Return to Africa

Departure

7:55 a.m.... Here we are on the train. Finally we're off to Namibia!!!! It's been very hard (problems with work, family, etc.) but we made it! We still have the whole trip ahead of us but it doesn't matter, I'm sure it will be an unforgettable trip... we'll see when we get back if I still think so. First stop Milan. Arrival at 10:55 a.m.... Shuttle to the airport at 11:35 a.m., arrival at Linate around 11:55 a.m., we head straight for the Alitalia counters and right in front of them we see Roberto, our guide, whom I recognize because his photo was on the website too. All the other travel companions are already there too... we introduce ourselves to everyone except Raffaella, who's off somewhere with her boyfriend.

After all the emails we've exchanged, we finally see each other in person, and so Giuliano, Carlo, Claudia, Raffaele and Elena, Roberta and Franco and Lucillo and Raffaella have faces. At first glance it seems like a nice group. I hope we'll all get along and that there won't be any problems. A check-in agent (a very odd guy but very helpful) agrees to issue our boarding passes even though it's still very early, since the flight is supposed to take off at 4:00 p.m., but because of the strike in progress right up to 4:00, it's better to do everything early to avoid problems. We sit down and start getting to know each other, then around 2:00 p.m. we go to check in the suitcases. Roberto has a different ticket from ours, one leg is electronic, so to avoid problems with his luggage he checks his suitcase together with ours, which are the lightest. Finally at 3:35 p.m.

we board and at 4:00 p.m. sharp we take off. Thank goodness for the strike! We couldn't have left more punctually than that!!! After about an hour we arrive in Frankfurt, where luckily we find a quiet area on the first floor where we settle in comfortably because we have a long wait ahead of us; our flight to Windhoek, in fact, doesn't leave until 10:45 p.m. Here we start chatting with Roberto and talking about Namibia and what we'll see. I'm more and more enthusiastic and can't wait to get down there. Roberto seems to me a very capable person and, above all, he gives me the impression that he does all this because he enjoys it and not just for work, because he loves Africa and Namibia in particular.

I ask him if it's possible for us to travel in the car with him so we can get to know the country even better, and he tells me that Lucillo has asked the same thing too, but if his daughter doesn't mind traveling in another car, he has no problem with it. After a couple of hours we line up at check-in to get our boarding passes and then move to the other side of customs, where in reality there isn't much. We find a couple of chairs and take turns going for a little walk and getting a coffee. Finally the time comes to board the plane and at around 11:15 p.m. we take off! Namibia, here I come!!!!!! The plane isn't full and so Melissa and I luckily have a row of three all to ourselves, so we're a bit more comfortable. As soon as we take off they serve us dinner and then we go to sleep.

Windhoek

After an endless series of naps and awakenings and changes of position, finally the lights come back on and it's time for breakfast. I can't say I slept much, but at least a little for sure, and I feel awake and rested, ready to start a new adventure! At around 5:30 a.m., local time, we land. Coming down the stairs, the impact with the clean, crisp air of Namibia is pleasant. At the airport they're quite quick and our suitcases are handed to us almost immediately. While we wait for the last ones, Raffa and I go outside to smoke a cigarette and we see the little dog we had seen being loaded into a cage in Frankfurt. Poor thing! What a shame to know he did the whole trip alone in the plane's hold! Luckily he's free now and he seems quite happy. We're saying goodbye to the dog and his owner when we realize that our companions are leaving the airport and we catch up with them.

The guy who will rent us the cars came to pick us up with 2 minibuses and takes us first of all to our lodging "Casa Piccolo," where we take our rooms and leave our luggage, then into the center of Windhoek. While he, Roberto and our companion drivers Raffaele and Giuliano and second drivers Franco and Carlo go to pick up the cars, we women and Lucillo are free to wander around the city. We go straight to the exchange office to change 300 euros each, then to the supermarket to get something to eat because we're starving, and then we take a little stroll. There aren't many people around, the city is almost deserted, but the shops are open, at least until one. Around 11 we meet up with the others and go grocery shopping at the supermarket, water and food for the packed lunches of the next 2-3 days.

Me and Me buy 3 five-liter jerrycans of water, some bags of cold cuts, some sliced cheese, a 2-liter coke and a packet of lemon biscuits, paper napkins and a tanning oil with SPF 15 (you never know, after all, even though it's cool, we're still in Africa!) We come out of the supermarket, load everything into the cars (3 beautiful Toyota 4x4s, almost new) and then take another tour of the city, we stop at a bar to eat something all together (Me and I aren't hungry and just get one portion of French fries to share and a coke). After lunch we go to see the church up close, take a few photos but unfortunately it's closed and so we can't go in.

While we're looking at a notice board hanging outside in the hope of figuring out what time it opens, a man selling pendants made from macadamia nuts comes up to us, very nice ones, and we decide to buy all 5 for 11 Namibian dollars (10 dollars each plus 1 extra dollar for the leather cord). A great deal!! After taking a look at the stalls nearby.

I immediately spotted a wooden giraffe that would look great next to the fireplace, but Roberto tells me it's better to buy it on the last day since we'll come back there, so at least we don't have to carry it with us the whole trip, and I can only agree with him, so we just look without buying, then we decide to go back to "Casa Piccolo" where, while some go to rest, Me and I sit in the garden in the sun with Roberto, Claudia, Carlo, Giuliano and Raffaella, but after a while she too goes back to her room, and Claudia, Carlo and Giuliano instead decide to go back to the center. At around 4:30 p.m. the sun disappears behind the trees and it gets freezing cold, so we decide to go to our room to take a shower to warm up a bit. We're supposed to meet at 6:30 p.m. and then go to dinner at a typical restaurant, Joe's Restaurant.

A truly beautiful and characteristic place, all in wood and thatch, with some of the tables outside and others inside where they've seated us too (luckily, because it's a rather chilly evening). Everywhere you look there's something to observe, from the zebra skin hanging on the wall to the endless row of empty Jagermeister bottles along the wall, to the stuffed animals hanging high up in the room with the fireplace in the center, to the stools around the bar with a little bucket hanging underneath each, to the lapa with the fire in the center, which unfortunately this evening was booked by a group and so we couldn't go in. Truly a great place 😊. We sit at our table, with a lit stove behind us to warm us up, and each of us orders whatever we want.

Me and Me choose a giant skewer with pieces of zebra, crocodile, kudu, ostrich, chicken and vegetables, accompanied by French fries that actually looked like fritters. An excellent dish, and the bread was very good too. After dinner we had a little look around the place and their souvenir shop, then we went back to the B&B where we checked the thermometer and it read 8.5°. Definitely a bit chilly, luckily the beds have soft duvets.

Weltwrede

Wake-up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:00 with eggs, bacon, cold cuts, cheese, toast and coffee, then we load the luggage onto the off-road vehicles and finally we're off! Destination Weltevrede. Me and Me get into the car with Roberto and Lucillo. Carlo, Giuliano, Claudia and Raffaella are in the second car and Raffaele, Franco, Elena and Roberta in the third. We leave the city and take the C26. We're immediately fascinated by the landscape that changes constantly. At a certain point Roberto spots a group of animals in the distance (I don't remember exactly, I think they were oryx) and we stop to observe them, but they're really too far away, so we set off again; after a while longer we see some ostriches too and realize that the third car has stopped to photograph them, so we decide to turn around and join them.

We take some photos, although the ostriches, being inside the fence of a property, seem locked in a cage, so we set off again. After a while we turn onto the D 1265 and stop for the first pee break. First the men, then the women, all together behind a clump of bushes. Luckily I don't need to go, so I stay near the car observing the panorama. Shortly afterward we stop again to admire a sociable weaver nest. I had never seen anything like it, only in photographs; these little birds are true engineers! We continue for a few kilometers, then turn onto the D1275 and here we start climbing until we reach the Spreetshoogte Pass, where, after a bend, a breathtaking panorama suddenly appears before us.

We stop at a rest area from which you enjoy an incredible and certainly unforgettable view; you can see the mountains and below the desert in its various forms and colors, and in the distance you can even make out the beginning of the red dunes of Sossusvlei. It's truly fantastic! Extraordinary! Since there isn't much wind as we'd feared, we decide to stop there to have lunch and start pulling our portable coolers down from the cars. We make ourselves a couple of salami and cheese sandwiches and enjoy them while admiring the panorama. Once we've finished eating, we take the last photos, including a group one next to our off-road vehicles with the Namib in the background, and then we're ready to set off again.

We go down from the pass and understand why Roberto had told us that this road is advisable to travel only in our direction, since that stretch of downhill road can be done without problems, but doing it in the other direction uphill is a whole different story, since it's very steep and uneven. Once we've left the mountains behind, we find ourselves once again in the middle of the desert completely covered with thin blades of pale yellow grass, with the mountains in the background and some leaping gazelles and ostriches dotting the landscape. We take the C14 toward Solitaire, where we stop to fill up with fuel and drink a coffee. Right after, we resume the journey to the farm where we'll sleep for the next two nights, the "Weltevrede Guest Farm." A beautiful place far from everything, with the mountains behind it and the Namib in front.

We settle into the rooms and then take a walk in the surroundings to a lone tree with a sociable weaver nest located a few hundred meters from the farm, where we take some beautiful photos. It's now past five and it'll soon get dark, so Me and I head toward our room, from where we take some beautiful photos of the sunset. We stay outside on the veranda of our room until it gets dark, then we decide to go back in and get ready for dinner, which will be served at 6:30 p.m. As always, we're ready in a few minutes and head to the dining room. There are two tables available to us; we sit with Franco, Roberta, Roberto and Giuliano. At the third table there's a rather noisy group of Germans (I think). They serve us a kind of tuna mousse (excellent) and then the rest is a buffet.

The main dish consists of a kind of bake with ground springbok meat and cheese or béchamel (I didn't quite understand) that's truly excellent. A side of potatoes and various vegetables. Dessert. Coffee or tea. After dinner we stop for a moment to look at the sky, which in itself is an incredible spectacle, so many stars are visible, and then we go to sleep. At 8:40 p.m. we're already under the covers. Tomorrow's wake-up call is well before dawn, so we get ready to sleep.

Namib Desert

Wake-up at 4:00, we gulp down a coffee and load up our breakfast packages that the lodge prepared for us and that we'll use for lunch. At 4:30 we set off. Of course it's still pitch black and we're forced to proceed very slowly for fear that some animal might suddenly cross our path. Along the way we have breakfast with a few biscuits. We reach the outer gates of the Park as dawn is breaking and we line up to enter. Ahead of us there's only a coach and a couple of cars, and as soon as they open we set off (all the parks in Namibia open their gates at dawn and close them at sunset, so there's no fixed timetable but a flexible one based on the sun, and all this is wonderful to me because it makes you live by the rhythms of Africa and of nature).

At the second gates we stop and while Roberto buys the tickets we take the opportunity to go to the toilet and then off again by car! The route to Sossusvlei is stunning—the mountains in the distance and the approach of the bright red dunes that rise up suddenly and very tall from the flat ground are of a unique beauty. The sun rising behind us gives the dunes beautiful and constantly changing colours, and after a little while we can't resist and stop to take a few photos, then we carry on. At a certain point we park the cars and take their shuttles to cover the last few kilometres, which are very sandy, without the risk of getting bogged down and thus wasting precious time. On the shuttle, which is open-top, it's freezing cold; it's already 8 o'clock but the air is still icy.

Luckily there's Lucillo, who has us doubled over laughing with a quip about the dunes that will go down in history for the whole trip. Finally we arrive at our destination and, half frozen, we immediately set about climbing a nearby dune. The feat seems arduous but in reality it's easier than it might seem from below, because climbing the dune by walking along the ridge lets you advance without sinking into the sand and therefore with less effort. Every so often I stop to admire the panorama, which is something indescribable, to catch my breath and to take off a few layers since it's starting to get a bit warmer. While I walk I don't look around much because I suffer a bit from vertigo, but then when I reach the top I sit down and fill my eyes and my heart with a breathtaking view.

I'm surrounded by dunes in a thousand shades of colour; below you can see some green areas with trees and bushes, and if you look at the sky it's an intense blue that creates an incredible colour contrast with the red of the dunes. We take some photos, rest a bit, and then decide to go down the side of the dune. I, Me and Roberta slowly because of the cameras and various equipment, some at a run and the bravest ones rolling down. We stroll slowly to the trees where we rest a bit and then set off on foot to go and see the famous Dead Vlei; the walk is rather long, it's very hot and we struggle a bit to reach it, but after a short climb up a small dune yet another splendid landscape opens up before our eyes. Here, besides the contrast of the blue sky and the red dunes, there's also the white of the Dead Vlei and the black of the dry trunks scattered everywhere.

We rest a bit on the dune (which is little more than a small hill) until Lucillo arrives, he who had lagged behind and is furious with us because we didn't wait for him, with Roberto because he doesn't understand where he's brought him, and with his daughter for having put "5 kilos" of sand from the dune we climbed on him without him noticing, thus increasing his fatigue when there's sand everywhere around and he could have picked it up at any other moment too! (as if he didn't already have enough weight to carry with all the photographic equipment!!!) His comments have us dying with laughter and the whole thing goes from tragic to funny, luckily, also because as soon as Lucillo notices what's in front of him he immediately pulls himself together and sets off at once to take his photographs? (it must be said that Lucillo is a photography lover, he has remarkable equipment and he has a sof

t spot for nature and for trees in particular, so this place for him is like paradise!) After a while we leave Raffaella on the little hill sunbathing and we all go down to take photos, then we come back up, rest a bit more, and finally we head back reluctantly, continuing to take photos nonstop. We make a stop at one of the toilets along the route and then take the shuttles again, which bring us back to where we left our off-road vehicles. At this point it's lunchtime so we take advantage of a table nearby and dig into our lunch boxes, which contained a sandwich with minced meat (perhaps leftovers from last night's dinner), a couple with cheese and butter, an apple, a hard-boiled egg and a fruit juice. It wasn't the best but you have to make do.

Meanwhile we noticed that Raffaele had left the lights on and of course the battery had run down, so the men get to work and try to get it going again with the jump leads. It gives no result, so one of us tries to suggest changing the cables but no one listens to us. Finally, after a long time, they decide to try with two pairs of cables together and they manage it. Once this little mishap is dealt with, we're ready to set off again. At the gates we make a toilet stop while Roberto goes to ask permission for tomorrow to travel some roads inside the park so as to avoid the main road and thus enjoy a notably more beautiful landscape. The permission, luckily, is granted and we set off again.

Last stop of the day is the beautiful Sesriem Canyon, inside which we take a short walk to the waterhole where we try to spot the leopard's tracks, but unfortunately during the day too many people have passed by and they're no longer very visible. We return to the farm around sunset, another splendid and unforgettable African sunset. At dinner tonight we change the table arrangement; Roberta and Franco abandon us and Claudia and Carlo take their places. The first course, the one served by them, consists of a kind of vegetable puree which they presented to us as potato cream (very good), then springbok steaks, various side dishes and a dessert with hot liquid cream on top that's truly excellent. Finally coffee or tea as usual.

After dinner we go to the room to sort out the suitcases a bit, then we go out to admire the stars and we notice that Roberto, Claudia, Giuliano and Carlo are already outside too, and we join them. We stay chatting in the dark until past 10 p.m. and then decide to go to bed.

towards the coast.....

The next morning, an early wake-up as usual, one last look at our beautiful farm, at the raised pool that we still hadn't noticed, we take the last photos and then load the suitcases. At 7:00 we go to have breakfast with eggs, bacon, toasted bread and coffee, and then off—on the road again. We head back along the C14 to Solitaire where we stop to refuel, then carry on again—meanwhile the landscape keeps changing: the yellow grass gives way to more arid terrain, then we find ourselves once more among mountains very different from those of the previous days, much more barren and with darker colours. We tackle a couple of passes, then turn onto the road for which we requested permission yesterday, and of course the landscape changes again. The spaces are infinite, the yellow of the grass and the colours of the distant mountains return; it's stunning.

There are no words to describe the beauty of these landscapes. We cross the D1982 and carry on again until we turn onto the C28 towards Swakopmund. We continue along this road for a while, then turn again onto a secondary road to go and see the welwitschia plant. Needless to say, the landscape once again keeps changing; at a certain point we go through a kind of beautiful canyon, then we reach a very barren flat area with the mountains still in the background, and finally we arrive at a point where there are some specimens of welwitschia surrounded by stones, and one in particular, a very large millennial one, is completely fenced off and there's even a kind of raised wooden walkway so you can see it from above. It's a very strange plant, decidedly rather ugly, but interesting to see.

Taking advantage of the picnic table and the toilets nearby, we decide to stop there for lunch, then we head back until we reach a turn-off that we take to pass through the Moon Valley, which turns out to be a very barren, dark mountainous area, all dunes and dips, with rounded peaks; it's very difficult for me to describe it, but beautiful in its own way and very unusual. We take a few photos, then continue our journey. We get back onto the C28 and at a certain point, as we approach the town of Swakopmund, we notice that on the right we start to see once more some rows of dunes like at Sossusvlei but much lighter. Since it's still quite early, we take advantage of the fine day and continue as far as Walvis Bay to see the sunset over the sea with the pink flamingos. The road from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay is very beautiful. On one side it has the ocean and on the other the dunes.

Walvis Bay is a tourist resort where many Namibians have a second home for their holidays, and now, since it's autumn, it isn't very crowded. We arrive around 4:30 p.m., park and take a short stroll along the beach on the cycle path; there are lots of flamingos and they're even fairly close to shore, but as soon as we get closer to photograph them they move away, so after a while Me and I get tired and turn back, also because it's very windy and freezing cold. We wait for the sunset sitting on the edge of the cycle path, take a few photos, then I go to the car to get something and Raffaella asks me if she can get into our car because she's cold and hers is locked, so I let her in and wait for the sunset there with her. Of course it's a beautiful sunset but, since there's a bit of haze on the horizon, it isn't quite what we expected.

By now we're almost frozen, and as soon as the sun sets we set off again for Swakopmund, where we arrive in less than an hour. We immediately find the Beach Lodge, where the only person to welcome us is a black guard in uniform who hands us the keys and accompanies us to the rooms one at a time. Me and I are the last, and luckily we're quick to get ready because it's already 7 p.m. and at 7:30 we have a table booked at the restaurant. The place seems nice to us, our room is very beautiful with a huge porthole as a window and a French door opening onto a terrace with a sea view. It's dark now and you can't see much, also because the fog is coming down. We take a quick shower and dress warmly because it's much colder here on the coast than inland, then go downstairs to wait for the others. As always we're the first, even though we were the last to go to our room, so we wait.

Once the whole group is gathered, we set off for the centre by car because it's a bit far. The restaurant where we have dinner is called Kucki's Pub, it's nice and the food is divine. They have everything, but we opt for fish. I order the Calamari periperi in medium-hot sauce with a side of rice, and Melissa the house fillet which is similar to sea bream with a side of chips, and then we split them. While we wait for them to bring our orders, we decide to go out in search of a phone box because Melissa wants to call home, but we find nothing. The town is deserted even though it's just 8 p.m., it's cold and there's a bit of fog. As we're heading back we meet Elena and Roberto, and she shows us a phone box not far away that we hadn't noticed. Me tries to make a call but doesn't get through to anyone; Elena does, though. As soon as we're back they bring us our food. Truly excellent.

Some also have dessert but I limit myself to a coffee. After we've also booked for the following evening, the owner offers us a digestif, then we go back to the hotel and go to bed.

Swakopmund and Cape Cross

We wake up a little before 6:30 and, opening the window, we immediately realise that everything is shrouded in fog and it's rather cold. We dress fairly warmly, go down to have breakfast, which is served from 7:00 onwards. The breakfast room is on the ground floor, very nice, and overlooks the ocean. The buffet is well stocked; there are cold cuts, cheeses, different types of bread, delicious savoury pastries, yoghurt, fruit, coffee and more. We help ourselves and a waitress comes to ask if we'd also like eggs and bacon. Of course we accept, and after a very abundant breakfast we pop back to the room to get the backpack, go down to the beach to take a few photos, and then set off for Cape Cross. First of all we stop to get fuel and Melissa takes the opportunity to call home.

