One of our biggest (and best) adventures has been our safari trip to Namibia, where we spent ten days in late March/early April 2012 visiting sights such as Etosha National Park (animals!) and the Soussusvlei region (huge red sand dunes!) in the southern part of the country.
Heading off to Namibia was not just our first trip to Africa — a lifelong dream for both os us — but it was also our first trip off the beaten path, as while we’d been to loads of countries during our six months in Europe it was all in pretty “standard” locales such as Amsterdam, Dublin, London, etc.
Going on safari was on our bucket list but we didn’t have any immediate plans to do it; until, you know, we got a wild hair and just decided, you know, let’s go! We’d just sold one of our houses in the US so we had some extra money and were looking for a change of pace after a longish, dreary winter in Gozo.
So that’s what we did, flying first to Frankfurt then the long haul to South Africa, with a connecting flight there to get us finally to Windhoek, Namibia. It took a mad dash at the Johannesburg airport to make our connection at the last possible minute but make it we did, landing in the pretty tiny Windhoek Hosea Kutako International airport.
We stayed two nights at the Hotel Pension Moni in Windhoek then were off on our six day trip with Wild Dog Safaris, which turned out to be an amazing experience from start to finish.
It was a camping safari without a lot of frills but was perfect for what we wanted, with a small group of just five other campers and two guides. We spent the first leg of the trip (3 days) making our way north to Etosha National Park, where we camped and got to see lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, and a ton of other animals.
Then it was back to Windhoek for one night then off to the southern part of Namibia for the second leg of the trip, spending three days in the spectacular red sand dunes in the Sossusvlei region.
Both of us were overwhelmed (in a very good way) at just how beautiful the southern part of Namibia was, with the mountains, dunes, and stars at night looking straight out of a movie set — except for the fact that we were right there, breathing it all in.
With the safari sadly done, it was back to Windhoek and the Pension Moni for another two nights to rest and recuperate, then time to hop back on the plane and reverse our journey, to South Africa then back to Frankfurt.
Work called at that point, as we hopped over to Vienna for a week for some freelance work for the World Poker Tour and then it was finally back to home in Gozo — just in time for the weather to finally turn and spring to arrive.
We’d definitely love to make it back to Namibia, as ten days was barely enough time to even scratch the surface of the beautiful, desolate country (one of the least densely populated countries in the world) and we’d love to make it to Luderitz, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmund, as well as to the Caprivi Strip (hippos!).
Follow Us Online