Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 75 – Damaraland to Zimbabwe

Despite last night’s scorpion debacle, everyone seemed to get a reasonable night’s sleep. A later departure this morning, as we’ve decided to make this solely a travel / relaxing day. We’re also passing on the extra game drive that’s scheduled for this afternoon.

But we do get to enjoy the hills of Damaraland lit by this beautiful dawn light:

Malansrus Tented Camp puts out a delicious breakfast, with eggs, bacon and sausage available upon request:

No luck with the internet last night – it was enough to send instant messages, but that’s about it. Rather than beating our heads against the walls for hours on end, we just called it done and retired to our tents for the night.

One last glimpse of the beautiful scenery of Damaraland:

And we are on our way to Etosha Safari Lodge. It starts with about 90 minutes of rough road. The dust starts to build, and so we switch from open windows to air conditioning. It seems to keep up this time, though it helps that we’re still before noon – well before peak heat of the day.

Then – blessed tarmac.

But there isn’t a ton to see. There are a host of farms along the roads, and charcoal makers. Ewald explains that these are carefully regulated to ensure that the trees grow back properly. It seems an unlikely business in a country known for its dryness.

One more look at a watering hole to see if we can spot any animals – particularly elephants – but no such luck:

We stop briefly in Outjo so that Ewald can refuel, and so we can make a bathroom stop. There’s a nearby bakery with some delicious treats on offer:

My wife picks a doughnut, I grab an apple pie pastry (yes, with raisins – I have grown to tolerate them, if that is the price of pie. The kids grab an éclair and a chocolate croissant to divvy up between the two of them.

Ewald pops into a nearby grocery story, and we are briefly hassled by one of the locals undoubtedly trying to sell us something. Frequent travellers will recognize his opening line, “Hey, where you from?” as the prelude to some sort of scam or another.

We go silent, which is the best option in cases such as this – we have no desire to be dragged off to whatever gallery, souvenir shop or other dubious business he might be attempting to offer. (Normally we would just walk away, except we’re next to our vehicle – so no place to go.) He persists in speaking to us, insisting that there is “no business.”

A German woman scolds the scammer – “Why don’t you behave yourself?” – which seems to genuinely flummox him. “Why don’t you behave yourself?” He replies, relying on the trusted I-am-rubber-you-are-glue defence. He loses steam, and Ewald returns shortly after.

We carry on to Etosha Safari Lodge, arriving shortly before 1 pm – or roughly four hours after we departed.

This amount of travel time is manageable, particularly when compared to the six hour (and longer) days.

The property is not inside Etosha, but instead roughly 10 km away from the main gate. It’s owned by Gondwana, one of the major hotel chains in the Namibia. It’s possible to arrange a self-drive tour by booking with them exclusively – or renting the vehicle alone at a much higher rate.

The main lodge is quite nice:

Final image credit – ETOSHA SAFARI LODGE

Though their internet seems to be down. So much for catching up on last night’s post.

We soon settle in for a delicious lunch. My wife and kids each have the grilled sandwich:

While I have the hake and calamari combo (not pictured).

Lunch isn’t included, but the meals are somewhere between USD$5 and $10.

Our rooms are ready around 2 pm. They’re about a ten-minute walk from the lodge, but we don’t mind stretching our legs after the repeated car rides:

Each room has a balcony and air conditioning, and has sweeps installed under the doors to prevent bugs from getting in. Malansrus was great, but it’s nice to have walls again.

We all settle in for a bit of napping and quiet time, then we head off to the nearby pool.

There’s not a lot of seating – just eight loungers in total. We manage to get a spot, but not everyone does. It is the Easter weekend, however. And there are 3 pools although we’ve opted for the one closest to our rooms.

We return to the main lodge to relax, read, and enjoy the view (and a sundowner):

You can see the Etosha gate in the distance from the Etosha Safari Lodge

We confirm that we’re booked on the game drive tomorrow morning, but learn that the game drives here last almost five hours – from 6:30 am to close to 11:30 am. Also, the afternoon game drives depart at 2:30 pm and also lasts around 5 hours.

We’d initially scheduled two game drives tomorrow but there’s no way we’re spending ten hours in a vehicle after the driving we’ve done already, so we drop it down to just a single game drive. Thankfully there are no cancellation fees.

With that bit of administration managed, we return to the previous order of business – relaxing.

The view from the balcony is lovely:

Though it is very, very busy – again, Easter weekend would not have been our top choice for coming here. The balcony seems to be an equal mix of people smoking and children running rampant. After some increasingly-loud sotto voce comments, the parents do stop their kids from tormenting the Lodge’s cats.

They might be grateful, but you never can tell with cats:

Dinnertime – it’s a buffet, but it’s very well done. We particularly enjoyed the roast oryx and freshly-baked rolls. The mashed potatoes and sweet-and-sour ribs were also a big hit.

And check out this dessert table:

We once more attempt to access the internet, but it’s still down – and we’re stuck on a barely-adequate network for our phones’ eSIMs. So no post tonight, either.

And do we regret not going on a game drive? No, we do not. We’re all starting to feel the pace of the past few months travel, and we’re glad to find ways to rest and recover. Besides, it’d be hard to argue that we haven’t seen enough animals.

Speak of rest – it’s time for bed, as 5:30 am always arrives sooner than we would like.

But first, a few more night sky photos: