Our "Safari" to Okapuka July 14, 2012

Okay, so it has become obvious to me that as much as I mean to write updates on my blog, I am not.  This week we actually DID something so I figured that since I have pictures I should write.  Soon we will be leaving Namibia and heading off for our next adventure.  We have been out and about in the area on some trips, but especially with the children still so young I wonder how much they remember.  Taking an afternoon trip to Okapuka seemed like a good way to refresh their minds with some of the wonder and beauty Namibia has to offer.

Before our game drive we had a snack at the lodge cafe.  Warthogs were running all around the area and Justin and Ryan wanted to get a closer look.  At first they were hesitant and then they got bolder.  I had to remind them not to chase after the poor animals.

Before we even left on the 1 1/2 hour game drive, Ryan managed to fall into the pond.  Yes, I had told him not to get too close.  His shoes and socks were soaked and his pant legs and rear end were very soggy.  In the car I did have some spare clothes, but not an appropriate replacement.  It is the middle of winter here (thus the long sleeves in the pics) and all I had in the car were some shorts.  I chose shorts because they easily fit either boy and we haven't really needed any spare clothes since summer anyway.  I did not have spare shoes, but this is Namibia and shoes are optional pretty much anywhere.  (It still weirds me out to see people running around barefoot in supermarkets and malls.)  Not ideal, but we were still ready to go.

I enjoy the clear blue skies of Namibia. 

Warthogs are so ugly that they are cute.  I love the way they get down on their little knees and stick their snouts in the ground to eat.  One of the animals I least fear, but I am sure they could do some damage.

The only thing I saw move on this guy were his eyes.  They would slowly open a bit, roll around, and then close.

Get out of the way, giraffe!

I love seeing giraffes.  They are just so interesting to watch.

These trees have thorns that are nasty.  Doesn't seem to bother the giraffes though.

I could hear the bones snap.  Justin noticed that meat has a lot of red.  Most of us know that red as blood.

These rhinos really got into it with each other a couple of times.  We were often close enough that we could touch one if we had wanted.  The lighting didn't help me with getting good pictures, but you can see from the shadow just how close we were.

There were also, of course, about a million different kinds of antelope and other less known animals.  I swear I could live here 100 years and never get them all straight.  They included kudu, springbok, wildebeest (gnu), bush buck, oryx, and waterbuck.

We knew that Justin can get seasick, but this trip makes us think that his motion sickness is getting worse.  He really enjoyed the first part of the drive, but by the end he was curled up in a little ball covered with a blanket.  Luckily Ryan didn't need the blanket right then even though he had bare legs and feet.

It was a nice little trip and I hope that the boys have some nice memories of the animals we have seen here.  It is definitely different than a zoo.

Game Drive Afternoon Trip

We FINALLY made it to the Okapuka Game Lodge.  It is only about 40 km away from Windhoek, so it is one of those things that we could do any afternoon.  Of course that means it is something we hadn't gotten around to because it is so close and doesn't require a lot of advanced planning.  Fortunately, we went with a couple who is only here for a couple of months.  That means they have a tighter timeline.  That was the motivation we needed to go. 

Warthogs were everywhere!  I took this shot while sitting at our table.  We snacked on some fries while we waited for it to be time to leave for our drive.  Rob and I agree that the fries were the best that we have had in Namibia.  Very reasonably priced too.



We saw two crocodiles while we were out on the game drive.  While we were snapping pictures of one, a warthog came trotting down the path.  It saw the croc, returned back into the brush, and made a wide detour to get around.  Not that I really had any desire to see a creature mauled by a crocodile, but it would have been interesting to see how fast that croc could move.  He looks so harmless just resting there.  I've seen enough nature shows to know better though!

We saw probably about 20 giraffes in all.  We didn't get close to a lot of them though.  I was amazed at how well they can blend in to the the landscape.  They are obviously tall and I would have thought that would make them stick out.  Their coloring matches up with the dry bushes and trees though.  I find giraffes one of the most interesting animals to watch.  They are graceful and just different.  Very neat to view them here as opposed to a zoo.  I get better pics in a zoo, but it just isn't the same.

The tour guide feeds the rhinos, so we saw plenty of them.  I liked this picture because you can tell how close they got to us.  It would have been easy to reach out and touch them.  Our guide assured us they were vegetarians, but that doesn't mean anyone wanted to run around and play with them.  These guys are BIG.  We saw a couple of them have a disagreement and I sure wouldn't want that horn coming my way!

These are springbok.  We saw tons of them as well as kudu, oryx, sable antelope, blue wildebeest, hartebeest, eland, and the like.  Our guide had the facts about which were the fastest, which could leap the highest, which were the largest, etc. etc.  They eat a lot of these animals here.  I have tried some when we went to Etosha.  Not horribly impressed, but I am not big on game meat.  We saw one oryx with only one horn and it was facing the wrong way.  Our guide told us it was from incest.  "Incestuous antelope" became my favorite phrase of the day.  The little oryx looked a bit like a unicorn reject.

I love all the birds' nests hanging from the trees. Namibia has a lot of interesting birds, but they are fast, small, and hard to get pictures of unless you have patience and a good camera.  We also saw baboons, but they were fast and uncooperative with getting their pictures taken.  Baboons cause a lot of mischief here. 

Nice fire going at Joe's Beerhouse.  We had an early dinner so it wasn't cold yet.  When the sun goes down, winter can be chilly here, especially if there is a  wind.  Joe's is  a tourist "must" for eating out in Namibia.  I opted for a beef steak rather than some of the more exotic game choices that are available.  Our poor waitress seemed a bit confused by Americans who didn't want sauce dumped all over their meat.  The garlic butter on it was perfect!  Why would we want to mess with that?  They really love their sauces here.  Unfortunately, I don't find them very appetizing.

A friend told me that the boys wouldn't do well on the drive.  I know a lot of places don't allow small children because it is hard to get them to follow directions precisely if wildlife get out of control.  I think our boys would have been fine as long as they weren't sitting on the edge.  I would have felt that they were safe, but I sure wouldn't have enjoyed myself.  They would have been bored.  Justin is so clueless at spotting things too, I wonder if he would see a rhino unless it touched him!  They got bored just looking at a few pictures.  The comment Justin made was along the lines of you saw a rhino, cool, let's go play now.

So Mom, Dad, Meredith, or other potential visitors.  I will take you to Okapuka if you visit us.  It is close, the game drive itself is short (only 90 minutes) and inexpensive.  You get to see a little of the wild without it being inconvenient. :)