Africa – 28th Sept 2008 – Day 27

After a good breakfast we said goodbye to the staff at the lodge and headed off to our next destination, Zerba River Lodge.

Our drive took us along some very bumpy road and we crossed our first real river in Winston who coped very well.

On the way we suddenly came across a couple of Springbok, a mother and baby. They bounded ahead of the car so we stopped to watch them. Suddenly the Mother panicked and flew off the road, running bang into a wire fence at great speed and getting her back hoof caught in the wire. We quickly jumped out and John went over to see if he could help. By now she was on her side and very still but still breathing.

John managed to undo some of the wire and release her hoof but she just laid motionless on the floor. For a while she was still breathing but then just stopped. We both felt very sad.

We moved away and looked for the baby. After a while we found the baby who was now running from one side of the road to the other bashing itself into the wire fence. There was nothing we could do to help as we could not have caught it. It was so disturbing to see that we decided the best thing to do was to leave in the hope it would calm down.

Not long after we came across a huge monitor lizard, probably three foot long.

When we got to the lodge, the owner phoned a friend who promised to go out immediately and see if they could find the baby.

After a drink we decided to do the five hour self guided walk around the mountains by the lodge. We set off with a packed lunch and five litres of water to boot.

The walk was very good with views all around. After an hour John was so hot and sweaty, he decided to commune with nature, so whipped off his clothes and walked for half an hour in his birthday suite before the roasting sun forced him to pop his shorts and shirt back on. He had read about some famous climbers doing the same to stay cool. It works!!

We shortly came across a couple of Clip Springer antelopes, who watched us walking for ages.

We hit a hard climb to the top of the plateau. The views at the top were spectacular. We sat down and had lunch. We then sang a couple of songs (one about Heather) and concluded that probably nobody else had sung so well at that location before, especially as only we know the song (and Heather of course).

We saw a great deal of Zebra poo, but no Zebra (we now know a great deal about African Animal Poo).

We stopped at the Quiver Tree, so named because locals used a part of the tree to make a quiver for their arrows. It is certainly a very good looking tree and very unique.

We headed down although we almost took the wrong track. We arrived back at the lodge after only four and a half hours. Good going. The lodge owner, Rob, was very impressed.

We had a quick beer and then sat moved into our room and chilled around the pool (yet another pool that is so cold you can hardly get into it. One of the three dogs they have loves the pool!!

Apparently there are just four archeologists staying with us tonight, so it should be an interesting evening!!

After a relaxing afternoon, we dressed for dinner and then sat outside our room taking in the wonderful views and the setting sun.

We then walked down to the main area and met the archeologists, two English men, a Dutch Woman and a Namibian young girl.

The older English chap seemed to be the group leader with the younger one being very English and a bit bumbling. We chatted about their work, but soon got a bit fed up with the topic which seems to be a bit flowery for our liking.

We went into the lounge for dinner which was a game stew with plenty of fresh veg. To start we had an asparagus salad, dessert was home made ice cream, very good indeed!!

After dinner we chatted for a bit and then went to our room, moved our chairs out into the garden and sat watching the starts and the milky way. We have never seen such a sky so full of stars. This area of Namibia is well known for it and it didn’t fail to impress us.