Blog Posts in Category: Landscape

South Africa and Overlanding from Windhoek to Victoria Falls

Alastair BegleyAfrica, Botswana, Landscape, Namibia, Overlanding, South Africa, Wildlife, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

This blog post tells the story of my five weeks in southern Africa between two jobs. This is the longest period I have had off work since I left university, and it was a great break between the stress of finishing my previous job and starting a new job. The main part of the trip was overlanding through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. However our trip started in South Africa which allowed us some time to acclimatise to the heat prior to starting the intense travel of the overlanding portion. South African Prequel Prior to heading up to Windhoek to start our overlanding adventure, I had 12 days in South Africa. The first 10 days were spent paragliding in Porterville, just north of Cape Town. The weather was unfortunately not always the best, so there were some other activities thrown into the mix during this time. Prior to heading up to Namibia, Becky and I had planned two days of wine tasting in Franschhoek, a classic wine valley near Cape Town. South African Open Pre-PWC Paragliding Competition (Full Post) After my first paragliding competition in North Macedonia in August, I signed. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 20: Victoria Falls Flight of Angels

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zimbabwe Short Link

Unfortunately today marked the end of our overloading adventure through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The plan was for us to start the day with an early morning helicopter ride over Victoria Falls, however the weather had some other ideas. After a few hours of waiting for the low cloud to lift, we had some brief excitement when another group took off, but they were back 2 minutes later, as the visibility was so poor. At this point the provider took us back to our hotel room so that we could pack up and check out, before bringing us back, so that we could hopefully fly later in the morning. Thankfully as we were heading back to the Heliport, we saw both helicopters starting their engines, definitely a good sign. When we arrived we were informed that it all looked good and we would be on the next wave, in our own helicopter. This turned out to be even better than expected, as it meant that we were both on the left hand side as I was in the front seat which resulted in us doing multiple circles in the. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 19: Victoria Falls (Devil’s Pool and the falls)

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

Today was the first day in almost three weeks where we haven’t changed accommodation, which was a nice change of pace. Although this was slightly hampered by waking up at 05:20 feeling a bit worse for wear after our beers and late night. We started the day heading to the Devil’s Pool, a pool right at the top of Victoria Falls where you can swim in the Zambezi and look over the edge of the falls, while you are being nibbled at by small fish. It really was quite an experience. After swimming in Devil’s pool they provided us with a really rather good breakfast, before we headed to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Here was really spectacular when we arrived in the sun, as there were beautiful rainbows and it was all pretty quiet – probably because most things you read say no to bother with it, but I am glad Becky was very keen to. After finishing the main circuit on the Zambian side, we walked over the border and over the bridge to the Zimbabwean side of the falls, which are definitely more impressive, with a. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 8: Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings and Etosha National Park

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Namibia, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

Today we started the day with what our plan had been for the previous afternoon, by visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site at Twyfelfontein, which has rock engravings between 2000-10,000 years old. After we had done this we then drove to Etosha National Park, where we will be for the next 3 days. Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings We started the morning by visiting Twyfelfontein rock engravings, where we enjoyed a tour with a local guide who explained the fascinating history of the engravings and ensured that we saw all the best examples of the engravings. Twyfelfontein contains Africa’s largest collection of ancient San rock engravings (petroglyphs), featuring over 2,500 images carved into sandstone, depicting animals (giraffes, rhinos, lions, seals), human figures, tracks, and geometric designs, offering insights into shamanistic rituals, spiritual beliefs, and daily life from 2,000 to 10,000 years ago. Following the very unexpectedly high volume of rain the evening before, the tour was much muddier than expected and also much more humid, so by the end I was very ready to get back into an air conditioned car to cool down. Drive The drive to Etosha was really a. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 7: Drive to Mowani Mountain Camp and Desert Elephant Safari

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Namibia, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

Today the plan was simply to drive to Mowani Mountain Camp which is near Twyfelfontein, and then to go and see the famous rock petroglyphs. However this did not go to plan, as we took a detour en-route to go up the Upper Huab River with our 4×4 to see if we could find any elephants, we are fairly sure we found elephant poo, but no elephants. Then while we were almost at our destination we saw an elephant safari advertised, which when we went in was departing in 10 mins, so with no decision time we decided to go for it, instead of our planned day. The Drive The drive was all really easy with all of the roads being brilliant, and the scenery continued to be absolutely fantastic. Constantly changing during the entire drive, however always beautiful and always interesting. We stopped en-route a few times, the first was to have breakfast and we managed, by total chance, to choose a spot which was at the top of a pass with totally fantastic views. It was however rather windy which made boiling the water for our tea and. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 6: Cape Cross Seals, Messum Crater and Skeleton Coast

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Namibia, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

The initial plan for today was for a fairly chilled out day seeing the seals at Cape Cross in the morning, before making the easy drive up the Skeleton Coast looking at shipwrecks, however in the lodge we saw an option to make a large detour and head into the remote Messum Crater, which involved 90km of remote off road driving. After this we then tried to squeeze in an attempt to see some Desert Elephants near the Ugab gate, which we didn’t really have time for, but we were treated to a wonderful lunar landscape – in the absence of the elephants. It was very lucky that we added the other activities to the day, as the shipwrecks were somewhat of an anticlimax, with only one shipwreck really having any meat to its bones. Cape Cross Seals Cape Cross is home to the largest colony of Cape Fur Seals which is up to approximately 100,000 seals during the breading season, which we are in now. The Cape Fur Seal isn’t actually a true seal at all as they are related to sea lions. Unlike seals they have ears and. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 5: Pelican Point Kayaking, Swakopmund and Skeleton Coast

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Namibia, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

Today was expected to be mostly about the activity, and that was probably correct. This isn’t to say that the drive wasn’t enjoyable, but the activity was so much better than we had expected. Pelican Point Kayaking An activity which is really raved about, which we decided to do is kayaking at Pelican Point, the reason it is so special is that there is a massive colony of Cape Seals there, who are totally chilled about people Kayaking near them, in fact they often play with the people in Kayaks as they are curious and playful. When booking I had noticed that there was a self drive option, this really appealed to me as it meant that I knew it would be easy to take my photography gear and it certainly sounded more fun that sitting in the back of a bus for a long time to get to Pelican Point. The drive there was really amazing, and to be honest by the time I got there I wasn’t that interested in actually doing the kayaking as I had had such a good time. We saw Flamingos, Jackals, Cormorants and. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 4: Drive to Walvis Bay and Sunset Dune Tour

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Namibia, Overlanding, Wildlife Short Link

I thought the main event of the day was going to be our sunset dune drive from Walvis Bay, and that the drive there was just going to be a mode of travel, but how wrong I was, as it was absolutely stunning with contrasting scenery from gorges, to water formed landscapes, to mountains and then desert.  The Drive In my head the drive was just a means of transport, and my excitement was for our afternoons activity. Very quickly we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn for the second time of our trip, this time there were road signs to mark the occasion, unlike the first time were we had to rely on the GPS on the second morning of our trip. Within a very short period of leaving our wonderful camp at Bushman’s Desert Camp, we encountered our first surprise, as the road descended into a gorge, the so called Gaub Pass. It was amazing driving within this gorge which was so clearly formed by water, but now in a landscape totally devoid of water. This was going to be a theme which continued for the next 90 minutes,. Read the full article…