Saturday 3 September 2011

Count Arthur visits the Namib Desert

Well, I finally arrived in Namibia after a week in South Africa and couldn't believe it as the plane landed.... there was only sand and scrub to be seen for miles and miles around! Windhoek is the capital city of Namibia and Mrs Conway went there to hire a 4 wheel drive car (well it was more of a truck actually). The man in the garage showed Mrs Conway how to drive in sand and gravel (as there are hardly any tar roads in Namibia) and I got a bit worried when he then explained how to protect the car during the frequent sand storms on the coast. I got even more worried when the man went on at great length about what to do in an emergency when an animal, like an elephant, collides with your car, and all the items he gave us in the first aid kit and talk of snakes and baboons. I'm only a little llama after all.

We started our adventure into the Namib desert the next day and it was a little creepy as we drove on dusty sandy or gravel roads and only saw 3 other cars and 4 farms... It took us all day to get to Sossusvlei, which is the home of the world's largest sand dunes, and I was very excited to see all the wildlife that was running about around us. We saw oryx, baboons, warthogs, mongoose, ground squirrels, springboks and lots more. I was just nodding off, as it was very very hot in the car, when I was THROWN OUT of my seat (on the front passenger side in a little pocket Mrs Conway had made for me so that I could see out the front... I am only a little llama, but unfortunately this meant I was not wearing a seat belt.) A zebra had come flying out of the scrub and ran right across the road infront of us. Thankfully this was near the end of the journey so I managed to recover by the side of the pool when we arrived at the ranch.







Driving in the sand was quite tricky, you have to take a lot of the air out of the tyres or you get stuck in the sand, and the wind blows the sand all over the place so you can't really see how deep the sand is until your tyres get stuck in it. I tried to be brave though as it is a very very wobbly drive and I didn't have a nice steering wheel to hold on to.






The sand dunes were even taller than some of the hills in Yorkshire, I couldn't believe it. We spent about 5 days in this desert driving around and we even went as far as the coast and the german town of Swakopmund. This was a lot of fun as we went quad biking up and down the sand dunes and sand boarding too.



Unfortunately, as I am only a little llama I wasn't allowed to have my own quad bike like Mrs Conway's children as my arms were too short and couldn't reach the brakes so I had to go on the back of the quad bike but it was still a lot of fun. At least it was, until the guide pointed out some interesting marking on the sand and said we should follow them. Guess what we found..... I was NOT a happy llama.




20 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for writing such a wonderful, informative post. I was amazed at the snake - how brilliant to see one in it's natural in habitat. I'm sorry you weren't able to go on a quad bike but pleased you have behaved so well on this very special holiday!

    Could you do me a favour? Could you check with you teacher to see if the addresses of the blogs for September are changing if it is the same as last year please?
    Many thanks!
    Mrs Skinner

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  2. FATIMAH ALI 6JC

    Well count author did you have a nice time in nambia...

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  3. HAFSAH ALI 2JH

    Count author did you have a nice time sitting on the rock...

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  4. FATIMAH ALI 6JC

    well count author are you going to go on any outhor trips...

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  5. DANIAL ARIS 6JC
    yy8
    did you have a scorching time there

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  6. HASNAIN AHMED 6JC


    It looks like Author had a nice time in Nambia.

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  7. AMBIAH ALI 6JC

    Count auther I hope you had a nice time in Nambia Desert you put some great pictures on the blog...

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  8. HASNAIN AHMED 6JC



    Athour is soooooooooooooooo cool

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  9. FATIMAH ALI 6JC

    well count author if you go on any more trips you can take year six the new year six....

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  10. Danial Aris 6JC

    what kind of snake is that!!!If I saw that type of snake I will run a mile away from that thing;)

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  11. The locals call it a sidewinder snake.... if you look at the sand around it you can see the markings that it makes as it moves side to side leaving strange L shaped markings behind it which is how we managed to track it.

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  12. I see Count Author you like to walk in the sand:)...

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  13. Well i think that the snake is cool.

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  14. How hot was it in the desert?

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  15. Did you see any spiders like the whell spiders?

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  16. Ambiah 6JC

    Was it hot in Nambia desert? Or was it nice and cool .

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  17. Tahibah 6JC

    Hello count author how are you? Did you have funn in nambia?Well you are sooo cool!

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  18. Tahibah

    Hello count author did you have a nice time in nambia? you are sooooo cool! did you know that?

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  19. I already think that he knows hes cool because I told him that before......

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  20. I see you've had fun at namib

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