2010 BMW X5 Adventure Trip in Namibia (Page 4)

← Continued from Page 3 of "2010 BMW X5 Adventure Trip in Namibia"

DAY 3 – ENJOYING NAMIBIA

Rainy night, all kinds of suicidal thoughts and plans for the next day.

Although the off-roading session was pretty fun, our third day in Namibia was "lighter" than what we expected. Just after breakfast, we all jumped into a custom Land Rover, especially modified to serve as some kind of bus, and went to the reservation. Since animals are one of our hobbies (beside cars of course), we were enthused by the antelopes, giraffes and the exotic birds. Still, what happened next exceeded our expectations. We saw for the first time an African family of rhinoceros, huge animals that weigh more than an SUV and express a curios appeal for cars. We were shocked to see that some of them were actually looking more at the cars, rather than at us, who were making all kinds of sounds in an effort to catch their attention.

Just after lunch, we got into our X5s and traveled for around 30 kilometers on a light off-roading route until we reached a new reservation. Without talking too much about our short picnic in front of a herd of cows (one of the organizers used a paved route, so he had enough time to prepare a snack for each of us), we could see the apocalypse on Earth, as the local savanna was seriously affected by a massive fire two weeks before.

Our last stop was a luxurious country house, at the top of a mountain, so an off-roader was the only way to get there.

Home-made cookies and coffee were the two things that made us feel like home for a couple of minutes.

We've spent around two hours chatting with the local owner, which resembled a meeting between friends who had the chance to see each other after many years. This is how we found out that Namibian farms usually cover between 100 and 800 square kilometers, with long distances between them, so the main activity is actually taking care of your own land. (Wealthy) Hunters are welcome in Namibia, only that they have to be accompanied by an accredited Namibian hunter.

It was then when we were informed that the Okapuka owner mixed up some reservations so we were transferred to a new hotel in Windhoek. We can't really describe you the feeling we got when we finally reached the Okapuka Ranch and we saw the empty safe box where we'd decided to keep our money and documents. We don't really see a reason for this, but local workers opened the box and packed our stuff in the luggage without even telling us. After breathing in a paper bag for a few minutes to calm down, we finally left for Windhoek in a bus, because the local hotel had no parking place for such expensive SUVs. The best thing was the fact that we finally got TVs in our rooms, the worst thing was that all channels were in German...

Food was great, just like expected. 90 percent of the menu was based on meat, regardless if we're talking about antelopes, zebras or crocodiles. We've tried most of them and, after so many days spent experiencing all kinds of foods, we're proud to say that we're antelopes fans. Probably the worst thing in Namibia is that eating a soup is just as hard as breathing under water without oxygen tanks.

The day finally ended at around 11 p.m. and it was the first time when we really slept like newborn babies, although the heavy rain was again providing the audio background.

Continue to Page 5 of "2010 BMW X5 Adventure Trip in Namibia" →

Jump to: select page...page 1page 2page 3page 4page 5page 6page 7page 8page 9

❐ Check out the 2010 BMW X5 Adventure Trip in Namibia photo gallery