Live Your Best Lives
In the last month of 2023, I checked off Namibia, which was on my travel bucket list. I'm not going to tell you who made my friends cry with envy, but Namibia in the rainy season 🇳🇦 is absolutely stunning! The African savannah is absolutely stunning!
⌚️Best viewing time:
December-March: Rainy season (off-season)
April-May: Transition from rainy season to dry season
June-October: Dry season (peak season)
November: Transition from dry season to rainy season
🚛Transportation: Cool big trucks
✈️Ethiopian Airlines: Shanghai-Addis Ababa connecting flight to Windhoek
💰Per capita: 28,000+
Day 1️⃣✈️Assembly day Day 2️⃣Windhoek city walk⛪️
Day 3️⃣ Windhoek-Cheetah Manor🐆-Quail Tree Manor🏕️
Day 4️⃣ Quiver Tree Manor-Namib Desert🌵 (Camping)⛺️
Day 5️⃣ Death Valley 🍂 - Solitaire town transfer 🛻 - Whale Bay 🐳
Day 6️⃣ Whale Bay (sea 🚢 sandboarding 🌵 skydiving 🪂 kayaking 🚣)
Day 7️⃣Whale Bay-Etosha National Park🦁 (camping)
Day 8️⃣Etosha National Park🐯🐘🦏-Windhoek⛪️
Day 9️⃣ Windhoek-Addis Ababa transfer
day🔟Addis Ababa-Shanghai
👉Windhoek: Internet-famous restaurants: Joe's Beerhouse, Lutheran Evangelical Church⛪️
👉Cheetah Manor🐆:📷Leopards, you can buy leopard wood carvings. The leopard wood carvings here are relatively large, but the price is a bit expensive
👉Quail Tree Manor🌃: Quiver Tree + Sunset🌄 + Starry Sky🌌
👉Red Desert No. 41: There are too many people at No. 45! No. 41 is more cost-effective! It's very close! You can go to No. 45 first and then go to No. 41.
👉Death Valley🏜️: salt-alkali land + desert🌵 + dead trees that have stood for thousands of years
👉Whale Bay🐳: 4 hours at sea🚢 + sandboarding with afternoon tea☕️ + flamingo🦩
👉Etosha National Park🦁: Safari + close-up observation of wild animals drinking water (forgive my poor language skills, Etosha left the biggest shock to me, the harmonious coexistence of nature and humans, the only place that moved me to tears, please savor it carefully)
◾️Sun protection! Get physical and chemical sun protection + after-sun repair!
◾️White dresses and highly saturated clothes! I think the Maillard color scheme is not suitable for Africa🌍. Africa itself is already very Maillard, you know what I mean~🤪
◾️Talk to your guide in advance about the souvenir shops you'll be buying! And call to confirm their opening hours! I didn't buy enough this time! Damn!
◾️Mosquito repellent! There will be mosquitoes when camping~🦟
◾️Eat more vegetables🥬Bring some instant noodles and spicy noodles!
Accommodation: Arebush Travel Lodge (nice environment, great pool, and delicious breakfast!)
The coffee is pretty good
The airport shuttle bus is comparable to Shanghai Line 11...
Phew! I'm finally off the plane! Africa, here I come! I swear I'll never bring so many snacks again!
We took a truck from the airport to our accommodation. It was very exciting on the way. The journey took about 40 minutes.
Wash up and put on a little skirt 👗city walk
The famous Lutheran Gothic church is cherished by Namibians and meticulously maintained. Inscriptions on its walls reveal its construction history. The church's foundation stones were brought from Europe in 1907, and construction took over three years. Despite being over 100 years old, the church retains its charm, with its vibrant red walls and stained glass windows.
There are also voices saying that the church was built by the German army for soldiers during World War I, so it is also called the German Cathedral. The locals do not like this church. The local guide told us that this church is very popular and young Namibians like to take wedding photos here.
Independence Hall - Focuses on Namibia's anti-colonial resistance and national liberation struggle. A glass elevator offers visitors stunning views of Windhoek. A restaurant can be found on the top floor.