While we're stopped at the petrol station we notice something very strange to us, namely an off-road vehicle with very long fishing rods hooked onto the front of the car, I'd say on the bumper, and standing upright. I don't know how they manage to drive—at the first bridge or road sign or canopy I'd knock them straight off!! Once refuelling is done we set off again along the C34, which is a road that's always straight along the Skeleton Coast. The surrounding landscape is rather monotonous, also because of the fog that won't lift and which, among other things, makes the asphalt slippery too, so we can't go very fast because it's dangerous. After about 200 kilometres, here we finally are at our destination.

We stop for a moment to buy the tickets and take the opportunity to use the toilets, then set off again until we reach the vicinity of the sea, where an incredible spectacle appears before us—an endless expanse of fur seals—everywhere you look along the coast there are seals everywhere. Even the sea is full of them. At first the smell seems rather unpleasant to us, but then you get used to it and don't notice it much anymore. It's rather cold, there's still a lot of mist, it almost looks cloudy and the wind is blowing. We take some photos and stop from time to time to observe one in particular. There are some pups playing, others suckling from their mother. There are all sizes, from the tiny ones to some truly enormous specimens. There are also some jackals prowling around waiting for a good opportunity to eat.

At a certain point I noticed a very small pup that had got lost; it kept wandering around crying and approaching the others but they all chased it away; it even tried to suckle from a seal that evidently wasn't its mother and she drove it off with a flipper. I kept watching it for a long time while it continued to move along the beach, surely in search of its mother, but it didn't find her. It was a heartbreaking scene, it struck me deeply and I kept thinking about it all day. Poor little thing, who knows if it ever found her. As if that weren't enough, Roberto showed me another pup with a wire twisted around its neck and explained to me that it often happens that they get caught in nets and these wires stay twisted around them, which inevitably ends up strangling them as they grow.

How sad! We walked up and down along the little wall that in theory marks their territory, then at around 11 we set off again. When we arrived in Swakopmund it was still foggy, so we went straight to the centre, parked and agreed to meet at 3 to decide whether to go to Walvis Bay again for the sunset or stay there. The whole group decides to go and look for a pizzeria, but Me and Melissa, having only an hour, absolutely don't want to waste it sitting at a table, so we decide to skip lunch and have a wander. Roberto joins us and we start wandering around the town. We stop in several shops, I buy a few postcards, and then we reach the beach, which isn't much. Here we admire the little harbour, the lighthouse and the stalls full of handicrafts. I decide to buy a small batik to give to my cousin and start haggling.

I get it for 50 dollars, but only because I don't want to waste too much of the others' time, and I stop haggling straight away. After that we head back towards the centre. The weather hasn't shown any sign of improving, so we decide to stay there, since in Walvis Bay there would have been a sunset with fog and so it wasn't worth moving. We decide to go to the supermarket to do some shopping for the next few days and agree to meet everyone at 5 p.m. We go into the supermarket, wander around a bit, buy some more water, some cold cuts, some crisps and some cashews, and then come out. The others are nowhere to be seen. I, Melissa and Roberto decide to take the backpacks and the shopping to the hotel and then come back there again.

By now we'd already seen everything, so we simply stroll around the town admiring some churches and the beautiful, brightly coloured buildings, including the old railway station. We take some photos and then head back. It's now time for the meet-up, and while Roberto goes to the supermarket to buy chocolate, we go into a couple of shops to look for a fleece that Melissa had seen earlier, but they don't have the right size, so we give up. Back at the hotel, since there's plenty of time, I decide to wash my hair, and despite that, as usual, we come down and still no one's there. But what do these people do in their rooms that they're never ready?!? As expected, we go back to Kucki's. Me and Melissa decide to have the garlic prawns that Raffa and Lucillo had the previous evening and that really appealed to us, and the lemon calamari steaks with chips, which as usual we then split in half.

A truly excellent dinner. I must say the fish at this restaurant is really delicious! While we're at the table, Carlo (and who else but the joker of the group!?) lists the nicknames they came up with for us during the day in the car. So Roberta becomes "Nonna Papera" (Grandma Duck) and Franco "Super Mario". Claudia "Amelia", Carlo "Puffo Brontolone" (Grumpy Smurf), Giuliano "Archimede Pitagorico" (Gyro Gearloose), Raffaele "Topo Gigio", Elena "Clarabella" (Clarabelle), Melissa "il Gatto" (the Cat) and I "la Volpe" (the Fox). Roberto had already been settled as "Il grillo parlante" (Jiminy Cricket), Lucillo "Daddytelekids" and Raffaella "Ciuchino" (Donkey, from Shrek). I must admit that some nicknames are really spot-on and with some I even find a certain resemblance. All in all the evening was fun and we go back to the hotel reluctantly.

Crossing Damaraland...

Early wake-up as usual. Breakfast at 7:00. Last photos of the room and the hotel, and then off we go. We stop for a moment to refuel again. Initially we travel along the C34, so the landscape is the same as yesterday's, with the usual fog, then luckily near Henties Bay we turn inland onto the C35 towards Uis. The landscape at first is rather flat, an endless expanse of arid, dry desert, then gradually as we move away from the coast and the fog leaves us, we find the blue sky and the sun again, and the further inland we push the more the colours, the grass, the shrubs and the mountains start to reappear. At a certain point we leave the C35 (we'll pick it up again further on) and cut across some secondary roads so as to go even deeper, and the landscapes are even more beautiful. There are no words to describe them, you simply have to see them.

The only thing I can say is that they are wonderful: the red roads of some canyons, the Branburg massif seen from afar, the immense savannah, the reddish hills... Everything is beautiful and you never tire of having your nose glued to the window because everything changes constantly and you clock up kilometre after kilometre without realising it. The first stop of the day is at some shacks in the mining area, where a couple of women of undecipherable age come out to greet us carrying a tray with various stones and minerals for sale. We stop there for a bit and also leave them a jerrycan of water and some items of clothing, then set off again. Second stop at a stall with some little girls at the junction where we again leave the C35 and take first the 2612 road, then the 3254 and finally the 3214 to reach the rock paintings area.

After a while we set off again, but at a certain point we stop at the top of a little hill from which you can see a truly fantastic landscape with wonderful colours; we take some beautiful photos and then off again. Having finally arrived in the rock paintings area, given the time, we decide to have lunch under a shelter nearby, then since it's still very hot we first go to see the organ pipes, which are in a canyon not far away, and finally we return there and take a short walk looking at the paintings on the rocks—who knows if they really are as ancient as they say!!?? As soon as the walk is over we get back into the cars and set off towards Xorixas so as to reach the lodge before sunset.

