Day 5 Wednesday 6th July: Rooiputs Camp to Mariental, Namibia

A day of travel, we left Rooiputs at 10h00 having packed up camp and all our belongings. Our convoy of 8 Toyotas headed over the dunes for the border post at Mata Mata.

Mata Mata border post

We had some great sightings on the way – hyena, lions mating and cheetah and cubs. Our border crossing into Namibia went smoothly, smuggling a few bottles carefully tucked in our clothing. The road from the border to Mariental is almost entirely a dirt road. As a necessity we allowed a gap of about 5 minutes between each of the vehicles. In this way the plumes of dust, stones and more dust were cautiously avoided. The road travels along the Ayob river valley, past desolate homesteads where cattle and sheep ranching seems to be the way of life.

One of the most amusing sitings in an otherwise deserted stretch of road, was that of a pig walking down the road being followed two steps behind by a goose! That evening when we all arrived the immediate question asked by each driver was ‘Did you see the pig and the goose?’

Mariental is a small desert town in the eastern midlands of Namibia. We stayed at a farm guesthouse/lodge and despite looking forward to a warm shower were all outraged at the lack of hot water! To add to the ‘funny farm’ of animals this lodge had a very unusual group of pets that followed each other in and out of the restaurant, gardens and even the rooms, a springbok, a warthog, a karakal sheep and a ‘normal’ sheep!