A statue of Namibia's first president, Sam Nujoma, towers over the steps leading to the entrance, while a statue commemorating the Namibians who died in the German pogroms of 1904 stands not far away.
There is wireless internet in the rooftop restaurant🛜Oh, the beer on the left is not good, it's very bitter😭
Let’s go to a popular local restaurant to show off our meat!
It is said that every tourist who comes to Namibia must come to this restaurant.
A little aside, I was taking photos at the end and didn't notice where the main group was going🤡. The restaurant was huge... A guy with a Jiangsu and Zhejiang accent asked me if I was with the Chinese group in front of me, and showed me the way🫡 We Chinese are so welcoming🤗
The beer with a strong rice flavor 🍻 is not very tasty..
Ding ding ding ding ~ After observing, the occupancy rate is super high, and the birds are constantly repairing it.
I really love the breakfast at this hotel! I ordered the omelet and coffee. ☕️ My friend said the meat sauce + eggs was also delicious. I like to eat light in the morning, so I didn't try the meat sauce.
Purchase ingredients 🥬Eat more vegetables🥬, bought a big bag of vegetables for vegetable salad🥗 from the supermarket, it tastes terrible, it tastes even worse
Come to Cheetah Manor
The advantages are obvious, the scenery is great, and there are many protected animals on the other side of the lake🦓
The disadvantages are also obvious: it tastes terrible... the carrots 🥕 are soaked in sugar water, the fries 🍟 are ordinary, and the chicken is not good 🙅
Yo hoo, my leopard brother 🐆
On the last day, we will go to the Red Clay Man Village. The weather is very good, but it’s a bit sunny...
The quiver tree is a member of the aloe family and only grows in very arid areas. There are only a few of them in some countries in South Africa. The only place where quiver trees grow in large areas is the Quiver Tree Estate in Namibia, where there are about 250-300 trees.
There is a severe shortage of water here, so the plants have evolved into the shape they want. To prevent water from evaporating, the quiver tree will amputate itself and seal the broken ends.
The starry sky at Quiver Tree Manor is the most beautiful I've ever seen. It's so close, yet so quiet. At this moment, there's a connection between us and the stars. They twinkle, as if curious about me, their visitor. And they embrace me with such warmth. It's all so beautiful.
I got up early, around 6 o'clock 🕕, and saw that the manor staff were already cleaning the swimming pool. 🧹
I don't quite understand the function of this. The plant seedlings 🌱 are covered by plastic bottles. I guess it is to keep warm and store water?
See you again, Brother Leopard. Hunting was allowed in Namibia before, but as hunters’ equipment became more advanced, the number of many animals decreased dramatically. The government banned hunting and called on landowners to conserve animals.
On the way to Namib, I found a beautiful road 🛣️
Came to a white restaurant at noon🍴
There are horses walking outside the restaurant
Still not very tasty...just a very ordinary fried taste, a little worse than Kenmou
But the little sausage in the store is so well behaved. What's his name? Butt? Beard? He chased the chicken all over the yard.
Outside the supermarket, Namibian gay girl Guan Jie, holding a stone and acting provocative or pretentious, said: Who are you trying to scare? If you have the guts, come to our Northeast and try. Hahahahahaha
After a whole day of bumpy ride, we finally arrived at Namib around six o'clock.
"Namib" means "a place with nothing" in Nama language. It is one of the oldest and driest deserts in the world. A little knowledge: the older the desert, the redder it is.
Dune No. 45, this number refers to the kilometers.
Dune No. 41 and No. 45 are the most famous. No. 41 was just opened this year. There are fewer people and it is in good condition. I think it looks better than No. 45.
Sitting on the hillside of the sand dunes, feeling the land
While camping, my friend woke up in the middle of the night and saw the Milky Way!
We had hotpot tonight 🍲, and I regret it now. I was so exhausted. I was already pitch black when I got home, and I still had to wash, chop, and cook vegetables! If I had another chance, I would definitely make some instant noodles 🍜 and be done with it!
In order to catch the sunrise 🌅, I got up at four in the morning and got into the car with dull eyes and an empty head.
