YES IT RAINS IN THE DESERT,,,

I must start with saying that yes it is a very common misconception that the desert sees no rain at all….while I must say that for most of the year this is very true and the Namib is no different, for many months it is exactly what you would think it to be,,,dry arid and dusty (I’ve not put hot on here as in winter it’s ice cold, but that’s a different blog post entirely). However, for a few months every year the clouds role in and the pressure builds and then it comes,,,,,,the rain and believe it or not it’s a welcome relief from the harassing heat that comes a couple of months before the rain arrives.

As we arrived in Etosha National park the sky was black and the anticipation of deafening thunder and blinding lightening was tangible. We drove the 18km’s from the main gate to our camp site hoping to beat the downpour and racing the clouds we just manage it. Having set up camp we headed out for a short afternoon game drive where we spotted elephants, Zebra, Giraffe and Brown Hyena….my first!! The rain eventually came and hammered down but thankfully had decided to vanish as quickly as it came so when we arrived back at camp, although everything was a tad soggy we were able to chill out outside next to the fire without the threat of getting soaked ourselves. The next morning was early and promised sunshine as we headed out for a day of game driving. We were lucky enough to spot 2 white rhino’s giraffes, zebra, blue cranes (another first for me) and heaps of different gazelle. As the sun burned high and hot the animals disappeared deeper into the shade of the bush we headed back to camp to spend the late afternoon chilling out by the swimming pool.

From Etosha we headed deeper into Namibia and spent the night at Spitzkoppe where the pointy heads were climbed and for sunset and slept on under the full moon. Then it was time to hit Swakopmund for 2 whole nights in complete comfort. While some people opted for hurling out of planes (parachute attached ;) ) while others decided to speed down the sand dunes reaching up to 75km’s an hour, whatever the activities it’s safe to say everyone has come away with a huge adrenaline filled smile.

I can’t believe it’s only 6 days until we get to Cape Town and 3 ½ months is nearly up but before we get there we’re headed deeper into this amazing country and tomorrow we’re hitting the Namib Desert where the people will be getting involved in a Namib Desert walk and climbing the most photographed dune sand dune in the world Dune 45.

Until nest time folks J