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| DESTINATIONS
LIBRARY: 2004 A TOUR IN SOUTHERN AFRICA Pictures © Bob Lee |
| In September 2003 I joined a small group on a tour of Namibia and South Africa organised by Nomad African Travel. We flew into the Namibian capital Windhoek, then, after a short tour of the town and the obligatory meal at the definitely non-vegetarian Joes Beerhouse the journey south began. |
 Ballon flight over Namib Desert |
Five clients with our Namibian guide headed towards Sosriem on very good dirt roads. Sesriem is the gateway to the Namib Naukluft Park with its sensational sand dunes; some say the highest in the world. On a previous visit to Namibia I had climbed the dunes here to see the sunrise so I took the opportunity to fly over the desert in a hot air balloon. This was not cheap but well worth the money. | |
| South through the arid landscape with Quiver Trees making an appearance reaching the hot springs resort of Ai Ais where we stayed for two nights. We explored the rim of the Fish River Canyon before returning to swim in the hot water at the resort. |  Quiver Trees |
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 Fish River Canyon |
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East now
crossing the border into South Africa to spend four days game viewing
in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on the border with Botswana. Here
we were treated to some fabulous game viewing that really set the cameras
going. The relative closeness of oryx, springbok, meerkats, wildebeest,
ostrich etc was quite astonishing although the one pride of lions obstinately
remained out of reach of even a 300mm telephoto lens. |
 Transfrontier Park. Springbok |
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 Transfrontier Park. Wildebeest |
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 Transfrontier Park. Oryx |
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 Transfrontier Park. Meerkat |
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 Transfrontier Park. Giant Eagle Owl |
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 Cape Flat Lizard |
Reluctantly we had to continue south to Uppington and the Orange River whose vinyards suply many of our supermarkets with dessert grapes. The Orange River is normally a wide, placid stretch of water but at Augrabies it narrows to about 20 meters and tumbles impressively into a 100meter deep gorge. Equally impressive is the large number of Cape flat lizards scampering underfoot. | |
 Augrabies Falls |
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 Namaqualand Desert Flowers |
One of the aims of this holiday was to see the famed spring flowers in Namaqualand. Unfortunately, because of the late arrival of rains, many disappointed tourists were gathered around the lonely examples that were blooming. | |
| As we continued south we began to lose the arid countryside and to enter a greener world exemplified by the Cedarberg mountains sadly with no time to explore them on foot. |  Cedarberg Mountains |
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 Gannets. Lamberts Bay |
An afternoon visit to Lamberts Bay set the cameras working again with great sightings of thousands of gannets. From the hide, one wall of which is one-way glass, excellent close ups of these birds were obtained. | |
 Gannets. Lamberts Bay |
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 Gannets. Lamberts Bay |
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| Finally to Cape Town with its waterfront restuarants and the magnificant Kirstenbosch Gardens. A must is the cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain but do take the 40 minute walk to the highest point for the best views. A short drive out of Cape Town is Simonstown and Boulders Park where the colony of Jackass Penguins almost invades the gardens of local residents. No visit to the Cape would be complete without a visit to Hermanus. I anticipated a boat trip would be necessary to see the whales. I was thrilled to find there were a small number of Southern Right Whales swimming up and down probably only 200 metres offshore with one in particular showing off by continually breaching to the delight of the crowds of onlookers. |  Jackass Penguins. Simonstown |
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 Jackass Penguins. Simonstown |
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 Southern Right Whales. Hermanus |
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 Southern Right Whales. Hermanus |
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| Alas the final winery was visited and the final lunch eaten before the drive to the airport and the long flight home. | ||
Namibia and South Africa have a lot going for them.
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