After almost a couple of hours on the road we finally arrive at the Igwati lodge when it's almost dark, and shortly afterwards we're assigned the rooms, which turn out to be very beautiful and above all full of character. The roof is made of makuti and the wooden beams are exposed. The beds and the furnishings are all in African style, with matching bedspreads and curtains printed with leopards. The rooms are very beautiful but a bit dark, and after taking a look at the ceiling and the numerous cobwebs, and given also the fact that according to Roberto we're now in a malaria zone and there are mosquitoes, we decide to take our mosquito nets out of our luggage and hang them over the beds, which we do easily thanks to the protruding beams and the ropes we brought from home.

After sorting ourselves out we take a quick shower, a good spray of Autan, we get dressed and, after lighting a mosquito coil, we go out for dinner, and as usual we realise we're the first. Are we too fast or are the others too slow??!! I'll never understand it... Sure enough, as usual Roberto comes out and together we head to have a look round the lodge's little shop, where there are the usual souvenirs, T-shirts, little dolls, wooden objects and some beautiful ostrich eggs with lovely designs. There are a couple that I really, really like but they're a bit expensive and I decide to leave it. We browse a bit more and then go to the table. Dinner was excellent as always and afterwards they even put on a little tribal dance show for us. Nice... Before going to bed, Roberto and Carlo told us a bit about safaris and above all about how we should behave tomorrow inside Etosha Park.

In particular they told us how we need to be cautious in the presence of elephants, which if they get angry can become very dangerous, and we need to be ready to run if we don't want to become mincemeat. Nice speech... let's hope the drivers have understood it well!!! Inside the park you absolutely must not get out of the car, and you have to stay silent when you're stopped at the waterholes so as not to disturb the animals or the other tourists who may be in the area. Also, you mustn't fire the flash into the animals' eyes, as in that case they could rightly get angry!!! Let's hope everyone behaves well and doesn't do anything stupid... It wouldn't be nice to be recognised as Italians everywhere, much less to be attacked by an elephant half blinded by a flash!!

Ethosa Park - Okaukuejo

As always Me and I woke up early, and when we came out of the room the only one of us we met was Roberto. Together we went for a wander around the lodge since the evening before it had been dark and we hadn't been able to see properly. In the garden there are several animals, including an ostrich, some peacocks and even a monkey, and near the dining room there's also a swimming pool. We take some photos, then, seeing that the others aren't arriving, we decide to have breakfast. On our way back to the room we meet the others, who are calmly heading to the restaurant, and we discover that Raffaele was unwell during the night with stomach problems and didn't sleep much.

Since Franco was also a bit unwell yesterday, in my opinion it was because of the car's air conditioning, which they use constantly—luckily we're perfectly fine in our car even without it and by mutual agreement we never use it. Anyway, in the end he decides to drive all the same, and as soon as we're ready we set off... destination Etosha Park... the road is all tarmac as far as the park entrance, so we can proceed quite fast, and indeed in a couple of hours we arrive. After a stop at the entrance to buy the tickets, we head straight for the nearest waterhole. The landscape here is more barren and dusty—you can no longer see the mountains—it's very gravelly—there are shrubs but not much greenery. As soon as we arrive at the Ombika waterhole we immediately meet a car of tourists who warn us that at the Olifantsbed waterhole there are lions, so we set off at once.

Here we are in front of the Olifantsbed waterhole... we look around and see numerous springboks, oryx, impala, a warthog, some giraffes, an elephant drinking at the waterhole, and there we spot about a hundred metres away our first lion!!! To tell the truth it's a lioness and she's sitting in the shade of some solar panels that clash a bit with the surrounding environment but which are probably necessary to run the pump that feeds the waterhole. After we've watched her for a while she gets up and goes to lie down a bit further away, in the shelter of some trees and bushes. Looking carefully at the scene we realise that in fact, lying in the shade of the trees, there's another lioness, and moreover with at least a couple of cubs hidden by the bushes, so we stay glued to the binoculars for a while hoping the cubs will come out, but we're not that lucky.

To make up for it, though, at a certain point we see a large herd of elephants approaching from behind us, parading past us on their way to the waterhole. The excitement is great, also because they pass very close to us, and after all Roberto's warnings and stories about these magnificent and enormous quadrupeds we feel slightly intimidated, so we watch them in silence as they approach the water and start to drink and wash themselves. The herd must consist of around ten members of different sizes, including two medium-sized young ones and a beautiful little calf. We watch them spellbound until they decide to leave, after which we too follow suit and head for the nearby toilet area, then set off towards Okaukuejo Camp, making a short stop at the Gemsbokvlakte waterhole where there were an incredible number of zebras and giraffes... there must have been hundreds...

a beautiful spectacle!! Having arrived at the camp, we settle into the bungalows, which are for 4 people, so one per car. The bungalows are nice; as soon as you go in there's a small kitchen, the bathroom and two bedrooms. In one, of course, Me and Melissa settle, and in the other Roberto and Lucillo. By now it's late, so we make ourselves a couple of sandwiches and then decide to go out again to go to the Okondeka waterhole, where Roberto last time had seen a family of lions. Me and Melissa decide to go in the back pickup bed to give more space to the two photographers in front and also to be freer ourselves to take photos without always having a mega telephoto lens in front of us!! Unfortunately, though, it doesn't turn out to be very comfortable, especially because the spare wheel takes up a lot of space...

let's hope for the best! Having arrived near the waterhole, we see several cars stopped along the road, but not understanding why, we carry on to the waterhole. Once there we look carefully at the surroundings, then go back to the point where the cars are stopped, and while we're looking in the distance at a couple of lions lying in the sun we realise that there's one—or rather, a lioness—lying just a few metres from us. Beautiful! Incredible—I'd never happened to see them so close, not even in Kenya... a truly fantastic thrill. We took some photos and stayed watching them until we saw them get up and most likely set off to go hunting, judging by how they positioned themselves in a fan shape with the male at the back. By now, unfortunately, sunset is approaching and we reluctantly set off quickly to get back to the camp in time before they close the gates.

Along the way we witness a beautiful sunset and even try to photograph it, but who knows what will come out given the jolts of the off-roader?! At 7:30 we meet for dinner in the camp restaurant and then end the evening at the waterhole, where we watch spellbound all these animals that calmly come to drink and to canoodle before our eyes just a few metres away, heedless of the tourists watching and photographing them. Among the animals seen within a few hours on this first evening at the camp, besides the usual springboks, there were also a lioness, a few jackals, some giraffes, some elephants and also several rhinos, including a large specimen with its own calf trotting alongside it. This place is truly splendid...

all you need is patience and to wait, and a whole host of different species parades before your eyes!! You could stay here forever, but Melissa is dropping with sleep and since the alarm will be before dawn again tomorrow too, we reluctantly decide to go to bed.

