Namibia Road Trip Part III: Beauty and the Beasts

That afternoon, I made my way to the Brandberg White Lady lodge, a nice little place with great views, swimming pools, and bunny rabbits. I climbed the hill behind the lodge for a nice view of the sunset, and then drove to the campsite, where I asked a nice older couple across the way to help me put up my tent.

The next morning I woke up early and drove the White Lady cave painting entrance. The ticket includes a guide, who took me on a hike through another unique landscape until we reached the rocky overhang hiding this great treasure. “Did you see the leopard?” he asked me. “He was watching us.” I must have looked scared because he told me, “Don’t worry! They only attack if you look them in the eyes…” This did not make me feel any better, and I spent the hike back squinting just in case.

The White Lady is a beautiful, amazing piece of ancient cave art dating back 2000 years. There have been multiple interpretations over the years, and they now believe that the white lady is actually a medicine man, but whatever it is, it’s stunning. I stood there for what seemed like hours, admiring the artistry, amazed at the fact that these paintings had been done by humans thousands of years ago, in awe that they had lasted so long, incredulous that they had been discovered at all.

When we heard the sounds of other tourists rounding the rocks, we decided it was time to leave. One of my favourite things about Namibia was that it wasn’t very touristy at all, at least at the time I was there, and although I always found someone to help me put my tent up, I almost always had everywhere else to myself. It was heavenly.

That afternoon I drove to Etosha National Park, one of the largest national parks in the whole of Africa, and with a huge variety of spectacular wildlife. It is certainly a very unique national park because of its enormous salt pan, and the sparse vegetation means there’s nowhere for the animals to hide!

I could not believe how many different species I saw in just a short drive around a tiny section of the Southwest part of the park. It was better than I ever could have imagined, and I couldn't believe that I was doing this – me, driving myself around a safari park, past wildebeest, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, giraffes… It was an out-of-this-world experience.

There is a curfew of 6pm (sunset) at Etosha Park. As I’m not known for my time-keeping, I started to panic that I wouldn’t make it back to camp before curfew, and I didn’t know what the punishment was...presumably a massive fine. Grudgingly, I drove as fast as the speed limit allowed back to my camp, head pinging in rapid time from the road ahead to the animals at the side of the road and back again.

And then I saw him – the king of the park, the mighty lion with his fantastic mane and supermodel strut. He sauntered lazily across the road in front of me, turned back to pose in the golden light, and continued on his unhurried way.

Heart breaking, wishing I could stay longer, I drove on towards the gate, craning my neck to watch him out of sight. I turned back to the road momentarily. F**k!!!!! I slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt, inches away from a second male lion who hopped backwards, staring at me in shock and disgust. Who was this mere mortal who dared to interrupt his highness?

My heart thudded in my chest. I almost just ran over a f***ing lion… Oh my god. If the fine for arriving at camp after curfew was big, imagine the fine for killing a lion. Or would I have been arrested?! It didn’t bear thinking about. I turned back to the road, paying much more attention now. I had one last incredible view before squeaking back in the gate just before 6.

I had pre-booked my camping spot, but had gone straight into the park before setting up my tent, which I was regretting now. Luckily for me, a big tour group was also staying in the campsite, and I asked their two safari guides if they would help me set up my tent, with the promise of cake afterwards. Absolute pros, they set it up in two minutes flat and informed me that my helpers and I had been doing it all wrong for the past 10 days. It was a bit late for that information, as this was my last night in the tent…

Etosha’s campsites are set up around watering holes, so the evening's entertainment was sorted. After a nice sandwich dinner, I wandered down to the water and watched the sun set while animals of the park came by for a sundowner.

When it was dark, the floodlights came on, and I stayed a few more hours and saw giraffes and rhinos come down for a drink. In the morning, I was the first one up along with the hyenas and oryx.

For my last full day, there were still some sites on the map that I wanted to hit before heading back to Windhoek, and lucky for me they were all clustered together.

I saw the petrified forest, a surreal place where whole trees have been turned to stone over the millions of years that they’ve been lying there.

I saw the rock formation known as the Organ Pipes, yet another fascinating geological oddity in a country bursting with them.

And, of course, I could not miss out on the open-air gallery of Twyfelfontein – another amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site of ancient rock carvings. Researchers are unsure of the exact date of the carvings, but think they may have been made between 2,000 to 5,000 years ago.

Once again, I found it mind-blowing to think of humans standing in this exact spot so many years ago, carving their beautiful images upon the rocks, never thinking that someone like me would be admiring them thousands of years later. I’ve always been a history-lover, and seeing something tangible, something so concrete and vivid, the evidence of human art and creativity and inspiration and talent from so long ago right before my eyes was truly awe-inspiring.

They believe that the rock art was made by shamans, and the star of this show was the engraving of the Lion Man – a lion with five toes (instead of four), possibly representing that the shaman himself had transformed into a lion.

That afternoon, I made my way back to Windhoek, and on the long drive back my mind wandered through all the amazing places I had been, all the incredible things I had seen, both natural and man-made, and all the kind and generous people I had met.

I had arrived in Namibia not knowing what I would find, and I thought back to that first day where I was so terrified of driving, so apprehensive of the journey ahead, and couldn’t believe I had survived. I thought back on all the things I had done, the fears I had conquered, the difficulties I had overcome, and I felt so proud of myself! The only thing left to fear was how much I would have to pay for damages to the car, because to be perfectly honest I had scratched the shit out of the hubcaps.

I arrived back at the car hire place, one week older, wiser, and dirtier, and crossed my fingers. The guy made sure there were no major dents or scratches, checked the fuel tank, gave me a thumbs up, signed some papers, and that was that. I breathed a sigh of relief. As I waited for my taxi to leave, another returnee pulled up beside me. They had a huge scratch down one side of the car and two missing hubcaps. I realised that I hadn’t done too badly after all.

If you didn't read Parts I and II, they're here:

Part I

Part II