Travel diary

After our grande finale at Okonjima, it was time to exit Namibia again. We did not want to leave this beautiful country, but it was time for the next step. We had to drive over 1,000 kilometers back north, to the same border post we used to enter Namibia. 

After having 'worked' for the Weakleys, it was time for our final activity in Namibia. We wanted to leave with a BANG! It would be a very expensive trip (for us), but since we had saved some money by working for the Weakleys, we had sufficiently increased our budget surplus to be able to afford this. 

When we left the Munsterland Farm, we already felt homesick. The Weakleys had been amazingly friendly and the food we had there was some of the best we had during our entire trip. To be exact, for us the food even deserved to be in first place, but sharing that honor with the food made by Ronald, from the Aardvark lodge in Uganda. We would have really loved to come back there, and apparently they felt the same. They would wanted to use our photography and videography service, and we were happy to do so. 

We had contacted a few accommodations hoping to be able to see and photograph meerkats. When we planned our meerkat adventure, we planned for one opportunity with wild meerkats, which turned out to be Bagatelle. Since we know from experience that seeing wild animals is never a guarantee, we also opted to go to the Simmenau Farmstay. Here they have domesticated meerkats that run and play around in the vicinity, so the chances to see at least one of those would be like 99.9%. 

When we were still at Kronenhof, we already contacted some accommodations for availability and to enquire if there is a possibility to see an animal we both really wanted to see. Not only are these animals extremely funny, they also have one of the nicest scientific names: Suricata Suricatta. 

It had been a while since we had been to our most western point this trip, and our lost stop meant our most southern part of the trip. When we got in our car to drive back north from Aus, we realized that we were officially on our way back. Quite a strange feeling, but this trip we turned out to feel something even stranger, something we had not felt in a very long time. 

After having cooled off in the swimming pool in Sesriem, we went back to the restaurant at the fuel station for a quick brunch. Then, we were off to go further into the desert. 

After having survived the first full day in the desert, it was time to test Gigi again. Gigi turned out to do better that we did. We had a nice breakfast at the bakery in Solitaire and we were off to Sesriem. The road to Sesriem was said to be very bad, so we left early and hoped to arrive before dark, although the distance was not very far. Things turned out a bit different than expected (again). 

We had so far been on the safer side of the desert, always near the sea or near a town. It was time to test Gigi a bit, to see how she (and ourselves) would do in the desert. It was tougher than expected. 

After having explored the moon, we returned to Swakopmund. There was still a lot we wanted to do in the dunes and Swakopmund was the best place to use as a basis to do these things. We were able to book the same accommodations as last time in Swakopmund, but this time the other way around. We started with the AirBNB that had an amazing view over the sand dunes. We took some morning walks into the dunes and we relaxed a bit for a few days. We did some admin and edits as well. As per usual, we just went to the same places again and again. After that, it was time for action!