To reach the entrance, you need to take a shuttle bus for about half an hour, and then walk for twenty minutes.
Namibian Death Valley is the name of a stunning white clay depression in the Sossosvili Salt Pan in Namibia. For nearly 900 years, there has been no grass or any signs of life here.
Death Valley 🏜️ I love this thousand-year-old silence
Between 900 and 1,000 years ago, a severe drought struck this area. Sand dunes moved into the sandstone, blocking the rivers that flowed into Death Valley. Groundwater was depleted, leaving tree roots without the means to sustain life. Worse still, the regular rainfall disappeared. The trees slowly died, drying out, scorched and blackened by the harsh sun. The dunes turned an orange-red, resembling rust.
The land is an unforgettable graveyard of 900-year-old trees that haven’t been fossilized, but simply dried out to the point of extinction.
Occasionally you might see a beetle or two or a small patch of bushes, which lived on the mist created by the morning dew, but apart from these places, everything else was dead silent, with no signs of life.
Lunch at the Waste Car Town
The scenery above is picturesque
It was delicious. 😋 Their burgers were also amazing. 🍔 There's a souvenir shop next door where I bought an ostrich egg necklace and bracelet. I loved them so much, they were so cool! You can bargain in almost every store in Namibia, which is really important❗️
The Tropic of Capricorn is the latitude where the sun's direct point moves to its southernmost point during its tropical motion. Its latitude is equal to the obliquity of the ecliptic, which is approximately 23 degrees 26 minutes south latitude.
23 degrees 26 minutes south latitude
Opposite the accommodation is the beach🏖️Unfortunately the weather was not very good, the sea water was not blue, and even looked a bit like the Huangpu River🤪 But the scenery was still very good. Many locals were wearing cool clothes on the seaside trail, running, cycling, and walking their dogs.
Finally arrived at Whale Bay. Thanks to George, we arrived at two or three o'clock.
Actually, the accommodation conditions tonight are very good, and it’s a sea view room. I’m used to using a sleeping bag, and this portable mosquito net is very convenient. Mom doesn’t have to worry about me being bitten by mosquitoes anymore. 🤪
I love this wine! I drank three bottles in two nights!
Their house is so beautiful 😍!
Original image flamingo 🦩
Chinese restaurant, fried beef tendon is amazing, and three bowls of rice are amazing 🍚
A shop outside the seaport.
Out to sea! The captain and his pelican friend
Ship Meals
The captain taught me their Namibian hand gestures
Actively tried to feed the pelican, and its mouth became bigger
The captain said these boats have been abandoned and bought by neighboring countries to grow oysters. 🦪 Pay attention, there are two seals on the bottom oil barrel.
Seal Island
Whale Bay sandboarding in Sandwich Harbour p encounter the Oryx, Namibia's national treasure.
Sandwich Harbor, half sand and half sea.
Shopping in Walvis Bay
Thanks to the tour leader for choosing the restaurants one by one, they are great!
Set off again 🚛 to Etosha, passing the small town of Swa on the way.
The waves 🌊 will push my thoughts far away. Boundless
Words cannot express my shock and love for Etosha, so I will just post pictures. I love Etosha so much, I love the wildlife and sunsets here, I love the pools here and the broken bones on the grassland.
In the morning we went on safari for a few hours.
After leaving Etosha National Park, we visited one of the four existing ancient tribes in Namibia, the Himba Red Tribe (their skin and hair are red because they use red ten and butter skin care products all year round). The tribe still maintains the chieftaincy lifestyle of 500 years ago. Each village has a chief, who is the boss of the village. He gives out 5 sheep each time to marry a wife, and he can marry 3 wives. The chief of this village is 50 years old and already has 32 children distributed all over the world.
The head decoration is a sheep rib, and red mud is wrapped around the hair and applied to the body for sun protection and insect repellent. The hair underneath is a wig. Originally, the tribe hunted for their own hair, using horsehair, but now that hunting is prohibited, they can only buy it from the supermarket. The tribe is infested with flies, and even the chief's house, the largest, is still full of flies.
Back to Windhoek