Ethosa - Okaukuejo

A very early wake-up to be ready to leave as soon as they open the gates at around 6:20, that is, at dawn. Of course we're ready well in advance, and even though not everyone is that quick we manage to set off pretty much on time, and we head straight for the Okondeka waterhole to look for yesterday evening's family of lions. As soon as we arrive everything seems deserted to us, then we notice a head popping up from a rather distant hillock, and slowly, watching carefully with the binoculars, we realise that besides several lionesses there are also some cubs. I must say we're really lucky; a shame, though, that even though we've been here for a good while now they still haven't decided to come out into the open, so we continue to see them only in glimpses and from very far away.

Me and Melissa, and Roberto too of course, would have stayed here all day to see if they'd move, but the others prefer to go, so we set off again. We do a tour of the nearby waterholes but don't find anything particularly interesting. We stop to photograph some ground squirrels, a yellow mongoose and a jackal that watches us curiously, then we go back to the camp. We don't go to the bungalows so as not to waste too much time; we stop at the park entrance where there are the shops and above all the toilets, then we set off towards a new area of the park. First stop, the Newbrownii waterhole. Here we take some photos, especially of oryx and zebras, then we set off again, stopping immediately afterwards along the road.

This is because there's a car stopped at the edge of the road above a little bridge, and by now we've understood that if someone is stopped it means that, looking carefully, there's something interesting to see, and indeed its occupants whisper to us that under the bridge (practically a big concrete pipe that crosses under the road) there are lions with cubs... fantastic!! I can't believe it... what luck! At this point we pull up on the opposite side of the road and notice a lioness lying asleep just a few metres away. Passing quickly by car we probably wouldn't even have noticed her, because the colour of her coat blends in with that of the low bushes surrounding her. We stay spellbound for a while watching her and photographing her, and at a certain point something wonderful happens...

there she gets up and slowly approaches our car until I find her right under my window (which is open, of course!!). Our eyes meet for a few seconds... evidently I don't interest her much because after a moment of hesitation she decides to resume her way and moves off, walking slowly along the road... Wow, what a thrill! It was wonderful! I'll never forget this moment... And to think that when I booked the trip I did it almost exclusively to see the desert, and these days at Etosha seemed almost superfluous to me! How wrong I was... without taking anything away from the desert and the splendid landscapes seen so far, which also made me feel strong emotions, here it's a continuous discovery, a continuous surprise. But deep down by now I've understood that it's Africa in general that's like this...

every aspect of it gives you something and makes you feel sensations you rarely feel in other places. I've travelled a lot and I've seen truly splendid places, but the emotions Africa gives me I've never felt anywhere else. It's difficult to explain these feelings; you have to experience them, and I think only someone who has already been to Africa can understand me. Getting back to us, hoping to see the cubs too, we decide to stay a bit longer, and while we're watching another 4 lions that are near the little bridge, at a certain point we see them popping out from under the road—those very cubs! Two beautiful cubs of about a month and a half, still with their fur all ruffled, heading towards a lioness lying a little way off. Trotting slowly with an uncertain gait, they reach her and calmly start to suckle, then they stretch a bit and return to their den.

So beautiful!! It's incredible! I'm more and more spellbound. One thrill after another, and above all such good luck! We stay a while longer watching the adults but there's no more trace of the little ones, so after a while we decide to go back to the camp for lunch. As usual I'd stay here until this evening, but unfortunately we're in a group and we have to go. Back at the camp we agree to go out again in a couple of hours. I, Roby and Melissa quickly eat something sitting in the little stand in front of the Okaukuejo waterhole, watching the savannah that surrounds us and the animals that come to drink at the waterhole, then we can't resist the idea of wasting time sitting there and decide to go out again straight away, and the occupants of the second car, Giuliano's, join us too.

So we decide to do a tour to the lions' bridge and then come back to the camp to pick up the others at the time agreed at the start. Having arrived at the bridge, here immediately are two male lions lying beside the road, very close and beautiful. They're very young; Roberto thinks they're about 2 years old, in fact they only have the beginnings of a mane. There are females too. Splendid as well. We watch them for a long time going in and out from under the road, and only at a certain point do we realise that the cubs are there too. They're sleeping just outside the tunnel, under the road. They're on top of one another and they're adorable! I manage to take a couple of photos and, even though you're not supposed to, I try whispering to attract their attention to see if they'll move, but they keep on sleeping blissfully. They're stupendous.

I feel like taking them in my arms and stroking them. What an effort it is to stay in the car at a moment like this! But luckily there are these regulations to hold me back, otherwise I'd risk getting myself torn to pieces... By now it's time to go and pick up the others, and we go back to the camp to then set off again straight away. In the end we can't resist and end up going back to the little bridge again. Unfortunately there's no trace of the cubs, but the adults are there, so we settle in and start watching. In the end we do a bit of accounting and think the group consists of 5 lionesses, 2 young males and 2 cubs; strangely we haven't seen any adult male—who knows if there is one or if this pride is without one?!! At a certain point the other two cars decide to head back because they want to get to the camp in time to be able to see the sunset from the Okaukuejo waterhole.

We stay a bit longer, but since nothing particular happens and the cubs aren't to be seen, in the end we decide to head back too, and of course, exceeding the permitted speed limit in the park, we manage to arrive exactly at the moment when the sun disappears below the horizon. Beautiful... as always. We stop for a bit at the waterhole, then go to the room to get ready for dinner. Dinner is at 7:30 at the restaurant, but since at 7:

Halali

Today we have to leave Okaukuejo Camp and move to Halali Camp, but we decide to do it after the first outing which, like yesterday, has Okondeka as its destination. At 6:20 we go out through the gates, after about half an hour we arrive at the waterhole... even though we left as soon as the gates opened there are already some cars and we even get told off because we positioned ourselves in front of another vehicle and according to them we're blocking their view even though so far we haven't seen anything!!! After a while Roberto, with his usual hawk-like eyesight, manages to spot some cubs playing behind a small dune covered in bushes. We stay to watch them for a long time in the hope that they'll come a bit closer but unfortunately they always stay in the same area. There are five of them but from two different litters, in fact two are slightly bigger.

The adults aren't there, they've probably gone hunting.... We wait a couple of hours but the situation doesn't change so we decide to go back to camp. Along the way we spot the carcass of a zebra, recognisable only by its legs on which the black and white stripes still stand out. Once we reach camp we load the suitcases, take the last photos and set off for a more eastern area where Halali Camp is located. Along the way we stop at the Newbrownii waterhole and at the little bridge but unfortunately no trace of our pride of lions, even though the animals at the waterhole seem very alert as if there were a danger nearby. Along the road to reach Halali Camp we pass by several waterholes but we find nothing particularly interesting.

