Upington and Augrabies Fall NP in South Africa

March 24 - 28, 2019

We crossed back into South Africa and were given a 60 day visa. This was a concern for us. We needed enough time to deliver the van to the port in Durban and fly out of South Africa on May 1st. We wanted to spend the rest of our travel time in South Africa, touring the areas we had not seen previously. Currently we are enjoying western South Africa. We spent our first couple of nights in Upington on the Orange River. Next we went to Augrabies Falls National Park, a small very scenic park on the Orange River.

Bird nests - We have seen these every where.

View of the Orange River from our camp site in Upington.

Roadside view near Upington.

Augrabies Falls Lodge

They have nice boardwalk paths with viewing platforms overlooking the falls.

Upper part of Augrabies Falls.

View of the river below the falls.

Scenery along the boardwalk.

Bird enjoying the morning sun.

Dassies enjoying the morning sun.

Dassie

Yawning dassie. They look very similar to a marmot.

We took a short game drive. We saw lots of rocks.

View on the game drive.

Another view on the game drive. This was a very scenic park.

Great sign in a coffe shop.

We had a milk tart and cappuccino. Delicious. 

Luderitz and Fish River Canyon, Namibia

March 21-24, 2019

We have really enjoyed our time in Namibia. The southern part was hot desert and visits to the coast refreshingly cool. The scenery is wonderful no matter where you are. On the coast the town of Luderitz was barren rocks and very strong cool winds. Fish River Canyon was very hot, not even cooling down at night.

The harbor in Luderitz.

Luderitz - The church in the background is called Felsenkirche.

The lighthouse on Shark Island in Luderitz.

Shark Island Camp Site. Get out your magnifying glass and you can see the van in the far right.

Desert sands along the road from Luderitz to Fish River Canyon.

The road from Luderitz.

A lot of the sand was a beautiful salmon pink color.

Roadside view.

Another view of the road from Luderitz to Fish River Canyon.

Canon Roadhouse - our camp site for the night. This was a really neat place full of very old unrestored vehicles. Most were in pretty good condition.

Quiver Trees

Fish River Canyon - a smaller version of the Grand Canyon.

Fish River Canyon

Lizard enjoying the canyon view.

Roadside view heading toward the South African border.

Swakopmund and Spitskoppe, Namibia

March 10-17, 2019

From Etosha NP we drove to the coast. It took a couple of days, but the roads were good and so was the scenery. We spent a total of four nights on the coast, enjoying the much cooler weather and the beautiful seaside towns. We then headed inland. We are back in the heat, over 100, and we visited the very scenic area of Spitzkoppe.

Camp site pests in Kamanjab.

Ostriches would not leave us alone. Our camp site had a shaded picnic area. When we sat there, we were constantly watched.

Our camp site in Omaruru. Rest camps in Namibia are very nice.

Salt crystals for sale near Henties Bay.

Skelton Coast shipwreck near Henties Bay

View of Swakopmund from the far end of the pier.

Guinea hen

Street vender in Swakopmund

View of the beach at our camp site in Swakopmund.

Tiger Reef Rest Camp - Nice camp site.

Bird of Paradise

View of countryside as we are driving east from the coast.

Reception at Spitzkoppe.

View of the Namib desert.

Dik Dik in our camp site.

Views of Spitzkoppe - a group of granite peaks in the Namib desert. They stand tall in the surrounding flat desert.