August 26-27: Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park

After leaving Walvis Bay, we headed inland to the Naukluft Mountains for a couple nights en route to the famous Sossusvlei salt pan and great sand sea.

The Naukluft Mountains form the eastern part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The Mountains were originally designated as the Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park to protect the Hartmann’s mountain zebra, but it was folded into the Namib-Naukluft National Park in 1979.

The Naukluft Mountains were formed by a complex serious of geological processes that I won’t try to summarize, other than to say that the current result is a beautiful array of geological formations, as hopefully my pictures and video below will show.

Our first night was actually spent outside the Park at the base of the Naukluft Mountains at the Bushman’s Desert lodge and campsite, the same place I camped a few weeks back when en route to Windhoek to meet Nancy, only you may recall that I camped in an exclusive bush site. This time, however, we went Full Monty and camped at the main camp with flush toilets, kitchen, etc. Here’s what the surrounding landscape and delightfull campsite looked like:

One of the highlights of this segment of our trip was a guided visit to a cheetah sanctuary in Solitaire a short distance from our campsite. A guide took the four of us in an open-air safari vehicle into a 48 hectare enclosure that serves as home to 4 sibling cheetahs, including two sisters and two brothers. Their mother was caught killing goats on a private farm and her leg was broken. She was brought to the Sanctuary and died shortly after, but not before giving birth to these 4 siblings. Unfortunately, without their mother to teach them the ways of the world (i.e., what is food and what they are food for) it was impossible to release them back into the wild, where they would assuredly die. Thus, they remain in the enclosure, but in a semi-wild state. We absolutely loved being so close to these magnificant animals. Here’s a few pictures to wet your appetite, but watch the video if you really want to see them:

Here’s the cheetah video:

Cheetah Sanctuary video (6 minutes)

Our second night was spent inside the Park at the Naukluft Park campsite. I failed to take a picture of our campsite, but it was nicely situated along a streambed with pooled water at the base of a rock cliff and overhanging trees for awesome shade. Nancy and I did a nice 10 km hike on the Olive trail that took us up to the top of the escarpment and then down a long and narrow canyon with steep walls on either side, reminiscent of some of our slot canyons in the Colorado Plateau. Rather than post a bunch of pictures, I have a 2 minute slide show for your entertainment. I should also say that a highlight of the hike, other than the spectacular mountain scenery, was spotting a small group of Hartman’s Mountain Zebra high up on the plateau, but well out of range for a photo.

Naukluft Mountain hike video (2 minutes)

Here’s a short (1.5 minute) video of Nancy and I using a chain attached to the canyon wall to pass by a drop-off pool in Olive Canyon on our Naukluft Mountains hike.

Olive Canyon pool crossing (1.5 minutes)

Ok, next stop, Sossusvlei. See you there!