We enjoyed a great dinner last night with Chritiane, Rose, and Susan, before turning in to our room……..#4, for real this time. You are not allowed to walk anywhere in camp after dark without a guide escort. I guess he sacrifices himself to the lions while we run like hell? However, when we got to the room, we flicked up the bolt lock that goes into the floor, opened the door, and walked into the room. A gust of wind came up just at that moment, closing the door, and allowing the bolt lock to slide into place outside. Now I’ve been locked out of a few places in my time, but I can’t remember being locked in. Pissed ourselves laughing, realized we have no phone to the lodge, no way to contact them other than using the emergency air horn they supply you with, and rather than advertising our stupidity to the rest of the camp, we started looking for other options. #1 – boy scout move using a knife to jimmy the bolt lock out of the hole on the other side of the door……..failure. #2 – same deal as #1 but with a variety of other instruments……coat hangers, toe nail clippers, etc……..here try this!…….#3 – there has to be some way outta here?………the walls in the units are double sided canvas, and the windows are velcro’d in screen panels…….easy enough…….tore one open and fired Jutta out into the wild desert night……brilliant, we are saved, and can get out of our room tomorrow morning for the trip to the Skeleton Coast.
My travelling companions, Rocky, Christiane, and Jutta
Rocky said our trip to the coast would take four hours, over a variety of terrain, some being quite rough…….he wasn’t kidding…….but with multiple stops along the way, driving time was substantially less……..Rocky would make the return trip in two and a half hours, while we took zee plane…….15 minutes. We travelled through the river bed, what Rocky called forest, sand dunes, stopped at a true oasis, and finally the coast. What a trip. Just Jutta, Chritiane, and myself on this excursion……..70km……average speed – low……..fun factor – high.
We climbed this huge dune in the truck and stopped for coffee at the top…….the ride down was exciting……did it twice
Oasis in the desert……checked for predators before getting out of the truck. A beautiful but poisonous flower…….bush men would burn these in camp at night to keep predators away. Mud flats…….think this is a hyena track, but sure Steph will correct me if wrong.
Oryx checking us out
Skeletons and shipwrecks
Arriving at the coast we were greeted by that all so familiar smell……..oh yeah……remember it well from Antarctica, South Georgia last year, seal poop. Quick stop to look at some of the skeletons, visit a shipwreck, spot a rare brown hyena (Christiane), before settling in to wild kingdom at its best, the seal colony. Thousands upon thousands of fur seals along the rocky coastline with the south Atlantic breaking bad in the background. Bulls fighting to protect their territory and harems, cows delivering pups right before your eyes, pups dragging themselves around smelling for mama with umbilical cords still attached, vultures and jackals preying on the young, contributing to the 50% survival rate for pups in this colony. What a site. The smell, overwhelming for Christiane, but old hat for Jutta and I who learned mouth breathing techniques last year and did well. Nobody hurled, so it was all good. We had hoped the other two lion cousins or the brown hyena might show up for lunch, but they were probably comfortably resting after a big breakfast……….total smorgasbord for the predators on this shore.
Seals and more seals, jackal, vultures.
Rocky loaded us back in the truck and headed south down the shore………wasn’t long before a table and chairs appeared in the distance……..lunch. Superb spot with the waves crashing in close to us and another superb camp lunch. It was just a short trip to the airstrip and we were on our way back to camp…….short detour along the coast by request.
Sundowners were in camp tonight, and we heard the news that the lions did make a kill last night………a medium sized oryx……..so tomorrow’s agenda would be desert elephants in the morning and the lion kill site in the afternoon. Exciting. Dinner was fantastic once again, and we made it back to the room without locking ourselves in. Goodnight.
The elusive brown hyena…..Rocky setting up
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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