and Okaukuejo too, as well as Dolomite in the west. 

 

Halali Chalets

 

Marabou Stork

 

Later that evening we had a shorter drive in the Halali area and the main event was a family of bat eared foxes about half way between Rietfontein and the camp. This was the first time we had seen them and they were really quite impressive. Because we had seen black rhino before, I think this sighting was my favourite of the day and a perfect way to conclude our game drive. Upon our return to Halali, we went to the camp's waterhole (Moringa), but it was mostly quite.

 

Blue Wildebeest

 

 

 

Skink

 

Marsh Terrapin

 

Greater Kestrel

 

Bat Eared Fox

 

 

 

[adamt123]

Again, the post on the bat eared foxes kept re-submitting. 

 

But here is a picture of the stars at Halali to make up for it - i had never tried this before and my lens was a 30mm and my camera is not full frame, so not completely ideal, but for a first attempt i think it came out okay

 

Stars

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by adamt123

[adamt123]

Apologies once more, i'm not totally sure what happened. 

 

I took this photo as a landscape shot at Sueda, but the tree actually has has a greater kestrel in it.

 

Sueda

Edited March 5, 2019 by adamt123

[wilddog]

Removed your double post @adamt123 seems to be have been a bit of a hitch with ST. All back to normal now.

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by wilddog

[CDL111]

Super photographs, did manage to spot the greater kestrel.

[adamt123]

Thank you @wilddog

 

Awesome @CDL111 - we saw an abundance of greater kestrel and pale chanting goshawk - they really are icons of Etosha 

[adamt123]

Day Seven

 

At dawn, we went to Halali’s waterhole but there wasn’t much to see, so we moved on, continuing west. We had nice sightings of jackal and yellow mongoose as well as pale chanting goshawks and a black winged kite. Close to Okondeka there was also a lappet faced vulture soaring and an abundance of kori bustard – between Okondeka and Leebroun, a distance of 11km, we saw no fewer than 15 of them (in the end I couldn't photograph them all - there were simply too many)

 

Black Backed Jackal

 

 

Yellow Mongoose

 

Gemsbok

 

Pale Chanting Goshawk

 

Black Winged Kite

 

Lappet Faced Vulture

 

Kori Bustard 

 

We also stopped at Okaukuejo and the waterhole their was lively, with more action in the middle of the day than we had seen at Halali at either dawn or dusk. 

 

Greater Kudu & Blue Wildebeest

 

Gemsbok

 

Grey Heron & Springbok

 

The best sighting of the day was a second black rhino, halfway between Okaukuejo and Gemsbokvlakte. This one came very close to the car and had some interesting scarring on his cheek. Again, there was just one other car and I think this was probably one of the best the rhino sightings (black or white) I have had. 

 

Black Rhino

 

 

 

Gemsbokvlakte was possibly the most active waterhole we visited; even though it was the middle of the day, there were plenty of zebra, springbok and gemsbok around. Further along, at Olifantsbad, we found a breeding herd of elephants, including an exceptionally magnificent matriarch. From here, we made our way out the park, stopping briefly for our last impala and red hartebeest.

 

Gemsbokvlakte 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African Elephant

 

 

 

Black Faced Impala

 

Red Hartebeest

Edited March 6, 2019 by adamt123

[adamt123]

Overall, we had a great time at Etosha and it certainly makes for a unique safari experience (and the landscapes too were spectacular). I was certainly surprised at how the park wasn't as busy as I expected - at not a single sighting were there more than four or five cars, and the best sightings (rhino and bat eared fox) we pretty much had to ourselves. To finish off with, here are some more birding pictures. 

 

Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill

 

Namaqua Dove

 

Blacksmith Lapwing

 

Black Winged Stilt 

 

Red Billed Quelea

 

Cape Turtle Dove

 

Leaving Etosha, we drove down to Otjiwa Lodge on the outskirts of Otjiwarongo. The lodge was nice with a very calm and quiet atmosphere. The next morning we went on a short walk around the property and took some good bird shots. Later than afternoon, we drove down to Windhoek Airport and flew back to Joburg.

 

B1, Otjiwarongo

 

Otjiwa Lodge

 

 

African Red Eyed Bulbul

 

Yellow Canary

 

White-browed Sparrow-weaver

 

Marabou Stork

 

Thank you for reading this short trip report. I hope you found it interesting!

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by adamt123