Hike through the wilderness
Veronica’s voice wakes me up the next morning and the first thing on my mind is: Great, she has reception, which is really sparse here and can make phone calls.
Unfortunately I am wrong, because she is having an argument with the little bird that doesn’t want to fly out of the open window and instead is stuck in the curtain. We decide to open the doors and windows as far as possible to finally get rid of our roommate. Unfortunately he has already settled in after breakfast and has decided to stay on the spot.
After we have rested a bit from breakfast, we take a hike through the Namibian savannah. Apparently there is only one way around the mountain in about two hours. To be on the safe side, I prefer to ask if there have been any tourists who haven’t come back. There hasn‘ t been – hopefully it will be foolproof.
The landscape is totally extensive and there is really nothing else than us. The path meanders between the hills and soon the boy scout spirit awakes in us. When we see the first traces of hooves, we become hunters. What could that have been, a wildebeest, a donkey or maybe something dangerous? But unfortunately we don’t find the owner of the hoof track. Anyway, instead we do a funny photo session on a mountain.
After half an hour wandering through the sun it slowly gets damn hot and Mirko is already talking about an oasis of Brinkhoffs beer, which he believes is clearly visible in the distance. Fortunately some wind comes up and Mirko is able to think more or less straight again.
After about two hours we return to our mansion and decide to take a nap at the pool. Mirko on the other hand is hunter and collector again and wonders with the 8 kilogram zoom lens through the savannah to take pictures of lizards.
Two hours later I find him sleeping on the sofa, bright red and completely burned. Who would have guessed that you can catch a sunburn while hunting lizards in the savannah?
In the afternoon we take our Hilux into town and this time I am behind the steering wheel. First time left-hand traffic. Completely crazy, but the car is a lot of fun! When we reach the town of Solitäre, it turns out that there is only one petrol station and one bakery here. That’s it with the shops. But the bakery sells the best apple pie in Namibia and of course we treat ourselves with a piece. It doesn’t take long until a flock of small birds has discovered our feast and is waiting hungrily to get some crumbs. The longer we sit there, the cheekier the little beasts become. 10 minutes later 2 of them sit on the table and are eyeing Mirkos cookies. Of course he doesn’t find that amusing at all. Sharing food has never been his strength!
Around 5 p.m. we are on our way back to the guesthouse, because we still want to go on cheetah safari today. At exactly 6 p.m., two safari jeeps roll up and take us to the cheetah camp. About 10 minutes drive from our lodge, there are 6 cheetahs living on about 5 hectares of land. All of them are from different regions of Namibia and are here for different reasons.
Next: Cheetah up close