Desert Adventures

On Tuesday, February 27th, we went on the Living Desert Tour.  A living desert tour, is when you look for animals from the small 5 in Namibia.  The small 5 are, gecko, chameleon, spider, snake, legless lizard.  First, we got picked up in the truck and drove for about 10 minutes and saw some camels getting ready to go on a desert tour.  We then entered the Darob National Park.  We drove for a few minutes and met up with the rest of our group. There were some Germans, South Africans and us.  We met our guide, Chris, who was very funny, taught us about animals, their enviroment, the park itself and looked for animals.

First thing we found was a gecko.  It was beautiful.  The gecko normally comes out at night and lives in a burrow.  We were able to see a gecko because the sun was blocked by some clouds.  The gecko was very pretty. You could see all the different colours on its body.  Gross fact, the colours in the gecko's stomach was actually what the he ate. 

Next, we saw a legless lizard. It looks like a shiny worm, but it isn't.  I got to hold it.  It felt smooth glass and not slimy.  The legless lizard was slow in the cold sand but if it was hot (we went in the morning) he would have gone 10 times faster and we wouldn't have been able to catch him.

Next , we saw some dancing lizards. The reason why it's called a dancing lizard is because it lifts its feet up really high while it is running.

Then, we saw a side winding snake.  This type of snake doesn't move like a normal snake, it moves up sideways.  If you got bitten, it is would be very painful, but you would have to go to the hospital so you could get some medicine so you wouldn't die.


After that, we saw a horned viper.  The horned viper has a flat head with two horns on top.  He is very dangerous. If you got bitten you shouldn't die if you get the medicine but you could get paralyzed.  It has a very cool pattern.  It had just eaten a mouse....you could see it in his stomach.

Finally, we saw a chameleon. It was on a short a tree. We could kind of see it on the tree.  It was the same coulour as the bark of the tree and you could only see its eyes and a tuff of dry skin on its chin.  Chris fed him some grubs on the sand. The chameleon, came down off of the tree and onto the sand.  Almost as soon as he touched the sand he changed colour to the same shade the sand. 

After that, we looked at landscapes.  The dunes.  We went to the top of a dune and Chris explained what the black stuff on some of the dunes were.  It is called Iron Oxide Magnitite.  He grabbed a magnet and put it in a cloth and rubbed it in the sand. It pulled all the black out of the sand and made some black fluffy stuff.It was very soft and fluffy.   We got to play on the dunes. The sand was super hot and burned our bare feet. 

Then Grant our diver took us 4x4 on the dunes. It was soooooo much fun.  Finally we went back to our place.

Arriving in Namibia

Fun with my cousins, Lilli and Greg

We arrived in Namibia on the 24th of February.  It was a 1 hour and 30 minute flight.  The scenery from the airplane was amazing.  See below.

After the flight, it took us 4 hours to get to Swakopmund. When we were en route we saw our cousins on the side of the road in their van. They were on the side of the road because they are on their around the world trip and their van stalled.  Isn't that crazy that we saw them just sitting on the side of the road?  Finally, when we got to Swakopmund, we found the place we will be staying for the week. It is right by the Atlantic ocean.  Then we went out for dinner and played at the park.

The road to Swakopmund

playground on the beach

Yesterday, we had a beach day, with my cousins and Nate.  It was really fun.  Me, my mom, my cousins and Nate built a huge sandcastle.  We played in the ocean and oh my goodness it was sooo cold!  We had lunch at a fish and chips food truck, then went back to our place for some quiet time.  Next, we went to Tiger Reef.  We went there to watch the sunset, play and have some drinks.  It was super fun. The sunset was beautiful.  Then, we went out for dinner.  There was a really cool playground there.  

This morning, we went on a walk on the beach.  We saw some dead fish who had been caught in seaweed,  jelly fish and lots of seaweed on the beach.  Also, my Dad saved a crayfish. It was stuck in the seaweed  and he untangled it and put it back in the ocean.  

Tonight, we will be having a sleepover with my cousins.  They will be staying with us because we have an extra room.  

I will write again soon. We have some cool activities coming up. bye bye

4 days of Safari at Mabula Game lodge

View from our deck.

Sorry for the delay of the blogs. We were on safari and we did not have any internet!!!  

Well lets get started . On Monday, we went from Pecanwood all the way to Mabula game lodge.

When we got there we went to our room. I was amazed by the view . It was amazing I could see the bush. There were animals right outside our door.  It was beautiful.

Then we went into our room and there was two king cobra towels.  It was so cool they were very unique . Also, in my parents room were two elephant towels. They were so cool.  

The next day we went on a morning  game drive.  We had to get up at 4:30 AM!!!!!  If you don't  know what a game drive it is a safari.  Which is getting into a truck with out any doors and windows and look for animals.  For example, the big 5. Do you know what the big five are?  They are the 5 different animals that used to be hunted the most in Africa. The animals are, lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino and leopard.  The reason why these animals were hunted were for their skin, horns, and because people liked to put their heads on the walls.  Yuck. For example, the elephants tusks are made of ivory which is very valuable. People would kill the elephant for their tusks and just leave the rest of their bodies behind.  That's just wrong.  

We didn't see much on the first game drive.  We saw zebra, impala, wildebeest, kudu, pumbas (warthogs)  and nothing else to really get excited about.  Fact, did you know that when zebras fight they will try to pull off the other's tail?  That will be a pain in the butt. It isn't very nice for the zebra who loses its tail because they can't swat away flies plus I imagine it would be very painful. 

Our next game drive we got were luckier.  We saw lions!  We saw a pride of 6. A pride is what you call a family of lions.  There were two male lions (1 was hiding in the bush), 2 female lions (the third was hiding in the bush right beside our truck) and 1 small cub. He was about 8 months old. He was super cute.  

After that, we went to the pool and hung out.  We were surrounded by warthogs.  Here's a funny story. Me and my mom, were taking pictures of me by the baby warthogs (we weren't really that close at all). The momma warthog, saw us and didn't like it.  She charged at us. We moved pretty quickly. Those tusks looked sharp!

Can you see the warthogs?

The next couple of game drives were waaaaay better. We saw elephant, buffalo, hippo, rhino (with a baby who was 3 months), lots of zebra, lots of wildebeest, giraffe,  more pumbas, impala, oryx, kudu, ostrich, and other deer like animals.  

See the video of the elephant telling us to go away.  

We had a very nice time at Mabula. 😃 We will see you in Namibia.