It happens to us several times that we have to stop because the road is occupied by herds of zebras or springboks or even elephants and we have to wait for them to cross more or less quickly depending on their size. The landscape changes several times, areas with trees and bushes alternate with barren areas with only a few tufts of grass, then we find ourselves in the middle of a savannah completely covered by tall yellow grass...this is the kingdom of the cheetah but there's no trace of it, only springboks, wildebeest and zebras. The only peculiar thing we observe on this stretch is a large group of vultures feeding on a carcass hidden from our eyes by the grass..thank goodness!! As we advance eastwards the landscape changes again and we find ourselves once more in thick bush. Everywhere there are clear traces of the passage of elephants which we glimpse again among the bush..

they are truly splendid! Around 13:00 we arrive at the camp and take possession of our 3 bungalows. Here too we keep the car formations and so we settle in with Roberto and Lucillo. The bungalows are nicer and newer than those at Okaukuejo but they only have one bedroom, which our men gallantly give up to us, and two twin beds in the kitchen where they settle. The bedroom is very spacious, has carpet on the floor and also air conditioning and the bathroom is also much more luxurious compared to the other camp. After settling in and having something to eat we go out again in the hope of finding the rhinos and leopards but unfortunately, despite my almost blinding myself from scanning among the trees and on every branch, there isn't even a shadow of them, except once when we managed to glimpse for a moment the rear end of a rhino quickly moving away through the bush.

We stop at the waterhole of... where we've already been this morning too but there are only lots of giraffes, springboks, kudu, zebras and some beautiful birds with green-blue plumage. We watch a young zebra being nursed but no trace of lions or other felines. We keep driving around... we see groups of black-faced impala and of "mice", a beautiful male kudu with long twisted horns and several giraffes whose long necks can be glimpsed even above the trees. As we return to camp, after a bend we see a minibus stopped that is photographing an elephant very close to them and rather annoyed, perhaps because of a flash, so we keep our distance and let it pass undisturbed. Along the way I take some photos of a stunning sunset and I get dropped off at the gate because I want to photograph the enormous elephant skull placed in front of it.

I make a stop at the shop and then join the others at the bungalow to get ready for dinner. Unlike the other camp, the restaurant here is almost deserted and there are fewer of us than usual too because Raffaele, Elena, Roberta and Franco have decided to make spaghetti in their kitchen. After dinner the others join us too and we go to the waterhole by car because it's a bit far and above all because the road is very dark and bumpy. The Halali waterhole is very different from the one at Okaukuejo, to reach it we have to go up a rocky hill where we settle, some on the few benches scattered here and there, others on the rocks, and the waterhole is located right below us. It's small but very atmospheric and perhaps even more beautiful than the other one.

We watch, captivated, numerous elephants, two of which even start persistently courting an elephant cow who however wants nothing to do with it. The silence of the African night is broken only by the noise of the animals that arrive, drink and then leave and every now and then by the roar of some feline in the distance. Among the various animal calls suddenly a roar is heard that seems very close. According to Roberto it's not a lion but a leopard, so we stay silent and wait in the hope that it suddenly emerges from the bushes and comes to drink right in front of us. The cold is increasingly biting and little by little almost everyone leaves the waterhole. Only me, Roberto, Melissa and Giuliano remain on a bench and a few others nearby.

The tiredness of the long day begins to be felt and it gets colder and colder but every time we decide to go a new roar echoes through the savannah and holds us there motionless and silent but there's no trace of the feline and in the end, after midnight, we give up and go to sleep half frozen from the cold.

Ethosa and Okonjima

Last day at Etosha park..what a shame..Wake-up at dawn as usual, a quick coffee and then off, ready in front of the gates for this last day of safari. We stop at several waterholes, some very close to the pan and beautiful but completely dry and without animals. The idea would be to go to the little bridge to see if we find our pride of lions with the cubs but then, thinking that they will hardly still be there since they weren't even there yesterday, we decide to head towards the Gemsbokvlakte waterhole, thus saving ourselves a long and probably pointless detour. Shortly before arriving at the waterhole we see on the left, a few dozen metres from the road, a lioness lying calmly in the sun and we stop to watch her. I look around searching for the rest of the pride but I see nothing.

Roberto decides to head to the waterhole but after a moment I stop him because I see three shapes on the right that are slowly approaching and seem to me to be lions. They're still very far away on the horizon and Roberto, stating that they're zebras, sets off again but I stop him immediately because I'm not convinced and as soon as I take a look with the binoculars I realise I was absolutely right. They're lions!!! By now I've got the explorer's eye!!! We position the off-road vehicle sideways, pointing right in their direction, and we have the others position themselves a few dozen metres from us but parallel to the road and.. incredible but true..the lions slowly approach and the whole pride passes a few centimetres from us and right in the middle between our cars. And guess what?! It's our pride from the little bridge!!They're all there..

the 5 lionesses, the two males and our two beautiful cubs that pass right under our window..They're beautiful!!I really can't believe it!! What luck! And what timing!! We watch them slowly move away in the direction of the waterhole and we set off too and park as close as possible to the waterhole but unfortunately there are other cars and minibuses and we have to stand aside. Here the waterhole itself is like a pit dug in the ground and when they come down to drink we can't see them but fortunately they come back up right after and sit in the surroundings. At this point another exceptional thing happens.. in front of us in the distance we see other lions slowly approaching. At the moment they're just a couple of dots but as they get closer I can see that one of them is a splendid adult male with a thick mane.

Beautiful! Finally I've also seen an adult male, he was the only one I was missing! They're probably part of two different prides because when the newcomers reach the waterhole "our pride" has already settled a bit further away. Suddenly the lions start roaring.What a thrill! Who knows what they're saying to each other?! I try to record it all with the video camera but I don't know if it will be heard well because instead of listening in silence my car companions keep chatting!! After a while we change position and settle so as to better observe our original pride, the one with the cubs which at this moment are all calmly lying in the sun about a hundred metres from the waterhole.

One of them moves away from the group and the animals around, very numerous among zebras, oryx and others, start to get nervous but nothing happens until at a certain point one of the lions that until shortly before was apparently lying calmly gets up suddenly and runs towards an oryx that is a few metres away and behold, within a few seconds the oryx is attacked by the other lions too and has no escape. It was a truly exciting spectacle to see, brutal and cruel of course but that's how life goes here in the savannah..Everyone has to eat to survive and each does it in their own way. The lions of the other pride at first seem to want to approach, probably to take the food from them, but then they evidently move away calmly..

they're probably already full! All four of us are a bit shaken and still incredulous at having witnessed all this, also because it's not so easy to happen to be there at just the right moment and see a hunt from so close. Our "backside" knows no bounds! Unfortunately it all happened so fast that I couldn't photograph or film anything, also so as not to waste precious moments. As usual we would have stayed there watching for hours more but today unfortunately is the last day and we have to head towards the park exit and then reach Okonjima where I hope we'll manage to see the leopards and cheetahs.

