Go to the following links for more photos to go with this section - you may need to cut and paste it into your browser to get it to work:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tree2222/NamibiaKamanjabCheetahF armBrandbergMountainsRockArt

http://picasaweb.google.com/tree2222/NamibiaEtosha

Saturday 22nd: In the morning we were having breakfast of rusks and coffee / tea beside the road when a Botswanian woman appeared out of nowhere - she couldn't speak English, but she motioned at the tea and rusks (cheeky!!) so Gav gave here a cuppa and a rusk which for some reason made her laugh - she drank the tea, ate half the rusk and wandered off chuckling to herself!!! Quite bizarre!!
We crossed the border to Namibia and headed towards Etosha via Rundu. 
We stopped briefly at the Cubango river and did some fishing but didn't catch anything. 
When we arrived at the Etosha Pan National Park and went for a game drive, it was great, we saw loads of animals.
We saw lions, zebra, various deer type animals including everyone who has ever been on a game drive in Africa's favourite - impalas, giraffes, elephants, and to top it off, a couple of black rhinos wandering across the clearing - we couldn't have asked for more!!

We stayed in the camp site in the middle of the park so we actually had good showers but the best part of the camp was that they had a floodlit watering hole right beside the camp site. After dinner we wandered over and there was a huge number / pile / crowd / swarm - what's the word for lots of elephants?!? anyway, you know what I mean, including some really young calves. There were a few zebras around too but the elephants were dominating the watering hole. As we were watching a black rhino came over to try to get a drink but the elephants didn't want to let him in so it was really interesting to watch the interaction between the animals - the rhino eventually got his drink after being challenged by several elephants. It was really funny also as all this was happening a rabbit came along and also tried to get a drink and was also chased away by an elephant.....not a fair fight really!!!



Sunday 23rd - We got up early and spent the morning in the national park game driving. I think we were really lucky with our drive yesterday - we saw a few animals but nowhere near as many. By noon it was soooo hot so we drove back to the camp and did nothing in the shade for a few hours. We went back out again at 3pm for another drive and saw another huge black rhino right beside the road, some more lions, giraffe etc. and headed back to camp just before sunset. We stayed in the park camp for the night again.

Monday 24th - We left Etosha in the morning and headed for the Kamanjab Cheetah Farm. When we arrived we were able to play with the 2 'tame' fully grown cheetahs they have there.

It was an amazing experience - their fur looks really fluffy and soft but it's fairly coarse, and their tongues are seriously rough!! One of them was licking Summers arm and was also having a bit of a nibble which I think was a bit scary for her!! They were really purring loudly too and you could feel them vibrating!


At the farm there are also some 'wild' ones which are kept in a huge enclosure and later on we watched them being fed. Around 12 of us hopped into an open pick-up truck with a guide and a bucket of meat and went into the enclosure. 


The cheetahs are used to the routine so as we drove really slowly through the enclosure the cheetahs all started to follow the truck - there was really no protection between us and them!! Then when they were all around the driver and his mate got out and started to throw the meat out piece by piece - as he threw them the animals were fighting over the meat - it was savage!!! 



There were also a group of younger cheetahs in another enclosure which we weren't allowed into and they threw meat over the fence to them.
We camped for the night at the cheetah farm.

Tuesday 25th - We left the cheetah farm and headed to Brandberg mountain which is Namibia's highest mountain at 2606m. We went on hike in the mountains to see some rock paintings - there's apparently over 900 rock paintings in the area but we only saw one site. 


Although the rock paintings were a little disappointing, it was a really nice hike and it was great to take a bit of exercise after spending so many hours sitting in the truck.
We set up bush camp just near the mountains - Gav managed to get the truck stuck in the sand and we had to push it out which was fun, then he backed it into a tree which was even more amusing - luckerly no damage though.


Most of the 'bush' camping is illegal, I think, but Gav's found us some great spots.
Even when we've been staying in camp sites we've so far always cooked food on the camping stoves by the truck - I was hoping the food would improve somewhat once we left Zimbabwe, but unfortunately I hadn't figured on the 'Dan' factor. The alcoholic Aussi loves cooking and even though we all muck in and prepare the food, he always seems to manage to take over!! The variety of food has improved, but Dan loves his food spicy, which is fine, but his definition of 'spicy' means empty the herb and spice box into the food, so pretty much whatever we have ends up tasting the same as every other meal!!!
The wee men also reappeared....when we woke up in the morning there were wee men everywhere around the camp - I think all of the boys are creating them!!

Wednesday 26th - We left Brandberg and headed towards Swakupmond......can't remember if we did anything really today apart from sit on the truck - probably not!!