At the park gates we make a short stop to go to the toilet and here, fortunately, a very funny episode happens due to Raffaella's carelessness who thanks to this finally manages to stop crying (the hunt really affected her).We leave the park and head onto the tarmac road in a southerly direction. After crossing Outjo and Otjiwarongo we turn onto a very red dirt track which we drive along for about twenty kilometres until we reach the Okonjima Lodge ( which is also the headquarters of the Africat Foundation ( which deals with the conservation of large African carnivores, especially leopards and cheetahs. The place is splendid in the middle of an incredible greenery. The main house is stunning with an enormous dining room completely open on one side with a beautiful wooden table in the centre carved from a trunk evidently of enormous size. The open side overlooks the lapa...

a kind of open-air lounge with all the armchairs in a semicircle and in the middle a gravel space on which in the evening the metal ring on which the bonfire is lit is placed. After a warm welcome and a light lunch they assign us the rooms. Ours and Roberto and Lucillo's are in a separate little house in the middle of a very green garden. The room is beautiful, furnished in African style with a double bed and a single bed, both with mosquito nets above. The bathroom is wonderful, all with exposed rocks and splendid furnishings also in perfect African style.

In the large garden there is also a small pool with sunbeds and loungers for sunbathing but unfortunately as usual we don't have time, in fact by now after having a little look around and taken a few photos it's already time to meet up for the afternoon snack in a delicious and shady corner of the garden where they serve us tea, coffee and various cakes which however I can't even taste because I'm still full from lunch. What a shame.. they say they're excellent! And now off we go! In search of the leopards. We get into 2 off-road vehicles with a very lived-in look, open and with several rows of benches in tiers so that those behind have the same view as those in front.

We start driving around, opening and closing tall electrified gates that allow us to pass from one sector to another of their vast property.The landscape is very beautiful but the tracks are terrible, full of holes, big stones and often pass through tall thorny bushes that risk hitting you in the face.Every now and then we stop to use a kind of radar antenna that serves to pick up the signal emitted by the collars of the monitored leopards but no luck...who knows where they've gone! At a certain point we stop at a panoramic point at the top of a mountain from where we take several photographs of the splendid savannah below but still no trace of the signal.By now it's late and we're almost not counting on it anymore when behold, we find him..

........

... it's under a tree half hidden by the bushes but a few meters from us. It's a splendid and enormous male specimen. Beautiful! After a while the noise of our "off-road tractors" scares it, it gets up bored and leaves, disappearing quickly among the dense bushes. What a shame! At this point sunset is near and we start heading back to the lodge and..surprise..along the way at a certain point we see a second smaller leopard, maybe the female, walking in front of us along the path. Unfortunately it's almost dark and you can't see much but I must say that our by now legendary luck has kicked in again!!!! Back in the room we notice there are many strange insects similar to tiny bedbugs... how disgusting!!! Weren't the mosquitoes enough??!! After the shower we cover ourselves completely with repellent and spray it everywhere even in the room then we go out to have dinner.

After dinner (excellent) around 21:00 they take us outside the lodge to observe the animals at the waterhole.. We set off on foot in single file...the darkness is total, the sky is beautiful and as always full of stars.. we don't feel very safe... the fear of being attacked by some feline occasionally creeps into our thoughts!!! After a few minutes we arrive at a hide, we go in and sit down. We are practically in the dark here too, only outside there's a small spotlight that illuminates a small waterhole. Roberto explains to us that now one of the guys from the foundation should cross the electrified fence and dump some kitchen leftovers on the ground to attract the animals but time passes and no one comes out. We wonder why then we realize that the reason is simple..

a few meters from us right near the entrance of the enclosure there's a cheetah lying in wait for the food and therefore for the guys it's impossible to enter, it's too dangerous. We wait a bit in silence... and observing the large opening in the hut to look outside it occurs to me that if the cheetah decided to jump in here and eat us instead of the leftovers I don't think it would be very difficult for him.... Better not to think about it. At a certain point the guys decide to go in anyway armed with electrified sticks and manage to dump the sack without problems. Once this is done a couple of very large porcupines arrive immediately but even though we stay a little longer we don't see anything else because evidently the other animals are scared by the presence of the cheetah that continues to prowl nearby. After a while we return to the lodge.

Almost everyone goes to sleep shortly after. Roberto, Melissa, I and some of the guys from the foundation remain sitting around the fire chatting. The atmosphere is beautiful and I would stay here until tomorrow especially because this is our last evening in Africa and I wish it would never end.

Okonjima - Windhoek

Last day in Namibia.. Unfortunately we're now at the end of the trip but for now we still have a splendid day ahead of us. Wake-up at dawn and then off to see the cheetahs. We have coffee on a kind of panoramic terrace with two splendid lions below us, a male and a female. They're beautiful and enormous, perhaps even a bit obese, perhaps because they're fed by the foundation and no longer waste much energy hunting. Finally I have a male lion to photograph a few metres away and I realise I have both batteries flat!!! I can't believe it..... and now what do I do?!! While the others finish drinking their coffee I dash to the room and quickly recharge one of the batteries... I don't have much time but better a few minutes than nothing, right?!! Shortly after we set off again in the previous day's off-road vehicles but this time we go to the cheetah enclosures.

We stop near a small hill and after a few minutes several cheetahs arrive (I think nine..) that surround us and come closer looking for food.... You can tell they're used to being fed by the foundation!! Anyway they're beautiful all the same even if they're somewhat battered individuals and precisely for this reason followed by them. We took lots of photos (they were so close, when will an opportunity like that ever come again!!!) and then we headed to the clinic where they explained several interesting things about the foundation and the animals they try to help. Here we are again at the lodge.... A superb breakfast awaits us with a chef in the garden preparing eggs, bacon and sausage on the spot, inside cold cuts, cheeses and more.... Last breakfast in Africa...

How sad!!! Tomorrow at this time we'll already be in Italy or at least in Europe!!! After breakfast a final and definitive tidy-up of the luggage and then off towards Windhoek where, while the men go to return the cars, we have a bit of time for some last purchases among the stalls in the centre and finally I manage to buy the much-desired wooden giraffe more than a metre tall.... There are so many beautiful wooden objects and I'd buy everything but fortunately, having to fly back and therefore having little space and weight available, I manage to restrain myself and buy (besides the giraffe) only a small elephant and a bracelet for myself and some small wooden animals for the little girl of a friend of mine. Time passes quickly and the hour comes to leave for the airport....

Along the way in the car rental minibuses I look out of the window and already think with nostalgia about the most beautiful moments of this trip, the beautiful landscapes, the animals and Africa in general, I feel sad, I don't want to leave but unfortunately we've arrived now and the plane for Italy awaits us, the only thing that helps me overcome the sadness of departure is the certainty that sooner or later I'll return. Maybe not to Namibia but certainly to another country of this splendid and unique continent called Africa. Goodbye Africa.... See you soon.. or rather very soon and...thank you for everything you've given me. Thanks also to Roberto, our fantastic guide without whom it wouldn't have been the same, and to my fellow travellers.